Easy Apple Crisp

Somehow dinner doesn't seem complete until there's something sweet on the palate. In the summer, fruit easily fits the bill. After the rich desserts and candies of the holidays, apple crisp with a cup of tea is a healthy and quick solution for the end of a wintertime meal.

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Bake Time 20-25 minutes
Serves: 8
Cost: Approx. $2.00

1 can of apple pie filling ($1.87)
2 1/2 cups of oats ($.30)
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1 T cinnamon
4 Tbsp butter
3 T water
dash of salt

Melt butter. Add oats, sugar and cinnamon and salt. Mix well. Add water to apple pie filling and place in pie pan. Top with oatmeal mixture. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes until bubbling and golden brown. d

Bananas

My first choice would be to serve a piece of fruit for desert, but sometimes the fruit just needs a little dressing up. We had a who mess of bananas that we ready go bad, so I turned them into a special treat that made them disappear in no time flat.


Chocolate Banana Boats: Cut bananas lengthwise. Insert chocolate chips. Wrap in foil and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. I think next time I'll add a few marshmallows, too.






Cinnamon Maple Roasted Bananas: Slice bananas. Toss with 1 Tbsp of melted butter. Place in baking dish. Drizzle 1/4 cup of maple syrup and sprinkle cinnamon to taste. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes stirring once.





*You can find this recipe and many others at The Grocery Cart Challenge's Friday Recipe Swap**

Minty Cucumber Salad

I recently had this salad at a church pitch in and was so surprised at how well these flavors blended together. It's a perfect cool salad for these hot summer days! Enjoy.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: n/a
Serves: 10-16
Cost: approx. $2.50

8 cups cubed watermelon ($2.00)

2 medium cucumbers, halved lengthwise and sliced ($.50)

6 green onions, chopped (I eliminated the onions)

¼ cup minced fresh mint

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup balsamic vinegar

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

In large bowl, combine the watermelon, cucumber, onions and mint.

In a small bowl, whisk the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.

Pour over watermelon mixture; toss to coat.

Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate for up to 2 hours.

Apple Butter

You can find this recipe and many others for your kitchen at the Recipe Swap at the Grocery Cart Challenge.

What to do with 30 pounds of apples? (I can't resist a sale.) Make A LOT of apple butter. It was a bit of work, I'll admit, but my helpers were eager to mash and strain. And the cost savings is significant. A 12 oz jar of apple butter can be between $4-5. Our cost was around $1.75 for 12 oz. With this apple butter I plan on trying a few new recipes: Apple Butter Pie, Apple Butter Pancakes, Apple Butter Cake with Caramel Icing, and Apple Bread Pudding. Any requests on which one I should make first?

Prep Time: 10 minutes (using and apple corer)
Cook Time: 3 hours
More Prep Time: 1 hour (w/o food mill:(
Yield: 16 cups
Cost: Approx. $6.00

15 pounds apples cored and sliced ($6.00)
2-3 cups sugar
4-5 cups apple cider ($2.00)
Cinnamon to taste

Place apples in large pan or roaster. Cover with cider and desired cinnamon. Bake at 300 for 3-4 hours or until apples are soft and falling apart. Mash through a medium strainer (or food mill if you have one). Store in airtight container. Freeze or refrigerate immediately.

Creamy Stewed Apples

Last weekend I picked up a small cookbook entitled, "Old-Fashioned Apple Recipes". Knowing that I had 30 pounds of apples at home waiting for me was quite the motivating factor. I just couldn't pass up a 5lb bag of gala apples for $1.89 each. Here's one simple way to cook apples that is beyond delicious.

Prep Time: less than 5 minutes
Cook Time: 15-20 minutes
Serves: 8
Cost: Approx. $1.00

4 apples cored and sliced
bacon grease or 2 Tbsp butter
2/3 c brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbs flour
1/2 cup cream or milk
cinnamon

Cook apples in bacon grease or butter for about 2 minutes stirring constantly. Mix brown sugar, salt and flour into the cream/milk to form a smooth paste. Add to apples. Cook at medium heat until mixture thickens. Sprinkle with cinnamon before serving.

This would make a great side dish, but we enjoyed our served over cinnamon french toast. It made for a perfect accompaniment to spinach/bacon/cheese crustless quiche. Pretty good for a meal made from what was already on hand.

Preserving: Bananas

I personally am not a fan of the banana. Way to mushy for me. But it's an affordable fruit and so healthy. Inevitably, the bananas ripen overnight and I'm stuck with a whole lot of them wasting away on the counter. Usually I throw the whole thing in the freezer for banana bread at a later time.

This time I decided to peel the bananas and flash freeze them. My intention was for them to be used for smoothies. However, this tray disappeared within a matter of days. Some claimed that the frozen bananas were better than ice cream. Who knew?

I often walk by the spotted, marked down bananas. But no more.

Preserving: Strawberries

My family is picky about little, but when it come to the staple, PB&J, they will have nothing but strawberry preserves. I've given up trying to convert them to the affordable grape jelly and have decided to stock up on our own homemade version this summer. They are very pleased with the results!

Cut up strawberries to measure 2 cups. Smash with potato masher until desired consistency. Add 4 cups of sugar and stir one minute. Meanwhile, boil 3/4 cups of water. Add 1 package of pectin and bring to a boil stirring constantly for 3 minutes.


Add pectin to strawberry mixture and stir well until all of the sugar is dissolved.



Add to jars leaving at least 1/2 inch at the top. Let set for 24 hours. Refrigerate or freeze.

For these jars we used 5 pints of strawberries ($5.00), 3 boxes of pectin ($5.50) and a whole lot of sugar ($1.50). $12.00 yielded about 15 cups of preserves. The same amount at Aldi would cost close to $20.

Strawberries are priced at $.97/pint this week, so I'm on the hunt for some lower priced pectin (perhaps one that would require less sugar) to build our supply for winter. Any suggestions?

Apples Anyone?

Our field trip last week resulted in ALOT of apples. I'm in search of some simple applesauce, apple pie filling or apple butter recipes that you may have that could be stored in the freezer. Do you have any?

Rasberry Pretzel Salad

This is a dessert with a perfect blend of salty and sweet. It's a welcomed change from the super sweet and rich desserts. Usually we make this with strawberries, but the raspberries we picked were substituted here. This year it served as Sean's birthday cake.

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Serves 16-20
Cost: Approx. $4.25

2 cups pretzels ($.25)
1/2 cup melted butter ($.50)
1 block lite cream cheese ($1.00)
1/2 cup sugar
1 small container whipped cream ($1.00)
2 small packages raspberry jello ($1.00)
2 cups frozen raspberries ($.50)

Crush pretzel and mix with 2 Tsp. sugar and melted butter. Press into bottom of 9x13 pan and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Blend cream cheese and 1/2 cup sugar. Fold in whipped cream and chill.

Mix 2 cups hot water with jello. Add 1 cup cold water and frozen fruit. Place in refrigerator until jello begins to set. This may take up to 1/2 hour.

When ready place cream cheese mixture over pretzel crust. Top with jello and fruit. Chill until ready to serve.

Freezer Jam

I tried my hand at canning a few years ago and have to say that it was a lot of work just keeping the little kids away from the boiling pots and hot jars. I was able to get some frozen berries from Meijer with coupons and thought I'd try this method of making jam. It literally took 5 minutes to do and cost about less than $5 to make six jars. One jar of blackberry this size would price at about $3.50. This jam will taste great in Kiflis.

6 cups smashed berries
1 1/2 cups sugar (more or less to taste)
1 package of freezer jam pectin

First, mix together the sugar and pectin. Add smashed berries and stir for 3 minutes. Ladle into jars and seal. Let sit for 5 minutes before putting into the freezer.