Make this, make this now!

My mom turned me on to this great website called A Year of Slow Cooking (located at the right of the blog) and I printed off several recipes to try. Today we tried Applesauce Chicken. Lord was it delicious. I changed a few things, as per my normal. Here's how you make it:


Applesauce Chicken
--4 frozen chicken breast halves or thighs (I used 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts)
--1 1/2 cups of applesauce
--1 T dried onion flakes, or 1 yellow onion, chopped finely
--1 T apple cider vinegar
--1/4 tsp cinnamon
--1/2 tsp black pepper
--2 cloves garlic, minced
--1 or 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

Put the frozen chicken pieces into your crockpot. Add the onion (if you are using the dried onion, wait and add it to the applesauce). In a bowl, mix the applesauce, vinegar, garlic, and spices together. Pour on top of the chicken. Add sweet potatoes.

Cover and cook on low for 5-7 hours, or on high for 3-4.


I added the sweet potato. The original recipe also calls for red pepper flakes that I omitted because I'm sure Claire and Luca wouldn't appreciate it. The sweet potato in it was delicious (says the person who HATES sweet potatoes.)


I again, put some in the food processor and added some water and grinded it up for Luca. He loved it, Claire loved it. This dish was delicious. 

Blueberries on a wintry day

I finally made it to my bi-monthly Sam's Club trip where I had a list in my hand that was better off being invisible. I'm not quite sure what it is about that place that makes all my ambitions go to hell in a handbasket. I did, however, plan on buying blueberries so that I could try out a new recipe for blueberry muffins. (I got this recipe and only slightly modified it from Simpledailyrecipes.com)

In a word: LOVE. They were delicious.

Here's what you'll need:

3/4 cup low fat milk

1/2 cup no sugar added applesauce

1/4 cup egg beaters

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

3 tsp baking powder (not baking soda)

1 tsp salt

4 tbs ground flax seed

1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Here's what you do:

Preheat your oven to 375 and use Pam to spray the muffin tin.

In a mixer, combine the milk, applesauce and egg beaters. Add the sugar, flax seed and baking powder. On a lower setting, add both flours. By hand, fold in the blueberries and using a spoon, ladle the batter into the muffin tins and bake for 18-20 minutes, depending on your oven.

What I liked best about these muffins is that they're moist enough but they don't crumble apart, which is important when it's given to a two year old who fidgets a lot.

Last year, my husband was convinced that Giant Eagle brand premium chocolate chip cookies were the reason to the Pittsburgh Penguin's success at winning Lord Stanley. He would only eat them on the days that they won. So, this year I decided to make my own cookies. I'm a bit of a control freak, and I like to be in charge of what goes into what I'm eating. No mysteries, here.

The first few batches, well...hmm. Then over the course of 6 months, I've mastered the cookie baking and have even made them healthier. My philosophy is, you're going to eat it anyways, might as well make it healthier.

I recently discovered using applesauce in baking and it made me so excited, it was almost the happiest day of my life. Especially when my sugar loving husband said to me, "These are the best cookies you've ever made, what's your secret?" And I told him, "No white sugar, just applesauce." I will post that recipe here, soon, once I remember it. My other major fault, I don't write things down when they're delicious!