No, not that kind of getting baked, silly!  I’m talking about apples! Remember how I said that I was slacking in the apple recipe making/baking department in comparison to some of my fellow food bloggers?  Well, slow and steady wins the race and I’m making a go at the apple recipe cooking finish line (if there is such a thing?).  Because I used only one apple in my previous recipe and still have a million (not a lie) left in my crisper, I wanted to find a dish that would call for the usage of multiple apples.  Hence, I scoured the internet and did hours of research (total lie) until I found this gem…

Getting Baked Apples
Adapted from SimplyRecipes.com
Serves 4

• 4 large good baking apples (I bucked the trend and used McIntosh apples, which is not recommended for baking)
• 1/4 cup of rolled oats
• 1 TBSP of evaporated cane juice (I used Florida Crystals, feel free to use dry sweetener of your choice)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• sprinkle of nutmeg
• 14 raw almonds, chopped (you could use pecans, walnuts or no nuts)
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries, chopped (dried apricots, raisins, dried figs would be good here, too)
• 1 TBSP of peanut butter (I used Trader Joe’s Valencia Peanut Butter with Roasted Flaxseeds)
• 3/4 cup boiling water

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Wash and dry your apples.  Using an apple corer or paring knife, remove the cores to 1/2 inch of the bottom of the apples.  Be careful not to cut all the way through to the bottom (I confess, I did this once)!  Then, use a paring knife to widen the cavity and a spoon to scoop out the seeds.  It’s a tad tricky at first, but you’ll get the hang of it.  Make the cavity about 3/4 inch to an inch wide.

2) In a small bowl, combine the oats, evaporated cane juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, almonds and dried cranberries.

3) Place the apples in an 8 x 8 baking dish.  Fill each apple with the mixture and then dot the top of each apple with 1/4 of the TBSP of peanut butter.

4) Pour the boiling water into the baking dish.  Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the apples can be easily pierced with a knife, but not mushy.  While the apples are baking, be sure to baste the apples with the dish juices (I repeated this three different times).

5) Serve hot!

These baked apples were like whoa! I couldn’t believe how good they tasted for something that was so simple to make.  I really liked the fact that even though the apples were stuffed with goodies like cinnamon, nutmeg and dried cranberries, the natural sweetness of my personally picked produce still shined through.  And, the McIntosh apples stood up quite well in the oven.  They came out tender and did not fall apart.  So take that, you online apple experts (whoever the heck you are)!  This is one of the best DPAABs (dessert-parading-around-as-breakfast) I’ve had in a long time.  While it’s quite similar in taste to the healthified fruit crisp I made a few weeks ago, the sheer fact that I was eating a whole piece of baked fruit made this dish stand out from anything else I have ever made.  Plus, having to eat this dessert/breakfast with a fork and knife made me feel as if I was having an entire meal, versus just a snack.

And because this is a healthy food blog and I like to give recipes my own little twist, I decided to substitute the brown sugar for evaporated cane juice and reduce the amount.  And to make the dish even heartier, I decided to add one of my favorite foods, oatmeal! Instead of dabbing the tops of the apples with butter, I used a natural peanut butter.  It’s less greasy and adds more flavor to the recipe.  The original recipe called for serving this dish with vanilla ice cream, which is a tremendous call.  However, I didn’t have any on hand (just cookies and cream ) and figured a dollop of thick greek yogurt would be the next best thing.  You could also drizzle some honey or agave nectar over the entire apple for some additional sweetness, but my apples didn’t require it.  Plus, I had some of the oatmeal mixture leftover, so I sprinkled some over the greek yogurt.  I’m not gonna lie, it was a stroke of genius on my behalf…just sayin’.

Who says eating food can’t get you high?

Random question: Is there a recipe or dish that you are intimidated to make?  Or, what is the one recipe you’ve been dying to make but just haven’t had the chance to do so?

Namasté,
Nicole

I have so many apples in my house and have eaten so many apples that I think I’m going bananas (hehehe – sorry, I couldn’t resist that one).  Remember my adventure at the apple farm?  Well, I’m a complete slacker! Just check out Lauren’s amazing apple creations here, here, here and here, as well as Shannon’s sweet and savory apple pie.  Those fab ladies are making great use of their fresh crop and me?  Not so much.

Well, to be honest with you, I had all these recipes containing apples lined up and ready to go but for some reason, I just can’t seem to execute! I want to make something hot, cinnamon-y, nutmeg-y and buttery, but I keep coming up short (I am only 5′1!).  Maybe it’s just that I want to save my apples for the ‘ultimate’ recipe.  But just what is the ultimate recipe?  After all, I have about 6-8 recipes bookmarked and I keep finding more every time I surf online, which is pretty much 50% of my day.  Perhaps I’m just afraid my apple cooking/baking won’t live up to my expectations? Or maybe I’m just lazy (Hey! Nobody’s perfect!)?  Whichever the case may be, I decided to finally bite the bullet (or apple) this past Saturday and whip out an apple dish that I just conjured up in my head.  And if I don’t say so myself, it came out pretty dang good!

Apple, Sausage & Broccoli Frittata

Serves 6-8

• 5 eggs (I used Trader Joe’s Organic Cage Free eggs, large sized)
• 2 egg whites (I used 1/3 of a cup of carton egg whites)
• 1/4 cup of reduced fat shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup of nonfat cottage cheese
• 2 roasted garlic chicken sausage, chopped into bite-sized pieces ( I used Trader Joe’s brand, feel free to use any flavor)
• 1 small-medium apple, skin on (any kind, I used McIntosh), chopped into bite-sized pieces
• 1 1/2 cups of frozen broccoli florets
• 1/4 cup of chopped onion
• 1/2 cup of lowfat milk
• few dashes of adobo powder
• few dashes of dried rosemary
• few dashes of dried parsley
• few dashes of garlic powder
• s&p

The members of the cast

Easily the star of the show…

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Crack eggs into a mixing bowl, add egg whites, milk, adobo powder, parsley, salt and pepper.  Then add the cheddar cheese and the cottage cheese.  Mix with fork to get everything well-blended but be careful to not over mix.  Set aside.

All in the mix…

Eggy…

2) Coat a medium-sized frying pan with nonstick cooking spray.  Heat on medium-high.  Add the onions and apples to the frying pan and cook for about 5 minutes or until the onions and apples begin to soften.

Apples + onions sitting in a tree…

3) Add the broccoli and sausage to the frying pan.  Then add the rosemary and garlic powder.  Cook for another 5 minutes until the sausage has browned and everything has been well-blended.

Everyone get in!

4) Pour the apple and sausage mixture into a greased (I used cooking spray) 11 x 7 baking dish.

All warm and toasty…

5) Then pour the egg mixture over the apple and sausage mixture.

Getting a nice soak…

6) Place in oven for 20-25 minutes or until the edges turn crispy and brown and the eggs are firm to the touch.

7) Serve immediately and enjoy!

This was the ‘ultimate’ brunch dish this weekend.  It was fast and easy (NOT like me ) and tasted wonderful.  I chose the roasted garlic flavored chicken sausage over the apple flavored chicken sausage because I didn’t want the apple flavoring in the frittata to be overpowering.  It was perfect! There was just enough sweetness from the McIntosh apple to take on the savory from the sausage, cheddar and seasoned eggs.  The soft pillows of melted cottage cheese gave the dish a richer taste and texture, without having to add too many extra calories or fat.  I also really enjoyed the dried rosemary against the eggs and chicken sausage; it certainly kicked up the taste of the frittata.

While most recipes I have seen online for frittatas use only whole eggs, I decided to reduce the amount and substitute with a couple of egg whites.  While the number of whole eggs were cut down, the taste definitely was not.  In fact, the egg whites gave the frittata a ‘lighter’ and ‘airier’ texture.  Plus, there wasn’t a whole lot of grease and you didn’t feel as if there was a brick sitting at the bottom of your stomach once you were done eating.  Also, the apple pieces seemed to freshen up the dish and eliminate the heavy taste that one often gets with eggs.

The sole drawback to this dish was that I only used one apple.  I really wish I could have added another, but one was plenty.  While my first instinct was to make a sweet recipe with my apple crop, I decided to mix it up a bit by seeing if I could incorporate the fruit into a savory dish.  It was the perfect combination! Patrick seemed to agree as he had about 2.5 pieces that early afternoon.  He said my frittata tasted so good, it didn’t even need ketchup! Now that’s saying a lot! I guess that’s why he’s the apple of my eye…

This picture was taken inside my homemade lightbox…

And this picture was taken by the window…
Which one do you like better?

What is your favorite dish to make for brunch?

Namasté,
Nicole

This past Sunday I felt like a little kid.  I know I have my moments where I like to be more ‘immature’ than ‘mature’, but on Sunday, I honestly felt as if I was having a flashback.  My age was in the single digits and I didn’t have a care in the world.  Along with some fellow bloggers and blog readers, I went to Smolak Farms to go apple picking.  It’s been over a quarter of a century since I’ve last picked my own apples.  Holy smokes!  When I actually see that on paper (or screen), it makes me feel ancient.  Sheesh! But no matter if I’m young or old, apple picking is something I need to do more than once every 25 years!

By signing-up with BuyWithMe.com, we were able to secure a sweet discount at Smolak Farms.  All we had to do was get enough people to pay in advance online to go to Smolak Farms using the BuyWithMe.com site and we were able to receive the discount.  It was that easy! And being that it is fall and we food bloggers love to cook and bake with apples, this was no difficult feat.  To put it mildly, I don’t think I was the only person anxious for the excitement Smolak Farms had in store for us.

Lauren was kind enough to volunteer to drive to the farm and I was more than happy to get carpooled.  I’m not sure if you know this about Healthy Chow, but driving and following directions isn’t one of Healthy Chow’s strong points.  So, to know I wasn’t going to get lost driving to North Andover was a true blessing.  Thanks again, Lauren!  You’re the best!

Driving to Smolak Farms the weather was still a bit gloomy, but at least it was not raining.  However, the mood was nothing but bright and upbeat in our car.  In our car, were Lauren, Elina, Elina’s friend Katy, and myself.  With Lauren’s good driving and trusty GPS (man, do I need to get myself one of those!) we were able to arrive at the farm in about 40 minutes.  When we arrived, we met up with Shannon, the event organizer (thanks Shannon!), Shannon’s friend Rebecca, Kerstin, Kerstin’s husband, Kelly and Kelly’s boyfriend. And while the farm was a tad more than a hop, skip and a jump away from Boston, it was definitely worth it.  As soon as we entered, it was as if we had been transported onto another world.  The scenery was absolutely breathtaking!

It was such a nice feeling to see so many families spending the day with each other and enjoying what the season has given us.  I’m not sure who was more excited to be at the farm, the children or the adults.  Everyone seemed to be in the fall spirit and just wanting to take advantage of the fact that it was no longer raining (it rained all day long the day before).

Once we trudged up the hill into the orchards, we were able to have at any apples we wanted.  There were so many different kinds available: McIntosh, Empire, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Cortland/Red Cortland, Macoun, Paula Red, Northern Spy, Gravenstein, Granny Smith, Red Max, Rogers Red Mac and Macspur.  However, we mostly saw and picked the McIntosh, Macoun, Granny Smith and Cortland.  While the trees seemed shorter and smaller than when I last went apple picking, they were still pretty tall for the 5 foot 1 inch (OK, I’m rounding up) Healthy Chow.  Fortunately, Katy recognized this and was smart enough to borrow an apple stick from the front desk.  This definitely came in handy! Especially for me

Katy is ready to take on the apple tree…

I’m on the hunt for red October…

So close, yet so far away…

Come to Mama!

Elina getting her apple picking on!

Anyone up for a game of lacrosse?

How beautiful!

That was a close one, Kelly!

Hello Granny!

After about an hour and a half of filling our bags with fresh and heavenly apples, we were done picking and ready to get some goodies at the bakery.  Boy, was there some serious stimulation for the eyes!  The bakery sold cookies, breads, whoopie pies, muffins, apple cider donuts (which actually weren’t hot and thus, not recommended), apple cider, tea and coffee.  In addition there was a gift shop that sold everything Halloween and fall inspired that you could imagine.  Just think gourds galore, gingerbread houses, candles, toys and even more sweet treats! And strategically, Smolak Farms placed their registers at the end of the trail of goodies.  So, you had no choice but to see (and possibly buy) EVERYTHING!  Amazingly, I just stuck with the apples.

A wall of Stonewall…

Hmmm, baked goods…

Freshly baked pies…

Makin’ whoopie…

Now I wish you came home with me…

BOO!

Trick or treat!

Who knew there was such a thing?

Are these supposed to be scary?

Ornamental indeed!

I can feel my teeth getting stuck already!

What a spectacular way to spend a Sunday afternoon!  I had the chance to reminisce about my childhood, pick some delicious apples and meet and spend time with some great people.  Plus, I had the chance to do something I hadn’t done in over two decades (goodness, that makes sound so old)!

When I was up in the orchards and walking from tree-to-tree selecting which apple I wanted to take home with me, I realized something.  I noticed that I was constantly looking up.  While there were tons of discarded apples lying on the ground, it seemed like the apple I was always trying hardest to get was unreachable.  I either had to borrow Katy’s stick or I had to walk away and find some lower hanging fruit (literally) on another tree.  And then I thought to myself, “Why are you constantly trying to pick the piece of fruit that is out of your reach?  Why is the apple that is at the top of the tree the apple you want?  Is it sweeter or somehow better than the apple you can reach?”

After pondering that for a bit, I finally decided to take a bite of an apple I picked from the lower branches.  It was delicious!  The apple was cold, crisp and sweeter than any apple I had had from the grocery store.  Not only did it taste good, but it looked good, too.  There was absolutely nothing wrong with this apple; I just somehow thought the apples sitting at the top of the tree were better.  Just like we tend to assume that bigger or taller or higher or more is always better, I thought the apples at the peak of the treetops were somehow more delicious.  I know I often think that I’m going to be happier or feel more accomplished if I can just make it to the top.  I tend to think that I have to push myself harder in order to get to where I want to be and that where I want to be is always way over my head.  And in reality, where I am and what I have at this very moment is more than enough.

I’m not trying to say that we shouldn’t have goals or things to aim/reach for.  We certainly do need to challenge ourselves and strive to be the best that we can be.  But sometimes we just need to find comfort in what we have right now.  We need to find peace within ourselves in our current state.  We need to be able to be happy with the present, instead of thinking we’ll be happier in the future.  And recognizing this may just be the sweetest bite of life.

What’s your favorite kind of apple? When was the last time you went apple picking?

Namasté,
Nicole