Tag Archives: applesauce

Golden Apple and Raisin Pork Roast with Sweet Potatoes & Carrots

I love my slow cooker! We were out and about yesterday since it was my sister’s last day in town, and my husband was coming back to NC, I wanted to make sure we all came home to a hot homemade meal.

It only took me a few minutes to brown the meat and throw all the ingredients into the slow cooker. Before you knew it, we were out the door to enjoy the beautiful Eastern North Carolina 80 degree weather.

The house sure smelled good once we got home.

This recipe Yields: 6- 8 servings

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon of olive oil

(1) 2-3 pound boneless pork loin

8 ounces unsweetened applesauce

1 teaspoon chicken base (I prefer penzeys)

8 ounces of boiling water
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground dry mustard

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 tablespoon dried parsley

1/2 teaspoon kosher Salt

3 cloves of garlic minced

1 medium- large sweet potato, quartered

1 (1 # bag ) of baby carrots

1 small yellow onion, quartered

1/2 cup raisins

Directions:

1. In a large nonstick skillet on medium high heat brown all 4 sides of the pork loin in the olive oil.

2. While the meat is searing, go ahead and mix the next nine ingredients in the slow cooker vessel (applesauce-garlic). Turn the slow cooker on the low heat setting.

3. Once the meat is finished browning cut in half and rotate the meat in the applesauce mix. Place the pork sides next to one another on top the applesauce mixture. Now arrange the carrots, sweet potatoes, onions, & raisins on top of the meat. Cover the dish with the slow cooker lid and allow to cook for 8 hours on low.

Enjoy!

Apple Spice Mini Loaves

My grandpa gave me apples the other day! I do eat one a day religiously as the saying goes. In addition, I could not wait to use them in recipes and make homemade apple butter. We did end up placing a batch of apples in the slowcooker for homemade apple butter to give out at the holiday this past weekend.

I personally feel like there is nothing better than homemade thoughtful gifts to give out during the holidays to our friends and family.

This recipe yields: 4 mini loaves

Ingredients:

3 cups of whole wheat pastry flour

1 teaspoon baking Soda

1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt

2 Tablespoon ground flaxseed

1 teaspoon ground apple pie spice

1 2/3 cup granulated sugar or raw sugar

1/2 cup egg white substitute

1 whole egg

1 Tablespoon of pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup plain or vanilla Greek nonfat yogurt

3 cups of apples (peeled, cored, and diced)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cooking spray mini loaf stoneware. Set aside.

2. Place the first 6 ingredients in a large bowl and whisk together. Set aside.

3. In another large bowl mix together the liquid ingredients (egg substitute, egg, vanilla, oil, applesauce, yogurt).

4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet using a silicone spatula. Incorporate until all the ingredients are wet with no dry residue. Caution not to over mix. Lastly fold in the apples.

5. Divide the batter evenly into the prepared mini vessels ( each one takes about 1.5 cups).

6. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick comes out without wet residue.

7. Allow the breads to cool in pan for 5 minutes then invert onto wire rack for remainder of cooling process.

Enjoy!

Classic Coffeecake Remake

My mom growing up always made coffeecake on the weekends. I love the smell of the cake baking in the oven. I find it ironic years later to learn there is no coffee in the actual cake (how disappointing!!). The baked good just pairs so nicely with a strong cup of coffee, is where I am sure the name stemmed from.

Today is an eventful day, we are finally planting our garden. My grandfather provided us with a lot of starter plants this past week. We just recently came back from vacation and have not had time to put in a garden. He is visiting us for a father’s day picnic next week. I want to make sure we get everything planted before he reviews our garden. My husband tried to start the rototiller Friday and it would not budge. Luckily our neighbors are going to let us borrow their tracker rototiller attachment. As a jester of gratitude, I baked this breakfast treat for them.

This cake is fairly large and I baked the coffeecake in my pampered chef stoneware bunt pan. I love, love stoneware for baking. Stoneware makes all baked goods cook so much more evenly. I also cut the sugar down significantly and swapped out the sour cream for nonfat greek yogurt. I did decrease the butter by half as well and used unsweetened applesauce in it’s place, which adds moisture and sweetness but also helps cut down on the saturated fat.

This recipe yields 16 to 20 servings

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

2 cups AP flour

1 3/4 cup of sugar, push 1/4 cup later for cinnamon and sugar swirl

2 TB of ground Vietnamese Cinnamon

4 Eggs

2 cups of plain greek non fat yogurt

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 stick of unsalted butter (1/2 cup); softened to room temperature

1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce

2 tsp of high quality pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously cooking spray a large bunt pan and set aside.
In a large bowl mix together thoroughly the flours, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
Place in a stand mixer bowl the butter, & 1 & 3/4 of the sugar, using paddle attachment cream the two together. Add in applesauce and vanilla and continue to mix to incorporate the ingredients together. On low speed, add in the egg one at a time. Allow for each egg to incorporate into the batter before adding another egg.
Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the egg batter, continue the mixer speed on low. Once incorporated add 1/3 of the greek yogurt, repeat until flour and yogurt are gone.
In a small bowl take the cinnamon and remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and mix together, set aside.
Take 1/3 of the batter and spread with rubber spatula on the bottom of the greased bunt pan. Sprinkle evenly with 1/3 of the cinnamon sugar blend. Repeat the steps two more times, until no batter and cinnamon blend remain. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 60 -65 minutes or until cake tester or toothpick comes out clean.
Place the bunt pan on a wire rack, allow the cake to remain in the hot pan for 15 minutes to cool slightly. After the 15 minutes have elapsed, remove the cake from the pan and allow to cool on wire rack until you are ready to serve the cake.

Enjoy!

Applesauce Cinnamon Ornaments

We used to make these as kids! My mom would make the dough and my sister and I would get the big job of cutting the shapes. Oh I love the smell of these keepsakes! They always last a few years.

***Warning these are not edible***

Ingredients:

7.75 ounces of ground cinnamon (use the dollar store kind)

12 oz unsweetened applesauce

Scant water if necessary

Directions:

1. Warm applesauce in microwave for 30 to 60 seconds. Be careful applesauce maybe hot!

2. Add ground cinnamon to applesauce. Mix with spatula. You might have to add some water to get to correct consistency.

3. Roll out to wanted thickness on pastry mat. Use your favorite cookie cutters to shape your ornaments.

4. Place ornaments on wax paper. Store in an area where you can let stand for a week to dry.

5. Once the ornaments have completely dried you can decorate them as you wish.

This is my mom’s original copy of the recipe! You know it’s a good one when they look like this.

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Cinnamon & Sugar Muffins

This recipe is one of my favorite muffin recipes. Cinnamon is one of the main staples spices in my diet. So anytime I can showcase a recipe incorporating cinnamon I do. My husband and I were lucky enough to catch up with one of our good friends yesterday while she was home for the holidays. She was asking me about a healthy item that she could have for Breakfast. I knew just the muffin, one she could make, freeze and take on the go for when she commutes to work on the public transportation in California. These freeze well and are amazing, not to mention are full of fiber to get you going and keep you full in the morning !

Yields: 14 standard muffins (using 2 oz (size 16 scoop) or 28 mini muffins (using number 60 scoop).
Ingredients:
1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup of old fashion oats (not instant)
1/2 tsp Vietnamese ground cinnamon
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup fat free or low fat buttermilk
1/8 cup Splenda brown sugar not packed
1 TB ground flaxseed
1/2 cup natural unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup egg substitute or 2 egg whites
1 tsp Mexican vanilla
Cinnamon & sugar to sprinkle

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray with canola oil cooking spray 12 muffin tins. I use silicone tin but paper will work well as also.

1.Soak oats in buttermilk for ten minutes.

2. In the meantime in a separate bowl combine applesauce, egg substitute, vanilla, and Splenda brown sugar.

Then set a side until oats have soaked for 10 minutes .

3. In a separate bowl measure out whole wheat pastry flour, salt, baking soda, flaxseed, baking powder and cinnamon.

4. Add buttermilk mixture to applesauce liquid mixture. Mix well to incorporate.

5. Now fold the dry ingredients into the liquid ingredients.

6. Fold well until incorporated.

7. Scoop out into tins. For standard sized muffins use 2 oz (size 16 scoop) or mini muffins use number 60 scoop.

8. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes for standard size and 8 to 10 for minis.

Homemade Cinnamon Applesauce

We still had about 3 pounds of early transparent apples leftover from my grandpa’s orchard so I made some of my grandma’s homemade applesauce.

Ingredients:
3 pounds of apples cored but not peeled
4 cinnamon sticks
The juice of one lemon

1. Chop cored apples

2. Place cored apples in crock-pot, add the juice of one lemon and the cinnamon sticks.

3. Turn crock-pot on high 2-4 hours, stir occasionally.

4. Remove apple sticks before serving

Yields about 4 cups of applesauce! You will love the smell that permeates throughout the entire house.

Leftover Mashed Potato Cinnamon & Sugar Donuts

Baked Leftover Mashed Potato Cinnamon & Sugar Donuts!!

Makes about 18 donuts and Donut holes (3 Inch diameter)

I made mashed potatoes and meatloaf last night for my husband and I’s anniversary dinner. I always make too many mashed potatoes. So we of course we great deal of leftovers. I remembered my Grandma Lee telling me she use to make left over mashed potato donuts for my dad growing up whenever she had leftover mashed potatoes. I have been wanting to try a recipe for sometime now. I thought I would try and make the donuts a little healthier by not frying them and cutting the butter in half by using no sugar added applesauce. I wanted to do a test run this morning so that I could make them for my dad tomorrow for Father’s day. My dad also has to watch his sugar intake so I cut the sugar in half by substituting half splenda for sugar. My husband and I fried a few to see the difference and these fry up nice too…. But give the baked version a try first.

Ingredients:

2 cups of left over mashed potatoes
1/2 stick of butter (melted)
1/2 cup no sugar added Applesauce
4 cups of Self rising flour
Two pinches of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
2 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup of Splenda for baking

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°

1. In a standing mixer cream together potato, splenda, sugar butter, and applesauce.