Healthy Apple Muffins with Cinnamon-Sugar Topping

May 10, 2015

Crunchy cinnamon-sugar topping.

Crunchy. Cinnamon. Sugar. Topping.

Basically, that’s all you need to know about this recipe. But I guess I could mention the fact that they’re mostly whole wheat, low in sugar, and full of wholesome fruit. I mean, if that kind of thing’s important to you.

When you make this, the batter will worry you because it is crazy thick. Like, bread dough thick. You won’t pour or spoon it into the muffin tins, you’ll kind of awkwardly drop it in there and kind of smoosh it. Don’t try to smash it into the muffin cups, just kind of drop it and it will expand as it bakes to fill in the gaps. And despite the thickness of the batter and the density of the baked muffins, they’re super moist!

Fresh Apple Cake with Honey Glaze

Mar 29, 2013

My sister made this cake for us while they were visiting, and we LOVED it! It kind of feels like a tease to post this recipe during the Days of Unleavened Bread, since I can’t make it or eat it. But since we made it a couple weeks ago, we’re in the clear!

I love desserts, but I really tend toward ones that aren’t quite as sweet, and often ones that involve fruit. We actually made a few tweaks to the original recipe to make it healthier, namely substituting white whole wheat flour for regular and cutting 1/2 cup of sugar out. It was still plenty sweet for us, and personally I think the whole wheat added an even better flavor to the whole thing.

Plus, apples and cinnamon! What’s not to love??

Roasted Sweet Potato, Apple, & Sage Soup

Dec 9, 2012

My last night at home for Thanksgiving, it was just me and my mom since my dad had to head out of town for work. It had been cold and windy all day, typical Kansas November, and we’d been out running errands most of the day. When we got home, all we wanted was something warm and hearty, a glass of wine, and maybe some White Collar on Netflix.

My mom had picked up some truffle cheese, knowing how much I love truffles. So I decided to make another loaf of the amazing rosemary and olive oil bread I’d tried a couple days earlier and make grilled cheese sandwiches. Of course, we needed some kind of soup to go with it. So I did some searching and found this delicious, slightly-sweet and hearty soup as the perfect flavor pairing.

One thing I loved about this soup recipe was that it didn’t call for heavy cream, so it was a little healthier than many similar recipes. I also loved that you could make this in a normal amount of time instead of cooking it in a crockpot for several hours—I can’t always think ahead that much!

This looks like a perfect winter evening.