Thanksgiving worthy: Apple Crisp

Every Sunday, Scotty and I head over to his parents house for our weekly dinner ritual.  This week I was asked to make an apple crisp, which happens to be Scotty's moms favorite.  I found a recipe online by the Bare Foot Contessa but added my own twist to it.  I was happy that this recipe came out DELICIOUS...seeing that fall cooking is right around the corner, I think it is time to gather some fall worthy recipes.

INGREDIENTS:

3lb pounds of Granny Smith Apples

Grated Zest of 1 orange

Grated zest of 1 lemon

Fresh squeezed juice for the 1 orange

Fresh squeezed juice from the 1 lemon

1/2 cup granulated sugar

4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground nutmeg



FOR THE TOPPING:

1 1/2 cups of flour

3/4 cups granulated sugar

3/4 cups light brown sugar, packed

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 cup oatmeal

1/2 pound (2 sticks) of unsalted butter (if you only have salted butter in the fridge, use and do not use the 1/2 teaspoon salt)


DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter an oval glass dish.  I used a dish a little smaller than a 9x14, but if you do not have one, go ahead and use what you have.

Peel, core, and cut apples into large wedges.  Combine all ingredients: apples, zest, juice, sugar, and spices.  Stir together and place into oval dish.

For the topping, combine the flour, sugar, salt, oatmeal, and the butter (chopped into pieces) into the mixing bowl and mix on low speed.  This could take a few minutes.  Our goal is to get the topping as crumbly as possible.  The butter pieces should be small, about the size of a pea.  Once completed, spread evenly over the apple crisp.

Place apple crisp into the oven, bake for about an hour.  You want the topping to be a brown in color and the apples bubbling.

Take out of oven, let it rest for about 10-15 minutes.  Then serve warm with a dollop of french vanilla ice cream.

Green Machine Smoothie

Recently, my best friend, Michelle, came and visited me is Rochester, NY.  I love when she visits.  Not only do I know that this visit will bring along a sore stomach from the amount of laughter that will be pouring out of my mouth, but she always is so good about getting me to eat healthy.  Since I have moved here to NY, I have gained almost ten pounds, good lord....I have my boyfriend to blame! ;)  Always going out to eat and drinking wine.  It seems that I have been enjoying life maybe a little too much.  So when I heard Michelle was coming to visit, I knew that she could whip me back into shape and get back into healthy eating.  Michelle introduced me to this nutritional powder called Vega.  Vega was created by Brendan Brazier who is a vegan, professional Ironman triathlete and a best selling health author on plant-based nutrition.  Michelle incorporates Vega into her smoothies.  Let me tell you, these smoothies are great...they are delicious...hits the spot after a hard, hot workout....and just to warn you...they are GREEN.




Ingredients:  Obviously add more fruits for more servings...

1/2c-1cup Frozen pineapple

1-2 bananas

2 handfuls of fresh spinach leaves

1/5 package of silken tofu

Coconut Water

**optional: Vega One all-in-one nutritional shake or any nutritional powder of your liking




Directions:

Place all ingredients, except for coconut water in your blender.  Now add the coconut water until it submerges 1/4 of all ingredients.  (I like using coconut water instead of juices in my smoothie because of the low calorie, high electrolyte factor AND no artificial sugars!)

Turn on the blender.  If you find that the blender is having a hard time mixing the smoothie, turn off the blender and add more coconut water and/or stir the ingredients.

Lastly, enjoy!


TIPS:

1. if you find you're not going to eat all of the smoothie in one sitting, freeze the left overs and pull out of the freezer 30-60minutes before you would like to drink.

2. When storing tofu, place tofu in glass dish with cover submerged in FRESH water (filtered if you have it) and change the water everyday.

3. BUY ORGANIC.  You are taking two steps forward with feeding your body fresh fruits in veggies in a smoothie....but you will be taking 10 steps back if you do not eat organic....do you really want all those pesticide chemicals swimming around in your body?  No thank you!

4.  You can buy the Vega One powder at Whole Foods or GNC.  GNC has buy 1 get one 50% deals at times and if you sign up for the gold card ($20/yr) you get 20% off your purchase the first week of every month!