Apple Pie with Pie Crust Recipe

Sooooo it's that time of the year again!!

I very VERY much love to bake, and I very, very much love pumpkins (no pumpkins in this blog post, but coming SOON!), so it just makes sense that fall is my favorite time of year!

It was my husbands birthday this weekend and I asked him what he would want me to make him if he had his choice of anything. Without hesitating he asked me to make my apple pie! This is one of my favorite recipes as well! I hope you enjoy!

For any good pie, you need a good crust. To me most crusts are just too bland. If you're in agreement, then you'll love this pie crust recipe! We start with the pie crust because while you're peeling and coring your apples, you'll want your crust chilling in the refrigerator.

(Check out my CUTE smiley face measuring cups and spoons from my sweet friend Sarah!)

Pie Crust: (x2, you'll want to make two of these, one for the bottom of the pie, one for the top)

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 ts. salt
1/3 cup of sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temp. cut into small pieces
2 to 4 tbsp ice water

Combine the flour, salt and sugar. Add butter and mash into the flour until it resembles coarse meal. Add cold water 1 tbsp at a time. Place in a zip lock bag and refrigerate until you're done peeling and coring your apple.

Apple Pie:
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 ts. cinnamon
1/8 ts. nutmeg
1/8 ts. ground cloves
2 tbls. all purpose flour (to thicken the juices when baking)
6 to 7 medium apples- peeled, cored, sliced
2 tbls. butter, cut into small pieces
1 to 2 tbls. milk
1 tbls. sugar

Preheat your oven to 400 and grease your pie dish. Combine sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, flour and apples in a bowl. Next, pull out your pie crusts. Roll your first pie crust out on a floured surface. Once rolled out, fold in half, and then fold that half circle in half again to transfer it to your greased pie dish. Once you have transferred your pie crust to the pie dish, open up the pie crust and line the pie dish with it. You may wish to trim off the access pie crust now, or wait until later. Now, pour your apple mixture into the pie crust that is now in your pie dish. Add your 2 tbls of cut butter all over your pie.

Now, roll out your last pie dough and lay it on top of your apples and butter. To trim off the excess you can take your rolling pin and gently roll along the edges to make the extra fall off. Pinch the edges all pretty, and maybe even carve in a pretty design! If you decide not to carve in a design, cut little slits so that the steam can escape.

 Now grab your 1-2 tbls of milk and a cooking brush and brush the milk all over the top of your pie. Once you're done with the milk, sprinkle sugar on top and bake for 40-50 minutes.

If you try this recipe, please let me know how you like it!!

....but I do EVERYTHING!

It's so easy to get overwhelmed with everything there is to do as a mother, isn't it?! 

We do the dishes.
We do the laundry.
We do the meal planning.
We do the grocery shopping.
We cook all the meals.
We clean all the floors.
We wash all the toilets.
We wipe all the butts.
We do all the dusting.
We.do.everything. EVERYTHING!

As my chiropractor always says, we deserve a reward that says "Supermom", right?! But ever get in that "woe is me" mood? Ever throw yourself a pity party? I sure have! More often than I'm willing to type out! 

I saw this scripture tonight, and it came alive in my soul.

"For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves." Luke 22:27 (KKJV)

Ladies, when we serve our family, we're acting in the likeness of Christ. He was the greatest of all people, without sin. If ANYONE deserved to be served, it would be Him! 

When you're feeling discouraged, overwhelmed, and unappreciated, remember that you are serving, just as the Savior of the world did. You're showing your children Christ through your selflessness and your service to them and your family.

Delicious Moist Banana Muffins (gluten free alternative included!)

For the month of September I'm going to be kicking into high gear as far as weight loss. There are two big reasons why I'm stepping it up. #1 I'm tired of feeling big, fat and bloated. It's not fun and I'm ready to loose this baby weight! #2 I have money on my weight loss! I'm not a gambling woman. I don't go to casino's. I don't gamble online. However, I am willing to take a gamble on my weight loss if it will help me stay accountable and actually stick to it!

I heard of this program through two of my favorite Biggest Loser contestants Hannah and Olivia. It's called DietBet.You bet $25 that you can lose 4% of your weight in 4 weeks. If you DO lose that weight you split the "pot" with the other people who participated in the bet. If you lose, you get nothing and the other winners split the pot.

However, the bet starts on Sept. 9th so I have a little bit of time to still eat some stuff that I won't be able to eat while trying to lose weight, plus, I had some overripe banana's on the counter, so I present to you my fabulous, delicious moist banana muffins!

Ok, so I know that I need to work on my photo skills, but these really are delicious! Take my word on it!

Moist Banana Muffins

1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour **

2/3 cup of sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of salt

2 or 3 mashed ripe banana's

1 egg

1/2 cup of oil (I used canola oil this last time, but it would also be tasty with coconut oil, vegetable oil, etc.)

1/4 cup of buttermilk (you can also use regular milk)

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350. 

Mix together your dry ingredients first then add your wet ingredients in with the dry. With your mixer, mix it until smooth. Fill your muffin cups about 3/4 of the way full. I usually double this recipe since our family size is so big, but this recipe will make 1 dozen muffins.

Bake for 20-30 minutes. Start checking it at 20 minutes as all ovens are different. They are finished cooking when a toothpick comes out clean. 

**I have used Jules Gluten Free All Purpose Flour to make these muffins gluten free with success in the past!

Let me know how you like them!! :)

Gluten Free Dinner- Roasted Lemon/Garlic Chicken, Garlic Mashed Pototoes and Carrots with a brown sugar glaze

Who says eating gluten-free has to be boring?! It can be quite delicious actually!

While searching for dinner ideas a while ago, I stumbled upon a GREAT blog- Full Bellies, Happy Kids! Every recipe I have tried from that blog has been absolutely delicious- even the gluten filled ones (duh! lol). I got this chicken recipe from her blog, and adjusted it to our liking.

Roasted Lemon Garlic Chicken-

- 1 whole chicken (cut up)

- 3 or 4 garlic cloves (depending how garlic-y you would like it), thinly sliced

- 1 lemon

- salt & pepper to taste

- 2 tablespoons of butter

- 2 bay leaves

Place cut up whole chicken in a baking dish. Place sliced garlic and slices of butter over chicken. Cut your lemon and squeeze the lemon juice over the chicken pieces. Add salt & pepper to taste, and 2 bay leaves. Cover and let sit (refrigerated) for at least an hour.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 and bake for 2 hours.

I assure you, your house is going to smell AMAZING and you will be deemed the best cook in town...just not MY town because I'm the best cook here (ok, maybe not, but one can wish, right?!).

Garlic Mashed Potatoes-

- 5 or 6 medium potatoes, peeled, cubed, and boiled until soft (keep in mind, I'm cooking for a family of 7)

-3 tablespoons of butter plus 1 tablespoon for garlic

- 1/2 to 3/4 cup of milk (I never really measure..)

- 1 or 2 cloves of garlic, minced

- salt and pepper to taste

While your potatoes are cooking, melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a small frying pan and add your minced garlic. Only cook for a minute or so...do not over cook your garlic or it will turn bitter to the taste. Set to the side once done. Once your potatoes have boiled and are soft, drain them and place them back into your pot. Add the 3 tablespoons of butter, the cooked garlic, 1/2 cup of milk, and salt/pepper to taste. Blend together with a hand mixer until smooth. You may need to add a little bit more milk if you find that the potatoes are too stiff.

Brown Sugar Glazed Carrots-

-7 or 8 carrots, peeled, cut into thin sticks

-1 tablespoon of butter

-1 heaping tablespoon of brown sugar

Melt the tablespoon of butter in a frying pan, add your carrots and cook over medium-high heat until they are softened but still a little firm (10 minutes give or take). Once the carrots are the desired softness add your brown sugar and mix until the sugar is melted onto the carrots and remove from heat.

-

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Have you ever tried making delicious, mouth watering gluten filled Chocolate Chip Cookies while living a gluten free diet?? It's not easy! Not easy at all! So, I decided to look around for some gluten free chocolate chip cookie recipes that I could make for myself while making the "normal" chocolate chip cookies for everyone else.
Every recipe I saw had ingredients that I didn't have, so I just got creative. To be honest, I was scared to death to try my creation lol The dough didn't look appetizing at all. However, once the baked, they rose so beautifully and tasted AMAZING (especially for being gluten free! lol)

Ingredients:
-1/2 cup of nut butter (I used peanut butter, it was not a "knock you down" flavor)  
-2 eggs
-3 tablespoons of butter (softened) 
-3 tablespoons of sugar
-2 tablespoons of soy flour (you can buy this at walmart!)
-1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
-As many chocolate chips as you like!

Blend together the nut butter, eggs and butter. Add the sugar, soy flour and baking soda. Once combined add as many or little chocolate chips as you would like.

Bake in the preheated oven of 350 for 10-12 minutes (less time if you make smaller cookies).

I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!    

Gardening is good for your health

Yep!
Gardening is good for your health! Not just the vegetables and fruit you get out of it, but the actual process of gardening- getting your hands dirty, pulling weeds, picking your vegetables, it's healthy for you! Ever since we started the process of gardening we have just enjoyed it so much. I thought maybe it was just a nice new hobby, getting back to the way God created things to be, but it's obviously been so much more! Anyways, I'm not good at explaining all the technical stuff, so here's an article that does a better job!


Why Gardening is healthy for you


Every morning I walk through my garden and then every evening right before dark. I find that it calms me, and puts me in awe of how God created everything to work and to grow. I just love it so much. I want to invite everyone over to come see my garden but I doubt they'll have the excitement I do about it lol


Lately I've been training my cucumbers to climb up tomato cages instead of spreading out on the ground and taking up so much space. They were stubborn at first, but now they're catching on, climbing up on their own, wrapping the vines around the poles and back to the stem. It's like they have a mind of their own!

I'm going to take this in a slightly different direction for a moment. Yesterday in church we sang "He Loves Us". The verse goes:
"He is jealous for me
Love's like a hurricane
I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of
His wind and mercy
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
and I realize just how beautiful You are and how great your affections are for me."

To be honest, I've heard that song so much that it was on my "overplayed" list, but this sunday is really spoke to my heart. This past week the Lord has really been showing me how He'll meet me where I am. I'm pregnant, and when I'm pregnant I'm grumpy, tired and irritable. All I want to do is rest. I don't want to get up and read the Bible. I don't want to get up and do anything. When we sang this song the Lord brought to my mind my garden blowing with the breeze. I often times will let the kids play outside and I'll just sit back and admire the garden. How the leaves sway in the breeze, how the bee's jump blossom to blossom, and I just take delight in it. Well with the image of the garden in my mind, that was me...I was swaying to the wind of his mercy and just like I take such delight in my garden, even more so He delights in me, His child.


This big big powerful mighty God delights in me. He sets His affections on ME, this grumpy mean pregnant woman. I don't even like myself half the time.....but He still does. He loves me so much that He'll meet me where I am, He'll speak to me through the garden, He speaks "my language" because He delights in me. 

He'll meet you where you are too, just take a step out. 

Garden Update

I don't really have much to talk about today. Life seems to the be same most days, and I'm good with that! We get a little variety of change from time to time like this week we're dealing with a yucky stomach virus.

The biggest news around here, well, at least for me, is to see the garden growing! Being that it's my first "real" garden I'm anxious to see it start producing fruit and veggies! We have a few things growing!

We had our first strawberry not long ago, infact, we had a second one shortly after that the kids were excited to share with their Mimi.

We have a few tomato's growing as well. Not sure how they're going to do though since the plant doesn't seem to be doing very well. These are from two of my potted tomato plants and I just don't think they were getting what they needed from the pot. I transplanted them to the ground. I'm hoping it's not too late to save them.

We also have a cute little roma tomato growing. The squash look like they're going to blossom with flower any day now! Just waiting!

Just because I love to see progression pictures, here's what the garden looked like when we planted everything at first:

and now 3 weeks later:

It's not the BEST picture in the world, but you can see how much bigger the plants are. I should go through row by row and take pictures. Yeah, I'm pretty nerdy and into my garden like that lol.

Well, that's all I have for now! Happy gardening!