Recipe: Baked Apples

I just realized that is Wednesday already and I haven't posted a thing! Sorry about that-things have been hectic with my two girls, and I have been spending all of my "free-time" (do you ever really have free time after having kids?) studying, as I am also taking two classes this semester as well.
I have also been gathering up recipes to try so that hopefully I can bring some new dishes to Thanksgiving next week! So I'll keep you posted as to my successes with that.

Tonight the girls helped me make baked apples for our dessert. We rarely have a dessert after dinner, so this was a special treat. I really love cooking with them. Mara does a dance around the kitchen when I ask them to help me.

This recipe is just so simple, taken from "The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook". This was the perfect recipe to cook with helpers. They helped add the ingredients, mix it up and then took turns filling each apple. They gobbled these up, which was kind of surprising to me since neither child likes applesauce (but love plain apples). So this was exciting for me, and we will be making these again!



Ingredients

4 apples
1 cup apple juice
1/4 cup honey
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
2 strips of orange zest (I also sprinkled in some McCormick's orange peel)

Core the apples, leaving the bottom in tact. Place into a small baking pan. Mix up the rest of the ingredients, and pour liquid into each apple.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 1-1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees. Apples will be done when tender.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Chicken with Apples and Cranberries

My girls love apples, and I thought this would be perfect.....but it was not. The original recipe called for tart apples, which was a bit too tart for them. Next time, I am going to try a different type of apple. The original recipe was also for a whole chicken, and was to be baked. I changed it a bit to make it easier and faster for us. My husband and I thought it was very good!

Ingredients:

4 skinless chicken breasts, cut up into chunks
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp salt (optional)
1 tsp pepper
4 apples, peeled and diced
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1-1 /2 cups of apple juice

Heat the oil in a frying pan, and add chicken. Cook chicken until its almost done. Add apples, cranberries and apple juice. Sprinkle cinnamon, salt and pepper over mixture.
Heat to boil and then simmer for 10-15 minutes, until apples are soft.
Serve over rice or pasta.

We used Mrs. Leepers rice vegetable twists with this recipe. I added them right into the chicken mixture, and it worked well. The best thing is that this pasta is not one we usually save for leftovers because it doesn't save well. But adding it into the dish worked well, and we could eat it for lunch the next day.