Eating Healthier in Today's World

APPLES, APPLES, APPLES

This time of year is a wonderful time for our old standby fruit the apple.  The many varieties and abundance of them in this area of the world makes for some great menu ideas in all categories of food.  Breakfasts, lunches, dinners, bake goods, desserts salads and even soups can be created out of the lowly apple, making it a very versatile ingredient.  Many of the dishes created with the apple can also be termed comfort foods as well.  Memories of childhood return whenever I smell the wonderful fragrance of homemade apple pies in the oven, or Applesauce cooking on the stove.  

Apple Sauce and Apple Butter - The best way to use apples is to use as much of fruit as possible only leaving the skin and the pits.  To me one of the most beneficial as well as economical (giving the most yield) for the apple is either applesauce or apple butter.    Both of these can also be cooked while your are away, using a crock pot to slowly soften the mixture ready to put in jars or into the freezer.  When making either of these delicious concoctions, I like to substittute brown sugar for the white sugar which gives the recipe an additional flavour but you could also use artifical sweeteners or even Xagave which will lower the Gylcemix Index of the applesauce or apple butter.  I would use about 1/2 cup of the Xagave to replace one cup of the sugar in the recipe as Xagave is sweeter and more concentrated than sugar.  Check out the recipe on this site:   http://www.godairyfree.org/recipes/cinnamon-crockpot-apple-butter

Personally I like to make my applesauce and apple butters without having to peel and core the apples.  I simply cut the apples in half and cook them with a little water or juice and sweetened to taste (some apples don't need any sweetener at all though) and a little cinnamon ( or even some of those cinnamon candies which give a little bite to the applesauce).  Once the mixture is soft I feed it through our Bosch Berry Press attachment on the front of the Bosch Meat grinder and the sauce comes out in a bowl under it and the seeds and skins come out the end.  This probably cuts off a good half hour of prep time that it would take to peel and core all the apples.  I  just did this process with under ripe apples that had fallen off a tree and it made the best applesauce ever.

Crockpot Applesauce

Ingredients:
 8 medium apples (use a combination of golden delicious, honey crisp, Fuji etc.

1 tsp. fresh lemon juice and 1 strip of lemon peel

3 pinches of cinnamon or one cinnamon stick

5 tsp. of light brown sugar or Xagave.

Peel, core, and slice the apples. Place them in a slow cooker. Add the lemon peel, lemon juice, cinnamon stick, and brown sugar. Set the crockpot to low and cook for 6 hours. Remove cinnamon stick and blend with an immersion blender until smooth.
It's as easy as that! Tasty, fragrant, Johnny Appleseed inspired applesauce. You really can't go wrong!

If your are going to can in jars,  either the applesauce or apple butter, it would be wise to include an extra tablespoon of lemon juice due to the acidity of the apples. However, if you freeze it, you can fill your containers or zip top bags full to prevent any freezer burn happening.

Other Apple Favorites - One of my favorite breads is Bosch Apple Pie Bread because when it is baking you get the double dose of bread baking and apple pie cooking, and it tastes awesome.  This is a quick bread so it can be used as a dessert and great for the kids school  lunches.  I you want to do a yeast bread with apples our Bosch Applesauce Walnut Bread is to die for and the recipe can be made in a smaller machine like the Bosch Compact Mixer or Bosch Styline or doubled to make with the Bosch Universal Plus.  These Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffinsare delish and are fast to make and a great way to use up cooked pumpkin which also will be in abundance soon.

I grew up with a French Canadian mother but I hated Split Pea soup until I made this awesome recipe with our Kuhn Rikon Pressure cooker that uses apples and mint and sweet potatoes as well as the green split peas.  Best soup ever is The Fast Green Peas Soup with Sweet Potatoes, Apple and MInt.

For Breakfast our Bosch Blender Apple Pancakes can't be beat.  We use Xagave as the sweetner and either soymilk or our Tofu Milk can be substitued for the milk in the recipe.  Having these for breakfast just makes your day start out great!  

With cabbages and carrots being harvested now along with the apples, it is a great time of year to make this wonderful Harvest Coleslaw  salad with your own dressing made with the Bosch Blender attachment.

Take advantage of the lower prices of our homegrown apples right now and use them well as it is only once a year that we get the chance to purchase them at such good prices.