• Recipes: Cashew Apple Chicken

    Chicken Recipe - Apple Recipe - Recipes - P1470550c

    Cashew Apple Chicken

    I love weekends at home for many reasons.  It is awesome spending some extra time with my family.  During the week typically I do most of the cooking do to everyone’s schedule being a more crazy, however, on the weekends many times my husband will cook our family meal.  He comes up with some of the most amazing and delicious dishes.  It is so neat to watch him look in the fridge to see what we have or what needs used up then whipped together a new and tasty meal.

    Our family enjoys chicken, apples, and cashews so this meal was a hit.  I am so thankful for a husband who cooks.  He has widen my recipe collections with the variety of dishes he pulls together.  Yes, I am blessed!

    Cashew Apple Chicken Recipe:

    • 4 Chicken Breasts (boneless and skinless)
    • 1/2 tablespoon Olive Oil
    • 2 Apples, cut up in equal size pieces (we used granny smith because we had them in the fridge)
    • 1 teaspoon Salt
    • 1/4 teaspoon Pepper
    • 1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon
    • 1 tablespoon Maple Syrup
    • 1 tablespoon Italian Dressing
    • 1/4 cup Cashews

    1.  Mix together the salt, pepper,  and cinnamon into a small bowl.  Sprinkle the chicken breasts for a pinch of this mixture and set the remaining spice mixture aside.

    2.  Add the olive oil to a frying pan and allow to heat up using medium heat for about 1 minute. Add the chicken breasts to the pan and cook.  Cook for 10 minutes on one side and turn to cook for an additional 10 minutes on the remaining side.  The chicken should be a light brown on all sides.  While the chicken is cooking on each side do steps 3 to 5.

    3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

    4.  Grease a baking dish.

    5.  Dice up the apples and set aside.

    6.  Once the chicken is brown on all sides (see step 2) remove the chicken breasts from the pan and place them into the baking dish.

    7.  Add the Maple Syrup, Italian Seasoning, and spice mixture to the pan of oil and chicken juices.  Heat over medium for about 1 minute.  Add the diced apples and cashews.  Continue to cook for 3 minutes stirring gently.  Remove from heat and spoon the apple and cashew mixture equally over the chicken breasts.

    8.  Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

  • Recipes: Homemade Apple Dumplings

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    Homemade Apple Dumpling Dessert

    Jake made recently made this delicious fall apple recipe for dessert!  Sometimes we go apple picking and other times we just enjoy the stores having some of our favorite apples on sale during this time of year.  Every year we like to try different apple dishes.  I am thankful for a husband who cooks and who will random surprise us with a tasty treat.  The homemade apple dumplings would go very well with a scoop of vanilla ice cream too if you have some at the house!

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    Apple Dumpling

    Homemade Apple Dumplings:

    • 1 3/4 cups Water
    • 1 1/4 cups Sugar
    • 1/2 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
    • 1/2 teaspoon ground Nutmeg
    • 2 tablespoons Butter or Maragine
    • 2 1/4 cups Flour
    • 1/4 teaspoon Salt
    • 2/3 cups shortening
    • 7 tablespoons Water
    • 4 Apples (small to medium size)
    • 1/2 cup raisins
    • 1/2 cup brown sugar

    In a saucepan combine 1 3/4 cups water, 1 cup of sugar (save the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar for later), 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (save the remaining 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon for later), 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (save the remaining 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg for later).  Mix together, simmer with it covered for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in the butter or margarine.  Set the syrup mixture aside.

    Combine flour and salt.  Cut in the shortening until all the pieces are about the size of a black bean.  Add water a little at a time and mix until all is moist.  Form the dough into a ball. Roll the dough onto an approximately 16 x 12 inch rectangle, cut into four 4 inch squares.

    Wash, peel, and core your 4 apples.  Place an apple on each of the 4 pastry squares.  Mix together the brown sugar and raisins and put a small scoop in each apple where the core was removed.  Mix the remaining sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg together and sprinkle over the fruit.   Moisten the edges of the pastry with water and fold the corners to the center on top of the fruit and pinch to seal it (see picture below).  Place dumplings in a  greased pan and pour the syrup mixture over the top of the dumplings.

    Bake the dumplings on 375 degrees in the oven for 45 minutes or until the fruit is tender and the pastry is slightly brown.  Prior to serving spoon syrup from the pan over the pastries and serve with vanilla ice cream.

    The recipe is a delicious fall apple dessert!  I recommend serving with ice cream or a glass of milk!  Enjoy!

    Baked Apple Dumpling

    Ready to go into the oven!

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    The apple dumplings not only smelled delicious, they tasted amazing too!

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    Inside the apple dumplings!

  • Sweet Treats for a Spooktacular Halloween!

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    3 Easy Seasoned Pumpkin Seed Recipes

    Wishing your family a Happy Halloween!  I have been away for work the past couple of weeks so we decided to celebrate this Halloween by staying home and enjoying a family night.  It is great to be back home and to see my handsome man and sweet kids!   The only thing that the girls specifically requested for the our family Halloween celebration was some pumpkins for carving and something good to eat.  I also picked up some caramel for making caramel apples!

    Here are some of our favorite Halloween and delicious pumpkin recipes!

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    Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins (4 Ingredients)

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    Carmel Apple Dip

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    Pumpkin Dip

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    Halloween Rice Krispie Treats

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    Super Easy Halloween Punch

  • Recipe: Apple Peel Confetti Crisps

    Making Apple Peel Confetti Crisps with a variety of different apples

    This past fall we went apple picking with the family, even though we have eaten all the apples from that day (we picked a bushel of apples which is approximately 40 pounds) whenever I pick up apples at the store the girls have several favorite recipes that we have tried and enjoy.   One of their absolute favorites to eat and take to school is their Apple Peel Confetti Crisps.

    It was one of those recipes that pop into my head at the last minute and turn out really well (not all of them turn out so well).  As I was peeling some of the apples to make applesauce I noticed we had quite the accumulation of apple skins.  I didn’t want all the skins to go to waste so I threw all of them into a big bowl, sprinkled a little bit of cinnamon and sugar on them, stirred and put them into the dehydrator for a few hours.  What came out were what the girls named Apple Peel Confetti Crisps, a delightful sweet and crunchy apple peel snack.

    • Apple Peels
    • Dash of lemon juice
    • Dash of Cinnamon & Sugar

    Put the apple peels into a bowl.  Stir in a little cinnamon and sugar for flavor.  Put the apple peels into the dehydrator and cook until crispy.  Remove from dehydrator and put into a ziplock bag.  If you do not have a dehydrator you can set your oven at 250 and stir occasionally (works great if it is a convection oven).

    We stored ours in the refrigerator but they should be fine at room temperature too since they are dried.  Several kids in the girls class at school wanted to know if I could pack extra Apple Peel Confetti Crisps in the girls lunches so they could have some too.  I was happy to hear the girls did share with their friends.  One little boy said it was the best apple skin he had ever tasted and the only thing he would do different is add a little more sugar, ha!  Loved that the rest of the first graders enjoyed the goodies as much as my girls.

    Start with fresh apples

    Peel the apple – Karlie taking a turn at peeling the granny smith apple

    Stir a little cinnamon & sugar in with the apple peels

    Put the apple peels in the dehydrator and let it run for 4 to 6 hours (or until the peels are crispy like the ones pictured above)

    Apple Peel Confetti Crisps ready to eat!