homemade baked apple chips

After my attempt at homemade fruit roll ups I decided to try my hand at another homemade snack, apple chips! I love the store bought ones, but they tend to be expensive and chocked full of preservatives and added sugar. Today I have a recipe for the easiest snack ever. They're perfect for making in large batches, taste amazing, and keep well for extended periods of time. They are also great for using only organic ingredients, because well...there are only 2 in this recipe.

Ella loves them, this pic of her trying to steal the bowl of them is proof that they're kid friendly. 

Step 1: 

Wash and slice 2 apples into thin slices. The thinner they are the faster they dry out, and the more chips you get, however they are crispier. So if you like less crunch and more crisp then opt for slightly thicker slices.

Step 2:

Remove the seeds and any tough bits of the apple core. I used a metal pastry tip as a tiny cookie cutter type tool to cut out the middles of my apple. (You can see it pictured in the photo next to the cinnamon).

Step 3:

Place apple slices on parchment paper lined baking sheet and sprinkle with cinnamon, organic preferably.   :)

Step 4:

Set your oven to 225 degrees. You want a low temperature because you aren't cooking the apple slices, you are drying them out. It should take about 2 hours to dry out the apples, depending on how thick they are sliced. Flip them after an hour. If they are not done after two hours just check on them every 15-20 min until they are dry to the touch.

Voila!

They're done. Now try not to eat them all in one sitting. 

Believe me, you'll be tempted to. 

homemade junk free fruit roll ups

Lately I've been on a crazy fruit eating, no carb, no sugar eating spree. I've been watching the calories i'm eating and cut out, well...almost everything I used to eat (ie. junk, junk and more junk). I was craving something sweet but with no added sugar. This recipe fit the bill perfectly! It's only 2 ingredients and you can feel good that it doesn't have all the chemicals and junk that traditional fruit roll ups are filled with.

Wash and cut 2 lbs strawberries.

Put them in the food processer. I have a mini one so I did mine in batches. Process until smooth.

Pour the strawberry puree onto a parchment lined baking sheet. The parchment is important. It will keep the fruit roll ups from sticking and help them to come off in one big sheet.

Spread the puree out, try and keep it in an even thin layer on the baking sheet. 

Add a sprinkle of cinnamon to the puree. It gives it a subtle flavor. Yummy.

Next, turn you oven to the lowest temperature it will go, for my oven that was 180 degrees. Leave in the warm oven for 6-8 hours or until the strawberry puree is dry to the touch. When its done let it cool to room temp and peel it off the parchment, then roll up, cut and enjoy!

yummy yummy fudge recipe

Only 18 days until Christmas and the season of holiday parties has begun! If you need a special indulgent treat to share with friends at a party or other festivities this is my go-to recipe. What's better than fudge? It's rich, chocolatey and you can top it with tons of different things: nuts, toffee, chopped chocolate covered espresso beans...mmm.

Ingredients

1.5 cups granulated sugar

2/3 cup evaporated milk

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups miniature marshmallows

1.5 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped pecans/walnuts/toffee/etc (optional)

Directions

LINE 8-inch-square baking pan with foil.

COMBINE sugar, evaporated milk, butter and salt in medium, heavy-duty saucepan. Bring to a full rolling boilover medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly, for 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

STIR in marshmallows, morsels, nuts and vanilla extract. Stir vigorously for 1 minute or until marshmallows are melted. Pour into prepared baking pan; refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm. Lift from pan; remove foil. Cut into 48 pieces.

(In case you're wondering the nail polish i'm wearing is called "Passion" by China Glaze, and the glitter is Martha Stewart Craft glitter.)

kale chips recipe

After the overload of all the Thanksgiving food from yesterday here's a quick and healthy snack/side to prepare in case your in need of some healthy nutritious food. Kale chips. They sound scary, and look even scarier, but trust me they're tasty and good for you.

Ingredients

1 Bunch Kale

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

Salt to taste

Directions

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). 

With a knife or kitchen shears carefully remove the leaves from the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces. Wash and thoroughly dry kale. Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.

Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 10 to 15 minutes.

Easy peasy, right? Give em' a try!

yummy yummy pumpkin bread

If you're looking for my giveaway at Keepin' It Thrifty, click HERE.

It's October, time to make yummy pumpkin recipes! This one is for the most amazing, moist, just enough spice, pumpkin bread. Make it today, you won't be disappointed. I doubled the recipe exactly and it yielded 6 beautiful yummy loaves of bread.

Ingredients

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup water
• 2.5 cups white sugar
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Recipe Yields 3 - 7x3 inch loaf pans 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans. Top with desired extras (nuts, chocolate chips, etc.)
3. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

{cookie recipe review}

A friend recently gave me about 80 single serving pouches of dried cranberries (apparently her cousin is an Ocean Spray Rep and brought them quite the load). Did you know that Ocean Spray (is there even any other brand that sells cranberries out there?) makes dried cranberries in different flavors? Well I was pleasantly surprised to find that the box was filled with blueberry and pomegranate flavored cranberries. Yum! I don't cook with cranberries very often, so I started browsing for recipes. I came across this recipe for white chocolate chip cranberry oatmeal cookies, sheesh, that's a mouth full.

The recipe boasts nearly a full 5 stars, so it has to be good right? Well I got to baking and followed the recipe exactly (which I rarely do). The end result was a wonderful cookie. Slightly crispy on the out side, but soft and chewy on the inside. Yum. They were a tad on the sweet side, but white chocolate has a tendency to make this taste uber sweet. Next time i'll cut back on the amount of white sugar in the recipe to counter the sweetness from the white chocolate chips. I used the pomegranate flavored dried cranberries in the recipe and they turned out wonderful. Don't they look yummy? Well, I only have about 75 packages left, so i'm back to searching...If anyone has a great recipe containing dried cranberries, leave a link to it in the comments or email me, I'd love to try it.

pardon the horrible picture. my kitchen is windowless. :(

{Thanksgiving!}

{photo credit}

Hello! It's been some time! The baby and I are out of our first trimester, and I hear the relief from sickness is fast approaching us. We'll see I suppose. I've been keeping it very low key, not to mention that school is almost over for the semester, and I am now working full time. Very little extra time for blogging, and experimental crafting and baking. I'm looking forward to when school is out, and I can devote my evenings to creating things other than term papers.

I thought I'd share my favorite recipe for cranberry sauce while I patiently wait for my life to be a little less crazy. I miss this blog. I miss crafting and sewing and baking. Siiigggghhh....

Well, onto the recipe. It really is soooo easy and delicious! I have never had the canned gelatinous jello-mold looking cranberry sauce, so there is no comparison on an actual level, but I can almost guarantee that this is 10 million times better, yeah...I'd bet some serious money on that.

Ingredients

1/2-1 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you like it)

1 package fresh cranberries

Juice of 1 orange

Zest of 1 orange

1/2 cup water

Directions

Place 1/2 cup sugar, water, and the juice of the orange together in stove top pan, heat over medium flame until sugar has dissolved in the water. Add the package of cranberries and the orange zest and cook over a low simmer (medium heat) for 7 to 10 minutes or until all of the cranberries have burst and the sauce is thick and deep red. Taste and add additional sugar if you like your cranberry sauce on the sweeter side. Serve warm or at room temperature.