Crockpot Apple Butter

This recipe is easy and delicious and you can make it healthy as well! The hardest part is peeling the apples and chopping the pieces away from the core, but the rest is a breeze!

I used a large crockpot each time I made apple butter (three times now). After I had peeled the apples I just chopped them into funky shapes, just enough to get the core out, and then threw the pieces in the crockpot. There is no reason to slice or dice the apples because once they are cooked they become mush like. The only reason you would slice or dice is to add more work for yourself (and I don't like that idea honestly...peeling is enough for me!).

Makes about 3 pint size canning jars of apple butter.

Ingredients
20-30 apples
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons Blackstrap Molasses
1 Tablespoon vanilla
2-3 Cinnamon Sticks (or you can use 1 Tablespoon of ground cinnamon)

1. Peel and chop the apples
2. In the crockpot put the brown sugar, molasses, vanilla, and cinnamon sticks. Pour the apple chunks on top. Cover with a lid.
3. Cook the apples on low heat. This part will take up to six hours.
4. Stir the contents at least once an hour so you can keep track of their progress. Once the apples are starting to turn to mush they are about done. Cook another 30 minutes to an hour.
5. Remove the pot from the base and refrigerate overnight.
6. Can the mix the following day or store in another container.


Make This Healthy
Don't add the sugar or molasses. Keep the vanilla and cinnamon for flavor. This is best used on apples which are naturally sweet (Fuji) instead of tart apples (Granny Smith).

Notes
~Don't add water! If you do you will end up with a very runny mixture. The apples create their own juice as they cook.

Other Apple Recipes: Apple Breakfast Cake, "Baked" Apple Oatmeal, Grandma Karon's Apple Pie, Crockpot Apple Butter, Fried Apples, Apple Pecan Spice Bread, Apple Oatmeal Spice Drop Cookies, Apple Oatmeal Breakfast Cake, Apple Raisin Bran Muffins, Cinnamon Apple Swirl Bread, Apple Oatmeal Pancakes, Healthy Applesauce Muffins, Apple Pecan Cake, Healthy Crockpot Applesauce.

My Personal Goals for August

I have had a rough past two weeks due to a change in medicine dosage. This has been very hard on me, my body/brain, and on all of my family that have to live with my psycho self during the time that the medicine takes to start working like it should. Because of the medicine change I have been doing basically nothing. I don't feel like sewing, I don't want to cook, and everything else has no appeal either.

That being said... For the month of August I am challenging myself in several areas. The first is I want to workout my arms to get them into shape. This is part of my Challenge | Fit Arms Part 1. My second challenge is to Remove 100 Things in 1 Week (post comming soon!). I also want to challenge myself to read my Bible more. I have been very lazy in reading it. I used to do pretty well at reading it daily, but since my May vacation I have really not been reading except on occasion. To help with this third challenge I plan to work hard on several Bible studies which I will then post the results for you to read yourself.

As for my regular posts on crafting and baking have no fear there will be plenty! Just yesterday I asked our neighbor if he minded if I picked up the apples laying all over his back yard. I know have about 5 gallons of apples sitting in the kitchen which means I will be making apple pies and apple butter tonight and tomorrow! Not only does he have apples, but so does another neighbor further down the street who I will be asking to pick up his apples as well. Oh yes! I forgot to mention my grandma has an apple tree too... lol. I will be very busy making all sorts of things with apples in it! I am very excited!!

I am working on a quilt for when I get married. This won't be a tutorial because I have been doing so many different things on it and it has been so complicated that it would be next to impossible to explain....but I do hope to finish it this month! Yesterday I stopped at a yard sale and found the perfect backing for my quilt (one reason why I haven't touched it for two weeks is I didn't know what I would put on the back of it): a king size Egyptian cotton sheet! I was lucky to find this for less than .25! Yay me! I love finding good deals. This quilt has been basically free which is the best part! I cannot wait for it to be done so that I can show it off. I have named it The Queen's Quilt because of all the rich colors and fabrics.

So basically:
~Workout my arms
~Get rid of 100 things
~Read my Bible
~Finish my quilt
~And create recipes using apples!

What do you have planned for this month?

Grandma Karon's Apple Pie

Although this recipe has my grandmother's name in it, the recipe itself is of my own creation. My grandma was telling me how she made her apple pies one day and it sounded so good. She told me the ingredients and I wrote them down for when the apples were ready to start using. A few days ago I made my first of many pies I am sure. I used her ingredients and experimented with the mixture to make a 'pie filling' like texture with the apples. I made two then and today I made my third pie. The first one went to a neighbor (the people who gave me the apples are diabetics and I didn't know that beforehand...) and the second pie we had for dinner. The pie I made today is for dinner tonight. We will be eating this one with ice cream!

This was the first pie. I made the crust with all white flour.
I made this one especially pretty since I was giving it to the neighbor.

This crust was made with 1 cup white flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour.

This crust is made completely with whole wheat flour.
When I make them like this they usually don't seem as pretty as the others.
But they still taste delicious!

The fourth pie. All white crust.

Pie Filling

12 medium/large apples (or a LOT of small apples!)

4 Large Tablespoons of country crock butter (you can use regular butter, I think it would be about 1 stick)

1-2 Tablespoons cinnamon (depends on how much you like)

1/2 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons flour

Pie

2 Pie Crusts (see below to make your own!)

1 Tablespoon butter, melted

Directions

1. Peel, cut, and rinse the apples.

2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

3. In a large saucepan place the butter, cinnamon, sugar and apples. In that order. The butter will melt and dissolve the sugar, and the cinnamon will mix as well. The apples will cook and create their own juice in just a few minutes. Cook on medium heat (5-6 on my stove) for about 7 minutes or until the mixture is bubbly.

4. Sprinkle the flour over the apples and stir. This will give the juice just enough to keep it from being runny.

5. Place in the pie pan on top of the first crust. Cover with the second crust and brush the butter over the crust.

6. Bake in oven for 40-45 minutes. (I did 40 minutes for both of the pies I made today.) The crust will be golden brown.

Crust (this makes enough dough for one pie, or two pies with thin crust)

2 cups flour

4 Tablespoons sugar

3/4 cup Crisco

1/2 cup water

1. Mix together flour and sugar.

2. Cut in Crisco with a fork until the mix is crumbly.

3. Add in water and stir well.

4. Divide dough in half.

5. Roll out the first bit of dough into a fairly circle shape.

6. Repeat with the second half of dough.

7. Use one piece for the pie base and one for the pie top.

Notes

~For best results in the crust brush it with the butter.

~To make this pie even better serve with a large scoop of vanilla ice cream!

More Pics!

See how delicious this is? Now you will have to make it because
you will be craving it! :)

Here is your piece!

Other Apple Recipes: Apple Breakfast Cake, "Baked" Apple Oatmeal, Grandma Karon's Apple Pie, Crockpot Apple Butter, Fried Apples, Apple Pecan Spice Bread, Apple Oatmeal Spice Drop Cookies, Apple Oatmeal Breakfast Cake, Apple Raisin Bran Muffins, Cinnamon Apple Swirl Bread, Apple Oatmeal Pancakes, Healthy Applesauce Muffins, Apple Pecan Cake, Healthy Crockpot Applesauce.

Challenge | Fit Arms Part 1

For most of my life I have hated the way my arms have looked. Until last year I haven't really tried to make them look any better. I usually just left them alone and tried to not notice how 'ugly' they were in photos or in the mirror... but one day I got fed up with them and decided it was time for a massive change. Thus this challenge!

I lost 30+ pounds awhile back while I was in the middle of a few medicine changes. It took me about 5 months of very hard work and watching what I ate so that my workouts would pay off. This time I am only focusing on one area, not my whole body, so I think that in three months' time of hard work I will be able to tell a huge difference. Here is to my goal!

I plan to do the following arm workout from my Curvy Girl Workout at least 4 times a week. I would do them every day, but I know my arms can't handle that much so fast so I need to build up my strength.

So for the month of August I plan to do 20 workouts of the following routine:

I will be using 5lb. weights and repeating each move 30 times per arm.

~BICEP CURLS. I think we all know how to do these, but just in case. Hold your arms with your forearms towards the ceiling and your elbows at your sides. Lift the weights up towards your shoulder, not moving your elbows.
~FORWARD ARM LIFT. Hold your weight at your side. Lift forward without turning your arm in any direction.
~BACK ARM LIFT. This is reverse of the forward arm lift.
~SIDE ARM LIFT. Lift the weight out from your side and back down again.
~PUNCH. Weights in your hand, bring your arms up like you would punch someone. One at a time punch the right arm out while the left arm is at your chest. When your right hand comes back to your chest, punch your left arm out.
~LEVEL. Bring your elbows up to be even with your shoulders. Place your hands, holding weights, fist to fist. Take your right arm and swing it out away from your body, keeping your elbow level with your shoulder. When your hand comes back, repeat with the left arm.
~ABOVE ARM LIFT. Bring your arm above your head to where your hand touches your shoulder. Lift the weight up so your arm is almost fully extended.

So far this month I have done this workout once! (That was two days ago...) It is going to be very hard for me to keep up with this challenge because although I want it, I don't want to go through the pain of sore muscles to reach the goal...thus I have a lack of motivation. However, I will be doing this because I know I want it and I know that I need to do this for myself.

I will post an update at the end of the month on how well I am doing/did and what I plan to continue for the month to follow! I did take some before photos so that at the end of the challenge I might be able to tell a difference. I will post those at the end of the third month. :)

Wednesday Weekly Review #3

This past week has been slow for me. I have been adjusting to the new medicine dosage so I haven't been doing much except for watching movies and sleeping. I did find two new blogs which I started following. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

1. I started following Welcome to the gOOd life!

I started following her because she does some amazing clothing refashions! Her creations look exactly like the real deal!

2. I started following SecondHand Couture!

This girl has a lot of cute clothing refashioning ideas. She is also a thrifter and finds lots of good deals!

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Interested In Seeing More Blogs?

If you loved these blogs, you may enjoy the other's I've featured since the birth of The Wednesday Weekly Review. How can you find them without going through each post? Easy! Just view all the buttons on my Pinterest board: Blogs I've Featured!