A Snow Day with My Crockpot

Living in Colorado, you certainly expect to see snow. However, I don’t expect snow until NOVEMBER. It just doesn’t seem appropriate. I mean, November is almost December. That makes it ok, but before Halloween?? No thanks!

Poor Guy… I bet he didn’t see this coming

The only GREAT thing about a Winter Storm Warning in October is a SNOW DAY! With all the weather folks predicting 8-12 inches of snow in the past 24 hours, it was an EASY decision to stay in today. The fact that I had continuing education for my licensing lingering about as well, I knew I’d stay busy.

His friends had a hard day too…

It was nice to be home and to not be running around town on such a blustery day. I even tried a new JC lunch today. Seriously, I’ve been on program for a year… why haven’t I tried this sooner??

JC Broccoli and Cheese Potato (with extra broccoli)

Determined to be productive despite the weather, I also decided to try a new recipe today while I was busily working. I’m sure many of you are also fans of Skinny Taste. The blogger posts phenomenal lowfat/lowcal/healthy eating recipes every week. I’ve made tons of her recipes over the past year, and am always impressed! If you haven’t been to her site, click here now!

For those of you who follow Skinny Taste – - Did you see Gina’s recipe this week for Crockpot Applesauce?? It seemed like the PERFECT cool weather treat. And, what a treat it was!!!

This recipe creates the smoothest, tastiest, most delicious applesauce. You HAVE to TRY it!

I picked out a Honeycrisp, Gala, Granny Smith, and Golden Delicious to use…

and I decided to do just a 1/2 batch to try it out.

Peeling was something new for me. It seemed easier to peel after slicing (in my opinion.)

Four pretty good sized apples filled my crock about 1/2 way.

Here’s what it looked like after cooking for about two hours and the apples started breaking down.

I used my immersion blender to remove the chunks. It made the smoothest, most fabulous applesauce ever.

Who would have thought 4 apples would “melt” down into this? Next time I’ll make a double batch for sure!

What a great snack!!! Thanks, Gina!!!

Crockpot Applesauce

From Skinny Taste

12 Servings

INGREDIENTS

8 medium apples (Use a combination)

1 strips of lemon peel

1 tsp. fresh lemon juice

3-inch cinnamon stick

5 tsp light brown sugar (unpacked) – or agave

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Peel, core, and slice the apples.

2. Place them in the slow cooker. Add the cinnamon stick, lemon peel and brown sugar/agave.

3. Set crock pot to low and cook for 6 hours. Stir apples occasionally, apples will slowly become a delicious applesauce. Remove cinnamon stick and use an immersion blender to blend until smooth or if you prefer a chunky sauce, leave sauce intact.

PER 1/4 CUP SERVING:

CAL 65.9; FAT 0.2g; PROT 0.2g; CARB 17.5g; FIB 2.8g; SOD 0.6mg

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Comments

KateRN says:

October 27, 2011 at 9:41 pm

I LOVE CROCK POTTING! But not snow days…because I don't get them I have to go out and see patients even if there's 2 feet of snow coming down, ick!!! BUt I loooove making crock pot applesauce. I never put any sugar in mine and it always turns out yummmy! <3

Also, I saw you posted on my blog about my Italy trip. My sister is spending a year in Italy studying at Poli Milano, so she has the month of February off. I'm going to be going in Feb for TWO WEEKS! YIPEE!

No Thanks to Cake says:

October 28, 2011 at 12:35 am

I actually used the agave. Just a smidge. So delish!

How lucky are you to go to Europe not once but TWICE in the near future???