Monday, October 19, 2009

Simple dinner and delicious dessert!

Hello everyone! How's it going? I'm good over here. Working, working, working! I still manage to find time to post about something! It makes me happy and that what counts! Dinner a few nights ago was simple. I had some veggies that needed to be cooked up soon and I have a lot of brown rice that needs to be cooked. I'm usually very OCD about the kitchen and what we need and if we need a backup. I ended up with 3 bags of brown rice. OOPS!  

Roasted Veggies (By Fallon)  
Ingredients
Brussel sprouts, green/yellow green beans, and cauliflower (Used what you have on hand.)
3-4 garlic cloves, chopped roughly
Olive oil
Salt, pepper, and sweet paprika

Preheat oven at 425 degrees. Clean and prep all veggies. Throw onto a cooking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Season. Mix till everything is incorporated/married. Put in the oven for 20-30 minutes depending how well roasted you want your veggies. I like to see a little brown on top of my brussel sprouts, this makes them taste super nutty and that is when they are done roasting.

I love roasted vegetables. So much flavor and so good for you!
   
Basmati Brown Rice (By Fallon)  
Ingredients
2 cups of brown rice
4 cups of water

I use a rice cooker. It's easy and I know in 45 minutes I have fresh and fluffy rice. Love simplicity!

Plain is the way to go to get the aroma of the rice. 
 
Yummmy!
 
What is dinner without dessert? A boring dinner! Well sometimes dinner can be super filling and passing on dessert is needed. I'm sure we've all been there and done that. I always look for something sweet after dinner. My mom came home with these HUGE honey crisp apples and said she wanted baked apples. I'm thinking, "Oh yes that sounds good!" I was at Wholefoods a few days before and had picked up a pint of vanilla frozen yogurt. Stonyfield Farms Organic Vanilla nonfat frozen yogurt. I must say it is the best nonfat frozen yogurt from the store I've ever had! I can't wait to try the other flavors.

My mom came home with a recipe from Trader Joe's. They were actually making them at the store, and that when she decided she wanted to make them at home. I checked out the recipe and it's for 6 apples, but uses 1 stick of butter and 2 cups of sugar?? WOW! I definitely did not follow those guidelines. I rather have cake with a butter cream frosting, but not apples with all that butter and sugar. No no! So I tweaked the recipe slightly.

Fallon's Version of Baked Apples  
Ingredients
1 huge honey crisp apple, cored and cut in half
2 tsp of butter
2 tsp of brown sugar
1/4 cup of raw pecans
Dash of cinnamon
Vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. With the apple halves, put them in their own ramekin. Smear a teaspoon of butter on the to of each half. Sprinkle each with 1 teaspoon of butter and divide the pecans between both ramekins. Sprinkle on the cinnamon and place in the oven for 30 minutes. After this check on them. They should be fork tender. Honey crisp tend to bake longer so I went another 10 minutes because they were huge. If you used a softer apple like a golden delicious or McIntosh they will bake up quicker.


I think it is missing something..
 
Now it is complete!
 
Baked apples are light, warm and comforting, and a healthy way to have a dessert! You can tweak this recipe many ways using agave, coconut oil/butter, honey, walnuts, granola, dried fruit, etc etc. Sweet tooth= cured! Before I wrap this post up for the night, I just wanted to say how excited I was today that I won my very first blog cookbook giveaway over on Cookie Madness! I never win anything and I was literally shocked when I saw the email in my inbox that I won! I can't wait to get my new cookbook and test out some recipes. This will be awesome for the holidays and all the yummy baking that goes on!! Good night, Fallon

6 comments:

GarlicBOSS said...

Fallon, the roasted veggies and the baked apple dessert look delicious...thanks

Shelby said...

What a yummy meal! I love the flavor of roasted veggies.

Fallon said...

I love roasted veggies as well! Definitely a good change from steamed.

Chocolaty Lifestyle said...

Such a long time has gone sice I tried baked apples! Thanks for reminding and the great recipe, I'm going to try this! :)

Katrina said...

Yummy food, for sure.
The baked apples look de-lish--especially with the ice cream!

Katrina said...

I just made a comment, but may have deleted it, so here goes again.
Yummy dinner. Love roasted veggies, too!
And the baked apples, look divine--especially with the ice cream!