apples

Spinach Salad with Turkey and Spiralized Apples and Butternut Squash

Leftover turkey breast shines in this spinach salad with spiralized butternut squash and apple in a sesame-tinged dressing for a full meal dinner or super easy and delicious lunch with mega crunch.

There’s nothing better than helping someone in need, and if you’ve ever had a newborn, you know you need all the help you can get. So when Ali of the food blog Inspiralized asked me if I’d be interested in sharing a recipe on her site while she was on maternity leave, I said yes in a heartbeat, because sharing recipes is a whole lot more fun than changing diapers.

The Inspiralizer has become one of my all-time favorite kitchen gadgets because it inspires healthful eating and makes regular old veggies and fruits look totally unique. Plus, it’s really kind of fun to use. If you don’t have one yet, you really should add it to your wish list.

It’s no secret that Ali is an Inspiralizer genius and her two cookbooks are proof in the curly-cued veggie pudding and they’ve inspired me to share this Thai Zucchini Noodle and Quinoa Salad recipe as well as this Caprese Zucchini Salad recipe from her first cookbook.

Now, from her second cookbook, Inspiralize Everything, I’m sharing this totally unique spin (literally) on what to make with leftover Thanksgiving turkey. Because you can only eat so many turkey and stuffing sandwiches before the scale totally tips in the wrong direction.

About This Spinach Salad

This salad is the epitome of fall salads and is totally filling all on its own. It’s fresh flavors and veggie crunch will absolutely pull you out of your post-Thanksgiving Day rut, but because I love baking a turkey breast for my daughter’s weekly school lunches (this is my favorite way to bake an always juicy turkey breast) I can make this salad any old time I want.

Spiralized vegetables and fruit are an easy and healthful way to get in your daily 5-a-day in and with this salad, you’ll only have one left to add in.continue to the recipe… about Spinach Salad with Turkey and Spiralized Apples and Butternut Squash

Maple Apples, Blue Cheese and Bacon Pizza

This pizza started out as sushi. Well, sort of.

After getting my roots done this week (just in the nick of time) I hit the bookstore to try and find the latest issue of my favorite foodie inspiration Donna Hay magazine (to no avail) and ended up soaking in a few other publications (rags) instead. Mila and Ashton had their baby! Get ripped abs in 10 easy steps! Theresa and Joe go to jail! Celebrity beach bodies gone wrong! Who wore it best? For sure, she did!

Ugh, why did I wander away from the food magazines?

Afterward, I walked over to Whole Foods to cure my craving for lunch-on-the-go-sushi. Instead, I left with a new craving and all of the makings for this pizza.

continue to the recipe… about Maple Apples, Blue Cheese and Bacon Pizza

Apple Blondies with Cinnamon Almond Streusel

Things around here have floated back into a familiar groove.

Smudge is back in school so sleeping in is saved for the weekends and random mommy daughter excursions during the day have come to a halt. The one thing that stays constant is my little girl’s request for an after school snack as soon as her backpack hits the floor. I wish she’d learn to pick that up. But then, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

We have our routine when she walks in the door. I tell her to wash her hands. She heads straight for the kitchen in search of sustenance.

This sweet after school treat is a mash-up of two food bloggers’ recipes I’ve had the luck to taste for myself straight from their sugar laced ovens.

The result? I think you can tell for yourself by Smudge’s reaction below.

continue to the recipe… about Apple Blondies with Cinnamon Almond Streusel

Crushing On Kathy Strahs of Panini Happy Plus Roasted Apple, Brie and Pecan Panini

Each year when the leaves on the trees make their autumnal change, not only does it mean winter will soon be on its way, but it also signals the release of new cookbooks making their way to our kitchen shelves.

This week I’m crushing on another talented food blogger (click here to see more food blogger interviews) who has made her foray into the cookbook realm, creating amazingly innovative recipes that are all created between two hot presses. Meet this week’s foodie crush, Kathy Strahs of Panini Happy, and win a copy of her new cookbook The Ultimate Panini Press Cookbook plus Kathy’s must-eat-for-fall recipe: Roasted Apple, Brie and Pecan Panini.

But first, I want to tell you more about the uber talented Kathy. Maybe beyond talented, because creating a blog using everyone’s favorite sandwich maker, and consistently creating unique recipes that continue to inspire, takes some serious skills. And Kathy does just that.

Blogging since January of 2008, Kathy found the source of her online recipe inspiration thanks to the one and only Oprah.

“I watched Oprah’s annual ‘Favorite Things’ episode where she raved about her panini press, and I was intrigued,” Kathy reveals. “That model subsequently sold out everywhere. The next month my sister gave me one for Christmas. We had a newborn baby at home and I was going to be taking some time off of work,” says Kathy.

“I decided to start a food blog centered around my new panini press, exploring creative uses for it,” she explains. “I started out with mostly sandwiches (of course) but it wasn’t long before I began branching out into making ice cream cones, cornish game hens, cakes and lots of other fun non-panini on the press.”

Kathy and her husband Mike and at the Fig Fest in San Diego, CA.

continue to the recipe… about Crushing On Kathy Strahs of Panini Happy Plus Roasted Apple, Brie and Pecan Panini

Caramel Apple Brownies Recipe

If you haven’t noticed by now, I have a crush on fall and all the bounty it delivers. Squash, root veggies, all of it. Don’t leave anything out. Please.

Especially apples.

October weather in Utah is meant to shock us natives straight out of any hopes that fall might last forever. Last week on one of my early a.m. walks, one that was in the super chilly low-30’s, I was stumbling through the darkened streets when I found myself playing kick the can with a bunch of fallen apples.

But where’d they all come from? And more importantly, were there more?

continue to the recipe… about Caramel Apple Brownies Recipe

Bloody Caramel Apples

This week I had the best of intentions to stick to my diet, but I knew in my heart it was going to be four days of eating and drinking that were out of my control. I mean coooommme on! Who can go to Wisconsin on a cheese and spirits tour and stick to the plan? Not me. So I created a new plan: more cheese please. I’ll be posting more about the trip later but if you haven’t experienced real Wisconsin cheese, you haven’t tasted cheese.

Now that I’m slowly emerging from my happy dance cheese trance, I’m craving sweets. Sweets that go with cheese.

Okay I might still be under it’s spell. I’ve never been much of a fan of caramel apples thanks to early memories of store-bought versions that nearly drove me to the dentist to have the hard, waxy caramel extracted from my molars and the tossing of the rest in the garbage.

How to Make the Best Caramel Apples

These aren’t hard coated candied apples, but rather ooey, gooey, shiny covered crunchy fruits that will have you eating the whole, darn thing.

My recipe is different in a big way thanks to the combination of sugar and sweetened condensed milk, creating a silky caramel coating that stays soft and supple. And deliciously ‘bloody’.

And that’s why you need to give my Bloody Caramel Apples a try.

If you make this recipe, please let me know! Bookmark this recipe and leave a comment below, or take a photo and tag me on Instagram with #foodiecrusheats.

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Bloody Caramel Apples

Ingredients

1 stick 1/2 cup butter
2 cups light brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 to 2 teaspoons red food coloring depending on your bloody-ness desires
10-12 medium organic apples
10-12 ice-pop sticks or other holders

Instructions

In a large saucepan, melt butter. Add brown sugar, corn syrup, sweetened condensed milk and salt and continue to stir over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil and a clip-on candy thermometer reads 235°F. Remove from heat and add vanilla and food coloring and stir. Allow to cool to 200°F.
Poke ice-pop sticks or twigs into tops of apples and dip into caramel mixture, rotating to coat. Place on a silicone baking liner or waxed paper until caramel sets.

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Friday Faves and Apple French Toast

Everywhere I look I’m seeing apples, squash and pumpkins. Fall’s earthly bounty is the equivalent of Christmas sugarplums dancing through food blogger’s heads.

It’s all set a serious craving for apples in my head, and my mouth. I’m craving them in every cookable form, from cupcakes to cider to applesauce to oven roasted. I just can’t quite decide what I want to make—and post—next. There are just too many delectable options.continue to the recipe… about Friday Faves and Apple French Toast

apples

Spinach Salad with Turkey and Spiralized Apples and Butternut Squash

About This Spinach Salad

Maple Apples, Blue Cheese and Bacon Pizza

Apple Blondies with Cinnamon Almond Streusel

Crushing On Kathy Strahs of Panini Happy Plus Roasted Apple, Brie and Pecan Panini

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Caramel Apple Brownies Recipe

Bloody Caramel Apples

How to Make the Best Caramel Apples

Bloody Caramel Apples

Ingredients

Instructions

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