Good-Bye Summer. . . Hello Fall

With September in full swing, we can finally enjoy Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes, the cool and crisp weather as the red, orange, and yellow leaves scatter on the ground. Oh I just love fall! By favorite part of Fall is Apple season. Nothing tastes better than a crispy apply, freshly picked from a tree. I love going up to Oak Glen around this time of the year in So Cal when the weather starts to cool off and sample all the different apples and drink hot apple cider while visiting all the random stores, picking apples, and feeding the animals at the animal park.

Picking apples straight from the tree leads to some great great low calorie, low fat recipes… grocery store apples just can’t compare to the taste of those from the tree. If you are obsessed with apples like me, than you will love this recipe!Picking apples straight from the tree leads to some great great low calorie, low fat recipes… grocery store apples just can’t compare to the taste of those from the tree. If you are obsessed with apples like me, than you will love this recipe!

* * Crustless Apple Pie Recipe * *

Ingredients

6 apples

1/2 cup splenda or 1 tsp Stevia

1/4 tsp. cloves

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

2 tbs. lemon juice

1/4 cup splenda or 1/2 tsp Stevia

2 tbs. white flour

1/4 cup wheat flour

3 tbs. butter

Directions:

1. Peel, core and cut up the apples. Mix in with the sugar and spices and lemon juice.

2. Mix together the 1/4 cup sugar, flours, and butter, then sprinkle over top.

3. Bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes

Serving Size: 9

Less than 150 calories per serving!

Ah… I can smell the aroma of baked apples and cinnamon filtering through my house! Now to wait till this weather cools off so I can go pick me some apples to bake!Ah… I can smell the aroma of baked apples and cinnamon filtering through my house! Now to wait till this weather cools off so I can go pick me some apples to bake!

Question: What’s your favorite Apple brand and what do you like to eat them with?

I love Pink Lady apples. Use to love eating them with Peanut Butter until I became allergic to it

Now you can enjoy all the jelly, jams, and fruit spreads that you want without all the added sugar and calories. I recently discovered Walden Farms Calorie Free Fruit Spreads while shopping at Sprouts.

These fruit spreads are made with concentrated fruit extracts, splenda, and natural flavors, but no calorie, fat, carbs, gluten or sugars of any kind. I know there is controversy with splenda, but at least it’s not aspartame! Where do you stand with splenda?

There was a variety of fruit spreads to choose from, including strawberry, raspberry, blueberry and apricot, and orange, but when I saw Apple Butter, I just couldn’t resist. Obviously since it was a fruit spread it didn’t have the rich creamy taste of REAL apple butter, but it did had a great cinnamon apple flavor.

The best part was that you can use this one ingredient to spice up any meal! Here were a few recipes I used with my Walden Farms apple butter:

- Spread on toast  or a biscuit with small amount of butter

- Mixed with low fat yogurt, a small amount of honey, and Fiber One Cereal

- Combine with oatmeal, almond milk, raisins, and chopped up apples and a little bit of cinnamon

- Mixed in with frozen yogurt

- Swirl it into some fat free cottage cheese, raisins, sprinkled with Grapenuts Cereal

- Mixed with fat free cool whip and spread on a rice cake… tasted just like apple pie for only 50 calories!

Here is a pic of one of the many yummy recipes I made durning my afternoon snack