Winter Apple Recipe And A KINDAWESOME Giveaway

You just don’t know what you got until it’s gone.

I have been without paper towels all week. Why haven’t I bought a new role? I don’t know.

All I know is that I am reaching the point where this can’t continue.

Hanukkah isn’t continuing anymore either.

Please note the melted wax on my counter that I have yet to scrub off because I am without a paper towel that I would have normally wet and used to clean it.

Last night was the eighth and final night of Hanukkah which is just fine with me because I wouldn’t have been able to come up with another gift for a child who needed nothing in the first place.

I realized that I didn’t even catch Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah songs this year. Did anyone else hear them played on the radio? I don’t know how I missed it considering how often I am in the car at all different random times of the day.

Anyway, please forgive me for not posting the hummus recipe yesterday. I do intend to share it after we make one more batch – I just want to confirm the amounts for each ingredient.

I can though share with you today the recipe for my bowl of winter apples.

I refer to them as my winter apples because when the weather starts changing for the colder, I want something warm.

My taste buds however are stubborn and loyal so no matter how I try to deviate from my favorite nighttime dessert, I still crave an apple.

I needed to find a compromise. Warm cinnamon apples, covered with melty peanut butter and KIND Healthy Grains Clusters for crunch is working out rather well.

So simple (and healthy) yet so tasty you will feel as though you are eating some sort of decadent apple cobbler.

Sort of like these cute little apple pies from Pie Face.

If you aren’t familiar with Pie Face, it is an Australian bakery café that has made its way to Manhattan over the last few years.

We have a super special connection over there in Pie Face land and received a bunch of the apple pies the other day for the little boy to bring to his Hanukkah party at Hebrew School.

While Pie Face makes a seriously good and cute little apple pie, I must admit that the flavors of my winter apples rival the baker’s abilities at Pie Face. Sorry Mr. Pie Face baker but it is the truth. I am one heck of a sweet genius if I do say so myself.

And, all I need to create my winter apple bowls of goodness is an apple, some cinnamon and KIND Healthy Grains Clusters. And peanut butter. Peanut butter is always needed.

You can easily cook up a big batch of winter apples for the week all at one time. The only problem with doing so is that you will end up eating most of it in one sitting, leaving you nothing for the rest of the week.

Going to town with a bushel of apples is not a bad thing; it is only a bad thing when it comes to the stomach ache it produces.

Trust me, I know this from experience.

Winter Apple Bowls (serves 2)

• 2 decent sized apples of your choice
• 1/2 cup of water
• Cinnamon
• KIND Healthy Grains Clusters – Vanilla Blueberry Clusters with Flax Seeds is my favorite!

Options:

• PB2
• Peanut Butter (or almond butter if that is what you prefer. I can’t relate if almond butter is your thing but I can accept it)
• Dark chocolate chips
• Greek Yogurt

Slice and dice your apples straight into a pot.  Sprinkle with cinnamon and add about 1/2 cup of water to the pot and let it simmer on medium heat. As the apples cook, mix them around and add more cinnamon.

The longer you are able to let the apples cook, the better. Due to my lack of impatience, they can totally be ready in 6 minutes but if you cook them longer, they will get even softer.

Once they are soft, which is only after a few minutes, I sometimes add in a spoonful of PB2 which absorbs some of the liquid and coats the apples all nice with peanut butter flavor.

While you can certainly eat them plain, may I ask why you would want to?

Top your winter apples with KIND Healthy Grains Clusters.

Of course mix in your peanut butter and watch it get all melty.

Please don’t let me stop you from adding greek yogurt.

Or, drop in a few chocolate chips (literally, all you need is a few) with your peanut butter and create peanut butter cup apples.

Pictures just cannot do the varieties of my winter apple bowls justice.

Pie Face totally wins in the aesthetics departments as they should. They are a bakery.

All I am, as my son once called me, “just some runner who likes ice cream”.

Ice cream is nice. But so are my winter apples.

GIVEAWAY TIME!

The KIND people over at KIND are really #KINDAWESOME.

I spend so much time raving about my KIND Vanilla Blueberry Clusters with Flax Seeds that I add not only to my apple bowls but to my yogurt, oatmeal and well, eat straight from the package.

What I love about KIND Healthy Grains Clusters is that they are better kind of granola since they are made from a blend of 100% whole grains including amaranth, quinoa, oats, millet and buckwheat and oh, gluten free too!

It really is amazing how a little handful of their Healthy Grain Clusters can spruce up a bowl of just about anything.

Not to mention, all of their products are made with ingredients you can see and pronounce.

There is always a KIND Plus Dark Chocolate Cherry Cashew + Antioxidants in my bag for emergencies.

KIND is letting me run this giveaway where you could score an entire box (12 bars) of my favorite KIND PLUS Dark Chocolate Cherry Cashew + Antioxidants AND a bag of my all-time favorite Healthy Grain Clusters – KIND Healthy Grains Vanilla Blueberry Clusters with Flax Seeds!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
//d12vno17mo87cx.cloudfront.net/embed/rafl/cptr.js

 

Kindawesome, yes? Good luck!

************************

I NEED TO KNOW:

Do you ever let yourself run out of paper towels?

Do you carry an emergency snack in your bag? I always have a KIND bar in my bag, along with gum, lollipops and sometimes an apple.

What makes your day kindawesome? I know that a good run in the morning certainly puts my day on the right track!

*KIND sent me a variety of KIND bars plus a few bags of Healthy Grains Clusters. All thoughts and opinions in this post or any other post where I mention my love for KIND products are my own. No further compensation was provided. Giveaway open only to residents of the United States- sorry Canadian and other foreign friends!

 

 

Cake Selecting and Runtention

I am happy to report that the little boy is feeling better and well enough to go back to school today.

Having him home for two days was unfortunate because he was sick but also unfortunate because I lost some ground on birthday present shopping and cake exploring by myself.

I never got around to baking and testing out the quinoa cookie recipe but he did talk me into browsing in our favorite bakery yesterday afternoon while running a few small errands.

Anyone else love the smell of a bakery? I can’t get enough.

We scoped out the birthday cakes and he informed me of his cake and frosting preferences.

I will take them into consideration but at the end of the day, I gave birth to him therefore I get final cake say.

Lucky for him they had samples of the black and white cookies on the counter.

Does he appear sick? Perhaps the black and white sample made his little virus all better.

He may not find me cool but I happen to think that any mom who takes their son out to a bakery and lets him have a cookie after lunch when he probably could have toughed out the afternoon in school is kinda awesome.

And if that doesn’t classify me as cool, I even treated him to Happy Hour.

Our local Red Mango runs a weekday “Happy Hour” where the price per ounce is significantly less.

I don’t often treat myself during the week but sometimes I can’t resist a parfait at a reduced price.

I am proud to announce that the parfait on the left loaded with fruit on the top belongs to the boy. I must have done something right over the last 10 years for him to balance his yogurt/topping mess out with pineapple and berries.

When he was little, I used to go through the Dunkin Donuts drive-thru every day. It was a destination for me to drive to when I used to circle around attempting to get him to fall asleep for a nap.

Each time I went to Dunkin Donuts, I would get him one munchkin with the intention of subconsciously making him never feel deprived of goodies.

Cameras offer great proof that afternoon ice cream cones were a routine part of his childhood as well.

I should plaster photos of him eating treats around the house as a constant reminder that I never denied him a good treat. Perhaps the photos would aid me during our battles regarding everything he feels I deny him of now.

Anyway, you should know I invented a new word: RUNTENTION. If it isn’t already self-explanatory, runtention can be defined as running intention; your intention for running, your intended running plan.

How smart am I? Alert the dictionary people and spell check updaters.

My runtention for today is 8-10 miles. I may not be racing much but increasing my weekly mileage has been a focus of mine for a few weeks now.

My legs are getting used to it and my body is adjusting by being constantly hungry. I hate being hungry!

To combat the hungry, I have been nibbling every hour or two and increasing the food on my plate at each meal.

I may only have time for 8 miles today as I have a ton to catch up on after having the boy home with me the last few days.

Enjoy your Thursday and get excited – tomorrow is already Friday!

*******************************************************************************

I NEED TO KNOW:

Are you running today? What is your runtention?

Do you notice a change in your appetite when you change your workout routine?

Does your local frozen yogurt store ever run a Happy Hour?

Do you have black and white cookies where you live? I think they are hard to locate outside of the Tri-State area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to School!

Hello and Happy Monday! Can you sense my early morning excitement?

School time school time! My excitement over the first day of school totally drops me a point or two for mother of the year.

Although, I definitely earned the title yesterday when I took the little boy and his best pal ice skating.

 

I sometimes wish I had a penalty box in my house. Wouldn’t it make for a great time-out arrangement? They would be forced to sit there (and feel shame) until the penalty expired.

Truth is, I always jump at the chance to take the kids skating – I love to ice skate.

These would be my skates. I know, right? You kinda pictured me in dainty figure skates didn’t you?

Well, these skates are what make me ME.

My love of hockey created a need for black Bauer hockey skates years ago and I would hate to ever put on anything else.

Skating on fresh ice gives off almost the same feeling as running in perfect weather. I think I skated more than the kids did to the point where we can say I worked in some extra cross training this weekend.

Ice skating definitely signals the arrival of fall and the start of hockey season on the horizon.

Besides ice skating to put us in the back to school mode, I organized the boy’s school supplies over the weekend – good thing I enjoy it because he certainly would never do it.

I even sorted through the supermarket circulars and coupons a bit more in-depth than I have been in recent weeks.

The deals are slowly getting a bit better. It seemed over the summer that the coupons were slacking along with supermarket worthy deals so I kinda lost focus on my version of extreme couponing.

I may have clipped a few more coupons than I have in a while but truth be told, I think I will keep up with doing most of my shopping at Trader Joe’s and fill in just a bit from the other stores when I can. I don’t feel like shopping at a thousand stores anymore. I get decent prices at TJ without coupons so I may see how long I can keep this up before I start the schlepping to multiple stores again.

My only problem with skipping out on the other grocery stores – limited ability to browse Shop Rite’s bakery department.

Sometimes I can’t believe this is a supermarket bakery. I think I may need to go back for a piece of the fudgy cake or a gigantic cookie sandwich. Or both.

Anyway, the rest of the weekend is a blur. Oh yes, I ran 12 miles Saturday morning. It was beautiful out and the run was uneventful.

Uneventful run= Successful run.

All successful long runs lately deserve onion rings. I have always been fond of the ring but lately my fondness has escalated to craving levels.

By the way, if you haven’t already, pick up a bag of Trader Joe’s onion rings from the frozen section. They are really good, decent in the calorie/nutrition content and you can portion out how many you feel like making.

OK folks it is time for me to get this first day of school rolling. Maybe I should bake cookies for when he comes home, just like they did in the 50’s – or was that just made up for television? Hmm.

Have a great day!

************************************************************************************************************************

I NEED TO KNOW:

How was your weekend?

Does your supermarket have a ridiculous bakery?

Have you been clipping coupons?

Do you like to ice skate?

Anyone catch a famous hockey movie quote in this post?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Make It All Better With Cookies

Well hello….I wish I had a fun weekend recap for you but I really didn’t do much other than try to feel better and back to myself.

You know what the secret is to officially putting yourself on the mend?

Yep. A nice bakery cookie.

All day on Saturday I felt that I needed a big cookie – you know, the bakery buttery-based kind. Nothing laden with fudge or too rich in flavor – just a nice sized cookie to settle my stomach.

While I didn’t have a stomach virus, I was not able  to eat too normal for me, even though I had my appetite back.

After a small dinner Saturday evening, my stomach was completely unsettled and I didn’t feel all that well. In fact, that dinner involved a baked sweet potato and unfortunately, I don’t think I can look at sweet potatoes again for a while. Don’t you hate when getting sick leads to food aversion?

I knew a nice cookie would help. Cookies can help just about anything.

When I arrived at the bakery, I had a hard time deciding which cookie to get.

I first settled on a large chocolate chip.

Once I took a bite though, I knew it wasn’t right. And as I say, if I am going to eat it, it is going to be right.

So, I marched myself back in and picked the simple, buttery big cookie with chocolate chips on top. Perfecto.

Please note the pieces of cookie missing are due to me digging in prior to taking a quick picture.

Sure, the bakery employees looked at me funny when I came back in to buy a different cookie but  I really didn’t care. I feel bad for them if they would eat a cookie they didn’t like just because they bought it.

And friends, this second cookie totally did the trick. My stomach felt settled, satisfied and happy.

I thought to myself how funny it is that we work so hard to eat a healthy, clean diet and avoid the processed foods as much as possible. When sometimes, well, our stomachs are under the weather and the last thing our body needs is a piece of fruit or cookie made from bananas, chia seeds or protein powders.

There are certainly times in our lives that we do need those man-made foods – with flour  and yes, even butter and sugar.

I think I am feeling almost all better and ready to get back on track this week and into my normal routine.

School starts in a few weeks for the little boy so I am also trying to regroup and get organized in terms of clipping my coupons a bit more again and thinking ahead to different ideas for back to school lunches.

The coupons are still weak in the newspaper and I haven’t been printing any these days but I will add it to my list of things to do.

I know you are wondering if I feel well enough to run yet. I actually went walking yesterday morning with a friend and ended up jogging about a mile and a half.

The problem with running is, if you try to walk the route you normally run, you feel so in slow motion that you have no choice but to speed the heck up. Which turns into running by accident.

I may go for a walk again this morning and decide once I am out there if I am up to running my usual loop.

Before I go, I must share one of my favorite cookie ecards:

Wishing you a happy Monday and a great week ahead…

*********************************************************************************************************************

I NEED TO KNOW:

Do you end up avoiding certain foods after you have been sick?

Favorite bakery cookie?

Do you have trouble walking the same route you would normally run?