Making apple chips (oven method)

After last week's yummy sun-dried tomato experiment, I thought I'd give our oven another go and use it to make apple chips.  Baby Chuck and I went urban apple picking (erm... that's when we went to the grocery store and bought apples) and came back home with a bag full these lovelies.  Yum.

I peeked at several recipes online and then thought I'd try making my own apple chips.

Ingredients:
- Apples!
- optional:  sugar or cinnamon (I didn't use either, but some people sprinkle their apples before baking)

Materials:
- cutting board
- dull, round knife
- cutting board
- baking sheets
- parchment paper (which I learned the hard way is not the same as wax paper- eek smoke!)

Step 1:  Preheat oven to 275
Step 2:  Line baking sheets with parchment paper
Step 3:  Core apples (I used these awesome instructions)

Step 4:  Slice up your apples and place them on baking sheet
Note:  Try to slice equally thick circles, othewise your apples will cook at drastically different times (which I learned the hard way)

As you can see.... I kinda sucked at cutting slices.

Step 5:  Bake for 1 hour.  Then check on your slices and turn them over.  Keep an eye on them and check back every 15-20 minutes to make sure they don't burn.  Thin slices could be done as soon as 1 hour, and thicker slices may need up to 2 hours to dry.

Note:  If your chips turn dirt brown... they're overdone.  (Again, another lesson that I learned the hard way.)

The results of my oven's labor

They were slightly chewy and sweet.  I liked eating them and kept popping rings into my mouth.  Baby Chuck found them a bit too chewy and hubby (surprisingly) liked them too.

Let me know if you go urban apple picking and try making apple chips too!

Creating my own galaxy pt 2

So I couldn't wait any longer and just taped my bad boys up to the wall.  Inspired by  this D*S post, I hung them over our couch.  

Now we'll have our very own starry sky.

Creating my own galaxy

One of the things that I miss the most about living in Michigan is being able to see the stars at night.  Every night, our old dog Charlie and I would walk outside and admire God's twinkling lights.  They always reminded me of just how big the universe really is and that life is wonderful and mysterious.

Last night I got a bee in my bonnet and wanted to bring the stars to our new home.  So after Baby Chuck went to sleep I spent the night

cutting out stars from old cereal boxes

and painting them.

As you can probably guess, it took quite a bit of time.

Then I lay my new galaxy out to dry

Now where should I put  my new nighttime sky?

Chickpea Sunbutter Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Some of the other mothers at the playground will often offer Baby Chuck cookies to eat.  I'm touched by their generosity and always feel bad saying no. Sadly, his numerous allergies prevent him from eating a lot of baked goods.

Last week I turned away some particularly delicious looking chocolate chip cookies. I could tell that Baby Chuck really wanted to try one.  So I found this recipe for Chickpea Chocolate chip cookies and was intrigued that the "dough" mostly consisted of chickpea and cashew butter.  With a couple of tweaks, I made these chickpea sunbutter oatmeal raisin cookies.

Ingredients:
(1) 1 can chickpeas
(2) 1/2 cup sunbutter
(3) 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
(4) 1/2 cup sugar
(5) 2 teaspoons vanilla
(6) sprinkle of salt
(7)1 cup raisins
(8)1 cup oats

Directions:
(1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease baking sheets
(2) Blend chickpeas till smooth
(3) Add ingredients 2 through 6 and blend together
(4) Stir in ingredients 7 and 8
(5) Spoon the dough onto the baking sheets and pat down flat (cookies look the same going in and out of the oven because the dough doesn't rise)
(6) Bake 15 minutes

They weren't particularly sweet and they tasted like tiny nutrition bars.  I liked them and appreciated their high fiber content.  Hubby was used to eating normal cookies, so he wasn't a fan.  Baby Chuck on the other hand, really enjoyed them.  He quickly gobbled up one and then asked for another. 

I think we have a tiny cookie monster on our hands!