We had a really great dinner gathering with an awesome family we met through our children. As a parting gift they gave us a dozen fresh picked apples. I was originally going to make large batch of crock pot apple butter...but my recipe needed agave...I didn't have agave. AND, our gracious hosts had made a batch of their very own homemade applesauce. So, I thought I'd give that a whirl instead. I'm going to toot my own horn...it was freaking delicious! Not sure if you can mess that up, but I'm sure someone has in the past. Here's the step-by step:
Guess what these are? Apples.
Using a peeler, peel the apples.
Using an apple slicer, slice the apples.
Dice the deliciousness. I did pretty small pieces because I wanted it to cook a little faster AND I don't own a potato masher or a hand held mini blender so I wanted these apples to just mush up on their own.
Throw all the apples into the crock pot on the HIGH setting.
Add in the goodness!!! I did:
12 peeled, sliced, and diced apples
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/8 cup (drizzled all over) honey
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup water
Then you cook on HIGH for about 4-5 hours. I opened the crock pot about 3 times to stir it up during the last two hours. The apples mushed up perfectly and made some seriously scrumptious sauce:
Looks quite disgusting, but I assure you it's really good. Thanks for sharing K Fam!!!
Lost USB:
I still can't find that thing. It's got to be around here somewhere and I refuse to give up. I was attempting to be responsible by putting ALL my blog pictures on this thing so I could free up space elsewhere. Welp, that bit me in the *bleep*. I'm hoping I can find it soon.
NSS Final Update:
Now, I'd be lying if I told you that I didn't cheat. I did, I purchased a $2.99 book off of Amazon. Felt guilty as all get out. I stuck to my guns and didn't partake in anything that would cost me extra money. I passed on Starbucks just yesterday AND today. I DID purchase a cake pop at the Target Starbucks just this morning for Sweet Pickle. She's been sick, had her finger poked and has YET to whine about it. The ONLY thing she wanted was a flippin' cake pop. Sue me. AND, I DID take my niece out to a movie on Saturday - this was planned this past summer BEFORE I had decided to do the NSS challenge. So, I used my own money that I'd been saving to have a special day with my niece...worth every penny. I'm human, I'm going to slip. Could I do better? Yes.
My final conclusion on this experiment is that it was a success. We managed to save a bit of money and also came under budget on groceries the entire month. What will I take away from this? Mostly, that I CAN go under budget on our groceries more often than not. That wasn't the case before this-seemed like we always were going over...it's time to change that. It was a huge challenge to come up with meals that didn't require additional ingredients, but we made it. I believe that we will do better about keeping it under budget. And who doesn't love saving a little money here and there? I had a lot of people poking fun at me and this challenge, but to all you skeptics out there - BOOYAH! Did it!!! Call me "tight wad", "cheapskate" (all in good fun), but I just wanted to see if we could do this. And we did. Will I do it again? Let's just see how next summer goes...
I will NOT be blogging next Tuesday. I know, I know. Don't cry, I'll be back on the 14th...hopefully with my freaking USB thingymabobber!!!
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