The Not My Mom’s Apple Crisp

The good Catholic I am, for Lent I decided to give up eating out and the general crap I noticed myself eating since I have such a sweet tooth.  I figured the Ben and Jerry’s had to take a hiatus.  But I still had somewhat of a sweet tooth and googled recipes last night on something that I could possibly substitute and I found Mom’s Apple Crisp.  I figure if it only has 5 ingredients, someone like me shouldn’t have any sort of problem with it (ie how hard should it be?).

What you need?

1. 1/2 cup brown sugar
2. 1/2 cup flour
3. 1/2 cup quick oats
4. 1/3 cup margarine
5. 1 tsp cinnamon
6. 4 cups apples (sliced)

What to do?

1. heat up the oven to 375*F and spray non stick spray into an 8×8 pan.  I used a foil one because I was feeling lazy and wanted one less thing to clean once the apple crisp was gone.
2. While the oven is warming up, mix brown sugar, flour and oats together in a bowl with the cinnamon
3. Rub margarine in bowl with fingers
4. Cut and peel apples (or be like me and by the pre sliced apples because I wanted less work) and put into pan
5. Put sugar mixture over apples and cook in oven for 30 minutes

If you’re like me, this is what mine turned out to look like (and I have no idea if it’s correct)

I think I enjoyed it too much when I made it last night if you know what I mean 😉 Hope you enjoy!!

Recipe Wednesday- Vegetable Beef Soup

If anyone knows med students, we’re cheap, don’t have a lot of money and have to learn to cook at some point if  we don’t want to live off of roman noodles.  For me, my new best friend is my crock pot.  I can prep whatever needs to be prepped, throw it in the crock pot and let it go for 5 hrs and do whatever else I need to do.  When I’m done, I have more than enough for dinner for a week.  This week’s recipe: Vegetable Beef Soup.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground beef (to be healthy, leaner the better)
• 4 cups water (you don’t even have to buy it at the store!)
• 1 lb potatoes (ie 2 ish smaller potatoes) peeled and cut up into pieces
• 1 onion, cut up
• mushroom pieces
• Onion soup mix pack
• 1 jar (16 oz) salsa (chunky)
• 2 carrots, chopped up (or if you’re me, baby carrots dumped in)

What to do:

• cook the beef over the stove until it’s brown
• while the beef is cooking, get all of the other ingredients into the crock pot in whatever order you want and mix them up
• add the beef when it’s brown enough
• cook on high for 3-4 hrs (in med student time) or 8 hrs on low
• enjoy!

If I had pictures, I’d share them, but I don’t unfortunately.  Any left overs can be thrown into plastic tupperware and put into the fridge for supper in the the rest of the week’s meals.  If I can do it (and this being someone who doesn’t cook a lot), anyone can.   It’s idiot proof!!! Just don’t forget that you have it on