Three Ingredient Detox Water

This has been my go-to detox water lately. And honestly, It's really just infused water. Although it works great if you are doing a detox. And a bonus, it tastes great too! 

Sometimes I make a large batch to last me throughout the day, and sometimes I make one glass at a time. It really depends on what I think I will use that day. I don't recommend letting this sit for more than one day. The cucumbers will get weird! :)

 I also recommend getting organic produce, especially if you are leaving the peel/skin on the lemon and cucumber, because the skin is where the pesticides reside the strongest. If you don't have organic, I recommend peeling the cucumber and just squeezing the lemon juice into your water! 

For the mint, I like to remove all the stems and rip it up with my fingers before sprinkling it into the water. You could also "muddle" the mint for even more flavor! If you've never tried mint in water, you will be amazed! It lends a wonderful almost-sweet flavor to it!

 I let it sit about 10-15 minutes, but you really don't have to let it sit very long! You could totally drink it right away! 

So whether you are trying to shed a few pounds this spring, or just looking for a new low-calorie all-natural drink, I hope you enjoy this easy detox water! Let me know if you try it!

Homemade Applesauce from Scratch!

One of my #goals in life is to do more cooking from scratch. I love cooking, and I want to share more recipes here on the blog, and ideally the recipes would be from scratch. Today I want to share some delicious homemade applesauce that I made the other day!

The one ingredient I used that I wouldn't probably use again was the sugar. Just because apples are naturally very sweet and with added sugar it was almost too sweet.

I added molasses because the recipes I saw required brown sugar which (Fun Fact!) is actually just regular sugar with molasses added!

Ingredients:

Apples

Sugar (optional)

Molasses

Pinch of Salt

Cinnamon

Lemon Juice 

I recommend add these ingredients to taste, and tasting as you go!

 I used apples that were old and wrinkly (as you can see) and perfect for applesauce. 

Peel and core the apples, and slice them into chunks.

Place them in a pan with about 1/2 inch of water on the bottom. 

Add seasoning and bring to a simmer. 

Lightly cover and stir every 2-3 minutes.

As the apples got soft I used a potato masher to mash them up. 

It took some patience while all the apples got soft enough to mash, but I would estimate it took about 20 minutes tops.

Like I said it turned out a bit too sweet for my taste, but other than that the flavor is amazing! I loved the cinnamon, molasses and lemon.

And honestly the best part was that it made my apartment smell amazing!!!

This one is definitely going down as a favorite Fall recipe!

Recipe: Easy Apple Crumble

After apple picking we obviously had a lot of apples, not mention some that I had before our trip to the orchard. I needed something to do with them all:

So I found this recipe, I happened to have all the ingredients on hand, so I made my own version!
Some people call it a "dump cake" or a "crumb cake" but it isn't really a cake because the cake mix doesn't rise. So I have renamed it apple crumble!

Ingredients:
-Fresh Apples (I used 4 but next time I would use even more... probably more like 8 or 10)
-Packaged cake mix (the original recipe called for yellow cake mix but I only had white and it worked out fine!)
-1 stick of butter
-Brown Sugar
-Cinnamon

 Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-In a medium bowl, Mix cake mix, 1/2 cup brown sugar (or to taste) and 2 teaspoons cinnamon (or again, to taste)

 - Coat a glass baking pan with butter or non-stick spray.
 - Slice apples very thin and layer evenly over pan.

 -Melt 1 stick butter and pour into dry mix, mixing evenly.

 -Sprinkle mix over apples, making sure slices are covered evenly and mixed.

 -Place in center rack of oven and bake 35-45 minutes, until the top begins to brown and the corners are bubbly!

 - Let sit for 5 minutes then serve and enjoy! This dish is definitely best when eaten right away. And don't be afraid to add some vanilla ice cream or plain cream or half & half to your serving!

Lila and I gave it two thumbs up!
Let me know if you try this, and if you add any variations! Enjoy!