Apple Bread Review

So I mentioned on facebook that I was making Apple Bread this week. It was delish! I got the recipe from the blog My Kitchen Adventures. Renee does an amazing job taking pictures of her yummy creations and well she make it very hard *not* to try this Apple Bread. This was so heavenly smelling in the oven. Lincoln loved it. You cannot tell you used grated apple (food processor is the best for this, FYI), it was very soft and moist. It was gone in one day. It was very hard not to eat just 1 slice. I dare you to try.

I made a few changes to her recipe to adjust for what I had in the house. But for the most part it was the same.

Apple Bread

Servings - 12 Serving size- 1/12th Calories - 152 Fat- 5.2 Carbohydrate- 24 Protein- 3.5

2 C. bleached all purpose flour

1/2 C. white sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 egg + 2 egg whites

1.5 C. grated fresh apple

1/2 C unsweetened applesauce

1 tsp. fresh, grated ginger root

1/4 C canola oil

3 TBS. 1% milk

1/3 C brown sugar

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9"x5"x3" loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine the flours, sugar, 1 tsp. cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, whisk together the egg and egg whites, applesauce, oil and milk. Add the grated apple and ginger and combine. Add the "wet" ingredients to the dry and mix until just combined. In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar with 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and sprinkle with brown sugar/cinnamon mixture. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, test at 50 though, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool on rack and slice into 12 pieces.

Thanks Renee for such a great recipe!!! And for proof that kids do like this, here's Lincoln itching to get to the bread!

A great surprise!

Besides today being Chandler's 6th birthday, I had a great surprise! I decided to go weigh in mid week (today) to see how I was doing before the cake tomorrow for his party. So I went in, actually say my leader, and jumped (figuratively of course) on the scale. Boy was I shocked when it showed me DOWN 2.8 since Monday!

Just to show how shocked I was, last night I was *bad* and had a whole CPK BBQ Chicken pizza. Yeah, 1100 calories, bad! And I was still down.

So today, Chandler has requested, for dinner, steak, mashed potatoes, green beans and carrots. But we cannot forget the cake! So I am going to be doing a diet chocolate cake made with diet soda!

I'll be posting about it as well as the apple bread this afternoon. I need to get work done first, and work out. I really want to maintain that 2.8 for Monday's official weigh in!

Granny Square bag!

My latest (completed) craft project is my granny square purse! Yes, an actual bag that I am actually using!

I got the pattern from Crochet Me. It's free, just have to sign up for their newsletter, which is actually pretty good! It's about 12x12 and the strap you can make as long as you want. I am still playing with the length. But so far so good.


I used Vanna's Choice in black, white and a variegated black/gray. Then I used Stitch N Bitch's Wool for the Aqua/Teal. Both worked up really nicely, and since I've never used either, it was a "gamble" on a project this intense.

I went to the local fabric store and got some sassy fabric that was light in color, so I could see the contents of my bag with our a flashlight. I used some biased tape to create a nice clean edge for the top. This step was the most intensive, and was not a part of the pattern. I just wanted something to keep my stuff inside, if I didn't do it I'd probably loose my $100 bluetooth. And that would cause Rob to be very mad at me. :)


I did each panel differently, so 4 squares in 3 different motifs. I made 9 out of the 12 squares in one night! So this whole project took maybe 5 nights. One thing I would change is getting 1 1/4" D rings versus the 2" D ring. I used the 2" and it didn't hold the strap. So I fixed it and it's much better. Also since I was already sewing the liner to the bag (which worked really well to my surprise), I made a narrow strip, hemmed it and sewed that to the strap to help strengthen the strap and small strap that holds the D rings. I know I tend to over load my bag (ask any friend), so this was important.

Over all, I'd say this was an easy beginner crochet project, the sewing part would add to the difficulty but you can omit that part. I see myself making another one of these for the summer in some bright colors!