Apple Snacks

This one is really quick and easy and great for the kids! one apple serves two kids

1 cored and sliced apple, skin in tact.
1/3 cup peanut butter
1tsp almond oil
1 tsp pure maple syrup or honey
granola mix or seeds to dip

core your apple and slice it in thick wedges
mix peanut butter, almond oil and maple syrup or honey, stir until smooth and creamy

put part of the P.B. mix in a small serving cup, again I love to use ramekins for things like this. I like to spread some of it on half of some of the apple slices then sprinkle seeds, or raisins or my home made granola mix onto it, then stick the other slices in the cup to let the kids dip it themselves.

It's quick, good and good for you!

Yummy apple bake with ricotta cheese

I know fall isn't hear yet, but I'm from upstate NY where the farmers markets are going strong and apples are plenty all over the state! So inspired by a bowl full of uneaten apples I decided to make a delicious apple bake for breakfast.

Preheat to 350

Apples, (how many apples you use should equal the number of people you are feeding)
1 to 2 tbs Cinnamon
1 to 2 tbs brown sugar
1 to 2 tbs wheat germ
water
3 to 4 tbs butter

Ricotta cheese mix:

This too depends on how many you serve, This amount will serve two or three people:

1 c. low fat Ricotta cheese
1/4 tsp almond extract (replace it with 1/2 tsp vanilla if you like)
1 tbs pure maple syrup, if you need more add it, but don't let the mixture get soupy


wash and slice as many apples as you have guests. core and slice fairly thin, leaving the skin on.

place apples in pan how ever you want, fill the pan about 1/4 the way with some water, a little less if you have really sweet, ripe apples.

Sprinkle the cinnamon and brown sugar over the top, slice thin pats of butter and spread over the top. It doesn't have to be perfect it is just going to melt into the water anyway.

Bake for about 15 minutes, remove from heat to stir. To avoid a mess I like to use two forks and toss it like a salad.

Bake another ten minutes, stir one more time, then raise temp to 400. Sprinkle the wheat germ over the top, do not mix it in. Bake for about another 5 or 10 minutes until it looks crisp.

Remove.

I like to use ramekins to serve this dish. I spoon in the ricotta cheese mix half way up the dish, then the apples over top, then I spoon some of the juice over that. Let your guests mix up the apples and the cheese and dig in. It is a wonderful way to start the day, or end it as a desert. This dish is healthy, not very fattening and full of flavor. If you don't like ricotta, then just leave it out, the apples alone are delicious!

Enjoy!

The Start of it all

Hi, my name is Tera and for the last 7 years I have been fighting a thyroid condition that has irritatingly made it almost impossible to lose weight and horribly easy to gain it. You know that saying, "If I just look at a candy bar I lose weight!" Well, that's me. At the end of my ropes I confessed to my husband that I was thinking about getting the bypass surgery which ultimately led to a tiff and me crying myself to sleep.

So in the end I agreed to at least give it one month of actually trying to truly diet which has forced him to eat everything I make and not bitch if I buy all healthy food. I have soon realized the biggest culprit to me not losing the weight was my buying all the crappy foods he wanted and sacrificing my own needs because well, we are on a budget! I couldn't afford to buy two shopping lists!

I am happy to report I finally got to buy all healthy foods and so I went on a quest for gourmet recipes and ingredients that can make a meal for 100 to 200 calories and within the first week I lost 3 lbs. I know to many this is no big deal but for me it was like leaping across a huge lake and actually getting somewhere! Oh and it didn't taste like diet food crap! It was DELISH!

So I decided to start this blog to share amazing recipes, weight loss triumphs and hope for other men and women out there who have almost given up on this crappy diet world. If you hate dieting as much as I do, I hope you find some comfort in knowing you can eat like a gourmet God or Goddess, enjoy every last bite and still lose weight. Ohh and it is actually super easy to cook. I have truly found the love in cooking and eating again and I am so thrilled to share my food with others. I have tested all my recipes on my friends and even my picky husband. FYI he HATES shrimp and he loves the shrimp I made, so if I can get him to eat it, there has to be something amazing about it all.