Baked Bloomin Apple Recipe

If your a Facebook user, you have probably seen this video recipe from Tip Hero in your newsfeed several times in the last few weeks:

 Baked-Bloomin-Apples

I love the recipes that include short videos that show you exactly how its done.  Of course, they always make it look so darn easy while I struggle and end up with something that doesn't even look close to what they created.  This recipe had my middle child's name all over it because he loves Outback and Apples so I decided to give it a try.   It looks like the original recipe came from The Gunny Sack, so if you don't think you need the video tutorial, you can check it out there as well. 


My alterations: I used Honeycrisp apples, dairy free butter and coconut flour and then topped it with dairy free ice cream.


Here is a photo of what I ended up with:

 

Not quite as visually impressive as what they have over at The Gunny Sack, but when I took my first bite, I actually said "OMG".  It was that good.  And thankfully, the recipe only makes two apples because if there had been six, I would have eaten six.  Its perfect for a Saturday night treat and you won't be stuck eating it for 3 days like most dessert recipes that are made to feed an army.  My apple and Outback loving child has decided it would be better with Granny Smith apples so we will be trying that next time. 

Hawaiian Turkey Burgers

Since my youngest and I have gone gluten and dairy free, one my favorite recipe blogs is Danielle Walker's Against All Grain .   We have tried several of her recipes and most of them have been huge hits with the entire family, and these Hawaiian Turkey Burgers are definitely one of our favorites so far.  Even my pickiest eater ate two.   You can find her recipe here:
Hawaiian Turkey Burgers

I didn't make any alterations to the recipe (another reason I love her site so much).  I used canned pineapple juice and marinated for about 30-40 minutes.  The burgers were very soft so we started out grilling them on some aluminum foil before moving them to the grill once they had binded well enough.  Here is the final result:

You can see I went a little overboard with the Ninja while I pulsed my salsa, hers is so much chunkier and pretty.  I was honestly a little undecided about the salsa initially... I think next time I may add less fresh basil, but the salsa really did finish off the burger nicely and I don't recommend skipping it.

I served mine on top of some Jasmine rice, but if your not gluten free, then go for a a big ole gluten filled burger bun.   I think the Hubs even slapped some pepperjack cheese on his.  

Paleo, Whole 30 and Vegan recipes are also featured on her website, and she has multiple cookbooks available on Amazon.  Check her out and keep an eye out because I will be featuring more of her recipes in upcoming posts. 

Miracle Cleaner for Baking Pans?

I am a bit of a Pinterest addict.  Its my go-to source for household tips and information.   During a recent visit, I came across a pin about cleaning your baking pans and it included some pretty impressive before and after pictures which immediately sucked me in.  My pans looked just like that (okay maybe worse) and I had just been getting ready to order some new ones from Pampered Chef because we use them almost everyday.  They are small and perfect for heating up individual portions of chicken or bread for the kids.  So I figured cleaning was worth a try before I spent $$ on new ones.  According to the article, combining peroxide and baking soda creates a miracle cleaner and makes it much easier to clean off all that baked on crud.  There are a lot of posts on this topic at Pinterest, but you can read the one I followed at onegoodthingbyjille

So here is my before photo (don't judge):

And here is my after:

I cannot lie, this took a whole lot of elbow grease and some serious steel wool and even then, I could not get the corners clean, which was mentioned in the article as well.  So overall a major improvement for sure but I wonder how much was steel wool and elbow grease and how much was  the miracle cleaner.  Certainly something I would try again though, especially since it didn't involve using any nasty chemicals.  What do you think?

10/18/15 Update:  My pan is already getting gross again, so I gave it a quick scrub with the steel wool.  No improvement whatsoever.  So I revise my earlier statement, it is pretty close to a miracle cleaner and definitely softens up the grime and make its easier to scrub, even though it still does take some elbow grease to clean it up.  Let me know if you try it, how it works out for you.