eats: Cinnamon Brown Sugar Apple Crisp.

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We’ve all got them – those family favorite recipes that you just have to make every holiday season.

Growing up, I can’t remember a year where we didn’t make Apple Crisp some time around Thanksgiving. It’s the perfect delicious and comforting dessert, which also happens to be quite easy to make. So when asked to partner with Grain Foods Foundation to bring you a holiday favorite recipe, I knew exactly what to share!

Cinnamon Brown Sugar Apple Crisp

ingredients:

  • 4 medium (or 3 large) apples, peeled and thinly sliced
  • 1 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 3/4 cup flour (I used almond flour)*
  • 1 cup regular oats
  • 1/2 cup butter, melted
  • 1 tablespoon + 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons granular sugar

directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place apples in a greased 8×8 baking dish, and sprinkle with granular sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon.
In a separate bowl, mix together the melted butter and brown sugar, then add the oats and flour.
Spread topping on the apples and bake for 28-30 minutes.

Cinnamon Brown Sugar Apple Crisp

* I was really excited that using almond flour in this recipe turned out well! White flour and oat flour work great too. You can use the flour of your choice.

Cinnamon Brown Sugar Apple Crisp

One of the best things about this recipe is that you don’t have to (and shouldn’t) wait for it to cool before digging in ;) Don’t forget the vanilla ice cream!

Cinnamon Brown Sugar Apple Crisp

Please note that this post is sponsored by Grain Foods Foundation. All opinions herein are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that make this blog possible.

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What’s one of your family’s favorite recipes during the holidays?

 

here’s what | 11.23.14.

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Sheesh, I haven’t done a life lately post in forever! So here’s what are some little things going on in this life I’ve met…

1. Might as well start with these goodies – Magic Cookie Bars that I made for our girls’ night last week. I followed this recipe but made them gluten free by using gluten free graham crackers.

Gluten Free Magic Cookie Bars

2. Speaking of gluten free, the other day when I was running around the city for errands/meetings, I treated myself to a nice sit down lunch at Le Pain Quotidien. I got the ricotta & prosciutto tartine on gluten free crisps, along with a macaroon for dessert. Since going off Whole30 I’ve been trying to at least stay gluten free (as well as sugar free), just because like every other person in the world it’s been engrained in my mind that gluten is the devil. Or whatever.

Le Pain Quotidien

3. SPEAKING of Whole30 (like my segues so far?), as expected I’ve slowly but surely let my diet go back to (mostly) crap. I’m going easy on myself because HI I’m human and it’s basically the holiday season now, but I still want to clean things back up a bit again. I’ve failed miserably at keeping track of my meals on Tumblr, but I’m really going to do it this time. Hold me accountable, y’all!

4. Since Whole30 I HAVE been getting my booty back to the gym, though, and it’s felt great. I’m planning on getting a new routine from a trainer soon, which I’m really looking forward to. A girl can only climb 45 minutes worth of stairs leading nowhere for so long…

FullSizeRender

5. Lately I’ve been feeling a bit of a quarter-life crisis brewing. Is that normal? Please tell me it’s normal. Some days I wake up and I LOVE what I do. Love love love. But other days I feel discontent – like there’s something else/more that I should be doing. I don’t feel it strong enough to change anything (like I said – most of the time I’m very happy with what I do), but it’s still something I want pray about in keep in the back of my mind.

6. The only thing worse than falling down the stairs is falling up the stairs. And the only thing more embarrassing than falling up the stairs is doing so in front of your neighbor. Not that I’d know, or anything.

7. My love/hate relationship with Snapchat has been leaning toward lovin’ lately. It’s such a fun way to keep in touch with people without the pressure of responding to texts all day (no offense). Plus I like to use it to whine about really important things like being cold and not brushing my hair.

(Be my friend @alagracie! But keep it PG, por favor ;))

8. I’m that person who plays songs over and over and over again when I really love them. And thanks to Hype Machine (and Martina for introducing me to it), that has been happening a lot lately. I’m especially going loco over this Weekend remix. (p.s. I have a new playlist coming your way this week!)

9. I think I might be officially outgrowing my “party” days. Of course I’ll always love fun nights out with my friends, but the idea of spending a Friday/Saturday night doing dinner and a movie is 1000% more appealing these days.

10. IT’S ALMOST THANKSGIVING!! AND CHRISTMAS!!! Anyone else excited to eat too much food and spend too much money? I’m kicking it off my buying myself a new MacBook in a few days. I’m on my 5th PC in less than 5 years, and it’s time…

But seriously. I am that girl that is a wee bit holiday obsessed, and I couldn’t be more excited for this next month.

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Will you be buying yourself any (early) Christmas gifts? What about the holidays are you most excited for?

eats: whole30 approved mayo + bang bang shrimp.

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You guys. I have to make a PSA.

If doing the Whole30 challenge, you must make the homemade mayo from the Whole30 website.

It’s not the mayo you’re used to – it’s much creamier, milder, and can very easily be made into different sauces and dressings!

Before I even started Whole30, my friend Emily insisted that I made sure to make this mayo. My first time around was a complete failure because I used extra virgin olive oil (later seeing that that’s a no-no). It was disgusting.

BUT – when made correctly – it’s a game changer.

I used it in this bang bang shrimp, which you can find the recipe for here.

Whole30 approved Bang Bang Shrimp

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Do you ever make usually-store bought food(s) from scratch?