Apple Pie Soufflé

We had four apples that were looking pretty sad and needed to be used ASAP.

They look ok here, but were starting to get mushy.

I found this cool recipe in the paper a few months ago for a carrot soufflé, which turned out awesome. At the time, I thought it would pretty much work with any flavoring in place of the carrot; the recipe simply calls for pureeing cooked carrots to give it the carrot flavor. I think asparagus, cheese, roasted peppers, artichokes or corn would all be good substitutes for the carrot. So today, as I was brainstorming how to use up those sad apples, I thought of the souffle recipe. Enter: apple pie soufflé.

I started by peeling two of the apples, then chopping into pieces.

Then I pureed them in my mini food processor with a bit of milk to make them a soft puree texture.

Then I just followed the recipe, of course with my own additions here and there.

Here's the recipe (which is cut in half from the original):

1 cup cooked carrots (or whatever flavor you're going for)

1.5 tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 cup + 1/8 cup  milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon honey

2 eggs, beaten

1/8 cup butter, melted

So obviously I used the pureed apples in place of the carrots here. I also added some pumpkin pie spice, molasses in place of the honey, cinnamon and cardamom.

Then I baked the whole thing at 400 in a greased casserole dish for about 45 minutes, until a knife inserted in the middle came out clean.

Et voila! Apple pie soufflé! Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Homemade Granola

Cookie Monster and I really like granola, both eaten in the morning as cereal, and mixed with yogurt in our lunches. We both really happen to like Nature's Path Pumpkin Flax. We ran out, and instead of buying another box, I attempted to make some. Plus, the last few times I had eaten it, erm, shall we say, it gave my tummy some... issues.

So!

I combined the following ingredients for our granola:

Oatmeal

TJ's dried cranberries

Pumpkin seeds (which I found at a neighborhood more "ethnic" market for $.99!)

Dried, chopped dates

Chia seeds! Which are all over the blogosphere, and, every time I've looked for them at health food stores, they cost approximately seventy bajillion dollars. These I found at said ethnic market for the grand total of... you guessed it... $.99! (Ok, you didn't really have to guess. It's right there in the photo. But work with me here, people.) Woo hoo for bargain shopping!

Cinnamon! (Not sesame seeds. The lid on that one broke, so we switched containers.)

Mexican vanilla (actually purchased in Mexico!)

TJ's pecans

I combined all the above dry ingredients in a bowl, then added the wet:

Unsweetened applesauce (in lieu of oil)

Honey, which we were low on...

...so I also added some agave.

And finally, some white grape juice.

I combined everything in a large bowl, then spread out on a cookie sheet to bake.

The recipe I was "following" said to bake it at 275 for 15-20 minutes. Ha! Yeah, right. I baked it for more like an hour. Which ended up being just a titch too long because it got pretty crunchy. I think I would bake for about 25-30 minutes at about 350 next time.

I think if I hadn't overcooked it, it would've been great. As it was, it was good. But it was the execution, not the ingredients' fault. So I would happily try this again, considering we have most of these ingredients in the pantry at all times.