I just wanted to do a quick revisit to my recent recipe post on baked apples.  I decided the 1/2 of an apple cut up wasn’t as bento friendly as I’d hoped.  I decided to bake 2 more apples cut up with the honey/cinammon mixture and topping with only pecans.

OH YUM!  This was super quick to bake to since cutting the apples up seemed to shave about 5-7 minutes from the cooking time.  It was much more bento friendly to pack, reheated well, and was a totally yum and not too high in sugar sweet for my bento box.  A definite keeper.

I’ve been searching for a recipe that was a tasty dessert, but one that didn’t use a cup of sugar, flour, and the like.  Something quick and simple to make that would transfer well to my bento.  As I was searching through my cookbooks to find a suitable recipe, I came across this Recipezaar recipe in my cookbook binder, one I had printed out nearly a year ago but never tried.  These baked apples are wonderful, with a bit of sweetness and nearly foolproof.  Let’s get started.

Our ingredients list is overly simple: 2 baking apples, 1 tbs of honey, 1/4 tsp of cinammon (not pictured), 2 tablespoons of butter, 2 tablespoons of golden raisins, and 2 tablespoons of chopped pecans (I have too many pictured!  LOL!).  Place the butter into a small microwavable dish and nuke in 7 second increments until completely melted.

It’s time to prepare the apples for their filling.  First, we are going to gather our favorite chopping knife and a melon baller.  After washing the apples well and drying off, cut each apple in half.  Then, scoop out the middle using the melon baller.  Place the apples to the side.  Next, mix up your honey and cinammon: 1/4 tsp of cinnamon per 1 tbs of honey.

Place your apples into a baking pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray.  If the apples are wobbly, you can cut off a small sliver off the back of the apple to create a flat stable side.  If you’re wondering what to do with the small sliver of apple, eat it while you wait for your apples to bake.  Or if you are like me, feed it to the dogs.  Mine love apples.

Place 1/2 tbs of raisins in the center of your apple along with 1/2 tbs of pecans.  Now if you’re allergic to pecans, feel free to omit them.  They are completely optional.  Next, spoon on about 1/2 teaspoon of the honey & cinammon mixture onto each apple half.  Once all the apples are filled, you want to drizzle them all with the melted butter.

Place the apples into a 375 degree oven for about 30 – 40 minutes.  When you can slide a fork into the apples fairly easily, you’ll know they are tender and ready.  Also by this point, the pecans will be nicely toasted and have that really great toasted nutty flavor.  YUM!

Once done, eat one of the apple halves plain or add a scoop or two of ice cream if you have some wasting away in the refrigerator like I do.

I really enjoyed these.  However, they have made me wonder what it might be like to try something other than raisins in the middle…like blueberries, or peach slices, or nothing but pecans.  I’m a sucker for toasted pecans with apples.

I plan to slice up 1/2 of one of these to go into my bento this week.  It should make for a tasty sweet item in the bento that doesn’t carry as much sugar as a cookie or piece of cake.

Be the bento everyone.  See  you all on Tuesday with a packed bento.

I showed off these brownies in my last post. I promised to share the recipe. This recipe isn’t hard. It came from Recipezaar. You may even have a better recipe than this one. But since it’s all about my learning to cook around here, and I feel the need to share it with you, my readers, here’s the recipe in all its photo glory.

Now, before we begin I have to apologies to make.

First, I apologize for the odd squiggles and marks in each picture. If you notice, the squiggles are all in the exact same spot. I had dust on the sensor of my camera and didn’t realize it. Hopefully, tomorrow’s bento pictures don’t have this too!

Second, I apologize for the shots that include my hairy forearms! I truly, truly apologize. Learn from my mistakes. Do not put a macro lens on your camera then take a picture where your hairy forearm might be included. It’s just. not. pretty.

Now, on to the brownies. The brownies I made were the recipe linked above halved. This makes the perfect amount of batter for my 24-cup mini-muffin pan. And is way, way many more muffins than I need in my house, even if they are mini. I need someone to share them with, or mail them to, or feed them to. Anyhow, back to the ingredients…

1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 cup of chopped pecans, 24 whole(ish) pecan pieces, 2 eggs, 1/4 tsp baking powder, 1 cup of flour

1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter, 1/4 cup + 2 tbs (give or take) of cocoa powder, and a pinch (1/8 tsp) of salt (in the spice jar)

Now, don’t forget the tools of the trade as it were.

Large mixing bowl, mini-muffin pan, non-stick spray, large spoon for mixing, cookie dough scoop. Don’t have a cookie dough scoop? That’s okay. Use a tablespoon instead.

Before you do anything else, spray your muffin pan. I only mention this since I forgot to spray it last time. The horror! of cleanup!

Melt your stick of butter in the microwave. I’ve learned if you only microwave the butter in increments of 15 seconds it doesn’t melt away into oblivion. Pour the melted butter into your mixing bowl. And at this juncture I just must say, “Buttah makes it bettah.”

Pour in 1 cup of sugar

and 1 tsp of vanilla.

Mix this goodness up

until well blended.

Add in the first egg

and again mix until well blended. Then add in the second egg

and mix until well blended. Have you discovered a pattern here yet?

Now it’s the time you’ve been waiting for…cocoa time. Pour in the 1/4 cup + 2 tbs of cocoa.

Breathe deeply (but don’t actually inhale the chocolate powder). AAAHHHH, chocolately goodness.

Now mix until,

you guessed it, well blended.

It’s time to add 1/4 tsp of baking powder

and a pinch of salt. Mix until well blended (Sorry, this well blended photo is not shown).

Pour in 1 cup of flour

and mix

(say it with me now) until well blended.

It is time to add the 1/2 cup of chopped nuts into the well-blended cocoa mixture. If you are allergic to nuts, DON’T ADD ‘EM!! Stop now. Or maybe add in a 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. I bet that would be good.

Mix until the pecans are incorporated completely into the batter. Which is a fancy way of saying, mix until well-blended.

Using your fancy dancy cookie dough scoop (I love that thing), scoop batter into your greased mini-muffin pan (hairy forearm alert!).

Once all the cups are filled, press a whole(ish) pecan into the top of each cup of batter. These pecans will toast while baking and be so super tasty.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 – 25 minutes. It says to bake longer in the actual recipe. However, baking them as mini-muffins didn’t take as long as the recipe suggets. It took these about 23 minutes to bake in my oven. If you’re not sure, use a toothpick to test the brownies.

Here they are in all their baked glory.

What’s that you say? You wish you could get up close and personal with one. Well, your wish is my command.

Ahhhh, brownieeeeee.

Put 2 on a nice plate

and snarf them down!

I hope you enjoyed today’s recipe. These go so well in my bento. I hope they find their way into your bento too.

It is an apple torte recipe that I have come to quickly adore. Join me as I make this recipe for the 2nd time. Try it out yourself. You won’t regret it and I highly recommend it.

First, you need to find all of your ingredients. Here they are:

4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick), 1 cup of sugar, 1 egg, 1 cup of all-purpose flour, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1/8 tsp salt, 2-3 large granny smith apples

Peel, core, and slice your apples. The original recipe calls for you to just slice the apples into regular, thin apple slices. Since I wanted to make something bento-suitable, I cut mine into smaller pieces.

In a bowl, put 1 cup of sugar and your 1/2 a stick of softened butter. If you were using fairly frozen butter like I was, pop it into the microwave for 15 seconds, nuked at 5 second intervals. Works like a charm.

Cream your butter and sugar together.

Add one egg.

Beat it all together.

In another bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Sift it all together. If you are like me and don’t actually own a sifter, use a whisk to help you “sift” the ingredients. I read that somewhere once. It works wonderfully! Dump this mixture into the butter, egg, sugar mix and beat together…

to form a bit of a batter. Pour your apples into the batter and mix together. Sorry, forgot to take a picture of this step. But I’m sure you can figure it out!

Find the baking dish(es) you plan to use and spray generously with non-stick spray.

Fill them with your apple and batter mixture. Don’t fill all the way to the top. If you do, this rises a bit in baking and will spill over.

If you have some of the silicon cups for your bento box, bake a few of these in those cups. Makes a great addition to your bento!

Pop everything into a 350 degree oven and bake for approximately 45 minutes – 1 hour, or until just brown.

Take them out and look at them in all of their baked glory.

Look at one really closely. Notice how it’s just calling your name.

For the sake of my audience here, I listened to this little torte, and scooped some out…

It is way more delicious than it looks! And I, quite immodestly, think it looks pretty darn good. Bon appetit!

Here’s all you need to make these nachos: tortilla chips, cheese, ground beef, black beans, salsa, and salt (optional).

Get your favorite pan and set it onto the stove to heat up. Use the same temperature on your stove you normally would to brown ground beef for other recipes. Feel free to season the ground beef with salt, pepper, etc.

Brown the groundbeef until pretty well cooked. Drain and return to pan. Turn the heat on the pan down to a simmer.

Drain and rinse 1 can of black beans. You can omit these and add refried beans or chili beans if you prefer.

If you’re like me, you might not like your salsa real chunky. Use your handy dandy food processor to fix that problem. If you’re not like me, then use your salsa straight, you big, brave salsa eater!

Add the black beans…

And then the salsa…

And mix together until it looks just right. See those bits and pieces of onions and other flavors. That’s from the salsa. I find salsa to be a great shortcut in making these nachos. It just means one thing. Pull out the heartburn medication right about now and go ahead and take it so you’ll be ready by time you eat.

Let the mixture simmer for awhile until the beef is completely cooked (which it most likely is by now, but be sure to check!). Prepare your pan for the nachos. Also, turn your stove onto broil.

First, spray it with a bit of non-stick spray.

Then put down a layer of tortilla chips.

Add on a layer of the cooked groundbeef, beans, and salsa mixture. Top the whole thing with a layer of cheese.

Place in your oven on broil and wait until the cheese is melted and slightly browned on the edges.

Cut off a bit and place it on your plate…

YUM!! This mix is somehow going into my bento tomorrow. Some sort of modified version. Woohoo!

Click here to download the post-to-go for this recipe.  Once opened, you can print the recipe.

Ingredients needed:

• A glass dish to bake in. This dish needs to be deep enough for 2 layers of macaroni and cheese.
• Elbow macaroni, boiled in salted water to your preference. Make enough for the 2 layers and the dish you have chosen. (see I told you this was going to be an odd recipe!)
• A block of Sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (you can use extra sharp if you want to)
• Stick of Butter
• Milk

Instructions:

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
• While your oven is heating, boil your macaroni in salted water to your preference.
• While your oven is heating and the macaroni boiling, shred the block of cheese. I don’t buy prepackaged shredded cheese for this because normally I can’t find the type of sharp cheddar I prefer pre-shredded. But feel free to use pre-shredded mild cheddar, sharp cheddar, or whatever your taste buds prefer. A small amount of shredded mozzarella mixed in gives the whole dish a bit smoother/creamier taste. It’s a nice contrast to the sharp.
• When the macaroni is done, drain.
• Grease your baking dish. I normally just use non-stick spray.
• Scoop boiled macaroni into your baking dish. Make sure you have a good layer of macaroni and can’t see the bottom of the dish through the macaroni.
• Cut slices from your stick of butter and place on top of the macaroni. I normally make two rows of butter pats across this first layer of macaroni.
• Next, top macaroni and butter with a thick layer of shredded cheese. You don’t want to be able to see the macaroni through the cheese too well.
• Scoop another layer of macaroni ontop of the cheese, then do the butter pats again.
• Pour some milk over the whole thing. I normally use 2 percent milk. I’d guess I use somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 a cup of milk depending on the size of the dish I’m using. The milk will cook into the noodles and pretty much disapear from the dish. In other words, your mac ‘n cheese shouldn’t be real liquidy. So be careful how much milk you use. If you’re worried about my instructions with this step, feel free to omit the milk. Omitting the milk will make the dish drier though.
• Add your second and last layer of cheese on top.
• Place into your preheated 350 degree oven.
• Bake for 25 – 30 minutes until the top layer of cheese is completely melted. You’ll probably hear the milk bubbling and cooking too.
• Once the cheese is completely melted, turn your oven to broil and brown the top of the cheese to your liking.
• Take out of the oven once browned and set aside for about 5 – 10 minutes to allow it to cool a bit and all the flavors of the dish to settle.

If anyone out there tries this, I hope you enjoy it. The biggest tip I have is that it’s all about the cheese. The cheese you choose makes or breaks this dish. I personally like Cabot Cheese. It’s the one I can find most easily around here. It also tastes much better than Kraft in my humble opinion.

Enjoy!