I canned, we ate, and we didn't die!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I tweaked a meat recipe, then pressure canned it.  Well, we pulled a jar of it out, heated it up, added the missing ingredients, and VOILA!  Dinner!

So, here is the original recipe for Ground Beef Stroganoff.  It's excellent! It's super easy to double and freeze, but I live in an apartment and have very limited space in my freezer.

I tweaked the recipe for canning like so:

Ingredients:

• 2-4 TB of ghee or coconut oil (depending on your cooking vessel and meat), divided
• 3 lg Onions, diced (I use the gargantuan ones from Costco)
• 24 ounces of sliced mushrooms (I use Baby Bellas)
• 6 pounds of ground beef
• 1 6oz can of tomato paste
• 1.5 tsp dried thyme
• 1.5 tsp dried rosemary
• 12 cloves of garlic
• 1.5 cup beef stock (I use the organic canned in tetra pak from Trader Joe's)
• 1.5-2 tsp of sea salt (probably more if using grass fed beef)
• 1.5 tsp black pepper

Directions:
In a skillet, melt half of the ghee or coconut oil. Add the mushrooms and onions, and saute until slightly softened and browned around the edges. Remove to a plate.

 

 

 

If you're using fatty ground beef (mine is), then no need to use the other half of your cooking oil. If you're working with very lean meat, then use the other half of your cooking oil and brown the meat.  Return meat, onions and mushrooms to pan. Add tomato paste, salt, pepper, herbs and garlic. Saute’ for about 3 minutes to allow the flavors to develop. Reduce heat to medium. Add beef stock and stir to mix in.  No need to simmer it...you're getting ready to simmer the CRAP out of it in the pressure canner.

Ladle this mixture into jars, use additional broth if you need to cover the meat and veggies and leave one inch of head space.  Pressure can for 75 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure.  You MUST pressure can this.  Do NOT try to water bath can meat.  It's a low acid food.  You'll die from botulism or something. ;-)

VOILA!

 

 

Wait!!  You're not done!  When you decide to crack one of these bad boys open, you have to add the missing ingredients:

 

• 1/2 cup full fat coconut milk

• 1 Tablespoon arrowroot powder

Whisk together the coconut milk and arrowroot powder, then add it to the stroganoff and simmer until it thickens. 

 

Pour it over spaghetti squash or cauliflower rice!  Here's a crappy iPhone picture:

 

 

 

 

The backyard homestead and roasted veggies.



I now have so much stuff planted on my concrete back patio that I seriously can't tell you everything that's back there right now...I can try though...let's see: Zucchini, cantaloupe, green pumpkins, and orange pumpkins that I snuck into some dirt in a common area. TONS of herbs, carrots, cabbage, onions, watermelon radishes, Thai chilis, Pasilla peppers, romaine, and TOMATOES, of course. Here's a peek at my window sill with Farmer John hard at work!

 

 

I'm going to share with you an EXTREMELY versatile dish that you can make on the weekend and eat all week.  It's a delicious timesaver...Asparagus, sweet potatoes, and celery root. Super easy...check it out:

 

 

1. Make at least 3 veggies into bite sized pieces.

2. Pour a couple of tablespoons of coconut oil, bacon fat, or ghee on top, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and herbs of choice.

3. Roast for 15 minutes on 425.

4. Remove from the oven and stir.

5. Roast another 15 minutes.

 

For the rest of the week you can eat these as follows:

 

1. With an egg or two on top.

2. Side dish with dinner.

3. Put into a food processor with cream cheese (if you do dairy) for a super tasty spread.

4. Puree with broth for soup.

5. Add meat/fish/poultry, mix it up for a main dish.

6. YOU be the chef and come up with something. :D

So many recipes and announcements, and so little time!!



Sooooo, The Pickle learned how to turn chicken legs into a drumstick and a thigh:

 



 

 

I turned perfectly good brussel sprouts and zucchini into mold and mush (here's what they started out looking like):

 

 

 

 

I won't torture you with an "after" pic, but you should know...my whole kitchen smelled like a fart factory for the rest of the day after I dumped the end product into the garbage disposal. *sigh*

 

I started several seeds in my very own homemade origami-ish seed pots:

 

 

I wanted to do something a little different than the "wrap newspaper around a can" seed pots, and found this fun video on YouTube.  I had T bring home a bunch of free newspaper from the "Rubber" newspaper thing they have at Sharks Ice.  Free, fun, and I can plant them without causing an trauma when it's time! The Pickle and I sat in front of the TV and cranked 'em out.

 

I tweak everything, y'all.  I can't follow a recipe or anyone's advice to the letter.  I MUST experiment.  I got the Ball Canning book and a pressure canner for Xmas and I was DYING to use it.  I got a wild hair last weekend, found one of our favorite meat recipes (Ground Beef Stroganoff), and pressure canned 10 pints of it.  I tweaked the recipe to make it "pressure canner friendly", tripled the recipe, and went after it.  I'll have to report back later on this...

 

 

 

I have a bunch more to blog about when it comes to my new gardening (and homesteading!)adventure...did I plant my onions outside too soon?!  Are my radishes going to make it?! Hmmm....I hope the anticipation of my next blog post on all of this doesn't cause you to lose sleep...hehe.



Easy sweet curry cashews and the beginning of a homestead...

Okay...most exciting news first...I just put a deposit on 40 acres of land in Wyoming. Oh. My. Goodness.  I'm going out there in a couple of weeks to look at it!! 40 acres, y'all.  My head is spinning with plans, but they're gonna have to wait as it's probably going to take me 10 years to pay off the land before I can afford to put anything on it. *sigh*

Okay, next!

Sweet curry cashews!  These are a little bit weird to make...the sugary stuff slides off of the cashews, so you have to do a lot of spatula work...but , MAN are they worth it!

I actually adapted this recipe from Martha Stewart's recipe!

Sweet Coconut Curry Cashews

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons butter/ghee
• 2 tablespoons curry powder
• 3/4 cup coconut sugar
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 cups unsalted roasted cashews (9 ounces)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in curry powder, and cook until toasted, about 1 minute. Stir in sugar, water, honey, and salt. Add cashews and coconut, and toss to coat using a rubber spatula. The sugar mixture will slide off, but we'll work on that later.
 
2. Transfer cashew mixture to a parchment-lined baking sheet (you're going to hate your life if you don't remember the parchment paper, so DON'T FORGET!), and spread into a single layer using rubber spatula. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and stir. Bake another 8 minutes, stir, then bake 8 more minutes...watch that the edges of the sugar mixture don't burn.
 
3. Once you remove the nuts from the oven, you'll want to stir them a lot while they cool to get the good stuff to stick to the nuts! Once it's too hard to stir, just give up. Haha...let them cool completely before you try to eat some or you'll pull out a filling. (They harden as they cool.)

 

 

 

Homemade Laundry Detergent

As a little experiment, I made this last year and started using it on the first of January.  We have gone OVER one year now and we still haven't even used HALF of what I made!  Keep in mind...there are 3 of us, so if there are 6320937 people in your family, you might use it a teensy bit faster. ;-)

This recipe is all over the internet and I couln't possibly tell you where it originated or I would try to give someone some credit here:

Powdered Laundry Detergent of the Homemade Persuasion:

1 Box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
1 Box of Borax
1 Box of Pure Baking Soda
2 bars of Fels-Naptha
1 container of Oxy-Clean
Essential oils (optional for fragrance)

1. Grate the bars of soap.
2. Dump the entire boxes of everything together in a giant bowl with the grated soap.
3.  Mix it up. :D
4.  Divide among two 1-gallon containers.  I used 2 of THESE.  If you use two 1-gallon containers, you're not stuck lugging around 2 gallons of soap all year. ;-)

 

 

 

When doing your laundry with this soap, you literally only use about 1-1.5 Tablespoons per load. 

 

I put the soap in first, close the lid, let HOT water in for a few seconds to start soaking the soap (I'm not even sure if this is totally necessary), then put in the clothes, close the lid again and run it on whatever temp I want the clothes washed in.

 

My GF says that her black shirts fade a little too quickly, but I haven't noticed. 

 

Want a STAIN REMOVER?!

 

My daughter spilled curry soup on a brand new pair of WHITE denim shorts. She cried the whole way home.  As soon as she got home, I went to work...  I rinsed out what I could with cold water, sprinkled this soap on top, rubbed it in, then let it sit overnight.  The next day, I sprayed Resolve (yes, I cheated, but I'm convinced my soap was the best place to start) on the stains a few times, then proceded to machine wash them. 

 

The stain didn't come out after the first wash, but that was the only time I ever treated the stain.  It was barely visible, but it was still there...over the next couple of washes, it came completely out.  CURRY soup, you guys.

Afraid you will miss PASTA?!

Here's the thing...everyone says they love pasta.  Pasta is just an almost tasteless vehicle for the sauce though!  When you eat pasta, you feel like a lot of things...mostly like a nap...and REALLLY full.  Did you eat a salad as an appetizer?  No?  Then chances are, you're not going to be getting a serving of veggies with dinner.

In our house, we knock out two birds with one stone...figuratively speaking. :)  We started off mostly using spaghetti squash in the place of pasta.  It's excellent...if you cook it right!  Once you get the hang of it, you realize that it's actually super good all by itself.  The Widget actually loves it with a little grass fed butter and salt as an after-school snack!

Add some pesto, crumbled bacon, and leftover chicken and you've got a family favorite! Srsly...the girls ask for that one constantly.

Edited to add: Thanks to my friend Autumn, it was brought to my attention that not everyone may know what spaghetti squash IS or how to cook it!!  Here's what I had to say:

A spaghetti squash is just an oblong yellow squash and it's always called a spaghetti squash, so people usually know what you're talking about. If you have a "produce place" near you...one that sells mostly produce, that's the easiest place to start. They also have them at Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and most grocery stores this time of year since it's a winter squash.

This is my favorite method of cooking it:

1. Poke it a few times with a knife (the skin is hard), then stick the whole thing in a 400 degree oven for about 45 minutes. Check it by poking at it with your knife and pull it out when it pierces the skin.
 
2. Wear an oven mit and cut the stem end off, then cut it in half. It's still HOT, so take your time.

3. Scoop out the seeds and slimy stuff, then wait a while for it to cool before using a fork to separate the strands and scoop it into a bowl.

This sounds way harder than it is, lol. If you're not a fan of it the first time, don't give up...it may take you a few times before you decide how "done" you like it...if you like it a little crispier, then cook it less time, if you like it mushier, then cook it more. I leave it on the crispy side, then saute it in the pan with whatever sauce I'm putting on it until it's the texture that I like. :D

Cabbage!  ..............Wait!  Come back!  I'm serious!  Listen...buy a giant cabbage, cut it in half, then thinly slice half, and put the other one away for a later date (trust me, you'll want to make this again). 

Heat a pan on "screamin' hot"(HIGH), but a dollop of coconut oil in the pan and toss in the cabbage.  Season with salt, pepper, and whatever spices compliment what you're going to put on top...my favorites are Ras al Hanout, tandoori, and garam masala.

Let it get a little charred before stirring it up...trust.  Don't let it get mushy...leave it a little crispy. Here's a pic of one of my lunches...the cabbage with caramelized onions and a yummy chicken thigh.

NEXT:  Put stuff on it.  I could seriously do this daily.  I think I even mentioned it in another post here: My wannabe homesteader post.

Paleo seems so easy now...

I feel like it has been an eternity now since we've made the full commitment to become a Paleo household!  I have forgotten all of the uncertainty that comes with giving up your absolute favorite foods....before you realize that you don't have to!!

Look!  Cookies!

There is much controversy in the Paleo community about many things...is this ingredient Paleo? Do I have to start wearing weird shoes to be accepted into your cult?  Do I have to start doing Crossfit...it's so scary?!! 

Look...I have come to the realization that everyone has their own "Paleo".  There is a framework to help you guide your way and the sooner that you can recite what you CAN EAT, then the less emphasis everyone will put on what you CAN'T eat (not that it's any of their damn business).  "High quality and sustainable meats, veggies, eggs, fruit, nuts, healthy fats (NO, for the love of all things sacred, canola oil is not a healthy fat), and natural sweeteners like honey, dates, maple, and coconut sugar."

It's not a DIET.  Yes, people tend to lose a lot of weight when they commit to eating this way, but that's not WHY you should eat this way.  You CANNOT half-ass this or it won't work.  If you think that you can eat strict Paleo all day long and then eat a bowl of cereal for dessert, think again.  If you understand the science behind the way grains affect your body, then you'll understand what I mean.  Read "Wheat Belly".



In my next post, I'm going to give you the tools you need in order to start the transition to a healthier way of life!  Pasta will be the first in the series!  It's so EASY...seriously.

Cinnamon Roll Biscuits and Black Friday

I swear to gravy...if I hear "Black Friday" one more time, I'm going to stab myself in the neck. Srsly.

For those of you that follow me on Facebook, you'll be wondering about how my Cinnamon Roll Biscuits turned out...I think.  Well, they were REALLY good.  I tweaked them to my liking, of course, so I'll be posting the recipe with my personal touch.

Here is the original recipe.

And here is MY recipe:

Ingredients:

3 cups blanched almond flour
1/2 tsp Himalayan sea salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cardamom 
1/4 cup coconut oil/melted grass fed butter or ghee (I used coconut oil)
2 Tbls honey (doesn't need to be raw...you're cooking it!)
2 large room temp eggs (best quality you can get)

For the filling:

1/4-1/2 cup honey (I think...I just squirted it straight from the bottle onto the rolled out dough, and I was muy generoso)
1/2 cup ground pecans/walnuts
1/4 cup coconut sugar
1- 2 Tbls ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp cardamom

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 340 degrees, yes, 340.

In a large bowl, combine the almond flour, salt, cardamom and baking soda.

In a mixer w/paddle attachment (if you have it, otherwise use beaters and a bowl!), beat together the honey and room temp eggs (not the oil/butter yet!).

Add the egg mixture to the almond flour mixture. Mix until decently incorporated, then add the oil/butter. It will be pretty sticky.  You can also let it rest in the fridge for 10 min. This might make it easier to work with, but try the next step before abandoning the dough in the fridge.

Roll the dough out between two sheets of parchment paper, into a giant, thin circle. Take your time and get a good uniform thickness.

Write your name with a squeeze bottle of honey on the dough, then cross it out, then squeeze squiggles over the dough.  A lot...until you think, "That's probably enough."  It's fun, and it tastes good. You can spread the honey around with your hands, if you're OCD, but I didn't and the world didn't stop turning. 

Mix the cinnamon and coconut sugar together in a bowl, then sprinkle it over the dough (use your HANDS, and reserve about 1 Tbs for later), then sprinkle the chopped nuts or whatever else you like in your cinnamon rolls (I like to put an extra shprinkle of Himalayan Pink salt).  Make sure you get everything all the way to the edges and try to keep the filling additions finely chopped so they don't tear through the dough when you start rolling. 

 

Now you're ready to roll it up!  Pick up the edge of the parchment paper and start to roll the edge of the dough away from you using the paper the whole time. Try to start a tight roll from the beginning. Continue rolling until you have a nice uniform log (don't worry if the edges look gnarly. If the roll cracks use the warmth of your hand to press it together and make it smooth again. Be gentle and careful when rolling up the dough. This dough is not as workable as a gluten based flour would be.

With a good bread knife, cut the roll into about 1-1.5" thick slices. Shape them a bit if needed.  Lay the rolls cut side down on to a parchment line cookie sheet. They can be placed apart or connected. Sprinkle the remainder of the coconut sugar/cinnamon mixture on top like this:

Bake 10-15 min.

I suggest staying close to the stove and checking a couple of minutes before the baking time is up. Everyone's oven cooks a bit differently and baking times will vary depending on the size of the rolls. They should be golden with some browning (you can see in this pic that the little edges are barely brown, and they were perfect). The dough toward the center of the roll should be soft but not to doughy. If baked too long they WILL become dry and hard. If cooked just right though, they will be heavenly.

 

When ready, remove from the oven and let cool for about 10 min. If you try to move them before then, they are likely to fall apart.

Makes about 9-10 cinnamon rolls.

Link love.

So, I constantly come across cool websites with a TON of information, recipes, money saving tips, DIY projects, etc.  I don't want to make a habit of just posting a bunch of links, but I thought if I gave you the basics, it might help.

Please keep in mind...NONE of these sites asked to be featured.  I had to reach into my brain and try to remember my favorite sites!  It wasn't easy, people...it's the day before Thanksgiving and I just want to get the hell out of here!

My heart is with Paleo, so let's start there!:

http://nomnompaleo.com/ (I HIGHLY recommend the "Asian Chicken Thighs"...the name is deceptively low key.  This is literally the best chicken I've ever eaten.)

http://paleoparents.com/ (This site is invaluable for parents!  The recipes even have little hearts next to the things the kids can help with.)

http://urbanposer.blogspot.com/  (Seriously, the baked goods on this site are the BEST consistency out there for grain free cooking.  If you've been doing this for a while, you'll know how valuable that is!)

http://www.theclothesmakethegirl.com/ (Whether you eat Paleo or not, this is some of the best food around. Pho Realz.)

http://stalkerville.net/site/chow/ (Like Allrecipes for Paleo)

http://stalkerville.net/site/dessert/ (The dessert version of Allrecipes)

http://fastpaleo.com/ (Another Allrecipes-esque site.  Between these three, you can find anything you used to love and make it Paleo)

Homestead-y links:

http://newlifeonahomestead.com/ (Huge following on this site and tons of great info.)

http://theelliotthomestead.com/ (She dove head-first into homesteading and journaled the whole thing for us to learn from.)

http://www.littlehouseliving.com/

As far as homestead blogs go, I'm still working on a list.  They have to be informative AND a sense of humor is much appreciated...go easy on the religious stuff too.  Everyone has religious preferences, but they're rarely the same as everyone elses.  Please let me know if you have any suggestions!!

Since there are so many links in this post, I think I'm going to wrap this up.  Maybe I'll do this fairly regularly and have a different theme!  Omg...#grownupproblems  I just totally contradicted the first paragraph of this post by suggesting that I'm going to do this again. *sigh*  Great.  I also just realized there are a lot of !!!'s in this post. 

I'm going to go make the Urban Poser's Cinnamon Rolls and report back to you.  Hopefully I remember to take pictures this time. :D

Oh, P.S.  If you shop on Amazon, but don't use an affiliate link, please use this one: Tara Zen's Link for SHOPPING  Black Friday it up, people...from HOME. :D

Sweet Potato Lasagna and on the Homestead front...

As I sat here eating my Sweet Potato Lasagna with 2 pastured eggs on top...I started daydreaming about having chickens...and what I'm going to do with my trash....and do I want a log home?  I really want to be totally self-sufficient.  I suppose I should buy that chunk of property before I get too ahead of myself...

This lasagna is super duper, btw.  I will share the recipe. :D

Sweet Potato Lasagna
tweaked quite a bit from the original recipe here

Ingredients

• 1 lb hot Italian sausage, casing removed
• 1 large white/yellow onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 cups spaghetti sauce (I used the sauce from Well Fed 2)
• 2 Tbs coconut oil
• couple leaves of fresh basil (leave it out if you don’t have it, just freshens up the sauce a bit)
• 2-3 small sweet potatoes

Method

Crank your oven to 400ºF.

In a saute pan, saute the onions & garlic in coconut oil, then brown the sausage.

While that’s going, peel the sweet pots and slice 'em with the slicing thingy on your food processor. If you don't have one, don't fret, just slice them into planks 1/4-1/2 inch thick...just make sure they're a uniform thickness so that they all cook evenly.

Mix the sausage/onion/garlic mixture together with the rest of the ingredients minus your potato planks...this way you only have to layer 2 things instead of 3-4.  Trust me, it all tastes the same.

Using a 9×9ish oven safe, lubed baking dish, start layering the potatoes and the sauce. Repeat until all your ingredients are used up…trying to reserve enough sauce to cover the top of the lasagna.

Bake for 45 minutes. You’re looking for a bubbly pan with a crispy, browned top. Right out of the oven, the lasagna may by liquidy, let it set for a good half hour before cutting into it, as it will solidify.

Serve for dinner with a salad, or for breakfast with a couple of runny eggs and some fruit...dude...seriously tasty.

I wonder if people read the stuff that comes after recipes...

I want a homestead. Is this the first post in a series?

The more I get into the Paleo lifestyle, the more I like the idea of sustainable living.  Shows like American Blackout and Doomsday Preppers...as irritating and ignorant as they can be...also make me want to be less reliant on others for things like...food, water, and power.

I have become absolutely obsessed with buying property, paying it off ASAP, then starting to develop it into a totally self-sufficient homestead.

My head is just SPINNING right now with ideas since I found parcels of land for under $40K.  Beautiful, mountainous, HUGE parcels of land with oodles of potential.

Since I know that people read these blogs for recipes, I'll give you the one that I'm eating for breakfast:

1 head of cabbage
1 large onion
3 pieces of cooked bacon
Salt & Peps
Eggs for serving

1. Dice the onion, caramalize it in the bacon grease, then set it aside.
2. Make the cabbage into thin strips (shred) however you see fit, then saute it in a super hot pan until it has charred bits and is mostly cooked.
3.  Crumble or chop the bacon, then combine it with the onion and cabbage.  Season w/salt and peps, cover with eggs (cooked to your liking), and enjoy!
4.  If you have leftover cabbage mixture, serve whatever protein you want for dinner on top of it...we have a constant supply of this in the fridge and cover it like pasta.

Single Moms and Hockey Practice

I realized how hard it is to be a single mom again this weekend! Holyyyyy shit has it been a while. T was gone taking care of her dad up in Sacramento, and I was stuck trying to do ALL of the house stuff, cook, clean, do laundry, AND haul the Pickle to all of her hockey. Let me reiterate the weekend hockey schedule...Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and Sunday morning...all gone to the hockey gods. This was my view for most of the weekend:

I still managed to bottle the Kombucha:

Make almond milk, make the spaghetti sauce from Well Fed 2, do 4 loads of laundry, and a few other things that I don't remember...it's all a haze.

Want to know more about Kombucha??  Click here.  It's where I send everyone that asks.  Today's recipe is for a Kombucha Tea second ferment:

Tara's Favorite KT

In a quart glass jar, plop in:

5-7 Dark Sweet Cherries (frozen is fine)
1-2 inch piece of vanilla bean (1/2 tsp of extract can sub)

Pour your Kombucha Tea in (after about a 7 day ferment).  Let it sit on the counter for 2-3 more days, but DON'T FORGET TO BURP it every day!  Unless you like fermented tea and shards of glass decorating your kitchen.  Taste it...do you like it?  Strain it, bottle it, and put it in the fridge!

Costco and Crumb Cakes

Man, there is so much on my mind lately that I want to talk about...and while I would love to talk about how many idiots there are at Costco...letting their kids push carts...I think I'll talk about how awesomely friggin productive I was this weekend. :D But one more thing about Costco...why does it have to be a family affair where you bring your family of 342709832 people?!  OMG, srsly.

First I made Against All Grain's bread and forgot to take a picture of it. *sigh*....I'm the worst food blogger ever...but here is the recipe.  I made it from the book, but she has it posted on her site...it is SUPER good, makes a shit-ton of dishes, and it was TOTALLY worth it when my daughter said she would eat the crap out of it as long as it was toasted. Finally!

I made these Apple Cinnamon Crumb Cake things again, but this time I tweaked it to my liking: Apple Crumb Cakes originally by the Paleo Parents.  I diced the apples by hand so that they were a little bit chunkier, and I added a teaspoon of baking soda.  That is SERIOUSLY the best way to do it...they aren't as dense and you can taste the apple more.

 



Apple Cinnamon Mini Crumb Cakes
Ingredients

Cake
1 1/2 C Almond Flour
2 Tbsp arrowroot powder
2 Tbsp tapioca flour
1 Tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda
1/2 C applesauce
1/3 C honey
1/3 C coconut oil
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 large apple, peeled and diced

Topping
1/2 C Almond Flour
3 Tbsp palm sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon

 

Instructions

1. Sift together flours, soda and cinnamon.
2. Puree together in a food processor or electric mixer applesauce, honey, oil and vanilla until smooth.
3. Pulse in dry ingredients (but not the diced apple!)until just combined and smooth.
4. Stir/fold/whatever in the diced apple.
5. Pour into muffin or loaf pans, 2/3 full
6. In separate bowl, us fork to combine topping ingredients
7. Distribute toppings evenly over top of loaves (about 1 Tbsp each)
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until lightly browned

Let cool before serving, to help them stiffen. Seriously...don't skip this step or you will have a MESS on your hands.

Keep them in the fridge and reheat in the toaster, or freeze them for quite a while!