Week 8 - Jambalaya and Apple Bread!

Well we are halfway through football season already!!!  I have really enjoyed cooking on each Sunday and hope everyone has been enjoying the recipes I've been sharing!

I promised a crock pot recipe today and decided to use turkey meat as my base.  I found a recipe for chili online, but changed it around a bit to be more like jambalaya.  Here is the original recipe: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1726,154178-242204,00.html.
I cooked the turkey meat and added it to the crock pot first. I then added in 1 can of tomatoes, 1 can of corn, 1/2 onion chopped, 1 green pepper chopped and salt/pepper to taste. Thanks to my friend Emily, I used a crock pot liner bag to help with cleanup too!

I cooked this mixture for 3.5 hours on low. I served it over white rice and sprinkled cheese over the top. This was super easy to make and tasty too!  The peppers and onions really came out great after cooking in the crock pot!

Now for dessert.....  Ben and I went apple picking last week, so I decided to do some baking with the apples before they go bad.  I found a recipe online for apple bread and wanted to try it http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/apple-bread/detail.aspx
I only used 1 cup of apples and I did not use nuts.  When I mixed everything together the mixture seemed strange to me (almost like a dough vs. a liquid mixture), so I added some milk to soften it up a bit. I wasn't sure if I was doing it right, but wanted to give it a try!  I only made 1 loaf and had a bit left over to make some mini muffins.

I baked the loaf for 45 minutes because I wanted to make sure it had baked all the way through. The inside was very moist, so it was hard to tell even with using a toothpick.  I cooked the muffins for about 30 minutes and they were much easier to test. However, both the apple bread and muffins came out delicious!!

Stay tuned next week for pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie from scratch!! We went pumpkin picking as well and once Halloween is over I will cut them up for baking. I'll also come up with a main course as too!

I'd love to hear your comments and/or suggestions for recipes you'd like to try! Enjoy your week!