Apple Crisp

One of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving (and Christmas for that matter) has been the pie! Oh I love pie! My favorite? Apple crisp - especially warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream melting over the top! BUT, I also know that apple crisp is FULL of sugar and fat (at least the recipe I have).

I have been eating Healthy Choice meals now and then and they have a wonderful oatmeal topping for their apple crisp. I figured if it was part of this meal, I should be able to find a recipe online for a healthy apple crisp topping. I could skip the crust, put the crisp part on top, and be good to go! Every recipe I found had butter in it! I looked at the ingredient list on the box - NO BUTTER!

So, I decided to try my own recipe using the ingredients listed on the box. And I must say, it turned out decent. It wasn't great, but it is a good substitute. Don't get me wrong, this recipe is definitely NOT calorie free. It is LOADED with sugar. BUT it has NO fat and lots FEWER calories than the real thing!

1 jar apple pie filling
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp dark Karo syrup
1 Tbsp honey
1 cup rolled oats
butter spray

***REVISION FROM ORIGINAL POST***
To help crisp up the topping (and keep it crisper longer) bake the topping for 1 1/2 to 2 hours at 225 degrees. Turn every half hour. I sprayed the topping with butter spray, cooked if for 1/2 hour, turned it and then sprayed it again (so the bottom also got coated). This also seems to improve the flavor quite a bit. Cool.

Pour and spread the pie filling into an 8x8 baking dish (sprayed with cooking spray). Combine sugar, syrup and honey in saucepan and cook over medium heat until well mixed. Add oats and stir until well coated. Remove from heat and spread over apple filling. Spray the topping with butter spray. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

The ingredients list also had molasses but I didn't have any. I think it would probably have been better with a touch of molasses but I can't say for sure!

Halloween should be outlawed!

This is a picture of about HALF the candy my kids brought home.

Can I just say that when you have five children, all young enough to go trick or treating, you end up with A LOT of candy after Halloween is over?!?! I have not done so well with staying out of my kids treats! I have to say that the candy I have eaten has still been within my daily points, BUT I would be better off using my points on healthier options. I have actually done pretty good this year with staying away from treats. I hadn't thought about Halloween. I stay away from treats because I don't buy them! Thanks to Halloween, we are now stocked!!

Every year, we let our kids pick out a certain number of their favorite treats. The rest of the treats go in a "community bowl" for everyone to share. This stash usually last us well into the next calendar year because I usually only let my kids have a piece or two a day. After the newness of it wears off, it goes down to a few pieces a week. BUT this also means that there is candy at my house for a long time!!

Some people say just to let the kids have at and get it over with. But I feel like that teaches them to binge eat. I'd rather teach them that it is still okay to have treats as long as they do it in moderation. Now I guess I need to move on from just keeping the treats away, to having the willpower to not eat them even when they are around. I will admit, if I can gain that willpower, going out to restaurants and parties will be MUCH easier!

Wednesday and Thursday

Breakfast: 8 oz Frusion, 1/2 cup milk, 1 oz cereal (6 points)
Snack: 1/2 cup carrots, 4 oz yogurt, 1 oz granola (3 points)
Lunch: tortilla shell, 1/2 cup refried beans, 1 cup lettuce (5 points)
Snack: V-8, snack pack (2 points)
Dinner: 1 fish patty, 3 oz fries, 1 cup broccoli, 1 cup milk (8 points)
Snack: ice cream sandwich, fiber chewables (2 points)

Again, the beans were only 2 points and I budgeted 3 (I do my menu a week at a time).

Did pretty good yesterday....okay, until I made a birthday cake. That is my weakness! If I am making a cake, I can't help but take a bite (or two, or ten), and eat a bite (or two...) or frosting. Ugh! Yeah, then today was my "free day." We (my husband and I) decided that one day a month, we would have a free day that we don't count points (just so we don't go totally insane). We went to an all-you-can-eat buffet and actually did pretty good. I ate more than I should have but I didn't eat very much during the day because I knew I would be eating a lot for dinner (and that was even knowing I could technically eat anything I wanted all day).

I even had cake and ice cream but decided the ice cream really wasn't that good so rather than just eat it to eat, I dumped it down the sink. I was very proud of myself for that one! Right now, I keep thinking, I could eat a candy bar because today is free, but I don't really even want one! AND, I even exercised today! Woohoo! Okay I am totally justifying my eating way to much at dinner but what can I say? I really didn't do...too....horrible...Just not really great! But it sure was yummy! I only got two plates and didn't fill either one. And I only had one dessert, ...and one soda. Okay, I really sucked it up tonight. So now I need to rock the house the rest of the week. Which reminds me, I need to make up a new menu....