Geeze.  Can’t believe it is Sunday.  Strike that.  I can’t believe Sunday is practically over.

Waaaaaaaa!!!!!

I feel like life is moving along at crazy fast speeds and I’m just flailing my arms about trying to stay afloat.  The good news is I’m taking over a week off of work for Turkey Day. So hopefully that helps to revive me!

This lovely Sunday I woke up and got straight to work destroying my kitchen.

When will I learn to clean as I go?

Never.

This week I pulled BOTH of the slow cookers out of the pantry for some slow cooked sausage and peppers and slow cooked apple crisp deliciousness!

We make sausage and peppers pretty regularly and don’t really get crazy with them.  We simply throw some grilled sausages in the crockpot with a jar of tomato sauce, green peppers, onions, and some seasonings.  You know, garlic garlic garlic and maybe some oregano.

Then we just let everything simmer together until we’re ready to feast.  Soup was BOGO at Harris Teeter this week (HOLLA!), so I nabbed some Chipotle Chicken soup I’ve been wanting to try.

Altogether:

Since I had to pop into work for a few hours today, Jarrod was in charge of throwing everything together.  Holy cow these sausage sandwiches were DELICIOUS.  Absolutely delicious.  I asked Jarrod what seasonings he used for the sauce… his response?  “Ummm… nothing?”

Men.

Thank you Ragu, thank you.

The soup was great as well—way to hook a sister up, Harris Teeter.

The Slow Cooker Apple Crisp was a wee bit more involved, but totally worth it.  I used this Allrecipes.com recipe as my guide, with a few tweaks.  I used three granny smith apples and three red apples.. I always get confused on the red apples.  What are these?  Galas?

First up, mix the following together in a large ziploc baggie or large bowl with lid:

• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 6 apples peeled and sliced (I used 3 granny smith, 3 gala)
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

And give it all a good shimmy shake.

Spray the crock with cooking spray, then toss in the apple mixture.

THEN, in a medium bowl, combine the following:

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp  salt
• 1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces

Use a fork or your hands to combine everything until the butter is dispersed throughout.  I recommend using your hands, of course.  Then sprinkle over top of apples.

Ta-da!

Cook on low for four hours, remove lid half way then cook 1 hour more.  And you’ll get….

A big fat gloppy mess. 

This is NOT ok.

Luckily, my crockpot is oven safe (up to 400 degrees).  So, I popped the crock into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Hooray for crispy topping!

The apples of the bottom of the crock disintegrated down into a delicious chunky applesauce.  A spoonful of the steaming sauce, some chunks of apple and crispy topping from the top of the crock, and a dollop of slow-churned vanilla ice cream….

O…. M…G….

DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The swaps I made to the original recipe nearly cut the calories in half.  Next time I’m going to reduce the sugar more to further healthify the dessert. I’m willing to do several trial runs if necessary 😉

Slow Cooker Apple Crisp

• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 6 apples peeled and sliced (I used 3 granny smith, 3 gala)
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp  salt
• 1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces
• Vanilla ice cream

Step one:  mix the first five ingredients (through lemon juice) together in a large ziploc baggie or large bowl with lid.  Shake the bag/bowl to coat the apples.  Spray the crock with cooking spray, then toss in the apple mixture.

Step two:  in a medium bowl, combine the next seven ingredients (flour through butter).  Use a fork or your hands to crumble the butter into the flour mixture.  Then sprinkle over top of apples.

Step three:  Cook on low for four hours, remove lid half way then cook 1 hour more. 

Step four:  Verify your crock is oven-safe, then place uncovered crock into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes to crisp the topping.  Serve with vanilla ice cream.