Bonus Post-- Recipes with Applesauce

Because I'm excited to be back posting (hopefully) regularly and because so many of you are still coming back to visit even after my long break, today you get a bonus post!  Even better, it's in the form of food.

I made a pretty interesting dinner today, so I figured I would share the recipe for it.  As I don't have a microwave in my apartment, something I think I referenced in my earlier post on onions and garlic, the next easiest way to cook is using a slow cooker or Crock Pot, where I can just throw things in and leave it.

Here's a preview of what today's recipe made, with my awesome Eeyore cookie jar in the background.

Chicken and Applesauce

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts, halved

2 cups applesauce

1/4 cup barbecue sauce

2 tsp. honey

1/2 tsp. lemon juice

The recipe I used also called for 1/2 tsp. of poultry seasoning, which I don't have.  Instead, I used 1/2 tsp. of thyme and 1/4 tsp of parsley.

Steps

First, season the chicken with salt and pepper, then brown in oil for five minutes per side.  Then remove it from the pan, cut it into 1" cubes and move it to the slow cooker.

Mix the rest of the ingredients.  Pour them over the chicken and mix it all well.

Cover and cook on High for 2-3 hours, or until the chicken is tender.  Yum!

I served mine over rice (see below), but it would probably be good over pasta as well or by itself.  I even added carrots and cucumbers on the side.  I feel so healthy!

Of course, then I also did have some of the applesauce cake I made yesterday, which might have ruined it.  Quite delicious though!  Check it out.

I actually can't find the exact recipe I used for it again, but this is the closest approximation.

Applesauce Cake

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup chilled applesauce

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda 

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 

Steps

Cream butter with sugar. Add applesauce; beat well. Stir in flour, soda, and spices. 

Pour the batter into a greased and floured 8 inch square pan. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 40 minutes, or until done. Serve warm. 

Applesauce cake, if frosted, usually has cream cheese frosting or caramel frosting. I didn't have the ingredients for these (you can see this is a trend of sorts with me), so instead, I mixed up something on my own. 

I had some store-bought vanilla frosting, but thought it would be too sweet for this type of cake. So I added to it: 

Ingredients

2 tsps. cinnamon 

Dash of ginger 

Dash of cloves 

2 large spoonfuls of flour (to make it less sweet) 

After mixing these all in, the frosting was less sweet and a bit spicy, making it the perfect topping for a thicker, richer cake like applesauce cake. 

So there's your bonus post for this week.  Let me know how you like these if you try any of them out!