Apple Butter...yum!

So I know that I'm a little behind the curve on this: but despite the 75 degree weather today, I was craving some winter-weather apple butter.  I have never made apple butter, or for that matter any kind of canning or jarring anything! So as a newbie, I was quite surprised at how simple it is (though very time consuming) and how wonderful the outcome was :)

Peeled, cored gala apples

In the food processor to be finely diced

Into the Crockpot

Mixed with 2 cups sugar (splenda), cinnamon, salt, spices

Ta Da--APPLE BUTTER!

The recipe called to cook the apples all day--and I started wayy too late in the day to make the recipe actually be convenient and make sense so they became overnight-all day apples!  I put all the apples in around 2 pm on high for an hour, then the recipe called for stirring it over the next 9 hours on low and then take the lid off and let it go for another hour on low...but the thing is that I go to bed around 10 so I had to cheat a little--I turned it on warm when I went to bed and by 6 this morning--presto, apple butter :)

There is absolutely nothing better than waking up to a slow-cooked meal--or anything that is already made and warm (even if it is 75 degrees out).  I had to rush out of the house, but had time to put some of the delicious warm apple butter on a bagel topped with two eggs--talk about an amazing start to my day!!

Sammy to Go

To add another extra treat to my day: my morning class ended 20 minutes early--so I had time to attend body attack aka my new obsession :)! I can't say enough about this class it is very intense cardio, but really fun so you don't even realize you are working out and boom the time is over :) If you haven't tried it--you really should!