Whole Wheat Apple Cake

A trip to the orchard left us with a peck of apples. We will eat them all eventually, but I decided to use a few for baking. This cake is delicious, not too sweet and therefore mostly guilt free (until you eat half the pan). It's even good with milk for breakfast.

Recipe from cuisinebymae at food.com.

2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 apples
2/3 cup milk
1 cup walnuts or 1 cup pecans, chopped (I left these out. Don't really care for nuts in my baked goods)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 13x9-inch baking pan. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir in nuts, if using. Cream butter and sugar together. Stir in eggs, one at a time, mixing well. Stir in vanilla. Peel, core, and chop apples. You should have about 3 cups. Stir dry mixture and milk alternately into creamed mixture, starting and ending with dry mixture, making 3 additions of dry and 2 of milk. Fold in the chopped apples.
Bake in the greased and floured 13x9-inch baking pan in a preheated 350°F oven for about 35 minutes, or until a tester poked in the centre comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in the pan before cutting. Cut into 32 pieces (or 4, whatever works for you).

Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/whole-wheat-apple-cake-157960#ixzz1aVRm5AZU

Slow Cooker Taco Soup

I combined two recipes from Allrecipes to create this taco soup for a potluck. It was delicious!

1 lb ground beef or turkey
some chopped onion
some chopped green pepper
taco seasoning
1 can kidney beans, undrained
1 can black beans, undrained
1 can corn, drained
1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained
1 can tomato sauce
a pinch of brown sugar
some powdered ranch dressing mix, or a squirt of ranch dressing
a tomato sauce can of water

Brown the beef with the onion and green pepper, then season with the taco seasoning. Dump it in the slow cooker, then add the rest of the ingredients. If it looks like it needs more water or more of something else, go for it - it's versatile! Cook on low 4-6 hours, or more. Serve with sour cream, shredded cheese, and tortilla chips.