Apple Betty

I love fall! My friend Kristin said she's come to realize she loves the first part of every new season. I'd have to completely agree! I do love every season and the fresh start it brings. (Although, I love all of summer!) I love the cooler, crisp air of fall. I love the smells associated with fall -- cinnamon and apples in particular.
I stumbled upon this recipe last week and decided I just had to make it. The twins and I went to a local store that was having apples on sale for 77 cents/lb and I loaded up.
Apple Betty
4 cups thinly sliced apples (peeled if you want, I didn't bother)
1/4 cup orange juice
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Dash each cloves and allspice
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9 inch pie plate.

Mound sliced apples in the pie plate. Sprinkle with orange juice.

In a medium bowl, mix the flour, sugars, spices, and salt. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Scatter over the apples.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes. Serve warm.Rylee was so cute because we have an "Auntie Betty" at GFA. She kept talking about Auntie Betty as we were getting the dessert ready and then enjoying it's sweet goodness. My kids love Auntie Betty and they loved thinking about her as we were enjoying the ooey-gooey apples and topping with ice cream.

Pizza Meatloaf

I have to admit that every time I have this dish prepared in my freezer, for some reason I think "I guess we'll have that meatloaf for dinner". Then, I prepare it and we all love it to pieces. I don't know what I have a ho-hum attitude about it. Maybe there's just something about the name meatloaf. The loaf part makes me think of some processed, bland, nastiness.

However, this meatloaf is far from bland and always gets rave reviews around our house. Even my picky eater who dislikes ground beef will eat her helping with little fuss. I usually serve this dish with mashed potatoes and a green veggie. This week we had asparagus (rolled in olive oil and sprinkled with salt & pepper, then roasted in the oven at 375 degrees for about 12-15 minutes). That same pickier eater also devoured the asparagus, claiming "I love these things!" It was a good dinner that night.
One more thing to note: This recipe makes two dinner portions. Half of this recipe feeds our family (2 adults, 3 young children) with 2 portions left over for the next day.

INGREDIENTS

1 envelope onion soup mix
2 lbs lean ground beef
1 lb bulk breakfast sausage
3 eggs
1 small green bell pepper, chopped
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup pasta sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

DIRECTIONS

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Divide the mixture into two batches. Place each batch in a quart size freezer bag.

To cook, thaw the meat completely. Place in a loaf pan. Top with 1/4 - 1/2 cup pasta sauce. Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes. Top with 1/2 - 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese and cook 5 additional minutes. Let stand before serving.