Happy Thanksgiving!

 ~Happy Thanksgiving from Dani’s Dish!~

For those of us who are health conscious throughout the year, thanksgiving can be a rough day- we get extremely bloated, have tummy aches, and often suffer from a much deserved food coma.  How can we avoid this awful feeling? Well, it’s actually quite simple. Thanksgiving is all about abundance, however that doesn’t mean we need to go crazy! The average adult consumes 3,000 calories and ~229 g of fat in one Thanksgiving meal! That’s insane. A 160-pound person would have to run at a moderate pace for four hours, swim for five hours or walk 30 miles to burn off these calories! Here are some tips:

• PACE YOURSELF. Try everything, but only small amounts of each item.
•  Watch your portions and try to only fill up one plate if possible. If you end up with two plates, well, that’s ok… just don’t go for three!
• Try to think of this meal as any other—would you really eat three plates of food for one dinner?? I really hope not!
• Exercise the morning before the big meal. Even if it’s a small jog, a quick 15 minutes on the elliptical, etc. It is likely that you won’t want to eat as much as you would have if you didn’t work out!
• Fill up on the turkey and veggie side dishes rather than the creamy/high calorie dishes.
• ENJOY yourself and don’t worry too much… you can always be extra healthy tomorrow :)

My philosophy is that you need to have a good balance between healthy and indulgent foods. In honor of Turkey Day, I decided to make a homemade apple pie to send home with my boyfriend for him and his family to enjoy with their meal. Not only was it really fun to make, but it was also pretty easy (not to mention it contains an abundance of my FAVORITE food- apples!).  I used a combination of granny smith and golden delicious for this pie.  I hope they enjoy it!

**WARNING: This recipe is NOT a Dani’s “Healthy” Dish.  If you’re looking for a rich, indulgent apple pie, this is where it’s at.  Only consume a small serving so you can enjoy all of the other delicious foods without putting yourself into a food coma.

                                                   Homemade Apple Pie

Ingredients:

Pie Crust

•  ¼ cups all purpose flour
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp sugar
• 8 tbsp (1 stick) very cold cutter, cut into pieces
• 2-4 tbsp ice cold water

 Filling

• 1 ¼ cup all purpose flour
• ¼ cup packed light-brown sugar
• ¾ tsp salt
• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 8-10 granny smith/golden delicious apples
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon

 

Directions:

§     -To make dough, combine flour, salt and sugar in bowl. Add butter and pinch with your fingers until its just mixed. Sprinkle with ice water and mix until it forms a disk. Wrap tightly in plastic and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hr.

§     -Unwrap dough after 1 hr and place on large piece of floured wax paper. Roll dough to a 14-inch round. Using paper, lift and wrap dough around rolling pon and carefully unroll over a 9-inch pie plate. Gently fit into bottom and up sides of plate.

§  - Trim overhang to 1 inch and crimp edges to make a uniform edge. Refrigerate until chilled for about 1 hr.

§    -Preheat oven for 375 degrees

§    -To make crumb topping combine 1 cup flour, butter, brown sugar, walnuts and ¼ tsp salt in a bowl. Work with fingers until large clumps form.

  -Place lemon juice in a large bowl. Peel, core, and slice apples, transferring htem to the bowl as you work. Add sugar, cinnamon, ¼ cup flour, and ½ tsp salt- toss to combine. -Transfer apple mixture into pie crust, pressing firmly.

 Bake 45 minutes, then sprinkle apple filling with crumb topping. Continue to bake until golden and bubbling, 30-45 minutes. Cool and serve!