Dessert For Dinner

September 26th, 2009 | Posted by Alison Spath in Parenting

Maxine and I have had a sweet little day together. We shopped, she tapped, I smiled, she talked, I listened. I’ve come to realize just how much Ava rules the roost here and poor little Maxagirl often doesn’t get to speak in complete sentences before she’s interrupted by her very intense older sister. It’s easy to see how birth order can play a role in your personality!

We ate lunch before we left to grocery shop to avoid any hungry impulse buys.

Saturday Lunch

A giant salad with home grown alfalfa sprouts and a cup of spicy refried bean soup from yesterday. I was glad I got to take Averie’s Raw Herbalicious Goddess Dressing for a spin again!

I had big plans to make another portobello mushroom pizza tonight, but as dinner time rolled around I realized I was in the mood for something warm and sweet. I’m livin’ it up on a Saturday night I tell ya – let’s have dessert for dinner! When the man is away, the woman will play. And eat dessert without him.

I’ve seen apple desserts in more than one place recently and decided today was the day to see it my own kitchen.

I peeled and chopped 3 crispin apples, tossed in a little agave nectar, cinnamon, nutmeg and a couple of tablespoons of flour. I poured the mixture into the bottom a coconut oiled baking dish.

Once the bowl was emptied I combined about a half cup of rolled oats, more agave, more cinnamon, nutmeg, some hand crushed pecans, a few more tablespoons of flour and about a 1/4 of coconut oil. Stirred until well combined and then layered on top of the apple mix.

Apple Plus Crumble

Apples + Crumble = Apple Crisp Crumble!

Apple Crisp

I baked the apples and crips at 350 for about 45 minutes. Somewhere in that 45 minutes I realized we needed ICE CREAM to go along with my dessert for dinner! I mean come on, if I’m gonna have dessert for dinner – let’s have dessert for dinner!

When I polled Maxine, she was in favor of ice cream. We donned our raincoats and boots and headed out for a trip to the store in search of vanilla ice cream.

Can't Decide

As we were leaving store with ice cream in (her) hand she said “Where’s yours mom?” Nice!

Ben and Jerry's Vanilla

Some of the recipes I looked at before coming up with my own concoction called for as much as 2 cups of sugar. A little agave nectar for sweetness was all this needed, I’m almost shocked it turned out as well as it did. Who needs all that sugar? Well, I guess I do if I needed some ice cream! The oats were pretty crumbly, that was ok with me. When looking to sub butter I chose coconut oil. In hindsight I probably should have used canola in place of coconut oil.

Ice cream for Max, apple bake and ice cream for mommy! At my desk, and now the spoon scraped bowl is still sitting here to my right. Good times.

Apple Crumble at my Desk

Where do you fall in the birth order? I’m an only! I think that is part of the reason why I love watching them interact and think often about how their birth order plays a role in their little personalities. How have your siblings (or lack thereof) shaped who you are today?


Please know that links to Amazon are affiliate links. It doesn’t change the price you pay, but if you buy something from Amazon after following one of the links in my posts, I earn a percentage based commission from Amazon as a part of their affiliate program. This is one of the ways I generate revenue from the posts that I write here. I promise that I only link to items that I truly endorse. You don’t ever have to buy anything, but if you do, thank you for supporting the site and the work I do here.


You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 Both comments and pings are currently closed.

18 Responses

  • Leianna says:

    I’m the oldest of 2 and probably dominated for a while, but when my brother got older he got stronger:)
    Great dinner, I would love it!

  • Libby says:

    Desert for dinner sounds fun. I’m an only child as well. Always had lots of friends over though.
    I think it means I’m not the most patient when the kids argue though as I don’t know what it’s like.

    Libby

  • I’m the oldest. But, my sister had allergy and athsma issues starting before she was a year old. So, her health issues coupled with the 8 year difference gave us each our own voice in the household. Maxine looks so cute in her coat and boots!

  • Lizzy says:

    I love apple crisp! its the best way to use apples, and enjoy them baked other then apple pie, which i actually don’t like. I think i don’t like the crust, where as i love apple crisp because of its crumbly topping that makes me think of granola! Your’s looks so delish Alison!!!

    i’m actually the 3rd child…call me the baby ok! haha. what they say about birth order is fairly true, or so i think atleast! sometimes it makes me mad what they say about the youngest, but whateves i like it! haha

    night girl!

  • Cindy says:

    “how have my siblings shaped who I am today?”
    OH GOOD LORD

    I was a “FIRST” and then Mom re married…than I was MIDDLE…and then baby bro came along…than I WAS ONLY GIRL…and the roles and rank kept changing….

    My Kyle was an ONLY till JJ…but they are 14 years apart so really they are both ONLIES… sorta

    guess I continued the crazy role changes…
    sigh

    how did it shape who I am? CONFUSED perhaps? jk
    I am def the caretaker…the little Mom…and lately it seems I have been re-defining MY role and MY place.

    it’s time!

    So happy you had a Mom N MAX day. I bet it did you both a lot of good!
    hugs…big big HUGS

  • Erin says:

    Yum! I just bought a giant bag of apples today at the orchard so I am so making some sort of apple crisp/muffins/pie/something tomorrow! Looks delish.

    No way! I never would have guessed you were an only child. Two of my very best friends are onlyies. I am the oldest of my sister/brother; I am DEFINITELY the oldest child in a lot of ways. I can be super bossy, take charge in pretty much all situations, and I am very protective of people I love. I really love birth order and learning about where people come from too. So interesting.

  • your apple crisp looks terrific – you’re right, who needs all that sugar? i’m the baby of the family….and i am a bit of a baby, i admit….

  • Woo hoo for not only eating and making (and pluggin) my salad dressing but also my apple crisp. I made it again today..well yesterday but it hit the blog waves today :)

    Dare I say that it is perhaps the best dessert I have ever made.
    http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2009/09/raw-vegan-apple-crumbleagain.html

    I am so happy for you that yours turned out good….and hindsight is 20/20 in coooking, isn’t it. I hear ya.

    Thanks for thinkin of me mama when you posted your eats, I really appreciate that you try my recipes…wow, I am touched for real :)

    xoxo

  • Tay says:

    Niiiiiiice dinner. That’s the way to live up Saturday night.

  • maria says:

    Some days are just dessert for dinner kind of days, aren’t they? And now, after reading your post, I would love a big piece of apple pie or apple crisp. Oh, darn you! :)

  • Julie says:

    Wow that apple crisp looks easy enough for me to make! I don’t like complicated, it unmotivates me. Not only does it make an awesome dinner, but I think it would be a good breakfast too!

    I am the youngest of two. My sister and I are only about 14 months apart. When we were little she was the voice. She did all the talking and I really didn’t mind. Growing up when I finally got my voice at home, I became more dominant…I wasn’t afraid to talk back and she knew how to bite her tounge. Cut to me getting in trouble more than her. School was a different story though, I was super shy and it was hard for me to make friends. My sister got kept back so we were in the same grade and I swear if it wasn’t for her and her outgoing nature I would have never made friends.

  • Ooooh – that apple crisp looks delicious!

    I’m a middle child – a classic middle child! I always had to share a room with one of my sisters; was always in school with one of my sisters. To this day I value my alone time!

  • Jennifer says:

    That apple crisp looks sooo yummy!!

    Sounds like you had a great day with Maxine. I bet she’s all talked out. (haha) She looks so cute in her little raincoat. :)

  • Rebecca says:

    Love the dessert for dinner idea! It looks so good!

  • Heather says:

    I made apple crisp the other day. Didn’t blog about it because it was kind of ugly, but I added almond butter to the crisp part and OMG, it was amazing!

    Poor Ava – I’m the youngest, so I know how it goes. My brother is 8 years older than me and so a lot of my childhood was me never getting a word in (wait, I talked way too much as a kid, so that’s not true) and him running over my barbies with his remote control cars. I wanted to be cool like him SO bad. In fact, I had crushes on all his friends so I remember dressing up in sparkly outfits and wearing lipstick to try to impress them. In retrospect, I realized how messed up this is, but one of his friends was SO CUTE. Now that we’re older, we’re a bit closer, but we have a lot of issues that we’ll be working through for years, I’m sure.

    Glad you got to have a day with her alone! I think it’s important to do that with kids sometimes.

  • shawna says:

    Yum, that looks soooo good! I love apple anything!

    I was the “only” for 16 years and then my half-sister decided to show up.

  • Holly says:

    are you ready for a total therapy session? ummm i am the 2nd of 4 girls, although me and ali (same name!) are both the middle, i am the real middle because she was the baby for 6 years before the little little sissy came along. every stereotype you can think of middle children applies to me. being the middle child has made me stronger, deal with conflict better (and by stronger and deal with conflict, i mean deflect insults/physical pain/torture by my other sisters).

  • A says:

    I’m first born! I have one little sister who never got a word in either! I think that’s one of the things I love about your blog…. reminds me of when I was a kid. My house is splattered with all kinds of unknown boy toys that I can’t relate to…. but my daughter did get her first cabbage patch doll recently. I literally almost cried when we opened it! Hee hee…. oh and your apple bake looks fab!
    -A