Way too domestic! and a recipe!

I'm not sure what's happening to me.  Lately I have been getting way too domestic!  And I think it's all John's fault!  From the time my ex and I split, about 5 years ago, little by little I found myself cooking less and less often.  My kids were busy with school and work and plays and friends.  I'd often come home from work only to find they had already gotten themselves something to eat.  Then Tim went away to college and Dani got a job and was in plays at school and had dance class, and I prepared dinner less and less often.  I started to purchase foods that Dani could make for herself.  So, over time, I cooked less and less. Now Dani, too, is away at college.  

Whenever I'd get together with John, he'd tell me I worked so hard and he didn't think I should cook and we should go out for dinner.  OH Baby!  Twist my arm!!  So, we became one of those "older couples" who eat meals out quite often.  

Everything was pretty good until this summer.  Then, John's cancer came back and the treatment regimen required him to miss a lot of work this summer.  I also missed a day here and there.  It didn't help that the economy sucked and people didn't eat out as often and the tips were not as good.  (Oh God!  This isn't supposed to sound like a boo hoo, poor little me post!  It's not!  I swear!)

Anyway, when John got out of the hospital after the stem cell transplant (doing beautifully, by the way), we had almost no money for any kind of splurging.  We bought some groceries (thank god my alimony check arrived a few days after he got home), and I started preparing meals.  That week that I was on vacation and John was here recuperating, I made breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.  I cooked (well, prepared....sometimes we'd have sandwiches for lunch or cereal for breakfast).  I bet I made more meals that week than I did all the previous year!

So this brings me to today.  A week or so ago, the grocery store had a buy one, get one free on pork roasts!  I bought 2, cut each one in half and froze them.  And today I made pork and sauerkraut!  I bought pierogis to have with them and I had applesauce in the fridge.  It was quite a yummiful meal if I do say so myself!

Then, I read Garret's blog about this wonderful dessert he had at a friend's house the other night and he included the recipe (and I will too)  It was Country Apple Dumplings.  Easy easy easy to make! I checked out the recipe on Allrecipes.com and decided I could probably get the calories down from 330.  And I did!

I substituted Splenda for the sugar and Diet Mountain Dew for the regular Mountain Dew.  That brought the recipe down to about 200 calories!  OK, I did use real butter and I did use the regular crescent rolls (only a 20 calorie difference and regular was 1 carb less than reduced fat (12 vs 11).  So this dessert ended up to be maybe 15 carb grams with no sugar (so great for diabetics!)  Garret had his with ice cream, but I didn't think about that until just now.  I could have bought Carb Smart Vanilla or another no sugar added, sweetened with Splenda ice cream!  Darn!

John and I just ate the dumplings and they're really really yummy!!  Now to figure out how to get rid of the melted butter and reduce it even more!


Here's the recipe in it's original state!

**NOTE: If you do use Splenda instead of sugar and you use butter like the recipe calls for, try adding the Splenda slowly.  It got kind of clumpy when I added it to the melted butter.  I'm going to try spraying the dumpling with cooking spray and sprinkling the Splenda/cinnamon combo over them next time.  It probably could cut another 100 calories out of the recipe!

Country Apple Dumplings

SUBMITTED BY: docswife  PHOTO BY: Tricia Jaeger 

"Oh my Goodness!! Who knew that fresh apples, crescent roll dough, and citrus soda could make such a wonderful treat!"

RECIPE RATING:

Read Reviews (300)

Review/Rate This Recipe

---

PREP TIME	20 Min
COOK TIME	45 Min
READY IN	1 Hr 5 Min
Original recipe yield 16 dumplings

SERVINGS

 (Help)

Servings

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

• 2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored
• 2 (10 ounce) cans refrigerated crescent roll dough
• 1 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle Mountain Dew ™

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
2. Cut each apple into 8 wedges and set aside. Separate the crescent roll dough into triangles. Roll each apple wedge in crescent roll dough starting at the smallest end. Pinch to seal and place in the baking dish.
3. Melt butter in a small saucepan and stir in the sugar and cinnamon. Pour over the apple dumplings. Pour Mountain Dew™ over the dumplings.
4. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.