Tasty Tuesday-Apple Cake

Here's the thing, I love pumpkin-everything as much as the next gal. Really I do.
But I have to pace myself. If I start on the pumpkin train now, by the time Thanksgiving comes around I'll hardly be able to look at the pumpkin pie. And we can't have that ya'll.
My solution? I like to begin the Fall season with apple-everything. I mean apples, brown sugar and cinnamon-y goodness is just too good to skip over right?
And this apple cake my friends is a definite win. It has been passed down through many, many generations in my family. Any and every family gathering, I can guarantee you this cake will be on the table. Every time. Unless you showed up late and every last crumb has been devoured. In which case I sympathize with you-I've been there. It is also super simple.

I made this cake last weekend, and between 2 adults it was gone in 2 days. Shameful. We love it not only for dessert but for a sweet breakfast also. You can absolutely serve this as a wonderful dessert or a sweet brunch side dish. No matter how you serve this, just make sure you do!

Here's what you'll need:

Printable Recipe

2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
2 eggs
3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
3 cups thinly sliced & chopped apples (there's no exactness to this, just make them bite-size)
2 tsp. vanilla

Begin by mixing the oil, sugar and eggs together.

Add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

Finally add the apples and vanilla.

Delicious much?

Simply grease a 9x13 dish and pour in

Warning: this cake batter is very, very thick. I still vividly remember the very first time I attempted to make this cake on my own instead of just helping with women in the family make it. It was a cold snowy day early on in our marriage and I had decided to surprise my cute sleeping husband by letting him wake up to the smell of this delicious cake baking. Instead he woke up to a teary wife because I was so positive I had ruined it somehow because it was so thick. Much to my surprise, it came out just as perfect as ever. So please-don't have a cooking meltdown like myself-it's supposed to be that thick.

Pop this in a 325 degree oven for 1 hour. Start checking this at the 45 minute mark. It's a very moist cake and you want to keep it that way!!

Printable version found here!

Enjoy!!!

Linking up with: Make Ahead Meals for Busy Moms, Emily, Mandy, Chef-in-Training, and Pint Sized Baker.

Hello there

Hi friends. I've missed this place so! I've got lots of thoughts swirling around so this is sure to be a bit random.

Church was incredible this week. So many things have stuck with me but this one in particular:
Heaven is full of answers for prayers that were simply never prayed..
I shudder to think.

I am embracing this Fall season fully with a heart of gratitude. In our home we don't do Halloween, we do Thanksgiving for the whole Fall season. (By all means, please don't see this statement as an "attack" for those who celebrate Halloween. This is just what we feel is best for our family.) These days I am so grateful for this season of cooler weather and a few moments to pause and remember to have a heart of gratitude. I won't lie-I'm also loving the decorating, cozy Fall candles, and apple cider.

Colorado-oh how I ache for you. Tears well up in my eyes every time I see the news, I'm praying for you all.

Last week was a crazy week, Mr. and I were practically passing each other coming and going. The good news about that? I did not mind a bit all the football we watched over the weekend because at least I got to watch it in the arms of the man I adore.

Do you remember this post? The part about following a big dream and taking a big risk? Well I'm doing that. That's why I've been a little mia around here lately. I'm pouring all my heart and soul into this and covering it in prayer and hoping for the best. I will be announcing it here soon and I'm so excited to share it with you all.

Happy Monday friends. May we chase hard after Him, encourage each other daily, and love extravagantly.

Tasteful Tuesday Party

Today I am co-hosting one of my personal favorite weekly Blog Parties! If you're new here I'm so happy to have you! Leave me a comment if you're a new follower and I'll be happy to follow back! Meet Emily from Nap-Time Creations:

Hi readers of New Mrs. Adventures! I'm Emily and I blog over at Nap-Time Creations. I'm so excited to be hosting my weekly link party with Stephanie today{Tasteful Tuesdays}, is a link party that runs every week from Monday evening until Friday morning, and every other week the party is also be posted on an additional blog..... so MORE exposure for YOU and your TALENT! We all like more exposure right? So link on up and get your stuff shown on TWO great blogs

I post features on Nap-Time Creations each weekend. Usually around a theme... some recent round ups have included:


Home Décor Ideas

Nothing Says Summer like…

&

Back to School Ideas

You can link up on either blog and still be featured! 


Follow Nap-Time Creations so you'll never miss another party!


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Scripture Sunday

Wednesday Words

Lately God has been working on my heart with relationships in my life. I've been trying to pay more attention to the way I act when difficult circumstances arise, the words I speak AND how I speak them over those closest to me, the length (or lack thereof) of my fuse when I'm stressed or exhausted. It's a difficult situation. These are the people in my "corner", who know my the best and accept me at my worst. I have a husband who is a Godly man, who loves me well and treats me with such honor and kindness.
I have a mother who I have an uncommon bond with. She is a mix between my best friend and hero and the hours (that probably added up to years) that she has spent on her knees over my life have shaped me into the woman I am today. Forever grateful.
I have a group of best girl friends that I have done life with since we were 12 years old. They have stood beside me through the darkest days of my life, and they each took their place beside me on my wedding day as the best bridesmaids a girl could have. I know what a gift that is, to have friendships that contain memories that range from sleepovers where we laughed and prank called the boys we had crushes on, to going through teenage heartbreak, thinking we were going to just die when we all went off to college, and now getting to still doing life together living just few miles apart.

While these people are some of the greatest blessings in my life I worry that because they allow me to be so "myself" all the time, I let my guard down too much. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting a life of "fake-ness", but we also have to remember that our initial responses can often be of our fleshly desires and feelings. When I've had a bad day I know that I can be real with these people and gripe and complain and even sometimes treat them badly or snap at them unintentionally.
But I just really don't want to.

Whoever would foster love covers over an offense, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends. -Proverbs 17:9

A few mornings ago I read that verse on the back porch and it stopped me in my tracks. Instantly God reminded me of this area that He has been working with me on.

The word foster means to: "encourage or promote the development of (something, typically something regarded as good)".
Let me tell you-in a world of hate, of confusion, of evil, of brokenness, of strife and abuse if there's anything I want to "encourage or promote" it's love. Even if it means letting something go that really bothered or hurt me.

This is something that is easier with people you don't know as well, or just aren't as close with. But it's the people in your corner, where it becomes really difficult with, because we're more transparent with them. Praying we rise up and let God work through us and in us to foster the love He put there in us to begin with.


Linking up with: Retha

Tasty Tuesday-King Ranch Chicken

Let's talk casseroles.
I have a thing for them. I know a lot of people don't, and I get that.
But for me? It's like an entire meal in a dish. And that's just delicious. Especially if it's got melted cheese on top.

So today's recipe is one of mine and the Mr.'s favorite casserole recipes. Every now and then on the weekends I like to bake a couple of whole chickens then just cut them up and have a lot of cooked chicken ready to go for the week in anything from casseroles for dinners, or in pasta dishes or even as chicken salad for quick and yummy lunches. Whenever I do that this is always, guaranteed one of the dishes that come from that week.

Here's what you'll need!

Printable Recipe

2 cups cooked chicken, cubed
Flour tortillas (I'm sure corn would work as well I've just never tried them)
1 cream of chicken soup
1 cream of mushroom soup
1 can ro-tel (I'm a whimp, so I go for mild)
1 green pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
Shredded cheddar cheese

Begin by melting half a stick of butter in a skillet over medium high heat, then add the chopped onion and green pepper.

Let the peppers and onions cook until soft and primarily translucent, about 5-10 minutes. Then add both soups and ro-tel.

Mix these together and add the 2 cups of cooked chicken. Then mix well again.

After everything is mixed together it's time to start layering! In an ungreased 9x13 begin by layering a single layer of tortillas, then the soup/chicken mixture, then shredded cheese. Repeat once more.

Simply bake covered at 350 for 30-40 minutes, until hot and bubbly. The last 10 minutes remove the foil so that the top layer of cheese gets nice and golden. So delicious! Hope you love it!

Printable version found here!


Linking up with: Emily, Mandy, Chef in Training, Darlene, and Good Tastes Tuesday Recipe Party.

"Crave" Week 7

Hi guys! I missed being here so much last week, but I know it was just the thing I needed. Emotionally and spiritually I'm feeling so renewed and refreshed, like I spent some time actually spending time on what I needed to spend time on. There's a dream I'm chasing these days, that has been on my heart for so many years that I don't really remember life before it. Anyone else know what I'm talking about there? Nonetheless, the past few weeks I've felt God's leading to really start pursuing it. Like for reals. So I've been doing my best to do just that. And friends let me tell you-I don't remember the last time I've felt so excited/scared-out-of-my-ever-lovin-mind about something. Isn't life with Jesus the biggest blast? Soon I will fill you in on all the details, for now let's get along with "Crave"!!!

Welcome to Week 7!! Make sure to visit Crystal & Rebecca's pages, as well as link up at the bottom to join up.

Chapter 11: "Stinkin', Rotten, Horrible, No Good Day"

I've probably said this before (or numerous times before) but this chapter shook up some things in my heart and in my thinking that were desperate to be shaken up. Anyone else? Just as we "eat to celebrate" we eat when times are difficult too-I am so, so guilty on this one. I am so ashamed to say that there are times I know that when something bad happens, no matter how big or small, I reach for food before God. I shudder to think. Don't get me wrong I do turn to God, but more often than not I turn to food first. Just like the story that Lysa opens with in this chapter though, the comfort isn't real, it's temporal at best and leaves us in more guilt and more of a mess than what led us to that bad eating decision in the first place!

This is the cycle that I have been in hundreds of times and just like she says in the book, the only way we have a chance of stopping it is a plan. A part of that plan is realizing that the reason we are reaching for food is to satisfy us-to meet a need that only God can meet. I loved how she shared how she made a plan to combat those times of intense temptations by writing out the Old Lie, the New Truth, and the Favorite Verse.

Chapter 12: "The Curse of the Skinny Jeans"

This chapter was so transparent of Lysa and I really loved and appreciated that. As she begins talking about how good it felt to finally be able to fit into her skinny jeans but how that excitement was short lived, it served to remind us that our happiness really isn't tied to our weight. We will still deal with struggles on both sides of the battle.

"We are taught to remain in God's love so that we won't tie our happy to anything but God. So that our joy will be complete. Complete. As in not lacking anything. Complete. As in filled up to the brink with joy no matter if we are wearing our skinny jeans or not. Complete. As in satisfied with a fullness we can't get any other way. Can you imagine how beautiful it would be to live as a complete person?" (123)

This really got me thinking. How many days of my life have I spent living as an incomplete person. I hate that thought. What I hate even more is to remember that I didn't have to! I had another choice. The same is true today. If I will stop running to other things or people to fill me up and satisfy me I really know that I don't have to spend another day going through life not whole, incomplete.