Apple Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 4 cups thinly sliced apples

• 2 (3 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9x13 inch pan. Spread apples evenly over the bottom of the pan.
2. Beat eggs with mixer until thick and light. Combine sugar and oil and add to eggs.
3. Stir together flour, cinnamon, soda and salt. Add to egg mixture and beat in. stir in nuts and vanilla. Batter will be very thick.
4. Spread batter over apples in the pan. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool. Spread with Cream Cheese Icing.
5. To make Cream Cheese Icing: Beat cream cheese until fluffy. Beat in 1/4 cup butter, then beat in confectioners sugar and lemon juice. Spread over cooled cake. Refrigerate.

Prep Time	Cook Time	Ready In
15 min	60 min	75 min

Servings	Calories	Fat	Carbs	Protein
1	285	14	37	3

Day 25: Bento Days

Today's Menu:

• Lasagna (crock pot style)
• salad with ranch
• homemade applesauce
• apple cake with cream cheese frosting

Cost per lunch:  47¢

Kid Rating:       

The kids gave this one an almost 5 star rating! I’m sure if we had something like chicken nuggets in place of the salad it would have made the perfect lunch! However, we went the healthy route and at least they tried the salad, with my daughter eating most of it! Everything else, was empty when they came home.

The lasagna was cooked in the crock. I simply added in 1 jar of pasta sauce, 1 16oz container of ricotta, spices to taste, 1/2 lb of ground beef, crumbled and cooked, some onions and mushroom, and then wide whole wheat noodles. I let it cook for 4 hours on medium heat in the crock and they loved it! Top with parmesan or mozzarella and you can’t tell it wasn’t true cooked in the oven lasagna! And for a tenth of the work involved.

You can find the recipe for the cake on my Recipes page.

Prep Time	Cook Time	Ready In
5 min	0 min	5 min

Servings	Calories	Fat	Carbs	Protein
1	425	23	49	18

Apple Cinnamon Scones

 

Prep Time	Cook Time	Ready In
15 min	15 min	30 min

Servings	Calories	Fat	Carbs	Protein
1	147	4	25	29

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole wheat white flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup butter, chilled
• 2 apples - peeled, cored and shredded (I use my food processor here)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Measure flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, and salt and cinnamon into a large bowl. Cut in butter or margarine until crumbly. Add shredded apple and milk. Stir to form a soft dough.
2. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead gently 8 to 10 times. Pat into two 6-inch circles. Place on greased baking sheet. Brush tops with milk, and sprinkle with remaining sugar and cinnamon. Cut each into 6 pie-shaped wedges.
3. Bake at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) for 15 minutes, or until browned and risen.

Day 24: Bento Days

The kids liked this one! We had chicken enchiladas the night before, which all I do is throw chicken pieces, 6oz of cream cheese, and 16 oz of salsa in the crock and let it simmer all day, and then wrap it it in a tortilla and bake for 10 min.

We had 2 left over and what better way to use up leftovers than for lunches! I also had made apple and cinnamon scones (you can find the recipe on the recipe page) because of the mass quantities of apples I have in my house, and my daughter loved them! I used larger chunks of apples, but you can put yours in a food processor if you like and make true scones.

 

 

 

 

Today's Menu:

• Chicken and cheese enchiladas
• Yogurt
• rice
• apple and cinnamon scones

Cost per lunch:  89¢

Kid Rating:      

Prep Time	Cook Time	Ready In
30 min	25 min	30 min

Servings	Calories	Fat	Carbs	Protein
1	562	11	85	29

Day 23: Bento Days

 

 

Today's Menu:

• Chili with Bat-cheese
• celery sticks with ranch
• kiwi
• multigrain bread

Cost per lunch:  54¢

Kid Rating:  

 

The kids weren’t too happy with this one. Apparently cold chili isn’t as desirable as hot chili. They did eat it, but grumbled later.

 

 

 

 

 

Prep Time	Cook Time	Ready In
5 min	0 min	5 min

Servings	Calories	Fat	Carbs	Protein
1	368	10	65	9