Awesome, adaptable recipe!

I have been talking with a few mommy-friends of mine and co-miserating about how hard it is to find new, healthy food options for our growing boys.  It's easy to get some initial foods established once they start to routinely eat solids:  basically, whatever you're eating they can eat it too!  But they eventually get bored with the same menu options all of the time as does mom!  They also start to eat larger portions so you end up needing to make more of whatever it is you're eating.  So, we're all in the same boat:  we need new, tasty, healthy and fairly easy/quick options for breakfast, lunch and dinner that will satisfy baby, mom and dad when he's eating with us! 
As many of you may know, my mother is a fantastic chef.  She is self-taught and really could make great money if she turned her hobby into a job but "that would take the fun out of it" she says.  I did not inherit her kitchen-savvy genes.  I can squeeze out some recipes and now that I'm a SAHM I certainly have more time to practice but I'm certainly not a natural!  If/when I find new things I will start posting them here to share the wealth and you can rest-assured they're not too complicated if I can master them! ;)
I found this recipe on the Rachael Ray show last week, tried it and loved it!  As did Declan!  My favorite part about the recipe is the paste and the apples.  These two elements can be adapted to almost any sandwich you can think of. Use the paste on a grilled turkey and cheese, throw some apple slices in there and you have a whole new thing!  Try it on a tortilla wrap and there's another option!  I'll give you the recipe as she calls for it and then explain some of my adaptations:

Rachael Ray's Apple Cheddar Turnovers:

6 slices whole wheat bread
1 small Gala apple finely diced
nutmeg
salt
lemon juice
1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese finely diced
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1 tbsp. maple syrup
canola cooking spray. 

mix your Dijon Mustard and maple syrup in a bowl.  Mix your diced apple and cheese in a separate bowl.  sprinkle some nutmeg on the apples and cheese, a pinch of salt and squirt a little lemon juice on there.  Mix thoroughly.  Roll out your six slices of bread with a rolling pin.  Spread the syrup/mustard paste on the bread.  Spoon about 1 spoonful of apple/cheese mixture onto the paste and fold over into a triangle.  Pop in the oven on a cookie sheet at 400' for 10 mins or until Golden Brown and ENJOY!

My adaptations:
I add a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar to the apple/cheese mixture. 

I have a "thing" for Pink Lady apples!  I used one of these instead of a Gala.  She said on the show that any apple is fine.  I think a Golden Delicious or even a Grannysmith would be awesome with this recipe!

I tend to like "sweet" things rather than spicy. The Dijon mustard certainly has a bite to it!  So I swapped it out for a Honey mustard (which Rachael said to do on the show if you didn't like the Dijon) and liked it MUCH better!  It still has a little tang to it but without that firey aftertaste of the Dijon. 

The first time I tried rolling out the bread it didn't work that well (they definitely didn't look like the photo lol!) so I made it as a full-sized sandwich with 2 slices of bread  and it worked just fine! I've baked it at 400 for 10 mins and I've also grilled it up in a pan like a grilled cheese and both were delicious!

Just today, I made it with a few slices of roast turkey breast and it was awesome! 

I think next time I try the turkey sandwich idea, I'll "slice" the apple into think sheets rather than dice it into cubes.

I love the cheddar cheese but I'm sure any cheese would work as well.  Monterey jack or a colby jack block??

This is an excellent recipe!  The hardest part is the prep. (slicing the apples and cheese!)  The first time I did it I had enough apple/cheese mix leftover to keep it in the fridge overnight and make the sandwiches again the next day.  With the lemon juice in the mix it keeps the apples from browning.  So it might be ok to make the mixture in bulk and use throughout the week. 

Hope you enjoy! 

Money Saver!

So when I originally decorated our nursery before Declan had even arrived I purchased a $70 4'x6' shaggy green area rug for the floor.  My house is 100% hardwood so I wanted one little area of soft fluffiness for baby to play on!  Loved the rug (dearly actually) until Indiana ate an entire package of bird suet from the neighbor's yard and ever so politely, hocked it up all over the rug.  My parents own a professional carpet and upholstery restoration business and even they couldn't dissolve the putrid, lard vomit from the fluffy fibers.  I was heartbroken as I surrendered my splurgy purchase to the trash.  I thought "I'll buy another one!"  So off to Target I went to replace the rug.  But alas, thanks to outsourcing product production to other countries where people are hand-stitching these things, NONE of the other rugs felt the same or were exactly the same color!  Grrrr!  "Ok," I thought, "I'll find some other type of rug for the room."  I began shopping and was, frankly, astounded at the cost of area rugs!  Even a faux-shag rug online about the same size as the 4'x6' was pricing out at around $400.00!  Ummm, yeah, that's beyond "splurging" for me!
I went out one evening for a run to Marshall's just to poke around and was thinking about the rug.  I looked through their selection and didn't find anything appropriate for a baby's room.  (I don't think he'd appreciate a $250.00 elaborate Oriental).  I had resorted, in my mind, that I would return to Target and just buy one of the same $70 shaggy rugs despite their INFERIORITY to the original one I had purchased. 

Then, as I strolled through the bathroom accessories aisle, I came across these most adorable bath mats!  In a myriad of colors, they were the softest, most fun chenille/microfiber blends!  I thought "what an awesome rug this would be if they made large sizes!"  Some quick research on my phone (God I love technology!) and I realized these were strictly a bath item.  I sat there holding one, falling more and more in love with the feel of this bath mat and the idea came to me:  purchase several, somehow sew them together and have a super soft, fun, decorative and 100% machine washable area rug! 

Each mat was $20 or less.  There were several different brands each carrying different colors.  I chose colors that match his room decor, brought the mats home and began playing with different patterns on the floor.  Because I had purchased different brands, some of the mats were slightly different sizes which made things a little more complicated.  Eventually, I came up with this design which required cutting a large green rug into a small square and trimming about 2" off the end of the brown rug to make it equal size to the yellow and blue rugs. I purchased a large sewing needle and some soft yellow yarn at Michael's.  Slowly and carefully over the course of a week or so, I sewed each rug's finished edge to the finished edge of another rug.  I made sure that all outer edges of the rug were un-cut to prevent fraying.  The edges I did have to cut I made sure I cut a little LESS than actually required so I could sew a little deeper into the edge to prevent fraying there.  So here is the breakdown:

5 chenille/microfiber bath mats:  $20.00 each = $100.00 total
yarn and sewing needle:  $10.00 = $110.00 total
6'x6' size in a typical area rug would normally cost about $350.00 or more!
already successfully machine washed twice saved about $75.00 in professional cleaning costs!

My only suggestion for those who attempt on their own:  wash each mat individually before sewing together.  My yellow rugs are just EVER so slightly less yellow because I washed it for the first time after it was sewn together so the brown and green mats' colors affected the brightness of the yellows.  Not nearly enough to be a problem or require a replacement.  But you are talking to a woman who didn't replace the original green rug with the same thing because the color was different and the softness wasn't the same...I notice these things!  Good luck moms!