Apple Stew

Wednesday is done, two of my classes are cancelled today, and no class on tomorrow...so life is good as always, apart from the fact that our carbon monoxide alarms kept going off last night, so I didn't get a lot of sleep. On a different note, I experimented with a crockpot that we have in the apartment now for the very first time yesterday, and it was amazing! So easy to use, and I loved coming home to cooked food :-) I can't wait to play around with it more and hopefully come up with some recipes along the way too. I threw some kabocha squash with carrots in there today and the vegetables had such a great taste and texture to them. I was also able to go grocery shopping to this place called Aldi, which is kind of like a discount grocery store that I just found out is owned as the same people as Trader Joe's (which happens to be my favorite place ever). I was got a butternut squash, an acorn squash, a bag of sweet potatoes, and a pineapple for 6 dollars!! It was awesome and I really don't see cost as a valid reason that would prevent people from eating well. I also made a trip to Costco which is always one of my favorite activities :-) I can only buy certain things there because of their size, and others I freeze or my roommate and I split. I bought celery, Greek yogurt, bacon, egg whites, almond milk, and ground turkey to name a few, most of which I use almost on a daily basis so I know that the food will never pass its expiration date. Wasting food is one of my biggest pet peeves....
I also got a bag of brussel sprouts to roast, because they have never been my favorite, so I want to see if I can change my opinion about them now that I like a lot more food than I used to.  Anyways, earlier this week, I made a stew for dinner so that I would have something to eat throughout the week. I wanted to get into that fall mood, so this is what I came up with and it was AWESOME. Seriously, I highly recommend that you make this now. And it would probably work with turkey, chicken, or beef too. If you really want to use your imagination, you can add other vegetables (hint squash) but keep the apples. Or add more. Best part is, I'm sure I will be making this in the crock pot next time!!

Apple Stew (with pork, onions, sweet potato, and zucchini)

Ingredients:

• 4 small apples
• 1.5 lbs pork tenderloin, cut into cubes
• 2 onions
• 3 small sweet potatoes
• 1 large zucchini
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Cut up your vegetables into manageable, approximately cube-shaped pieces
2. Pour olive oil in a large pot and add in chopped onions. Simmer over medium heat until onions start to get translucent. If the onion start to stick, add approximately 1/2 cup of water to the pot.
3. Add in meat, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cover, lowering the heat to low. Stir occasionally and cook for about 15 minutes.
4. Add in sweet potatoes, and continue to cook for 5-7 minutes.
5. After the sweet potatoes start to soften, add in the zucchini and apples.
6. Let cook for about 5 more minutes, stirring on occasion and adding salt/pepper according to desired taste. Once the apples, zucchini, and sweet potatoes are softened and the meat is tender, remove from heat.

Serve by itself, over zucchini noodles, or topped with melted cheese :) enjoy!! And let me know how it turns out of course.