Cinnamon Apple Chips

Happy Meatless Monday everyone! I know I haven't been quite on top of posting a new meat-free recipe every Monday, but I hope you are still trying and challenging yourself to go one entire day each week without meat.  Anyone have any comments on their own experience trying Meatless Mondays? I'd love to hear about it!

While procrastinating doing biostatistics homework, I thought I would go ahead and post an easy and delicious recipe for apple chips that I made this weekend (Okay so it's not that exciting of a hearty Meatless Monday recipe, but it's still a tasty snack that will keep you going through a meat-free day!). I eat a lot of apples during this time of year and I'm always looking for creative ways to use them (kind of like my last cabbage post.. ), especially with apples that are starting to go bad or have a few bruises here or there. Applesauce (click here for my recipe) is usually my go-to way to prepare apples if I have a ton that I need to use up, but this weekend I tried making oven-baked apple chips with a few extra apples I had laying around... and I fell in love.   I sliced them up real thin (the thinner the slice, the crispier the chip), sprinkled with some cinnamon and popped them in the oven on really low heat until they got nice and crispy and golden brown. They are great to snack on and to take on-the-go for a super healthy munchie (wayyyyy better than greasy, fatty potato chips.. yuk!). These are soooo good, you will probably want to make more than you think you will want...

CINNAMON APPLE CHIPS 

Ingredients:

(makes about 4-5 cups worth)

3-5 apples, any type

cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 225 degrees. 

2. Cut the apples into chunks around the core (or use an apple corer, if you have one), and slice very thinly. A mandolin is the best option for getting thin, even slices for crispy chips. 

3. Spread out the slices in a single layer on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper (or tin foil, but use a cooking spray first). Sprinkle side facing up with cinnamon.

4. Bake for about 20min or so on the first side, until the slices start shrinking and shriveling up, turning slightly golden brown.  Then flip over the slices, sprinkle the other side with cinnamon and put back into the oven for another 15-20 minutes until this side is golden brown and crispy. You may have to work in batches depending on how many cookie sheets you have and can fit into your oven at once. I had to do two shifts of two cookie sheets. 

ENJOY!