I feel that in today’s world, we’re all trying to improve ourselves. With fad diets everywhere, fixes for beauty “problems”, and a gazillion apps to be more productive, it’s easy to feel inadequate. At least for me. After thinking about this and how much negative thinking we have about ourselves the other week, I challenged myself to try a new approach to “improving” myself. So instead of trying to change who I am by picking up new “habits”, kicking old ones, or being too hard on myself when it comes to being productive, keeping a perfectly clean house, exercising daily, and eating healthy, I’m trying to just embrace who I am. Let me give you a few examples.
For one, I’m not really much of a reader. As much as I love reading, I just haven’t found a way to incorporate it into my daily life and to be completely honest, choosing a book stresses me out. So instead of feeling bad that I’m not always reading a book and (seriously) going to be every night thinking “Man, I really should’ve started a book tonight!” I’m just going to keep my eyes out for book recommendations, and if it sounds appealing I’ll read it. Why force myself into something I am not real into?
Another thing is my eyebrows. Thanks to the combination of my Grandpa Potter who really just had one long eyebrow across his forehead and my Czech heritage (i.e. thick dark hair) I have some crazy eyebrows, and keeping them trim is a daily struggle…that I’m losing. I’m pretty self conscious about them but one morning, while going through my daily painful plucking I kind of just had enough of it. I’m not going to go all wild woman and completely stop plucking and waxing my eyebrows but it’s really one of my least favorite parts of the day and I’m thinking that anyone who gets close enough to my face to see my bushy eyebrows should like me enough not to care how my eyebrows look. So there.
An obvious thing I’m hard on myself about is being productive on my days off my ‘real’ job. Between getting recipes tested and photographed, and posts written for the blog, I feel like my days are over before I know it and I’ve only done half of what I needed to do. One thing I’m always disappointed in is that I never seem to be able to sit down and write posts during the day. I could probably count on my hands the number of times I’ve written a post before 6:00, if I could even remember the last time it happened. So I’ve decided that instead of being disappointed in myself that, once again, I didn’t get all of my blog work done when I wanted to, I’m going to just schedule my time to write my blog posts at night and try to get something else like laundry done during the day instead.
Lastly, diet. I’m not a huge fan of dieting, but I have to admit that I admire people who are able to follow so-called healthy diets like Paleo or sugar-free diets. I’ve done a handful of sugar-free stints, going up to three weeks without eating refined sugars. On one hand: yeah, I felt pretty good not filling my body with junk on a daily basis, but on the other hand, I like cookies. And ice cream. And chocolate. So instead of feeling bad for indulging on a regular basis, I’m just going to accept that hey, I love sugar. So after I eat all of my daily vegetables and fruits, I’m gonna have a brownie. I just love baking and cooking way too much to put limits on myself.
Which brings us to this incredible apple crisp. Oh excuse me, SALTED CARAMEL apple crisp with PRETZEL topping. Yep, you read that right – there are salty, crunchy pretzels on top of this glorious apple dessert.
Apple crisp is one of my favorite fall desserts so when we invited Marc’s parents, brother, and sister-in-law over for dinner this weekend, I knew an apple crisp was in order. I had the idea for adding some salted caramel to the apple crisp, and at the last minute decided to up the salty even more and make the crisp topping out of pretzels. I was worried that the pretzels in the topping would get soggy while baking, but they definitely did not. Combined with some butter, sugar, oats and flour, they transformed into a crunchy topping. I don’t think I’ll ever making apple crisp without a pretzel topping now!
The combination of salted caramel with the apples, was delicious as well. The addition of the salted caramel to the apple filling made it a bit richer than a typical apple crisp, which was balanced out well with the vanilla ice cream. If you’re looking for an apple dessert to impress – this is it!
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I can’t resist salted caramel! And that pretzel topping is such a great idea!
I am happy I stumbled across your blog (love the name!!). This apple caramel crisp looks divine!!
“So after I eat all of my daily vegetables and fruits, I’m gonna have a brownie.” <– My food philosophy in a nutshell! Love it. I couldn't live without the occasional brownie once in a while and I seriously couldn't live without baking! I'll just make sure to have my green smoothie before and possibly a hearty salad afterwards 🙂
Glad we can relate!! Thanks Ceara 🙂
This apple crisp was amazing! Best ever!
I LOVE this post, and because I have had a serious case of the Mondays, I totally needed it. I think you are so right in that we expect way too much from ourselves, and I feel like we share the same mind. I’m constantly thinking that what I do is never enough. I absolutely love you for writing this for all of us to see, and that apple crisp is equally inspirational. You go girl. xoxo
I love your new-found sense of self. I need to adopt that way of thinking because I also tend to put way too much pressure on myself. But luckily, our husbands accept us and our bushy eyebrows, haha!
As far as giving up sugar, that would never happen for me. I always keep a stash of chocolate cookies in the refrigerator so that I can have one for dessert at night. There are just some things that are worth it, like this apple crisp! I’m dying over the addition of pretzels. Holy yum!
I definitely feel the same way in terms of trying to mold yourself into something you are not for other people. I love baked goods as well and enjoy my coffee with baked goods. Granted, I try not to eat a baked good EVERY time I have coffee, but it is nice to have once in awhile. Sure, I could probably have a bit less fat on my stomach, but then I wouldn’t be as happy. I exercise regularly and eat decently healthy food, so I appreciate my sweets!
I love your perspective, Lorin!
I have the same philosophy…I like sugar, don’t see the point in denying myself…life is short, so instead I’ll continue to maintain a balanced diet that leaves room for indulging 🙂 I wouldn’t mind indulging in this amazing apple crisp!
OMG that pretzel topping!! This sounds incredible!
And I love your mindset and new way of thinking – I put wayyyy too much pressure on myself with just about everything. I need to take a lesson from you and take a step back from all my craziness! The one thing I’m good about is sugar / dessert. I eat healthy the majority of the time so I never feel bad about treats!
Great post girl, sometimes we (ladies) just put way to much pressure on ourselves to do every thing and then just end up feeling like failures in the end. Why? So not worth it! Great reminder!
Loving this recipe, I don’t even like pretzels but want to eat this! Plus I’ll eat anything with salted caramel on it!
Exactly my point Krista! Thanks! 🙂
this sounds like such a fantastic combo. I can’t wait for apple season. There aren’t too many in New England just yet.