Sinful French Apple Tart

Hi guys!!! I'm alive!!! :D

It has been a really, really long month here in Ohio, and a lot of things have happened. I'll try to keep it brief, but I swear that my lack of posting is for a good reason:

1. I've had the tri-cold... you know, the one that makes you sick, you get better, and then it returns. So I haven't been running, but I'm feeling a lot better now and will get back to it soon!

2. I finished the written portion of my PhD exams, and I have the oral defense on Friday (yeah, what a great date to schedule hahaha!). After that, things will really calm down. I'll update you, but please keep your fingers crossed for me on Friday!

3. I found out that I got a Fulbright grant to go to Spain!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, you read that correctly! I'll be leaving in September and will live in Madrid for 9 months! You might remember that I went to Spain last September to do some research in preparation for the grant (and in hopes that I would get it!), and it has all paid off. I can't wait to write about Spanish cooking from across the ocean. :)

4. I had a really rough go at tracking all of my food while I was doing exams, but this is day four of tracking and I am doing well. I ended up gaining about 5 pounds during exams (for shame), but I think I have lost 2 of them and am going back to my WW meeting this Saturday to keep working at it! I think that cooking at home more will really help a lot!

So now that the business is out of the way, I have also been taking a lot of photographs - you can check them out on my other photo blog. I've found that it is a really relaxing hobby and I absolutely love it. Since I don't have a plethora of models, I decided to bake a tart and take pictures of it. They were beautiful, and the tart is delicious! You will never guess that it is so healthy or that it is so easy to make! So here goes, the first recipe that I made in a month:


French Apple Tart:
Serves: 12

Preparation Time: 20 minutes; Cook Time: 40 minutes

This recipe can be found on pages 294 and 295 of the Weight Watchers PointsPlus Cookbook, directed by Nancy Gagliardi.

Ingredients:

• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry (from a 17.3 oz package - find it by the frozen desserts)
• 6 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp whole grain pastry flour
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest
• 1 tsp rosemary
• 3 Golden Delicious apples

To prepare:
Thaw puff pastry in refrigerator for between 4 hours or up to 2 days.
Preheat oven to 400˚
Peel, halve, core and slice all apples to produce 1/4-inch slices. You may want to do this as the last step because the apples will brown if you have them sliced for a long time (toss in a tiny bit of lemon juice to avoid this if you want to slice your apples ahead of time).
Flour a large surface and unfold pastry. Using a floured rolling pin, roll the puff pastry out to about 10" X 14".
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and transfer (carefully!) puff pastry to baking sheet. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.
In a small bowl, stir together 1 tbsp sugar and flour. In a medium bowl, stir together the other 5 tbsp of sugar, lemon zest and rosemary.
Sprinkle the flour mixture over the pastry (stopping about 1/2 inch from the edge). Line apples in three rows. Sprinkle apples with sugar and lemon mixture.
Bake for 40 minutes, or until apples are soft.
Cool completely before slicing.

Nutritional Information, per serving:

• WW PointsPlus: 2
• Calories: 73
• Fat: 0g
• Cholesterol: 0mg
• Sodium: 17mg
• Carbs: 17g
• Sugars: 3g
• Fiber: 2g
• Protein: 1g