Mini Halloween Pumpkin Apple Pies

For Halloween, I love making easy and fun treats with my kids. Especially when it starts to get cold outside, we like to find more activities indoors and baking is one of our favorites. These pumpkin pies are not only easy for adults to make, kids can too! Imagine all the fun faces you could create? My husbands favorite pumpkin face was the one with a jagged mouth. 

Foods to Lose Weight Recommend Article Article Comments Print ArticleShare this article on FacebookShare this article on TwitterShare this article on LinkedinShare this article on DeliciousShare this article on DiggShare this article on RedditShare this article on PinterestExpert Author Vanessa Jones Let's talk about foods to lose weight. There are certain foods that boost metabolic rate and encourage your body to burn calories and melt away stored fat to leave you slim, healthy and fit. While you can find a more extensive list of 38 different foods to lose weight on our website, here are some of the 10 top recommendations by many nutritionists and fitness experts. 1. Choose foods which are rich in calories. Eat smaller quantities of dishes like soups, salads and smoothies that help lose weight. They package nutrients densely and the calorie concentration helps weight loss. 2. Include food with a high fiber content. Eat raw vegetables and fruits that not only have nutrients, minerals, vitamins and enzymes but are also rich in fiber. The fiber content slows down absorption of sugar, which in turn influences insulin metabolism and reduces fat deposition. 3. Avoid starch-rich food. Whole grain, pasta and foodstuffs rich in carbs are best avoided if you intend to lose weight. The only exception is when you eat following a weight loss workout, when replenishing calories is important. 4. Limit portion size. Weight loss means eating the right kinds of food to lose weight, but also restricting the quantity of each of them. Small portion sizes naturally ensure that you won't over indulge in the wrong kinds of food. Make it your choice to stop eating well before you feel stuffed. 5. Don't eat too little. This only leaves you hungry and tempts you to indulge in an unhealthy snack in between meals. Tight calorie restriction also pushes your body into starvation mode. It then tends to preserve fat stores, and burns off protein from muscles for energy instead. This is not at all desirable. 6. Add food supplements to your diet. Omega 3 fatty acids, minerals, enzymes and vitamins can supplement your regular meals and boost metabolism while increasing satiety. By suppressing hunger pangs, they can aid weight loss by avoiding snacks. 7. Intermittent fasting is the new kid on the block. Combined with foods to lose weight, the process of not eating for 12 to 16 hours every day can speed up weight loss. Forcing you to cram eating into a 8 to 10 hour window has the added advantage of limiting overall calorie intake. 8. Prefer coffee or tea over soda and sugary drinks. As they have caffeine and polyphenols, these drinks can help raise your metabolic rate and lose weight. They ward off hunger and increase the likelihood that your body will burn fat for energy. Limit yourself to 2-3 cups without added sugar. 9. Lower fat consumption. There is still some controversy over low fat diets, but there's broad consensus that eating less fat helps weight loss. Foods to lose weight are often those with low-fat content anyway. Choosing the right types of food automatically imposes a limit on how much fat you'll consume. 10. Watch out for hidden calories. There are many additives and preservatives in food that you eat every day that is rich in empty calories. Foods to lose weight have almost no concealed calories. Make it a habit to check food labels for any evidence of hidden calories. There are many more foods to lose weight and also other pitfalls to guard against. If you take a little care to think about what you eat, you'll be able to lose weight in a safe, healthy and lasting way. In this report on foods to lose weight, you'll learn about items that boost your metabolic rate and indirectly aid weight loss by making your body burn fat for energy needs while building muscle by conserving protein. This leads to weight loss, better fitness and stronger muscles. Check out Vanessa's foods to weight loss article here. Vanessa has been writing about fitness and health for over two decades now. She has written about a wide variety of subjects on these matters and written in depth about them. A low carb diet that tightly restricts the intake of carbohydrates is very effective at regulating the hormone insulin. Insulin is what controls glucose uptake by cells from the blood. In this way, insulin regulates blood sugar levels. The glucose that is absorbed into cells is then used to meet energy requirements. When there's more glucose than the cell requires for energy, the excess is stored in the form of fat. In a recent report in one of the leading medical journals, a low carb diet was found to bring down insulin levels in the blood by 27% and enhancing the sensitivity of cells to the hormone simultaneously. As a result of this effect, glucose is metabolized normally without any stress on other organs or systems to produce extra insulin - a factor that has been held responsible for weight gain and development of diabetes later on. To put it simply, a low carb diet helps improve glucose metabolism and safeguards against diabetes. To see how a less carb diet can achieve this result, look at how the body tackles the situation of lowered carbohydrate content in the daily diet. When carb content in your daily food intake drops below a point, two adaptive responses take place. * You start to lose water * You turn towards fat as a source of energy Water loss is among the earliest changes to happen. Water is retained whenever there is a high blood glucose content. Insulin regulation keeps glucose within a tight normal range, and so there is no need to store water. The loss of water is accompanied by a proportionate weight loss shortly after going on a low carb diet. But there's also the second response which is more important for weight loss in the long run. Your body's metabolism shifts towards using fat stores as a source for energy rather than glucose. So the various requirements for energy in tissues is provided by anaerobic metabolism of fat reserves. As a result, weight loss follows. Reports in some well-respected medical journals have confirmed this impact of going on a lower carb diet. There is fairly conclusive data to suggest that a reduced intake of carbohydrates can eliminate stubborn belly fat and even get rid of dangerous visceral fat. A study at Tulane University is widely cited in support of the benefits of a low carb diet. This experimental research conducted on a group of 148 volunteers compared the effects of a less carbs versus low-fat diet. The trial group of subjects was placed on a stringent low carb diet where they were restricted to just 40 grams of carbs per day. What was astonishing from the study was that quite contrary to the prevailing wisdom, it was found that the low carb diet group lost 7.7 pounds more than those who were on a low fat diet. It shifted public thinking about the role of dietary fat upon weight loss and showed that carbohydrates were more important than had been believed until then. This data has been confirmed on other studies also. Low carb diets can reduce insulin levels, put off or prevent the development of diabetes, and achieve weight loss by eliminating stored fat. Vanessa, an expert in the weight loss and fitness niche has been writing about these topics for decades. She loves gardening and is a fitness enthusiast herself. Read more on low carb diet here.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon cold butter
• 4-1/2 teaspoons maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons cider vinegar
• 5 to 6 tablespoons cold 2% milk

    FILLING:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 cups chopped peeled apples (about 3 medium)
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 4-1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 4-1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon cold water

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix flour and salt; cut in butter until crumbly. Gradually add maple syrup, vinegar and milk, tossing with a fork until dough holds together when pressed. Divide dough in half. Shape each into a disk; wrap in plastic. Refrigerate 1 hour or overnight.
2. Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in apples, maple syrup, sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon. Bring to a boil. Cook until apples are almost tender, about 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. In a small bowl, mix cornstarch and water until smooth; stir into apple mixture. Return to a boil, stirring constantly; cook and stir 1-2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat. Cool to room temperature 30 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 350°. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion of dough to 1/8 in. thickness. Cut with a floured 3-1/2-in. pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter. Using a sharp knife, cut out pumpkin faces from half of the cutouts.
4. Place about 2 tablespoons filling on each of the uncut pastries. Moisten pastry edges with water. Place remaining cutouts over filling. Press edges with a fork to seal.
5. Transfer to greased baking sheets. Bake 22-24 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from pans to wire racks.