Farmer’s Market Find of the Week

As I was walking through the farmer’s market a couple weeks ago, I came across a lovely bag of assorted apples. They included a couple golden delicious, a few granny smith, a pink lady and some other red varieties. I love snacking on apples, so most of them ended up filling my tummy that way. But when I had a few random apples left over, I thought hard about what I wanted to do with them.

Having seen a stuffed baked apples recipe for the slow cooker a while back and being intrigued, I decided that this was something I had to try. But I didn’t want to buy extras for the stuffing, so I dug through my cupboards to see what I could make them with.

I didn’t want to make a dessert, though, I’m saving that for when I can share my dessert on Saturdays. Instead, I decided to do a twist on the dessert apples and make them into a breakfast treat instead. I had all of the right components for breakfast: oats for complex carbohydrates, nuts for protein and the apples for fiber. I added some things for flavoring (cinnamon, vegan chocolate chips) and a few things for healthy omega-3 fatty acids (chia seeds, flaxseeds). And, voila! I made the delicious slow cooker breakfast baked apples that I’ve been enjoying the past few days, both as my breakfast and as my mid-afternoon snack. Plus, they were so simple to make.

Mixing everything together was easy enough. It’s mostly a mix similar to my best ever granola bars, except that I didn’t have all of the goodies that I had back then. This had a nice dose of almonds and walnuts for some extra morning protein.

Coring the apples wasn’t easy without having an apple corer. I ended up using a small cheese knife. If you have an apple corer, awesome for you. If not, you can make do the same way as I did. They may not look pretty, but I won’t be eating them for their darn good looks anyway.

Then I just had to stuff the apples and place them gently in the slow cooker.

I had a little bit of my breakfast stuffing left over, so I toasted it to divide up and serve with my baked apples after they were done.

Mmmm… don’t they look delicious? They came out exactly as I wanted them, filling the house with that sweet aroma of baked apples coupled with vanilla and cinnamon. It almost smelled like an apple pie, except this was even better since it was a healthy treat. Or, you know, the perfect breakfast.

Slow Cooker Breakfast Baked Apples
Yield: 6; Prep: 20 minutes; Toast: 10 minutes; Slow Cook: 3 hours on High

Adapting this recipe from Family Circle’s Dessert Baked Apples, this sweet breakfast treat can be served in the morning or even as a healthy afternoon snack since the nuts give it that extra dose of protein. It can also be made without the chia and flaxseeds if you don’t have any on hand.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup certified organic gluten-free oats
• 1/4 cup almonds
• 1/4 cup walnuts
• 1/4 cup organic vegan chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon brown cane sugar
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon chia seeds
• 1 teaspoon flaxseeds
• 6 assorted medium apples
• 1/4 cup light cranberry juice

Instructions:

1. Combine the oats, almonds, walnuts, chocolate chips, cinnamon, sugar, oil, vanilla, chia seeds and flaxseeds in a medium bowl. Mix well.
2. Take your apples and remove their cores using a small knife or an apple corer. Make sure the hole in the apple is big enough to stuff your breakfast mix into, but does not go all the way through.
3. Stuff breakfast mix into each individual apple, then carefully place them on the bottom of the slow cooker. If you have a little left over, toast it in the oven for 10 minutes and combine with the apples at the end.
4. Take the 1/4 cup cranberry juice and pour a little on top of each individual apple. Then, take 1/4 cup water and pour it on the edge of the slow cooker so that it coats the bottom.
5. Set your slow cooker on High for 3 hours. Once done, serve each apple with a spoonful of the leftover mix as a great breakfast or a delicious sweet afternoon snack.

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