Five Happy Things
Apple Season 🍎 🎉 🍎 🎉 🍎
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It’s apple season!
Of course I eat apples all year long, but I go a little crazy with them in the fall. ❤️
I make these breakfast apples almost all year long, but in the fall and winter I make them once a week.
Basically, it’s apple pie filling. I eat them on top of steel cut oats and they are delicious!
6 apples - I like to use six different varieties because I like how some of them keep their shape and some of them basically bake into applesauce, but my daughter is always mortified when I do this because means the checkout person has to individually weigh six different apples, and that is somehow the worst? So now I self-checkout if I’m buying apples. 😂
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup brown sugar - You could probably cut this in half, but I always eat these over unsweetened oatmeal, so this sugar is sweetening the apples and the oatmeal. If I were going to eat the apples on their own (or maybe with some granola sprinkled on top) I’d reduce the sugar.
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of salt
optional - add a cup of cranberries (fresh, frozen, or dried - I’m always happy when I remember to do this)
Peel the apples and slice them. Toss everything all together and pour it into a casserole dish. No need to butter it. Bake uncovered at 400 F for 45-55 minutes until tender and bubbling. I usually stir after about 30 minutes. If it seems dry at that time, cover it with a lid or tin foil for the rest of the bake.
I store this in half-pint jars in the fridge so in the morning for breakfast I pull out a jar of apples and a jar of oatmeal, dump them together into a bowl and microwave until hot. Easy peasy warm and delicious breakfast.
For oatmeal I like steel-cut oats. (The ones that take forever to cook.) I bring 4 cups of water to a boil, dump in 1 cup of steel cut oats and a hefty pinch of salt, simmer with occasional stirring for 5 minutes, turn off the heat, put on a lid, and let it sit overnight. In the morning just heat up the amount you want to eat and store the rest in half-pint jars in the fridge. (See easy breakfast above.)
Yum! Yum! Yum!
Here are four more favorite apple recipes. . .
This casserole from Giada de Laurentiis is delicious. It’s perfect for the holidays, but I definitely don’t limit it to that. It’s cornbread, sausage, chestnuts, apples, cranberries, and parmesan and it’s delicious.
This Cinnamon Sugar Apple Cake from Pinch of Yum is so nice! Just a single layer with a cinnamon sugar topping. I love it warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
I love Brussels sprouts! I usually just roast them with olive oil, salt and pepper, but they also make delicious salads when you shave them. This salad from Smitten Kitchen has shaved sprouts, crunchy apples, pickled onions, juicy pomegranate, crunchy walnuts, and a delicious honey lemon dressing.
I don’t like coffee or black tea and there are only a couple of herbal teas that I like - but I love hot drinks in the winter! My favorite is hot apple cider. Sometimes I just throw a cup in the microwave, but if I’m feeling fancy I’ll add orange peel, cinnamon and cloves and simmer it on the stove for a little while. This is the recipe I use. Most spiced cider recipes add sugar, but I think that makes it too sweet.
So there you are! Five recipes perfect for apple season. 🥰
You can find all the posts with recipes here.
Bon appetit!
Best,
Wendi
❤️