Apple Oat Crisp

Oh baby, cinnamon, apples, oatmeal and brown sugar baked together and topped with a dollop of vanilla ice cream. Yumolicious

Is there anything easier than an apple crisp to top off a dinner?  If you can peel and chop an apple, then you’re on your way to making something delicious, fragrant and high in fiber.  While I know my recipe has a lot of butter and sugar, you can easily dial those back a bit and still have a super delicious result.

I also add Panko crumbs to this recipe to absorb the apple juice and have a less runny apple crisp. This is before the oat crumb topping was added.

This recipe yields 6 to 8 healthy servings of apple crisp.  To bring it to a whole other level, I took my serving of apple crisp and put two heaping tablespoons of vanilla Greek yogurt on top, and then liberally sprinkled the concoction with pumpkin seeds.

Ingredients:

Apple mixture:

• 5 baking apples, peeled, cored and diced (I used “Ida Red” apples)
  

  I took this to a whole other level the next day by adding some vanilla Greek yogurt and pumpkin seeds.

• 2 tbsp. cinnamon
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup Panko crumbs

Topping:

• 1 cup quick oats
• 2 1/2 cups large flake oats
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup melted butter

Preparation:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Stir diced apples together with the cinnamon, white sugar and crumbs.  The reason I include the crumbs is so that the juices from the apples don’t turn into a runny mess in the bottom of the pan.  Place the apple mixture in an ungreased baking dish and set aside.

To make the topping, stir the two kinds of oats together with the brown sugar.   Stir in the melted butter until it is all worked through the oats.  Pile the oat mix on top of the apples and press down.  Place in the oven and basically while it cooks for half an hour sit back and enjoy the luscious smells of cinnamon and apples wafting through your house.  If you like peaches and they are in season where you live, be sure to check out my peach crisp recipe.

Serve the crisp warm out of the oven on its own or with ice cream, custard or vanilla Greek yogurt.  This recipe would also be excellent with some toasted pecans or walnuts sprinkled on top.

Enjoy!

Apricot Raisin Oatmeal French Toast

Using apricot-raisin bread from COBS bakery you can have French toast with a twist. If you don’t have a COBS near you, try this with high quality raisin bread, like Sunmaid brand

With apologies to readers who don’t live in the Canadian provinces of Ontario, British Columbia or Alberta, today’s quick recipe features a lovely loaf of apricot and raisin bread available from “COBS” bakery. They have 70 locations across the three provinces listed above and besides baking exceptional bread, also have donated 15 million dollars in bread to food banks. That makes their business even better in my books.

More about COBS here: http://www.cobsbread.com/what-we-bake/overview

If you don’t have a COBS bakery, you can always use a high quality raisin bread like Sunmaid Raisin Bread.

This would make a great premiere item for “brunch with friends”  by adding on items like bacon, Greek yogurt, fresh fruit salad…whatever you fancy.

To make a single serving of the French toast you need the following:

Ingredients:

• 2 slices apricot-raisin bread
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 cup large flake oatmeal
• 1 tsp. butter for frying

This bread from COBS is also one of my favorite breakfast items – toasted with a smear of almond butter

Coat each side of the bread with egg beaten with vanilla

After soaking in the egg mixture, coat each side with large flake oatmeal

Fry on low-medium heat to cook the egg thoroughly

Add some fresh fruit for even more fibre and nutrients

Preparation:

Beat egg with vanilla and set aside in a bowl for dipping. Place oatmeal flakes in a separate bowl for dipping. Take the bread slices and first soak in egg/vanilla mixture. Coat the egg-dipped bread in the large oat flakes and coat each side evenly. Transfer the oatmeal-coated slices to the warm frying pan which has been coated with the melted butter. Fry on each side until cooked throughout.

Serve with a seasonal fruit if desired, and maple syrup.

For another one of my French toast recipes, click here.

Peach Crisp

Fresh peaches in a cinnamon oatmeal crumble

Hooray, it’s peach season in Ontario so to celebrate, it was time to make peach crisp. Served slightly warm with a dollop of whipped cream or some 0% vanilla Greek yogurt, it’s a beautiful fragrant dish of joy.

Ingredients:
Base
Peel 12 peaches, cut into slices and put in a 9 x 12 dish
Stir in 1/4 cup white sugar and mix well in the pan.

Crumble
2 cups large flake oats
1 cup rapid oats
1/2 cup white flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tbsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup melted butter

Stir the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Melt the butter and stir together with the dry ingredients.  Spoon the crumble over top of the peach mixture.

Bake in an oven pre-heated to 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Delicious Date Squares

This is a single sized version of a recipe that I always double because these date squares just doesn’t last in this busy house. My husband absolutely loves date squares, but once I found this recipe he refuses to buy them in shops because this one set the bar (pardon the joke) sooooo high.

Here’s a tip, I try to buy the best dates that I can – and that means one name around here….Parnoosh brand.  I don’t know why, but the name cracks me up every time I say it so I do say it rolling my “r’s” just for fun.  Try it, I dare ya…..Parrrrrrrrnoooosh!

Date Filling:

• 3 cups chopped and pitted dates
• 1 ½ cups water
•  3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
• ¼ cup lemon juice

Date filling preparation:

Place all ingredients  listed above into a large pot and cook over low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly until thickened.

Crumble:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup softened butter
• 1 ¾ cups whole wheat flour
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 cups quick cooking oats
• 3/4 cup large flake oats

Directions:
With the date filling prepared,  heat oven to 350 f. Grease a rectangular pan. Mix together butter and brown sugar, then add remaining ingredients and mix until it appears crumbly. Press half of the crumb mixture evenly in bottom of pan. Spread with date filling. Top with remaining crumb mixture, pressing lightly. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Cocoa Quickies

Some people call these cookies haystacks, while others might call them a macaroon of sorts. I call them addictive! Try to forget the amount of sugar in these and focus on the fibre. It works for me!

Bring to a boil, and boil for 1 minute the following:
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Remove from the heat and quickly (and carefully) pour the hot ingredients above into the following:

6 tbsp. cocoa
3 cups rolled oats (or more)
1 cup shredded coconut

Mix all ingredients together well.  Drop walnut sized pieces from a teaspoon onto waxed paper.  Push together any loose bits (or “sample” those).  Cool and enjoy.  Place in a sealed container or tin to keep the moistness of the cocoa quickies intact.