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Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Apple Pie Oatmeal with Walnuts

Oatmeal, seasoned with apple pie spices and cooked with pieces of fresh apple.

I love oatmeal - and it is so good for you, heart healthy and well, honestly warms you up from the inside out. It also seems to stay with me longer than other breakfasts do, I guess because of the whole grain fiber you're gettin' from it. Usually I just do my oatmeal pretty basic without a lot of fanfare, but I've decided that I want to get a bit more adventurous so I thought that I would chronicle any different types of oatmeal that I decide to try. Today, I have apples I want to use up, so it was still pretty basic - apples and cinnamon with some walnuts tossed in. Let's call it apple pie oatmeal.

Nutritional Factoid: Did you know that walnuts are an extremely high and most excellent source of Omega-3 essential fatty acids, and that they are great brain food?


Apple Pie Oatmeal with Walnuts
From the Kitchen of Deep South Dish

3/4 cup of quick cooking or old fashioned oatmeal
1-3/4 cups of water (or substitute milk)
Dash of salt
One whole apple, unpeeled, cored and cut in chunks
Cinnamon Sugar*
Dash of allspice, nutmeg and ginger
1 tablespoon of chopped walnuts
Drizzle of cream, optional

Combine the oatmeal, water, salt and apple in a large microwave save bowl. Microwave for between 3 to 5 minutes, or until oatmeal is creamy and apples are tender. Microwaves vary so it may take more or less time with your microwave.

Remove, transfer to serving bowls. Mix the cinnamon sugar with the allspice, nutmeg and ginger, sprinkle the top of each serving generously with the mixture, top with walnuts and stir to mix it all together. Taste for sweetness and top with additional cinnamon sugar as desired. Drizzle a small amount of cream just around the edges of the bowl.

Enjoy!

Serves 1 or 2

*Cinnamon Sugar: Combine 1/2 cup granulated sugar with 1 heaping tablespoon of cinnamon and pour into a shaker bottle. I use an emptied cinnamon spice jar that has a shaker insert in the top and a screw on cap to store mine.

The Quaker package lists this serving size as the "Heart Healthy Serving Size" providing 3 grams of soluble fiber, but it is quite a lot and certainly enough to split into 2 servings.