For whatever reason, I have this burning desire to take otherwise ‘normal’ recipes and turn them into spin-offs of my favourite desserts.
You might call this weird, but I call it totally normal…as long as I don’t look over my Recipes page all at once and then I start to think an intervention might be necessary.
My theory is that I am making up for lost time. After struggling with an eating disorder for 10 years, it is now time to have fun with food. Long gone are the days of eating the same 3 meals day in and day out and constantly feeling deprived. I like to have fun with food now, but at the same time, I want my food to work for me and leave me feeling my best.
This burning desire to recreate desserts is especially strong at breakfast time; although I will be the first to admit that I don’t care for something too sweet in the morning. Carrot Cake Oatmeal and Pumpkin Pie Overnight Oats are on my regular breakfast rotation and I feel like I am beating the system getting to eat such delicious food first thing in the morning. And who doesn’t like to beat the system?
Naturally, the next dessert on my breakfast hit list is Apple Pie Oatmeal. It took me a couple of trials, but I was blown away by the taste of my most recent attempt and I knew I had to share it with you on this blistery Winter morning.
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Apple Pie Oatmeal
Yield
2 small bowls
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
A warm embrace on a cold winter day, this Apple Pie Oatmeal will remind you of delicious apple pie, but will leave you feeling energized and ready to tackle the day ahead. The leftovers (if there are any!) taste amazing chilled, too.
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup rolled oats (use certified gluten-free, if necessary)
- 1 large apple, peeled and chopped into 1/2-inch pieces (about 1 1/3 cups)
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- Pinch fine sea salt
- 1 to 1 1/4 cups (250 to 310 mL) unsweetened almond milk, as needed
- 1 1/2 tablespoons (22 mL) pure maple syrup
- 1/2 cup (125 mL) unsweetened applesauce
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 mL) pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon (5 mL) fresh lemon juice (optional)
Suggested toppings:
- 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
- Diced apples
- Coconut sugar
- Cinnamon and ground ginger
- Granola
- Coconut Whipped Cream
Directions
- In a medium sized pot over medium heat, whisk together the oats, apple, chia seeds, cinnamon, ginger, salt, milk, maple syrup, and applesauce until combined.
- Cook over medium heat for about 9 to 15 minutes, stirring often. When the mixture thickens and the oats soften, it is ready.
- Stir in the pure vanilla extract and lemon juice (if using).
- Pour into a dish and serve with your desired toppings.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
This recipe really excites me because not only did I go crazy over the taste, but I love recipes that are based around simple, plant-based foods. They leave me feeling energized!
Add the oats, peeled and chopped apple, chia seeds, unsweetened applesauce, Almond milk, cinnamon, ginger, pinch of kosher salt into a pot and whisk well.
Cook for about 8 minutes over medium heat.
The applesauce, chia seeds, and chopped apple really bulk up this oatmeal! It turns into a huge bowl, which is always a good thing.
Sprinkle with chopped walnuts, cinnamon, and a drizzle of maple syrup!
Swirl.
and dig in to one of the most comforting bowls of oatmeal I have ever tried.
I also made someZucchini Bread Oatmeal last week…
Mmm. Zucchini Bread.
It was quite delicious, but the recipe still needs some tweaking before I am ready to share it! I am really excited about this one though.
You might want to check out my Carrot Cake Oatmeal too.
Monday mentionable:
1. Check out my new Favourite Sweets list on the right hand sidebar…I will be updating it on a regular basis with my favourite sweet treats.
Have a great start to your week!
Thanks Angela! Great recipe. I just made this but had no applesauce so I used half a banana mashed. My 2 year old loves it! Instead of putting extra syrup on top I stirred in a bit of peanut butter. Amazing!!! You are such a creative cook and I love trying your recipes :)
Hi Angela! I love your blog and recipes! I am not a vegan, but i found your blog because i am looking for new creative ways to add more vegetables and fruit to my diet. What i really love about your site, is you take most of my favoite recipes and offer a healthy alternative that tastes so great i don’t feel like i miss the old recipe at all!
I have a silly question, where do you get your cute colored spoons that i see in the oatmeal photos? Also where can i get a big fat plastic straw for my green smoothies?
One more thing, i love how you use mason jars for storing things. It is economical, eco-friendly, and my favoite is that it reminds me of how my grandma did the same thing!
I am thankful to have found your lovely site, i look forward to your post each day! Take good care!
I can’t remember if I replied to this comment or not, but I have answered the spoon and straw questions on my FAQ page under the food section. :) All the best,
Angela
i read this post before breakfast and just had to make it! ‘cept i didn’t have apples, just bananas…and i hate maple syrup…but i just used banana and a few drops of liquid stevia and holy moly the deliciousness! i had my doubts before i added the vanilla extract, thinking “damn, i really don’t want to cook another bowl of oatmeal but i just don’t like this.” but then i added the vanilla and the deliciousness came together into a bowl of magic breakfast…i’ll never doubt again! thanks for the yummy breakfast.
Hmm. I made this twice! I didn’t think I would like creamy oatmeal. I like it thick and moist Apple Pie oatmeal was one of my favourite creations to make. The first time I actually mis-read the recipe and added 1.50 cups of Almond Milk instead of 1.25 – which made it too creamy (and I used a pink Gala apple which wasn’t too bad but it wasn’t omg-wow fantastic). It was much better the day after (and actually i kept tasting it cold, and it was YUM).
I made it again today – WITH the right amount of milk, Granny Smith Apples and I see the love. I see myself making this a lot. [and once I get an oven – ditto on the carrot cake oatmeal).
1 key note: I used my own applesauce. I don’t buy storebought. I used strawberry applesauce (as that’s the flavour of the week) and it gave it a nice pink sheen.
Thanks for sharing! Good to know. :) I was wondering if another kind of apple would work. Interesting to play around with. :) Enjoy!
You really should consider publishing a cook book. I would buy it in a heartbeat.
“My theory is that I am making up for lost time. After struggling with an eating disorder for 10 years, it is now time to have fun with food. Long gone are the days of eating the same 3 meals day in and day out and constantly feeling deprived. I like to have fun with food now, but at the same time, I want my food to work for me and leave me feeling my best.”
Wow! I could have written this myself! Angela, I’m a long-time lurker/very new blogger and I think you’re just wonderful. Thank you for being such an inspiration.
Love, Lily
Thank you Lily :)
mmm! looks great! I make apple ‘pie’ oatmeal by cooking the oats in half apple cider and half water, and then just put a little bit of allspice (thats all i like in apple desserts) with the cooking oats. i also sometimes put dried fruit in there, though not usually. when the oatmeal is done, i like to put a dollop of greek yogurt (like ice cream with pie!), some pecan pieces, and a drizzle of maple syrup
you gotta try cooking the oats in apple cider–its so delicious
Love love the recipes but mostly the photos of your creations. So clean and clear and your serving dishes are most appropriate and a must use for me. I never liked oatmeal due to the texture of it, but now I can’t live without it! Mahalo!
I must be the first guy to make this. It was very yummy!
hah well I’m happy you commented!! Glad you enjoyed it Cody.
This was DELICIOUS! I doubled the recipe and between myself and my three girls (ages 5, 3, and 1), it was licked clean! Thanks for yummy healthy breakfast recipe!
Hey thanks for this! I am altering your Apple Pie Oatmeal recipe (just the procedure) to take it camping.
Just whipped this up for breakfast this cold morning and it was fabulous! Loved how big a portion it ended up being. Thanks for a great recipe.
wow!! I found this recipe recently and now I’m SO hooked to it!! Such a comforting warm breakfast for cold winters! I did a few changes to the recipe because I didn’t have a few ingredients. So, I replaced flax with chia seeds, I used regular milk and I skipped the apple sauce. Oh! and I didn’t even add ground ginger. Inspite of all this!! If it still tasted so delicious, I wonder how the original recipe would taste! :)
Looking forward to trying more recipes!
Thanks for the delicious breakfast! Here’s how mine turned out: http://pinterest.com/pin/78813062201217671/. Yum!
Yum! Angela, this really does taste like apple pie. I topped mine with cashew butter and apple butter (both from Bulk Barn) instead of the walnuts – soo good! It made a ton. I feel like I will be saving some for a snack later :)
Hi Angela ! I’m not especially familiar with vegan ingredients, so what are chia seeds exactly and what are their benefits ? why use this instead of another ingredient like flax for example. thank you !!!
Hi Xara, some of their benefits include:
3x the antioxidant strength of blueberries
5 grams of fibre per serving
15x the magnesium than broccoli
2.5x the protein in beans
6x the calcium in milk!
3x the iron in spinach
lots of omega-3 fatty acids
You have a fabulous site. Good on you. I was looking at the comments for keeping oatmeal. I have a recipe where you cook the oatmeal and then place it in a baking dish and let it cool. Once chilled, you can slice into squares or wedges. Top with dried fruit compotes, apple pie mixture above … whatever. My recipe fries the oatmeal wedges to reheat, but a microwave will do. Good for those who only want to cook oats once a week.
Hi Angela!
I actually made this very recipe this morning for breakfast and I must say it is my favorite so far! I’m excited to try some of the other things you’ve put up, but this is a must try for those who haven’t done so yet!
Hey Kristin, I’m so glad you enjoyed the oatmeal! It’s a fav over here too. :) Wish I had some right now…
Angela,
What a perfect time of the year to try an outstanding bowl of oatmeal, especially for someone that thought she hated oatmeal (like you did in the past). This was super amazing. I think the chia seeds are responsible for turning a regular meh oatmeal into a delicious custard. I could eat this every morning! I used a Gala apple and since I didn’t have applesauce on hand I decided to replace it with an extremely ripe banana. You have converted me. Thank you for an awesome recipe!!!
I loved this recipe, thank you so much, I finally like eating oats! I used crushed oats because these were the only ones I had in the house, and made apple sauce from scratch, cooking a chopped up apple with some water before I started the original recipe. It was a lovely dessert in winter Holland.