Tag Archive | nutrition

Easy Maple-Cinnamon-Apple Oatmeal

Aug8

I like simple cooking and I just wanted to send out an EASY recipe for anyone looking for a good, fast breakfast (full of nutrition) to make for the family in the mornings.  This is intended to help out anyone still in the ‘tear open the bag, pour in bowl, cover with hot water’ habit.

(Also, I know the picture’s a little bland… it’s oatmeal -  only gets so colorful, even with the extra cinnamon I sprinkled on top for added oomph.)

ANYWAY, here’s what you do:

1.  Peel and dice an apple (should take about 2 minutes tops, all while your kids watch you to see if you can peel it in one strip) :-)

2.  Get the water boiling (about 1 cup water per 1/2 cup of rolled oats for each serving.)  Add a pinch of salt while you’re at it.

3.  Once it’s boiling, pour in the oats and apples.  Stir over a medium heat about 5 minutes or until it’s not too liquidy and oats are pretty soft. Remove from heat and let it sit a minute or so to thicken up.

4.  Add in cinnamon and maple syrup.  (I don’t measure so I’ll guesstimate for you… start with 1/2 t. of cinnamon and 1 T. of maple syrup.  Then adjust according to your taste.  (Add the syrup a little at a time so as not to overkill it.)

* For an extra health kick, I add in about 1 t. of coconut oil and about 1/2-1 T. of ground flax seed (the golden flax seed hides better :-) ).  Then mix to  camouflage blend it.  You can also add in anything else your heart desires… raisins, dried cranberries, blueberries, sliced almonds…

Then serve it up and enjoy!

Delicious and Moist Gluten-Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins (Sweetened only with honey!) (Oh, and chocolate chips.) : )

Jul23
Gluten Free Pumpkin Muffins

Delicious Gluten-Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins from Simply Natural Health

Part of being the center of the home is providing A.) Yummy food for your family, and B.)  Healthy food for your family. :-)

So I thought I’d start adding in a few recipes here and there, as well as let you know about a wonderful website I use for many of my recipes, called SimplyNaturalHealth.com  If you head there and visit the ‘Our Recipes’ section you will find many delicious and healthy recipes there, and, just so you don’t have to read through the entire blog to find it,  the recipe specifically for the above-pictured Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins is here.   Quick side note – I found that adding 1/4 – 1/3 cup of applesauce to the wet ingredients adds in a little more moisture to the goodies. Yummm.

Ok… back to the writing…

I wanted to mention this website because ever since a dear friend tipped me off to it, it has become a treasured place for me to find easy, wholesome recipes to make for the family.  In the ‘About Us’ section of the site, Kim Wilson, the gal that runs the website and has authored the recipes, shares the story of the journey that she and her husband took in finding their way from poor health to good health by changing their eating and transitioning away from many of the common-place ingredients we all eat. (She even includes the before-and-after pictures of their physical change.)  The ingredients she now uses are very simple and natural (thus the name of her site), with her recipe section titled…”A whole foods, plant based, allergen-sensitive, gluten-free recipe blog”.  So anyone out there that has food sensitivities in themselves or their family may find it quite useful.

Although I do not have to go gluten free (and definitely don’t stick to it 100% of the time), I often choose to as I like trying to avoid wheat and I love incorporating other grains (especially those that we have all forgotten existed after wheat became such a staple in the modern diet.)  The ‘wheat decision’ simply stems from the research I’ve done so far, and what I’ve learned from friends and family on the subject…that wheat has been genetically modified so much over the years in order to have a higher gluten content (which lends to lighter, fluffier bread), that now more people are becoming sensitive to it (thus leading to this huge new boom in gluten-free products.)

HOWEVER, many of the pre-packaged gluten-free products out there are just not that good for you.  They are often filled with starches, gums, and nutrition-less flours in order to mimic the wheat-based goods that we are all used to.  These are simply not healthy for your system, and can even start affecting your blood sugar level.  Now, keep in mind, this is just what I have found in my research… I’m not a nutritionist, nor do I play one in my blog. ;-)

Which returns us to the Simply Natural Health website…  There are no gums or starches listed as ingredients, the flours and grains used are very nutritious and easy to find, and the sweeteners used are always natural… honey, agave syrup, or maple syrup, and sometimes tasty morsels like chocolate chips…  you’ve gotta add some extra smiles in sometimes! :-)   But honestly, so many of the baked goods you find on this site are wonderfully healthy… your kids could eat them for breakfast and it would be just fine.

So, even though it’s not autumn yet, I hope you try these pumpkin muffins.  The recipe is very easy, and you will find the muffins nutritious, filling, and delicious.  All while you are delighting in the fact that your family is not getting any empty, weird, or unpronounceable stuff.  Enjoy!