Healthy Baked Apples Recipe!

This recipe is by Lupus Chick staff writer Maria Mongiardo.

You have all heard this saying at least once in your life, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Well our parents and grandparents were right! Apples are really healthy for you like most fruits and vegetables. (Honestly, the saying should be “All fruits and vegetables keep the doctor from yelling at you to eat healthier!”)

Eating an apple at least once a day is the same as taking a giant dose of natural vitamin C and A. They are a great source of fiber, promote weight loss, and have excellent anti-inflammatory properties.  “Most Americans only get about fifteen grams of fiber per day in their diet, but you should aim for more like thirty.” –Susan Blum M.D. in the book The Immune System Recover Plan.  (I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in looking up more anti-inflammatory or diet recipes). Susan Blum does a fantastic job on explaining what specific foods are helpful for your immune system.

We all have our favorite types of apples, whether they are Granny Smith, Fuji, Honeycrisp, Empire or McIntosh. However, the best apples for baking and most commonly used in applesauce are Rome apples. If you are bored with just eating an entire apple, you are in luck. Apples can be put into almost any dish. Salads, soups, and pies, etc.; the list could go on forever.  One piece of advice for when you are heading to the grocery store is to make sure you buy organic apples. Sometimes apples that are not organic may be lowering not raising your immunity centers.

For this recipe we are baking the apples with oatmeal, raisins, brown sugar, cinnamon, and chia. These baked apples can be eaten as a healthy snack or a substitute for a sweet dessert.

Healthy Baked Apples Recipe

What you need for this recipe:

• Four to Five apples (depending on how many people you want to feed)
• One TBSP of cinnamon
• One cup of brown sugar
• One TBSP of vanilla
• One to two cups of raisins
• One to two cups of oatmeal
• One to two TBSP of chia
• Cooking spray
• Tin foil
• Pan

Tip: Peeling and slicing apples takes a while before putting them into the pan. Make sure to squirt them with lemon or some type of citrus juice to prevent them from turning brown.

Directions:

Peel and cut the apples into slices (make sure to remove the cores of apples).

Add one TBSP of cinnamon, one cup of brown sugar, and one TBSP of vanilla to your sliced apples.

Mix these ingredients together before adding one to two cup of raisins, one to two cups of oatmeal, and one to two TBSP of chia. 

Make sure you spray your pan before adding the apples.

Put tinfoil over apples and keep in the oven for one hour at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. After thirty minutes take the apples out to see how they are doing. You may want to mix the apples around in the pan.

Once the hour is up let them cool down in the pan.

If you are feeling a sweet tooth add ice cream to the baked apples you just made. Enjoy!