Recipe: Oats Galore! Baked Oat Apples, Granola & Oatmeal-to-go

I love Oats. They're the perfect food for the Vata-Pitta climate/lifestyle of San Francisco: cooling, sweet and if they're cooked: heavy too. They pair so perfectly with warming spices to provide the perfect balance of warm & cool, grounding without being difficult to digest. And they're so easy to make! They travel well and go with so many different things. I had oats with cooked fruit, dried fruit, nuts, sunflower butter, cinnamon, fresh ginger, cardamom, milk, rice milk, water, coconut... It's hard for me to grow bored of oats. So here are three recipes that include my beloved oats! Two of them are riffs on recipes from fellow Ayurvedic bloggers: Baked Apples from Lauren at the spiced plate and Granola from Claudia at Fran's House of Ayurveda.

Baked Oat-Stuffed Apples
Serves 2.

4 organic apples
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

2 chopped medjool dates
1/2 cup rolled oats

sprinkle ground cardamom and cinnamon

juice of 1/4 lemon

1 Tablespoon rice milk
2 teaspoons rice milk
2 teaspoons pure maple syrup

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Cut out the stem and center of the apple with a paring knife, leaving the bottom in tact. If you're short on time, cut the apples in half on the horizontal and core all the way through (this will cut your bake time down to 15 minutes). Place apples in a very lightly oiled baking dish. To prepare filling, in a small bowl combine walnuts, dates, oats, spices, lemon juice and 1 tablespoon rice milk. Pack in the filling into the apples leaving a little divot at the top of each apple. (You will have extra filling, see granola recipe below) In each divot, pour 1/2 teaspoon rice milk and 1/2 teaspoon maple syrup. Pop apples in the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes or until the apples have plumped, skin has cracked and the filling has become golden on top. Remove from oven and place carefully on serving plate. Enjoy with caution; they'll be very hot! (2 apples per serving)

• Vata: Great. Add extra 1 teaspoon of rice milk and a bit of ghee to top of each apple's filling before baking to ensure oats are moist when finished. 
• Pitta: Great. Reduce further or omit cinnamon. Reduce walnuts to 1/8 cup or omit altogether. 
• Kapha: Good. Add extra cinnamon and a pinch of dry ginger. Omit maple syrup. Once baked and out of the oven, top with honey as desired. 

I like ground flax...a lot. 

Ayurvedic Granola 

Most granola has baked honey in it, a serious Ayurvedic crime. Ayurveda says that when honey is cooked it turns to ama or toxins and is indigestible. Fran's (Claudia) recipe for granola is a perfect Ayurvedic fit. Here's my version that I did on a whim with the left over stuffing from my Baked Apples. 

remaining Baked Apple Oat Filling

heavy sprinkle of ground flax

equal parts maple syrup + sunflower oil well combined

sprinkle of salt

raisins

dried coconut flakes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine Oat Filling with flax, maple/oil mixture and touch of salt. Stir well then lay out on a large baking sheet. Bake for 7 minutes then remove and add raisins and coconut. Combine then return to oven for another 7 minutes or more. Remove granola once coconut starts to brown and before nuts burn. Allow to cool then store in airtight container.

• Vata: baked oats are super dry which isn't recommended for vatas. Enjoy with plenty of warm milk to counter the dryness and only as a special treat. 
• Pitta: great! Avoid too much flax if pitta is especially high. 
• Kapha: Not the best because oats are so heavy. Omit salt. Enjoy with extra dried fruit like dried cherries & chopped dried apricots as a light snack. 

I make this all the time, and I'm shocked I haven't shared it with you sooner. It's the quickest healthy breakfast and I love it because I can make it when I'm at work without having to use a microwave! Yay! This particular version I made on a Sunday morning before going to my friend David Kresner's class at The Mindful Body and so threw in the candied ginger as a weekend treat :) And don't you like my fancy container? It's an old applesauce jar! Perfect for storing soup and oatmeal to-go!

Oatmeal To-Go

Serves 1. 

(all toppings are guess-timated amounts, I always just grab and go)

1/3 c rolled oats

2 T raisins

1 T coconut flakes

1 T chopped candied ginger (my special treat)

sprinkle cardamom

sprinkle cinnamon

Put all ingredients in a jar. Take with you where you need to go. Add about 1 cup of boiling water or enough to cover ingredients and then some. Stir. There should still be water above the ingredients after stirring. If there's not, add more water. Cover and let sit for anywhere between 10 and 90 minutes. Open, stir again and enjoy! 

• Vata: excellent!! Be sure raisins are thoroughly soaked and oats are cooked- allow 15 minutes for 'cooking' at a minimum.
• Pitta: excellent! Reduce or omit candied ginger. 
• Kapha: ok. Keep raisins on outisde of oatmeal then add once cooked so the raisins do not soak. Great when made with rye or barley flakes.