In a month where so many people are trying to scale back on what they eat – this segment is all about adding foods. Registered dietitian Shannon Crocker shared her recipe for Apple Maple Oatmeal topped three different ways with gut-healthy, tasty combinations.
In a month where so many people are trying to scale back on what they eat this segment is all about adding Foods registered dietitian Shannon Crocker joins us now with more and adding more apples because you found out that apples are even better than we thought they
Were absolutely you know what we think of apples as a great snack they’re super nutritious they’re also a hidden gut health gem because they have prebiotics that actually help to feed or fuel the good bacteria in your gut and so that keeps them happy and healthy okay so
Today in addition to being a great source of fiber yes fiber and vitamin C other nutrients as well so Ontario apples fabulous I love to get them they’re available all winter long well into the spring so it’s great to cook with and to eat as a snack and I always
Tell people if they’re wondering you know how do I know if I’ve got Ontario apples in my cart at the grocery store look for that Foodland Ontario logo great absolutely So today we’re going to be talking about like you said adding Foods in for health and wellness and
We’re going to look at different foods to help to support our gut health we’re going to be making an apple maple oatmeal and um you can get the recipe at Ona apples.com okay and this is a great make aead for like if making it for the
Weekend for the rest of the week kind of thing because you’re just making a big batch of oatmeal but it’s not just any oatmeal it’s not just any oatmeal this is fabulous oatmeal is super delicious and nutritious we’ve got steel cut oats we’ve got wheat berries or wheat kernels
We’re going to mix those together cook them equal amounts takes about 30 minutes so that’s why I do like to make a batch on head on the weekend okay and do you make it with milk or with water um I make it with water but you could
Make it with milk or a plant-based beverage meal prep tip put it make it ahead on the weekend put it into containers put it in the fridge it’s ready to go to add into all of your different toppings during the week so we’ve got already got the oatmeal made
And now I’m actually going to add in the um two cups of grated Ontario honey crisp apple okay so we just add that in we give it a stir and then you can add in if you like um some maple syrup you can add in about 2 tablespoons of maple
Syrup syrup I like it just a little bit because it’s a great flavor combo with the apples and also though um I find the apples pretty sweet themselves naturally sweet so I don’t I don’t think it needs too much extra sweetener and I wanted to
Ask you why do you add the wheat berries uh the wheat berries actually so the wheat berries and the steel cut oats both whole grains they’re going to give you good gut friendly fiber okay and because they take a little bit longer to cook that’s why we’re going to make it
On the weekend but they also have a really nice chewy texture so there it’s going to like a really hearty tasting oatmeal okay and the the combo is like a A oneon-one or yeah one cup so yeah one to one depending on how much yeah one:
One ratio is what we go for and then we’re going to dress it up with all kinds of different toppings yeah absolutely so the first one this is for all those peanut butter and chocolate lovers out there I know there’s a few of them so we’re s we’re got we’ve got our
Apple oatmeal base that we made on the weekend in the morning we just heat it up by putting some on the stove or in the microwave with just a little bit of extra liquid and we’ve got that heated up and then we’re going to top it up
With some Greek yogurt okay so this is going to provide you with some protein just like a dollop more yeah good dollop um but then Greek yogurt is also a fermented food so it’s going to give you good gut bacteria that’s going to help to keep your gut healthy so this is a
Great gut health addition as well can I add the peanut butter you can add some peanut butter so a good drizzle of peanut butter on here that’s delicious and I love it with apples I just love that combination so so more apples more apples I’m going to add on a chopped
Ontario honey crisp apple here we’re losing some there we go so we’ve got some nice that’s gonna give it a really nice fresh crunch this is like a meal it is a meal it’s a good breakast meal well this is a little bit more in the bowl of
Oatmeal than you might have but I just want to be able to see it on the TV so if you want to add on some peanuts and I’m going to add on a little bit of dark chocolate just a Sprinkle and actually dark chocolate also has polyphenols which um are a natural plant-based
Compound which have been shown to help to boost gut health as well okay we’ve got about a minute left all right so let’s move on to this is our sauteed gala apples this is our warm apple pie oatmeal so if you want to put on some of
Those sauteed Ontario um gala apples so I just sauteed them up with a little bit of butter some cinnamon cardamon a little bit of nutmeg and then while you’re doing that I’m going to drizzle on some cafir this is just a fermented um Dairy beverage and that’s going to be
Give it a nice Tangy taste and also some really good beneficial gut bacteria some almonds walnuts toasted walnuts for some good fats some nice crunch in there and 30 seconds left and our last one here this is super seedy so we’ve got if you want to put on this seed mix I’ve got
Pumpkin seeds flax seeds chia seeds all the seeds I’m going to add on I love seeds I do too I’m going to add on some um Ontario Ambrosia apples that I’ve just slivered up here you can put some coconut on and then y we’re going to add that nice delicious sweet crunch from
The apples again and we’re just going to pour on a little bit of soy beverage which also um research has shown that eating uh plant based foods or soy Foods is actually helps to boost the good gut bacteria as well okay again we’ll put all the links up to the recipes up on
Our website ch.com morning life thanks these are awesome thank you you want to eat H peanut butter chocolate I’m thinking