Applesauce Made in the Crock Pot!

Apples, pears and apricots waiting to be made into applesauce

This is a very easy recipe, and the applesauce is absolutely delicious — a lot tastier than store-bought applesauce. It’s also much less expensive than most organic, store-bought applesauce, especially if you buy apples at a good price. (I find that Trader Joe’s 2-pound bags of organic apples are usually available at a reasonable price. These apples are the smaller size ones, but that’s just fine!)

I shared some of my homemade applesauce with my friends at work today and they loved it!  Unfortunately, I had none left when one of my colleagues came into the kitchen foraging for a snack and left with a plate of potato chips and a bottle of orange soda…his fruits and veggies! : – (

BASIC RECIPE

Ingredients

4 pounds of apples – any you like. Here is what I used:

• 3 pounds of organic honey crisp apples (or another rather sweet apple with thin skins)
• 1 pound of organic Granny Smith apples (or another rather tart apple)

Notes:

• If you can, use only organic apples. That’s because apples are one of the most pesticide-laden fruits according to EWG’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides – a reliable resource.
• You might not want to make applesauce with all Granny Smith apples because it would be too tart. And I found that the skins of the Granny Smiths were quite thick and more noticeable in the applesauce than the skins of the Honey Crisp apples.

1 cup of filtered water

1 tablespoon lemon juice (or less if you prefer a less tart applesauce)

Directions

Cut the apples (skins and all)  into chunks. Put the apple chunks into the crock pot, add the water, and lemon juice; cover and cook on low for 8 hours. Remove the lid and use a potato masher to lightly mash the apples until they turn into a chunky applesauce. But keep mashing if you want a less chunky sauce.

RECIPE VARIATIONS

Instead of just apples, use apples plus:

• Pears
• Frozen organic berries
• Dried cranberries
• Dried chopped apricots (I like the unsulfured apricots. That’s why you see brown-looking apricot pieces in the photo.)

You may want add:

• Ceylon cinnamon . Sprinkle cinnamon on the individual servings, as desired.
• Mix some ground flax seeds into the applesauce.
• Top with yogurt.
• Top with walnuts.

More information….

• Heirloom apples in the USA – Many hairloom apples are in danger of extinction… See what the Ark of Taste program sponsored by Slow Food USA is doing to keep these apples and other heirloom fruits and vegetables from going extinct.
• Grow your own organic apple trees! Learn how from Michael Phillips of Lost Nation Orchard, author of The Apple Grower.

Enjoy and be healthy!

~Leni

Why Cinnamon?

Cinnamon contains “proanthocyanidins, molecules that are capable of forcing cancer cells to commit suicide (apoptosis). In the laboratory, these molecules act on several cancer lines and are particularly effective against colon cancer. ” [page 118, Servan-Schreiber, MD, PhD, David, Anticancer, A New Way of Life, 2009 Edition]

Also, some studies have shown that cinnamon slows the assimilation of sugar and reduces insulin peaks, which is a good thing, because the less sugar in your blood, the less food for cancer cells — which feed on sugar. Other foods that reduce the rise in blood sugar include onions or garlic, blueberries, cherries, and raspberries. [page 72, Servan-Schreiber, MD, PhD, David, Anticancer, A New Way of Life, 2009 Edition]

I used to use any variety of cinnamon that I found in the supermarket. Then I discovered the great flavor of Korintje cassia cinnamon – the intense and slightly sweet cinnamon that is often used in commercial cinnamon buns (why it smells so great when you pass the cinnamon bun stall at the mall). BUT, after doing a little research for this blog, I learned that cassia cinnamon contains coumarin — a compound about which there are some serious health-related concerns. In fact, Germany has taken cassia cinnamon off the market in that country because of these health concerns.

To be sure to avoid cassia cinnamon, I now cook ONLY with cinnamon that is specifically labeled: Ceylon cinnamon, which I buy at Penzeys Spices (online or at their bricks and mortar stores).

Unfortunately, in the US, most of the ground cinnamon is cassia cinnamon and the label simply says “cinnamon” — so you don’t know what you are buying, unless you get your cinnamon from a specialty spices store where the varieties are clearly labeled.

By the way, Ceylon cinnamon has a somewhat soft/mild cinnamon flavor so you may need to use a lot of it to get the cinnamon flavor you want. That’s why I buy Ceylon cinnamon by the four-ounce bag. It’s also less expensive per ounce in the bag than in the smaller jars. (By the way, Penzeys Spices also sells inexpensive empty glass jars, with shaker top inserts, so I pour the cinnamon from the bag into one of those jars.)

To learn more about cinnamon

• Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s About Herbs (and spices) database
• German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment has a good FAQ about cinnamon.
• Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages

Recipes with cinnamon

• Monamifood’s Cinnamon: Steel-Cut Oatmeal

Enjoy and be healthy!

~Leni

CINNAMON: Steel-Cut Oatmeal

I used to love to make steel-cut oatmeal in the slow cooker. It was nice to have hot cereal waiting when we woke up in the morning. But then my trusty 30-year slow cooker, gave out and I bought a new one. The new slow cooker cooks the oatmeal too quickly and invariably we end up with oatmeal caked to the sides of the slow cooker or, worse yet, burned tasting oatmeal. I tried increasing the amount of water to oats in the recipe, but that didn’t help very much. Then I tried cooking it for less time, but I didn’t want to lose sleep over the oatmeal!

So I’ve learned that slow cookers are not all the same. And I am no longer using my slow cooker for making oatmeal…instead, I simply cook it overnight on a cold stove. Here’s how:

STEEL-CUT OATS — cooked overnight on a cold stove

Ingredients

3 3/4 cups filtered cold tap water

1 cup steel-cut oats

• You can buy organic steel-cut oats (or oat groats) at Whole Foods in the bulk food bin or on the shelves and also at Trader Joe’s.

• Since steel-cut oats are a whole grain (that is, it contains the germ as well as the bran), I don’t store oats for a long time in the pantry. If I have more than what I need for a few weeks, I keep the extra in the freezer or the refrigerator. That’s because I want to prevent the oils in the germ from going rancid. Rancid foods have an off taste (though in oatmeal you can’t tell) and also promote oxidative reactions in the body, just what you don’t want. (That’s why we take in anti-oxidants to help prevent cancer as well as heart disease, etc.)

Directions for cooking overnight on a cold stove

The night before, bring the water to a boil in a small heavy pot (such as a Le Creuset enamel-on-steel pot).

Add the steel-cut oats, cover the pot, turn off the heat, and leave the pot on the burner with the heat off.

The next morning, uncover pot, stir the watery softened oats and then heat over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring .

Add your favorite additions, such as skim milk, almond milk, raisins, ground  flaxseeds, and, of course, lots of Ceylon cinnamon. (See the recipe below for making oatmeal in slow cooker for more information on these add-ins.)

STEEL-CUT OATS – in a slow-cooker

Ingredients

• 1 cup steel-cut oats

• 5 cups filtered cold tap water (more or less depending on your slow cooker’s size and how hot it heats up; experiment to get it right)

• Skim milk or almond vanilla milk (the variety without any added sweeteners), to taste

• Raisins, to taste

• Ceylon cinnamon, to taste

• Monamifood: Why Cinnamon? How does cinnamon help to prevent cancer?

• Cinnamon also helps to bring out the natural sweetness of foods!  That’s why it’s so prevalent in baking.

• ground flaxseeds (I prefer the golden flaxseeds which I grind in a coffee grinder)

• Monamifood: Why Flaxseeds? How do flaxseeds help to prevent cancer?

Directions for cooking in slow cooker

•   Add the oats and water to a 3- or 4-quart slow cooker; cover and cook on low overnight or about 6-7 hours.

• Stir well the next morning.

• Add skim milk or almond milk (my favorite) and raisins to taste; stir and heat the mixture in the microwave oven.

• Mix in Ceylon cinnamon and flaxseeds.

+ Note: I used to add cinnamon to the oatmeal before cooking, but it seems to lose its flavor during the long slow cooking. And I’m also wondering if the heat might possibly adversely affect the effectiveness of the proanthocyanidins — those  molecules in cinnamon that force cancer cells to commit suicide.  I have no idea if that’s so or not, but just in case there’s some truth to this, I now add the cinnamon (lots of it) to my oatmeal after it’s cooked.

Directions for cooking on top of the stove when y0u want a bowl of oatmeal NOW – not tomorrow morning

Here’s a good pumpkin pie spiced oatmeal recipe to cook on top of the stove.

As mention in my post about anti-angiogenic foods, I like to add canned pumpkin to my oatmeal. Not only is pumpkin an anti-angiogenic food but it’s also high in fiber and vitamin A/beta carotene – and delicious. Tip: Buy lots of canned pumpkin when it’s on sale around Thanksgiving! You’ll never find it so inexpensive any other time of the year.

Other additions – just a few ideas

• Fresh berries
• Dried fruit
• Canned pumpkin (not canned pumpkin pie filling which has lots of sugar)
• Fat free ricotta cheese – If you mix this in well it will make your cereal creamy.
• Egg whites (not from fresh eggs, but rather from a container because the eggs in the container have been pasteurized and there’s no possibility of salmonella) – You just stir the egg whites into PIPING hot cereal and you get a nice creamy texture.
• Mix with cooked quinoa! A great way to bump up the protein in your breakfast.

For more sweetness…just add more raisins!

• Adding raisins – a whole food that contains lots of fiber —  is a great way to sweeten your cereal.  In addition, oatmeal (and all grains) when metabolized contributes to the acidity in your blood, which is thought to contribute to the process by which our bones get depleted of calcium and become more brittle. Raisins and all fruits, on the other hand, do exactly the opposite. They contribute to a more basic (non-acidic) blood which helps protect our bones from the leaching out of calcium. For more on the concept of acid-base and bones see Origins and evolution of the Western diet: health implications for the 21st century. Starting on page 349 of this American Journal of Clinical Nutrition article, you will find a short discussion of the health implications of an acid- vs. alkaline-producing diet.

Store the leftover oatmeal in refrigerator

• If you have more cooked oatmeal than you need, just store the remaining portion in the refrigerator. The next morning you may find that you have a congealed mass of oatmeal! No problem. Just top the oatmeal with some milk (or almond milk) and then heat it in the microwave. When hot, stir until no longer lumpy.

To learn more about slow cooker cooking – good general information…

• All Recipes-Slow Cooking Is Good Cooking

And…to make single-portions of oatmeal in a metal thermos overnight…

• Overnight Oatmeal for Grab and Go Breakfasts
  

Enjoy and be healthy!

~Leni