It's Smells Like Fall! Vegan MoFo #20

   Hi Friends!

   It's finally Friday and I for one couldn't be happier!  This week seems to have dragged on and that's probably thanks to all of the after work commitments I've had.  Plus, they've been doing road work at my apartment complex for the past couple of weeks so we've been moved around a lot (parking-wise) depending on what side they're working on.  Last night they finished paving the rest of the parking lot ending at the front entrance.  We weren't even able to get into the complex so I parked across the street and to be honest, I didn't really mind.  Winter is coming and I'd rather it be over with now then having to go through this and snow (yikes). 

   Well, this morning I woke up to an early Christmas because when I looked outside my window everything was finished!  The lines were painted on the ground dividing all of the spaces and so were the numbers and letters indicating individual spaces.  There were even some cars parked in the spaces.  I was so excited and a little confused.  Didn't I come home late last night to a blocked entrance?  When did they finish and how did those people park already?  (I was up at 6:15am) I honestly really didn't care, though, and when I saw my 'Super' this morning I shared my enthusiasm with him.  Other tenants must have been giving him grief because he said that he wished everyone shared my attitude.  Too bad.  I love our new roadways.  Bye-bye potholes!  Oh, and lines we can actually see.  Yay!  Everything looks so new and pretty!

   But you're not reading this to hear about my parking lot, right?  You want to know what the last recipe for Apple week is!  Well, I won't keep you in suspense much longer.  I was thinking of making muffins, or cupcakes or turnovers but, I decided to make baked apples for the last recipe because I've never actually had them.  Can you believe that?  Anyway, I set out searching for some inspiration on the interweb and noticed that almost every recipe stuffs the apples with tons of sugar.  I decided to add oats to mine so that I didn't have to use as much sugar.

Here's the Recipe:

Baked Cinnamon Spice Apples
Ingredients
2 apples (Gala, Honeycrisp, Red Relicious)
1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
Filling Ingredients
2 Tbsp oats
1 Tbsp pecans, chopped
1/2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp raisins
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
dash sea salt

1/2 tsp Earth Balance butter, divided

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup water

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Core apples and scoop out seeds.

Peel skin in a swirl-like pattern using a vegetable peeler. 
Place apples in a baking dish and sprinkle with lemon juice.
Mix filling ingredients together in a small bowl and fill the apples with the mixture.  Top each with a 1/4 tsp of Earth Balance.

I saw someone on TV swirl the apple peel once and I remember thinking it was so fancy!

Pour apple cider mixture into bottom of dish and cover with a lid or foil.
Bake 25 minutes.
Remove foil, baste apples with pan juices and bake, uncovered, for an additional 10-15 minutes, or until apples are tender but not mushy.

Serve warm or room temperature.

   While these are baking it smells like fall all throughout the house.  Even if I decided that I didn't like this dish I would continue to make it just for that scent.  Luckily, I do actually like this yummy dessert so I'll be sure to make this again.  Next time I'll make sure to have some Almond Dream Vanilla ice cream around so that I can have it with the baked apple.  Yum!

Happy Friday everyone!
Love,
Ves xx