Woman in Real Life

This vegan apple cinnamon cake recipe (no eggs, no dairy) is so easy to make, but looks impressive and tastes delicious! You'll fool your guests into thinking you crafted a complicated dessert. 

A cake that helps you get your seven servings of fruit and vegetables a day? Yes indeed! This recipe for vegan apple cinnamon cake combines two of my favourite foods - cake and fruit - in a very good way. Take a homemade vanilla cake base and swirl in a delicious mix of spicy cinnamon and sweet sugar. Top it with firm, sweet Organic Washington apple slices and bake. 

The result is an incredibly tasty, moist cake that's perfect for afternoon tea or evening dessert. May I suggest having a slice of this easy vegan apple cinnamon cake for breakfast as well? An apple a day and all that.

Organic Washington Apples

For this scrumptious little apple cake, I used Organic Washington Granny Smith apples. Washington State is one of the premier apple-growing areas in the world and the growing conditions make it an ideal region to grow organic apples.

*This post is sponsored by Organic Washington apples. All opinions are authentic and my own. Thank you for supporting the awesome companies that partner with Woman in Real Life.*

Classic baked apples with tasty oatmeal crumble topping are so easy to make and are a perfect comforting dessert for fall and winter.

Baked apples are a classic comfort food dessert. Add a crumbly, slightly sweet, crispy oatmeal topping and you have a suitably delicious alternative to apple pie, without the oil-laden pie crust. These baked apples with oatmeal crumble topping make for a healthy, delicious dessert that couldn't be simpler to make. And the recipe calls for a short list of handy ingredients. The result is very much like an apple crisp, with a little less fuss involved.

Organic Washington Apples

For this cozy baked apples recipe, I used Organic Washington apples in the Honeycrisp variety, but other firm, sweet apples like Organic Washington Granny Smith apples would work wonderfully too. Washington State is known as one of the premier apple-growing areas in the world and the growing conditions make Washington an ideal region to grow organic apples.

*This post is sponsored by Organic Washington apples. All opinions are authentic and my own. Thank you for supporting the awesome companies that partner with Woman in Real Life.*

In my last post, I shared a recipe for easy vegan apple turnovers. These pockets of sweet apple goodness are delicious and so simple to make, with the help of puff pastry. But I didn't stop there, because yes, apple turnovers are easy to make, but a yummy apple dessert can be even easier and faster to prepare. If you've got a package of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls on the door of your fridge and Cosmic Crisp Washington Apples in the refrigerator crisper, you can have a tasty dessert ready in 20 minutes! These fast and easy vegan apple cinnamon crescent rolls are perfect for when you're feeling peckish on a dreary winter afternoon too.

Cosmic Crisp® Washington apples are crispier and sweeter than other varieties, and naturally slow to brown. The Cosmic Crisp® was classically bred at Washington State University. It's non-GMO and a cross between the ‘Enterprise’ and ‘Honeycrisp.’ Cosmic Crisps are ideal for baking in a dessert such as these apple cinnamon crescent rolls, but due to their sweetness and crispy texture, they also make an exceptional (juicy!) snacking apple.

This healthy, plant-based vegan apple and cinnamon baked oatmeal recipe gets an added nutrient boost from diced fresh apples. It's delicious, filling and simple to make for a hearty breakfast, snack or even dessert!

If you watch food and recipe videos on Youtube, you can't help but see how popular oatmeal is for a healthy breakfast. Personally I find there's a limit to how many bowls of oatmeal (aka porridge) I can eat. For a (delicious) change, baked oatmeal is a nice choice. You get the health benefits of oats - they help you feel full, they are a good source of fibre, they may lower blood sugar levels and they contain important vitamins, minerals and antioxidants - in a different, palate-pleasing, almost dessert-like format. 

For a nutritional punch that can't be beat, add apples to your baked oatmeal. This apple and cinnamon baked oatmeal calls for Cosmic Crisp Washington Apples, a new and tasty apple variety that's been in development for two decades. Cosmic Crisps are classically bred (non-GMO) to be crispier and sweeter than other apple varieties and naturally slow to brown.

*This post is sponsored by Cosmic Crisp Washington Apples. All opinions are authentic and my own. Thank you for supporting the awesome companies that partner with Woman in Real Life.*

It's time to take advantage of all those fresh, crispy apples available to us in fall. As we do each September, we recently visited our favourite apple orchard to pick delicious, crunchy apples right off the tree. Apples truly are one of Mother Nature's wonders, providing us with benefits such as soluble fibre and disease-fighting antioxidants. Plus apples are highly portable and hardy, making them an ideal snack to take to park, school or work. Of course, you could also turn them into an equally portable and possibly even more delicious snack, like these Vegan Apple Crumble Muffins.

Oh wonderful, wonderful fall, if you could please stick around just a teeny bit longer! More sunny, bountiful days with trees full of ripe apples might just be enough to get me through winter. We were fortunate to have some free time to go apple picking with family and friends a couple of weeks ago. We headed to Avalon Orchards in Innsifil, Ontario, where you can pick your own certified organic apples.


It was a nice outing for us all - including the kids, their cousins and a friend. Everybody pitched in to fill our bags with gorgeous organic apples.


How beautiful are bunches of fresh apples on the tree?


Here's my boy with his eldest cousin. There is a four-year age difference between them, but they get along famously, partly because they both have fun, mischievous sides.


One of my husband's lovely sisters.





My girl and her new braces. (Two kids in braces now - equals a monthly payment that could buy a car!)


I am missing Avalon Orchards already. I think it's time to search out a great pumpkin farm where we can stroll through fields, hopefully enjoy a bit of sunshine and pick out the perfect pumpkins while soaking in nature's beauty.



If you find yourself with an abundance of apples following your visit to the apple farm (or the grocery store!), may I humbly suggest making one of these five vegan recipes with apples? Clockwise from bottom left (above), try this healthy Pom Pom Juice with apples, pomegranates, cherries and plums; a Pineapple Spinach Smoothie benefits from fibre-rich apples; this decadent Apple Fritter Cake is a tribute to my favourite donut; freshly juiced apples are the base of this Strawberry Lemonade Juice recipe; this Apple Crisp with a Twist pairs apples and strawberries for a yummy yet healthy dessert.

Have you been apple picking this year? What do you like to make with apples?









 

When the thermometer is on the rise, it's nice to kick back with a fresh, homemade juice. Juicing can help you increase your consumption of healthy fruits and vegetables. Plus, the water content can work to prevent dehydration. If you have kids, you might possibly get more veggies into them too. In our family, my son will happily try any juice, even if it contains celery or cucumber. My daughter can only be tempted with fruit. But carrot juice is sweet, has a lovely orange colour and is easy to hide among the fruit juice!

Noodles. Yum. Probably my favourite food in the world. Well, except maybe chocolate.

Wednesday has rolled around once again, and it's time to share food highlights from the past week.

My husband made garlic noodles, breaded tofu and broccoli one night. Here's what was left for my lunch the next day. Nice to see that the family ate most of the broccoli.

Remember when I went to the apple orchard in September? I had all of these plans to make lovely recipes to use up the apples that the kids so lovingly picked that day.

It's now (late) November and I still have a fridge drawer full of apples. The guilt is starting to eat away at me.

So, yesterday I put together this recipe for Apple Crisp With A Twist.You probably guessed from the picture that the twist in this apple crisp is raspberries. But, I really should have said twists plural, because I also added orange juice and flax seeds for extra fun!

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like stars at night.
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
—W. H. Davies

my little snaggletooth or Nanny McPhee as we like to call her

the apples are coated with clay to deter pests