Woman in Real Life

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.*

This vegan yogurt breakfast bowl with chia berry jam is my solution for an easy, fast and healthy breakfast. You can enjoy it at home, or layer it in a mason jar or other lidded container to eat on the run. Tart coconut yogurt pairs nicely with the slightly sweet fast and easy chia berry jam recipe I recently posted. Add a delicious bounty of whole food and superfood toppings and a bit of granola and you have a filling, nourishing breakfast.

Disclosure: I have partnered with YMC and NutraVege and have received compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

I love a good chocolate macaroon, but I tend to make them only at Christmastime. These festive sweets are a tasty combination of cocoa, oats, coconut, non-dairy milk, margarine and a whole lot of sugar, making them a "sometimes" choice in my own personal food guide. These Chocolate Macaroon Overnight Oats, on the other hand, can be enjoyed any and all the time. Like their dessert counterparts, they benefit from cocoa, oats, coconut and non-dairy milk, but they are sweetened naturally with a bit of maple syrup, and no added fats are needed.

Of course, overnight oats most often present themselves as a healthy breakfast choice - they are filling and nourishing and will help you start off the day on a good foot. You could also make them in the morning, though, and have them ready in the fridge for a snack when you feel that mid-afternoon slump coming on. Read on for the recipe.

Oatmeal is oatmeal is oatmeal. Yes? With the resurgence in popularity of this classic grain, we know that's not so. Oatmeal can be thick, cold and clumpy. (My granny used to make it early in the morning and leave it on the back of the stove for my mom and her brothers to eat much later. Eek.) Oatmeal can also be creamy, warm and delicious, with lots of flavourful and healthy toppings. I vote to eat it that way. With that in mind, I'm sharing my simple recipe for steel-cut oats cooked up in the Instant Pot. There are endless ways to flavour your oatmeal - in this case I'm going with maple pecan. Because I'm Canadian. So maple syrup.

Plus, I've joined together with some vegan blogging friends to share six more amazing plant-based breakfast recipes. Trust me, they are mouthwatering. You'll want to get together with friends and make all of these recipes, for a fantastic vegan brunch.

Photos: Brilynn Ferguson

I've always loved the idea of getting together with friends and family for brunch - a leisurely, long meal packed with breakfasty goodies, eaten after sleeping in until 10. My mom tells me that her grandmother (in Nova Scotia) used to have people over for brunch every week after church. "They were poor people, but the baked bean pot was filled, tea biscuits made, teapot on (no coffee)," says Mom. "Probably eggs (from their own hens) and homemade condiments (beets, pickles, chow-chow). Oh yes! Always homemade bread." The coal stove kept everything warm as extended family and neighbours casually dropped in. Sounds like a beautiful way of building companionship and community, huh?

I'm definitely not that industrious. I am not efficient enough at cooking for crowds to get a weekly gathering going. But a nice brunch for the family and a few friends now and then would be lovely. I recently received a copy of  The Edgy Veg: 138 Carnivore-Approved Vegan Recipes. I was invited to share a couple of recipes with you and I settled on two fantastic brunch recipes - a vegan eggs benedict and a mimosa with a difference. Read on for the recipes, and enter to win a copy of the book.

In anticipation of the spring weather that doesn't seem to be coming around here, I have been consuming a lot of morning smoothies. Generally, I use whatever fruit I have in the fridge or freezer on any given day.

I happened to have some pineapple one day and I thought it might add a nice tropical touch to my smoothie.

I threw about five chunks in a Magic Bullet cup and added a banana, a handful of frozen strawberries, half of an apple and some orange juice.