Baked Cinnamon Crumble Apples

 WOW!  Where have the last 4 months gone?  Well, let's see.  We moved back to Iowa. Now have a 1 year old that keeps us exhausted and crazy busy. We both started new jobs (yep, still working full-time). We bought a house. Just finished moving into that house on New Year's weekend.  AND... I celebrated my 3 year surgeriversary (I had my RNY Weight Loss Surgery on Jan. 5, 2010).  It's my goal that the first week of February, I take 3 year pictures. With moving we didn't get them taken, and if I do it the first week of February, it will be 1 year after these pictures were taken at my 2 year mark. 

I feel like with all the change in our lives in the last 4 months, I've lost a bit of me to the chaos of it all.  Tonight was the first night that I found the time to make a new recipe.  I hadn't been planning to do this, but I've been trying to think outside of the box for feeding Aiden things that are healthy, meet his little nutritional/calorie needs and things we still like (and that I can have as a WLS person).  Also, trying to stay on budget by using what we have in the house and avoiding eating out as much as possible.  (I didn't take the time to do the nutrition breakdown because this one is pretty darn healthy, but I did do the $ breakdown of tonight's recipe ;) - priorities!)

Here we go - I looked online for ideas, but kind of made this one up as I went.  REALLY REALLY good.  Also, a great thing to have as a dinner "dessert" on a night when the windchill is supposed to get down to -30.  Yes, I typed NEGATIVE 30.  Not a typo : (

Baked Cinnamon Crumble Apples:
Ingredients:
2 Fuji apples (or whichever kind you prefer, this is what we had on hand. 50 cents each from the store.)
2 tablespoons of splenda brown sugar
2 tablespoons of flour
2 tablespoons of stick margarine, melted
1 packet of Better Than Oats Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal (bought ours at Fareway, $1 for 5 packets per box)
Ground cinnamon to sprinkle on top.

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut apples in half and core out the centers with a small knife or spoon.  Lay on baking sheet (I cover mine with foil for easy easy cleanup!).
-In a small bowl, combine melted margarine, splenda brown sugar, flour and 1 packet of apple cinnamon oatmeal.  It will be a chunky, batter like consistency. 
-Fill centers of cored out apples with oatmeal mixture, spread out on tops of apple halves too.  Divide mixture evenly between 4 halves.
-Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. 
-When first removed from the oven, sprinkle with cinnamon.  Let cool for just a few minutes and then serve.

I haven't had apple crisp in over 3 years because of my surgery.  This is the first time since surgery I felt like I was eating something just as good, if not better than what I have had before.  LOVE this recipe (both the boys liked it too - Aiden grabbed for the apples first on his plate with dinner tonight.  I just cut the skin off of his apple before cutting it up for him to eat :)

$2 total to make this (we have the splenda brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and stick margarine on hand all the time).  4 servings total, 50 cent dessert!  Recap: WLS friendly, kid friendly, nutritionally healthy, budget friendly!