A theme? And caramelized apples.

As I was eating my dinner of penne and delicious spaghetti sauce my mom made last August and froze, and then forced me to take several containers of because dammit, she had too much sauce in the freezer, I realized I also wanted dessert.  But I also needed to make sure I had breakfast the next day, and damned if I was going to prepare TWO extra items tonight.

And then it dawned on me:  I’ll make one thing and use it for both.  Which turns out is how I do a lot of things:  my lunch is almost always leftovers, I freeze a lot of stuff I make, and if something doesn’t taste good the first time, I mess with it the next day until it does.  I’m thinking that will be a major theme in my mofo this month.

So. . . what did I make for dessert?  Caramelized apple muffins.

And how is that helping me with breakfast?  I used some of the caramelized apples to put together 2 jars of caramelized apple and peanut butter overnight oats.  Sheeeeeeeiiiiit, yes.

Caramelized Apples

• 1/4 cup Earth Balance
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 apples, peeled and sliced thinly.
• a pinch of salt

Melt the EB in a non cast-iron pan over medium-low heat.  Sprinkle in the brown sugar, and stir until it’s all mixed together.

Toss in the sliced apples and give them a stir.  Cook for about 3 minutes until you see the apples releasing a bunch of juice.  Sprinkle on the salt, and cook for another 5 minutes, or until the apples are nice and tender and maybe even browning a little.  Taste one, and if it tastes awesome and amazing and tender, then it’s done.

Caramelized Apple Muffins – makes 6 muffins

• 1 cup unbleached white flour
• 1 tsp ground flax
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp. maple syrup
• 3 Tbsp. canola oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup soymilk

Preheat your oven to 350°F and lightly grease a muffin tin.  Whisk together the flour, flax, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients.  Add the dry to the wet and mix with a wooden spoon until just mixed.

Fill 6 muffin tins halfway full with batter.  Drop  about 3 or 4 caramelized apple slices on the top of each batter pile.  Drizzle on a little bit of the saucy juices, and the top with another small scoop of batter.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool in the pans for 5 minutes, and then cool on a wire rack.

These are pretty good!

I’ll let you know how the oats are tomorrow morning.