Carrie's Homemade Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal

I have eaten this every day for about 3 months and still have not gotten sick of it! Just a warning- once you have this, you will never be satisfied with prepackaged apple cinnamon oatmeal again!

Ingredients: 

6 Gala or 4 large Honeycrisp Apples (I prefer sweet apples, but any will do)

2 C Old Fashioned Rolled Oats

3 ½ c Water

2 T Cinnamon

1 T Nutmeg

Directions:

1. Wash apples. Slice the apples and remove the core (I use an apple slicer, it is way faster than hand slicing).  Do NOT remove the peel, otherwise you will be removing a lot of the nutritious properties of the apple.
2. Place sliced apples in a food processor and pulse until the apple is finely diced.  I have a 7 cup food processor, so I usually end up having to do 3 apples in the processor at a time.  You can chop the apples to the size that you prefer, just be careful not to process them too much or you will end up with apple juice.
3. Pour 3.5 cups of water in a large sauce pot and bring to a rolling boil. 
4. When the water is boiling, stir in the 2 cups of oats and reduce to medium heat.
5. Stir in the diced apples
6. Add in the cinnamon and nutmeg and stir thoroughly. (I tend to add a lot of cinnamon to mine, but this is completely personal preference, you can add as    much or as little cinnamon/nutmeg as you like.
7. Stir frequently for 5 minutes. 
8. Remove from heat and pour into a large bowl or casserole dish (I use a round  pyrex dish that I can easily divide into 6 ‘pie size’ servings, but any bowl or    storage container will work. I would advise against pouring the hot oatmeal        into plastic containers though, or at least not until it cools:) 
9. Once the oatmeal has cooled, eat or place in the refrigerator for storing.

Additional Notes:

-         This recipe reheats great- just pop a serving in the microwave for 1 minute 45 seconds

-         I usually stir in a tbsp of almond butter for additional protein and a splash of almond milk

-         Instead of almond butter, I have also eaten it with honey and milk, or just milk, or even plain! I also bet that it would be great with some walnuts or pecans stirred in, or maybe even a little brown sugar.

-         If you want to make less than 6 servings, just use the amount of water/oats combination on the back of the rolled oat container, and add approximately 1 apple per serving

Nutrition Information: (from myfitnesspal, based on the listed ingredients)

Calories: 167, Carbs: 35, Fat: 2, Protein: 4