Shortly after I started food journaling, I learned that my body does much better on fats and proteins than carbohydrates like grains and legumes.
After making this realization, I was introduced; err more like fell, into a primal/paleo eating style.
4 days into it, I began missing big warm bowls of oatmeal.
8 days into it, I created big warm bowls of breakfast pudding.
8.25 days into it, I realized I’d never miss my oatmeal again.
Is it okay if I say that I like this pudding more than oatmeal?
*gasp*
No sugar crash, pure energy, no sore belly, happy intestines, it’s just better.
If you love warm, easy breakfasts, you’re going to love this!
If that’s not enough, it freezes just as well as my any Crock-Pot oatmeal would, and it’s higher in fiber.
Dear Grains,
I don’t miss you.
Love,
Leanne
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Crock-Pot Apple Crumble Breakfast Pudding
Vegan [option], Gluten free, Dairy free, Refined sugar-free, Yeast free, Corn free, Grain free
I just love this pudding and it’s crunchy cinnamon topping! It’s like having your breakfast oats, but without the heaviness of grains. Serve as a warm breakfast with a sprinkle of nuts or seeds a couple pieces of dried fruit, and a tall glass of almond milk!
Yield: 6 cups
Servings: 8
Ingredients
Pudding
- 1 cup non-dairy milk – I used unsweetened almond milk
- 2 cups water
- 2 tbsp raw honey (optional) *see note
- 1/2 cup chia seeds
- 2 tbsp arrowroot powder *see note
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- pinch Himalayan rock salt
- 5 large apples, sliced – do not peel!
Cinnamon Crunch Topping
- 1/2 cup blanched almond flour
- 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1/4 cup palm sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Directions
- Mix milk, water, honey, chia, arrowroot, cinnamon and salt at the bottom of your 3 quart Crock-Pot.
- Layer sliced apples over top and do not combine.
- Mix the crumble topping together in a large bowl. Using your hands, spread it over top of the apples. Cook on low for 4 hours, or high for 2 hours (I like the results of the lower setting, but either one works).
- Turn off heat, unplug, and let sit, covered, for one hour.
- Top with raisins and walnuts and enjoy!
note: replace honey with maple syrup or omit to make vegan
note2: if you don’t have arrowroot, no problem. I used it to thicken the pudding slightly so you could also probably use corn starch (non-paleo), potato starch (non-paleo), or tapioca starch.
Try adding your favorite protein powder to the mix to increase the protein content if required.
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I wish I could just bottle this stuff up and take it on vacation with us! Alas, I’ll have to throw the leftovers in the freezer for when we get back.
Just 2 more days until we whisk away to the Dominican and I haven’t even thought about what I’m going to pack. There’s always tomorrow, right?
Do you prepare for trips days or weeks in advance or are you a last minute preparer?
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{ 53 comments… read them below or add one }
That does look really good! I absolutely love my oatmeal in the morning but to be honest with you, my body does better with fats/protein as well so it’s usually one of the only times I eat whole grains throughout the day. Maybe I’ll have some with dinner, but I say bring on the fats.
This looks so great! I have to try this because my body works so much better on grain-free, too. (That’s why I have so many grain-free recipes on my site!)
I’m a super light packer, so it only takes me about an hour to get everything done. I usually do it the night before.
1 hour?! My goodness, I need to get good at packing like you
That looks great! I love crockpot options!
This sounds delicious! It’s amazing when we find what works for us and makes us feel good! Ugh, we are leaving for NY in two days and I’ve done nothing to prepare for it. I think today is going to be a very busy day!
this looks great! I have also fallen into a paleo style diet and felt lost at what to make for breakfast. Going to try this soon, thanks!
“No sugar crash, pure energy, no sore belly, happy intestines, it’s just better.”– I love that and it’s so true!
And your letter to Dear Grains…perfect.
As is this recipe and one reason to dust off my slow cooker when Im back home.
Hooray! Your grain-free journey has almost parallelled my own. Isn’t it great?
Thanks for this warm breakfast option… Oatmeal has been my saddest “goodbye.”
I’ll admit that I like pudding more than oats too! And for packing – I’m the same as you. I haven’t even thought about what I’m going to take to Italy with me and have no idea what the weather is doing over there right now. I’m pretty sure you’ll be safe with just bikinis, shorts, tanks, and sun dresses!
haha I think that’s why I haven’t worried about it too much. I’ll be living in my bikini, so who cares!
I’ve been in need of warm breakfast ideas and w/o grains..this is perfect and I can just leave it in the crockpot..amaze! Thanks!!
The thought of this made me drool! I want to make it for Christmas Eve dessert… and then eat the leftovers for Christmas breakfast and lunch.
This looks great! Do you know of any crock pot trick that would do this in the next 30 seconds?
I have become more organized with packing, since we have a little boy! I realized that if I make a little bag just for him, things are much easier to find. I need to be done with packing the night before, otherwise there is some dark force that gets over me and makes me go into a panic…:-)
Have a wonderful time in Dominican Republic!
If I figure out how to make my crock pot go on the “faster than the speed of light” setting, I’ll let you know! I bet you could use a pressure cooker, if you have one around!
I opted to delay gratification and go for the “low” setting of the crock pot, but we started nibbling and finally eating half of it 3 hours into it….SO good.
You were right about the grains. I’ve always loved the “mushy” type of breakfast, but didn’t realize one could get that “feeling” with other things than oatmeal.
I’m so happy you liked it, Danielle!
This looks so wonderful! I am wondering though..do you get up early to turn it on or do you have some sort of timer that automatically turns it on in the night? I’m not sure how to do this one without freezing it so that it is ready when I wake up! Delicious!
There are a couple of ways you can do it, Katie. My crock-pot has a built in timer, but you can also install a timer in the electrical outlet and set it to a specific time of day.
I don’t miss oats much either.. sometimes I long for a nice warm breakfast though, I love loveee the look of this although I would need to stock up on most of these ingredients. When I have a hankering for a comforting warm breakfast I’ll usually just make a big sweet potato and some scrambled eggs.
Mm sweet potato + eggs sounds delicious!
This looks really, really good! Have a great vacation ~ Happy Packing!
Yum, perfection!! For the non-dairy milk you can also try flax milk – great flavor and lots of Omega 3s.
We don’t have flax milk in Canada yet
is it as good as everyone’s been saying it is?
Ugh I saw flax milk at the grocery store a couple of weeks ago and made a mental note to snatch some up the next week, and when I got there they had taken it off the shelves. Stopped carrying it! I guess that’s what I get for waiting
Oh no! I guess it wasn’t all that popular? Shoot.
mmm.. I do an almond meal/flax meal mix in lieu of oatmeal- just like a package of instant oats (or at least as fast). Just a couple tablespoons of each with some cinnamon, pinch of salt, maybe some raisins and a live palm sugar or stevia- add hot water and there you go.. breakfast. You can even make a weeks worth of “instant packets” to store in your fridge..
I’m going to be trying this, too..
jen
That sounds delicious, Jen! I’m going to make a couple of those packets for my vacation. Thanks for the recommendation
No problem!!
jenetta
oh.. and I think you could use a little flax meal to thicken this with out the starch…
jenetta
Can this be fixed in crockpot, cooled, and frozen, and then reheated in the oven in a corningware dish? Or better to be refrigerated?
It sure can! I made a batch, froze in individual containers, then placed a portion in a corningware dish and heated it for about 30 minutes at 350F. No problem!
Hmmm grains and I have a very similar relationship, and I’ve been craving a bowl of oatmeal lately! This looks so good! I’m definitely trying it! This no oat oatmeal recipe is also really good… Have you tried it? http://www.marksdailyapple.com/no-oat-oatmeal-its-no-atmeal/ super tasty
Mmm yum! That looks awesome. Thanks Cami
I’m totally going to try this!
I love the idea of using a crock pot for cooking breakfast! All nice and hot the next morning!
It’s brilliant!
I’ve done that in the past with steel cut oats, but I need to do it again!
You are a fabulous cook! This recipe looks to die for and I need to use my crock pot more often!! Thank you!
i can’t believe how filling this is! but i’m not really a fan of the apple mush… i think i’m going to try again with pumpkin and pumpkin spices.
i’ve been swapping in coconut flour for almond flour but the “crunchy toppings” are never crunchy… is there a better alternative?
That’s interesting, the apples shouldn’t have been mushy. They should still have a lot of their ‘form’ left. But pumpkin would work, too! Coconut flour really cannot give you that crunchy topping. If you’re not grain-free, quinoa flakes are a good alternative.
yeah, all that was left was apple peels and mush. but i’ll give the quinoa flakes a go, maybe the coconut made the apples mushy? thanks!
That’s so odd. The apples were still ‘together’ when all was said and done. If you’re going the same route next time, you may want to try decreasing the cooking time. Would love to know how quinoa flakes work out!
This looks so mouth watering all I want is to have some appear in front of me right now! I wonder if you could make this a single serving sans crock pot?
I bet you could. Instead of going the crock-pot route, make a batch of my glazed apples, then mix it with 1/2 cup almond milk, 1/2 cup water, raisins, and let sit overnight. I bet it’d be pretty comparable! Here are the glazed apples: http://www.healthfulpursuit.com/2011/11/maple-cinnamon-protein-pancakes-with-glazed-apples/
This sounds really genius. The topping looks divine! Who knew that slow cooking chia could produce such an effect? I’m in a breakfast rut right now so it looks like I’ll be giving this a try
I love this!! I am so excited to try it!! Thank you for posting it!
This looks amazing, i cant wait to try it!! Just a couple questions….can i use dairy milk instead of non dairy? And can i replace chai seeds with something like flax seeds, as i have never heard of those. And i cant seem to find arrowroot powder anywhere..is there something primal that i can replace that with. Sorry for all the questions!!! Love you site!!
For the milk, yes the regular stuff will work fine. I’m not sure about replacing the chia seeds as that’s the main part of the recipe. You could try to replace with oats, but I’ve never done it. arrowroot can be replaced with corn starch or tapioca starch. Hope that helps!
This was absolutely delicious!!! I loved how sweet it turned out to be without having to add much honey. The entire crock pot lasted less than 12 hours – and there are only two of us!!
Really enjoying your recipes. Thanks for posting so many tasty treats. It makes living without gluten and dairy a lot easier!
I’m so happy you liked the pudding, Farah! Glad that my recipes are helping you love your gluten-free + dairy-free life.
Wow, this was really yummy! I didn’t have any apples so I used pears (peeled) instead, The sweetness of the pears just seemed to be a nice balance. I served it with sheep yogurt and some crushed walnuts on the top. If you haven’t tried this, I strongly recommend that you give it a shot.
Yum, I haven’t tried it with pears but I bet that’d be lovely. Thanks for the recommendation, Helen!
this looks great . i need to try it. i ate oatmeal or granola every day for breakfast before going paleo. i’d love to have something like it again.
(also fun to see someone with the same name!)
Your name is spelled so beautifully! It’s not every day I run into another “Leanne”! Enjoy the pudding
Hi Leanne! Have you ever tried making a blueberry-maple version? I’m taking a stab at that this morning. Will let you know how it turns out.
Ohhh I haven’t! I can’t wait to hear how you do it, what you think!