This recipe only has a small amount of sugar, and uses some other flavors of the season, such as pumpkin and cranberries. It doesn't give the nutritional breakdown though, so I can't say how much fiber it has in it : )

* Disclaimer * I haven't actually tried this recipe yet, but I've had baked oatmeal with craisins before, and it made for a nice wintertime breakfast.

Bonnie

Here is a link that might be useful: Pumpkin Cranberry Apple Baked Oatmeal

We blanche a huge amount of swiss chard and kale over the summer and freeze it in 1-2 lb packages. I'll bring out a bag, let it thaw, then slice off a cup or so, dice that finely, wring out the water, then saute that up with olive oil, diced onion (from the garden) and maybe diced dried tomatoes. There's a fair amount of fiber in that.

I also dried a couple of bushels of tomatoes and I just eat them out of the bag, like potato chips.

Right now its the season I can find Pink Lady apples in the store. Its pretty funny - they set them out, an hour later the display is cleared with people buying a dozen at a go. Thats the only super market apple that is consistently, really good.

Wander over to www.epicurious.com and put apples and something else in the search box. You can just put in apples, but you'll end up with over 1,000 results. "apples and sweet potatoes" and "apples and squash" show some interesting results. Most of the recipes have reviews, which can often be really helpful. And now that I've browsed some of the recipes, I'm off to the grocery store. Hey, we have a great new natural foods store here now. And a new Asian foods store. Geez, pretty soon we'll be so cosmopolitan you won't recognize us.

I went with my quite common broccoli & cheese, rice casserole (it was well-received ;o). I get lots of onions and carrots in that one!

Here is where I found use for some of the apples:

I made applebutter and used it in a recipe for baked beans! I'd never made baked beans before. Don't know why. It probably would have been better with just cannellini beans but I used my usual bean soup mix. The applebutter was made differently than I've ever done it before, also. Microwave!

This was lunch yesterday:

I've done this quite often. The carrots and onions are sauteed but usually, I add ground beef and a can of tomato soup. This time, I have lots of spaghetti sauce from the summer so I used that.

It all goes in a casserole and is baked in the oven for about as long as it takes a nice big russet potato to bake! Then, the carrot mix is spooned on top the baked potato!

Bonnie, I realized that your baked oatmeal recipe must be almost the same as what I've been eating with those 3 pieces of fruit I have each morning - Great Grains from Post. There's a dehydrator on a shelf in the house for veggie & fruit processing but I could also go into the breakfast cereal business!

Steve

WindWhipped, I tried that brown rice and apple search . . .

While I didn't come up with anything specific, epicurious does have a Chicken and Apple Curry. Of course, it is served over rice. I'm still thinking about that . . . I do like curries.

There is also a Bran Muffins with Apples recipe. Oh, that sounds good! I'm not sure why it came up with the "brown rice" search but it uses both applesauce and dried apples. There's also juicer on a shelf downstairs! That, however, could leave the fiber idea behind . . . 'cept, I could use the pulp, separately.

Yes, I wonder how the pulp would be in my applebutter recipe! Especially, in the microwave - I thought it real important to go beyond "chopped" and mince the apples. Some applebutter recipes call for apple juice to be added - I guess that somehow makes sense here but I've always used apple cider vinegar . . . hhmmmm?

Meanwhile, the apple juice could go in epicurious's Wild and Brown Rice Pilaf with Cranberries! Whoa! Now, I'm cookin'!

Steve

Looked up the bran muffin recipe. That does look good, I might try that one myself. It came up because in the ingredient index (over on the right side) it was classed under rice/grain. Doesn't make too much sense, but it was a lucky find.

Chiming in: I roasted winter squash (chunked raw, drizzled with olive oil) with some chunked apples. Then I sauteed Italian sausage (bulk, broken up as it cooked), drained off the fat, mixed the two and seasoned. We loved it!

Oh, seeing this thread reminds me that we tried baking a squash pie and used grated, fresh ginger and honey, along with cinnamon and a bit of nutmeg.

Some good, this.

Well, I never bought the brown rice . . . The bags of apples are now gone with the last made into apple pies for Christmas dinner. And, there were turnovers, just today!

The squash is down to a very few that should be finished off by just splitting and baking with brown sugar & butter. I'm happy that there was no problem having 1 last pumpkin (squash) pie for Christmas without any spoilage.

Potatoes -- I'm in trouble! I grew twice as many this year as I did just a few years ago. With just shy of 200# harvested and no better storage environment, I'll be lucky to use them before they begin to spoil by the end of this month! I breaking sprouts off every time I'm down in the basement.

Tradition in this family is to have omelets for a New Years Day brunch. The filling included spicy beef sausage, salmon, lots veggies, couple of cheeses, etc., etc. I made a nice potato casserole with the leftover filling, yesterday. It turned out real good!

A lot of my simple ideas for potatoes center around sour cream or half 'n' half . . . butter . . . Came across a real good idea for mashed potatoes with cream cheese. That was sooo good in a shepherd's pie!

Steve

Steve, I like to add cream cheese to my mashed potatoes anytime I make them, too. But especially to top off shepherd's pie, one of our favorites here. Especially when green beans are plenty in the garden.

Yes T'M', and I've got all these carrots, onions and celery root to use up!

Pot pie is a possibility but since I have to ask DW to make the pie crust . . . shepherd's pie makes double sense. I generally follow Dafy's recipe that we talked about on this forum, way back when. I've linked below where she gave us that recipe. The old thread on beans that came up reminded me of it.

I was trying to come up with more ideas for veggie use in the kitchen back then. The conversation kind of drifted when David told us about deep-frying pork, or something like that (shudder).

I've found that it works well for me is to make gravy separately. Then, I can get that as close to "just right" as possible -- and, pour it over the cooked veggies and meat in the pie crust. (In this case, the mashed potatoes/cream cheese. :o)

I'll use frozen beans. The potatoes will be Purple Viking. I'm kind of pleased with how that one is holding up. The are still real juicy & crisp down there in the basement. I wasn't real impressed with the square foot production in the garden but the tubers were HUGE. That is what I think was the problem with lowering production. I should have left more eyes on the seed potatoes so that the plants could have filled in better. The potatoes would have been smaller but there should have been more of them.

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: Has gardening given you a better diet? RMG

I thought I'd put this . . . HERE:

The #1 diet, according to US News, is the DASH diet!

DASH ranked best overall diet

Here is information from their website: http://dashdiet.org

The original idea behind the diet was to "lower blood pressure." Research was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. It wasn't a weight-loss plan, as such. Still, US News (which ranks everything from universities to diets ;o) says it is the best healthy eating diet overall.

Notice that the diet guidelines are for 8 to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables on 2000 calories each day. Okay? Now, that's a lot of fruits & veggies compared to the average American's daily 2 to 3 servings combined! BIG difference!!

I'm on a MORE plan . . . I have 3 pieces of fruit for breakfast - and, a little cereal or toast. It isn't so tuff. Remember: One serving equals: about one medium fruit or 1/2 cup fruit juice. My cereal bowl this morning had 1/2 a banana on the bottom and 1/2 a banana on top, of some mini-wheats. The orange and Bartlett pear came with coffee.

I made the little joke to DW & DD (who was over) that my shepherd's pie last night was from a shepherd without any sheep . . . There were 2 beef sausages cut up real thin in the whole 2qt casserole! I think I need another name for it when it's made like that!

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: More on the diet with menu ideas, U of Nevada