If you read Carrots N Cake you may be familiar with Tina’s other blog, Trading Up Downtown. Tina works for NuVal, a nutritional values system that is being implemented in supermarkets, including my beloved Price Chopper. I wrote a post for Trading Up Downtown on my own experiences with NuVal.
Head on over to NuVal to see if the scoring system is being used in your area. I like having it at Price Chopper. It’s an extra-easy way to buy good food!
In honor of the new Nu Val system at my favorite supermarket, I decided to make my favorite dessert: fruit crisp. I make a pretty healthy version of this — for a dessert, you’re not really taking on that many calories. This one is loaded with fruit, plus whole wheat flour, brown sugar, and oats. Win-win. And win again in the morning when your re-heat it for breakfast:
Fully Loaded Fruit Crisp
- 2 apples, chopped
- 1 peach, sliced
- 2 pears, chopped
- 1 c. instant oats
- 1/2 c. white flour
- 1/2 c. wheat flour
- 1/2 c. packed brown sugar
- 1 stick cold butter
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put all the fruit in a baking dish. Just so you know, I used fresh apples and frozen peaches and pears. Either fresh or frozen fruit is perfectly fine. I bought the peaches frozen, but the chopped pear was from 2 fresh pears that were slowly dying on my counter. I chopped them up and froze them for later use. For this recipe, use any fruit that you have lying around. Don’t throw away fruit that is going bad! Freeze it before it’s too late!
In a bowl, combine the oats, flours, and brown sugar. Cut the butter into chunks and add it to the flour mixture. Cut the butter into the mixture using a pastry cutter or two knives. If you’ve never done this before, it’s pretty easy. The idea is to cut up the butter into smaller chunks while blending it into the flour and sugar. It doesn’t need to be completely blended, though. You just want to moisten the dry ingredients a little. When you’re done, top the fruit evenly with the mixture.
Bake for 35-40 minutes until slightly bubbly.
This is particularly delicious topped with fresh whipped cream or ice cream for dessert. And I’d be lying if I said I don’t sometimes eat it with a scoop of ice cream for breakfast, too.
