Insert Clever Name for Baked Apples Here

HAPPY NEW YEAR, dear readers!

ALL THE CONFETTI!
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It's already 2016. Way to make me feel old, world, way to make me feel OLD.

And growing a beard, apparently.
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Anywho, it's that time of the year again when a large majority of the population makes resolutions to better their lives and better themselves. Some people are great at keep their resolutions and these are people I both admire and envy. But, if you're anything like me, you have good intentions - you'll set your goals, you'll make attempts to keep your resolution for as long as you - but they never end up working out right.

Gold stars all around!

So, instead of listing resolutions that I know I'll never keep, I decided to bake something in the spirit of the new year.

My lovely friend, Amanda L., helped me decide on some good, ol' fashioned baked apples. They're delicious. They're filling. They're pretty easy to make. They're even sort of healthy, as long as you don't go too crazy with the fillings! And, hey, this is probably the healthiest recipe I've posted here thus far, so that counts for something, right? Right!

(I ended up only making 2 baked apples since I live and alone and can't get through food that quickly, but doubling/tripling/etc the recipe is easy. Feel free to make as many as you like)!

Here we go!

Just like Mario!
(I've been watching Game Grumps go through Mario 64. Thanks, guys).
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Ingredients

2 apples (I used gala - partly because they're good baking apples and partly because I already had some in my kitchen. I'm all about using leftover ingredients).

3 tbsp peanut butter
1.5 tbsp oats

1.5 tbsp mini chocolate chips (Or whichever size you want. I had these lying around my kitchen too).

Honey (You can either mix this in with your other ingredients or drizzle it on top of your apples. I'll leave that up to you).

Directions

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2) Core out each apple and scrape out a 1 inch wide opening with a metal spoon. Keep scraping out your apples until you have roughly 1 inch of apple left at the bottom.

I had tiny apples, I swear the opening isn't really that big!

3) Mix together your filling ingredients.

I'd just eat this to be quite honest.

4) Divide the mixture between your apples.

5) Place the apples in a baking pan. (I'm still acquiring different size pans, so I used my 9x13 cake pan. Instead of getting the whole pan dirty, though, I made a smaller baking vessel in the middle of it out of aluminum foil).

They look so lonely.

6) Pour enough water on the bottom of your pan to cover the bottom of your apples.

7) Bake your apples for 40 to 50 minutes. It depends on how soft you want your apples to be. OR if you have a possessed oven that bakes things oddly, you'll probably only have to bake them for 30 minutes. Thanks, apartment oven.

They end up looking like stuffed grapes. They're tastier than they look.

And there you have it! You can dive right into one of those bad boys as soon as it comes out of the oven if you want. And if you're feeling a little less healthy, you can always top the apples with whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream. Anyway you eat 'em, they're delicious.

We won't judge.

No judgment here!
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So, cheers to everyone who makes resolutions and cheers to everyone who doesn't! Let's have a kick-ass 2016!

If you have any questions, comments, or random GIFs you'd like to share, leave them down in the comment section below! Be sure to share this post if you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading! :-)

And, as always, bake on with your bad selves!

Love,
Jackie