Apple Crisp

One of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving (and Christmas for that matter) has been the pie! Oh I love pie! My favorite? Apple crisp - especially warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream melting over the top! BUT, I also know that apple crisp is FULL of sugar and fat (at least the recipe I have).

I have been eating Healthy Choice meals now and then and they have a wonderful oatmeal topping for their apple crisp. I figured if it was part of this meal, I should be able to find a recipe online for a healthy apple crisp topping. I could skip the crust, put the crisp part on top, and be good to go! Every recipe I found had butter in it! I looked at the ingredient list on the box - NO BUTTER!

So, I decided to try my own recipe using the ingredients listed on the box. And I must say, it turned out decent. It wasn't great, but it is a good substitute. Don't get me wrong, this recipe is definitely NOT calorie free. It is LOADED with sugar. BUT it has NO fat and lots FEWER calories than the real thing!

1 jar apple pie filling
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp dark Karo syrup
1 Tbsp honey
1 cup rolled oats
butter spray

***REVISION FROM ORIGINAL POST***
To help crisp up the topping (and keep it crisper longer) bake the topping for 1 1/2 to 2 hours at 225 degrees. Turn every half hour. I sprayed the topping with butter spray, cooked if for 1/2 hour, turned it and then sprayed it again (so the bottom also got coated). This also seems to improve the flavor quite a bit. Cool.

Pour and spread the pie filling into an 8x8 baking dish (sprayed with cooking spray). Combine sugar, syrup and honey in saucepan and cook over medium heat until well mixed. Add oats and stir until well coated. Remove from heat and spread over apple filling. Spray the topping with butter spray. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

The ingredients list also had molasses but I didn't have any. I think it would probably have been better with a touch of molasses but I can't say for sure!