This easy Apple Cinnamon Paleo Hot Cereal is ready in just 10 minutes, free of added sugar, Paleo, Whole30 compliant and vegan. Just as delicious for an afternoon snack as it is for breakfast!
I’m sneaking in a recipe today! On a Thursday – yes – this is the day I typically ramble on about thoughts and life, but, I thought you might want to get in on this preeeetty spectacular Whole30 breakfast recipe. A breakfast recipe, that – oh yes my friends – is SWEET and contains no eggs. Sometimes I just don’t want eggs. Or kale. Or meat.
Or even bacon for that matter. (Sounds crazy, but I’ve been on bacon overdrive lately and I’ve had enough. For one day. And yes I know bacon is a meat, but it goes in its own category as far as I’m concerned.)
I guess I’ve also been having a whole lot of CLEAN FUN with my apples lately, and had to see what else I could do. Don’t you guys love the cinnamon apple combination? Heck yes, for me. I also find that cooked apples are so much more pleasant on my digestion, and I’m always happy to find new ways to cook them.
The thing about this yummy Paleo hot cereal is that you have options! Let me explain. First, timing options. If you have NO TIME in the morning – whatsoever – you can make the entire thing the night before – minus toppings -and simply top with a bit of almond milk, heat, top and eat. Super simple.
You also have texture options. As a 10-minute cereal, the nuts remain a bit crunchy, but, if you prefer a softer, more oatmeal-like cereal you can simply add more almond milk (as explained in the recipe box) and cook longer. 
As far as toppings go, the sky’s the limit (the sky, or the Whole30 rules, I suppose.) The first time I made this I went with sliced bananas and coconut butter for me, almond butter for Adam. The second time, I added bananas and nothing else and it was perfect. Add whatever suits your mood, or add nothing at all, up to you!
The last great thing? You can eat this any time of day and it just WORKS. Breakfast, lunch, light dinner (if you roll that way), dessert.
I actually just had this for lunch because I’m rushing to get work done before picking up the kids, and I had leftovers in the fridge! Plus, being that it’s day 24 of my Whole30 (as I’m writing) the change of pace from my typical greens + meat + starchy veggie lunch is very much welcomed. This will definitely become a staple for me well beyond Whole30. Let’s get started!
Easy Apple Cinnamon Paleo Hot Cereal {Whole30, Vegan}
Easy Apple Cinnamon Paleo Hot Cereal {Whole30, Vegan}
Ingredients
For the hot cereal:
- 1 tbsp organic coconut oil
- 1 large apple or 2 small peeled and diced
- 1/4 cup raisins or chopped dates
- 1/8-1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1.5 tsp cinnamon
- dash nutmeg
- 3 tbsp unsweetened coconut finely shredded
- 1 cup chopped raw nuts walnuts, cashews, pecans or a combination (I used cashews and walnuts)
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk* or canned light coconut milk
Toppings to serve with:
- 1-2 bananas sliced
- unsweetened almond butter or coconut butter
- Additional almond milk
Instructions
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Heat a large saucepan over med low heat and add the coconut oil until melted.
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Add the apples and nuts, sprinkle with salt, stir, and cook for about 1 minute until apples begin to soften and nuts begin to brown
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Lower the heat to low and add the almond milk, shredded coconut, raisins and cinnamon.
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Stir, raise the heat and bring to a boil. Allow to boil while stirring for a minute, then lower to a simmer, cover, and cook another 2-5 minutes* until the apples are soft and some liquid is absorbed. Nuts will soften but will still have a crunch*
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Serve hot with toppings like sliced banana, more almond milk and coconut butter or your favorite nut butter.
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You can also make the hot cereal ahead of time, store covered in the refrigerator (without toppings), heat prior to serving and then add toppings. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
*If you have more time and want a softer hot cereal, you can add 1/4-1/2 cup more almond milk and simmer about 10 minutes longer, or until desired consistency is reached.
Want more sweet Paleo breakfast recipes? Try one of these!
Sweet Potato Apple Breakfast Bake
Banana Blueberry Breakfast Bread
Hearty Cinnamon Raisin breakfast Bread
Paleo Hot Cereal on the web:
3 minute Coconut Almond Porridge
Tell Me!
How often do you crave a sweet breakfast?
How much time do you have in the morning to get breakfast ready for yourself?
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Hi! I'm Michele. Paleo eater and recipe creator, runner, and mom of 3. Welcome to my blog, where we obsess over all of it and love every minute! (It's way fun over here, promise.) Stay a while to eat, run, and rant with me! 
This looks amazing! I especially love the fact that it’s really chunky..I hate when oatmeal is super thin like soup. Thanks for sharing!
I’m not a soupy cereal person either! I like a little crunch and chunkiness 🙂
Do you find that cooked fruit and cooked veggies are better on your digestion? I think I’m finding that too, but I can handle some raw veggies and fruits.
And this looks EPIC. Chunky is my favorite.
100% easier to digest for me, I don’t eat raw veggies besides salad greens and cherry tomatoes really, and with fruit I’m okay with raw berries and bananas but everything else I try to cook.
Hi there! This was a complete hit for my boyfriend and I on my first day of Whole 30. What do you guess the calorie count would be for one serving? Thanks!!!
Ahhh! Did you hear my happy scream thousands of kilometers away? haha After 6 days of whole30 egg casserole this is EXACTLY what I need. I will have to adjust a little because nuts used to give me major tummy aches but will try to include a little amount at first and see how it goes. Thanks for sharing, perfect timing!
I think if you try it you should cook it longer so perhaps the nuts are more digestible, or you could go heavier on the shredded coconut and sub flax meal if you can do that. More of a “porridge” then but I bet it would be great! I totally hear you on the eggs, lol 🙂
Michelle, what is the whole 30 that you keep referring to?
Hi! It’s basically 30 days of strict paleo for the purpose of resetting, reducing inflammation, and then reintroducing the eliminated foods one by one to observe reactions. It’s how I got into Paleo to begin with in 2013 – here’s the website: http://whole30.com
Can’t wait to try this! I’m doing the January Whole30 too so something different for breakfast is so great!
Hi Michele! Love your recipes!! I am not paleo or whole30 but eat very healthy and love a lot of those recipes. This I am gonna make for sure! But, am not a fan of raisins and not sure if I want dates in it either. Think if I leave them out it’ll change the texture or flavor? Thanks!
I’m going to try it with dried cranberries instead!
As an oatmeal junkie, I could never imagine eating eggs everyday for breakfast on the Whole30, so this recipe gives me hope that I can last all 30 days!
Ate this for breakfast yesterday and it was deelish! Thanks so much for the recipe!
Yay! So happy to hear!
I love this idea, and it’s so nice to have a warm bowl of food in the morning. It really sets the day off right. Ave and I are on an oatmeal kick. We had strawberries in our bowls this morning and at one point, I thought she had blood on the side of her head…nope just strawberry juice. Thank goodness. 🙂
She’s such a good eater! Love that you can share your favorite foods with her, so cute 🙂
So delicious! My kids loved it too. thank you for the great recipes! I put hemp seeds on top. I agree with you that coconut butter makes everything delicious!
Ooh that sounds so good! Glad you guys liked it!
What is the white sauce drizzled over this? I can’t wait to make this. I’m halfway through my Whole30 and need something NEW! 🙂
Just made this for breakfast because I was NEEDING something new for breakfast – so filling and SO delicious! Excited to have leftovers for tomorrow’s breakfast 🙂 your recipes are making Whole30 so much easier! Thank you!
That’s awesome, so thrilled to hear it Rachel!!
Same question as above…what is that delicious looking drizzle?
It’s melted coconut butter, so yummy!
On Day 7 of my second whole30 and my boyfriend’s first. I was scrolling through pinterest looking for whole30 breakfast recipes because we were looking for something without eggs. We are already so burnt out on eggs!!! My boyfriend looked over and saw the picture and demanded it for dessert. We split one serving and didn’t even finish it, it was so rich, delicious, and filling! We are saving our leftoers to accompany breakfast in the morning, and we will definitely make this recipe again and again!
Omg… That was amazing!!! I used pears since I was out of apples and they worked well.
So glad you liked it! Love pears too 🙂
I started the #whole30 aboutt a week ago. Was craving my oatmeal lately. This was sooo much better than oatmeal. Thank you! Used banana and blueberries for topping. Yum!
any thoughts on making this with cashew milk instead of almond milk?
Yup that would work well 🙂
Have you ever frozen this? I’m making a big batch and was wondering how t would be frozen and thawed later? Love this recipe! I use half regular almond milk and half unsweetened chocolate and add pumpkin spice seasoning.
I haven’t frozen it so I’m not sure what to expect with the reheating! I would think it would turn out fine since you’re not really looking for crunch anyway, and can always reheat a bit longer if there’s too much liquid. Glad you like it!
Hi Michele! I’m currently on my first Whole 30 journey and I can’t wait to try this recipe!
I’ve featured another one of your recipes on my latest blog post:
15 Quick & Easy Whole30 Breakfast Ideas
http://www.happilyeverhauser.com/2017/03/13/15-quick-easy-whole30-breakfasts/
Awesome! Hope you like this 🙂
Hi,
What is the sauce on top? It looks far too thick to be regular almond milk. Thanks!
Melted coconut butter 🙂
Hey Michele!
This really opened my mind to new ways to look at breakfast. This was so yummy! Thanks for sharing such an awesome healthy recipe!
I’m so happy you liked this 🙂
I think I’m going to try making this because it looks so delicious! 🙂
I like to make bigger batches of meals ahead and then eat throughout the week (I only cook for myself). How long do you think this would keep? I assume the apples would be the only thing that might begin to go bad.
Thanks!
I made this this morning and it was awesome! I topped it with banana and some heated up natural peanut butter. I can’t wait to eat it again. And it was super filling!
Great to hear! That sounds delicious 🙂
Hi! This looks delicious and I just attempted it but it still looks pretty…liquidy – unlike your picture. Unsure of what went wrong! Is it suppose to have that milk consistency? Yours looks dry with a drizzle on it.
Thanks so much!
Sounds like cooking a bit longer, or on a higher heat setting to let more liquid boil off would do the trick. You can always add more at the end if it gets too dry.