Tag Archives: breakfast

Breakfast Bars

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For 10+ years I’ve been eating a store bought “energy bar” for breakfast 5 days a week. I really can’t face food in the morning, and these have been the only thing I could eat early. The alternative before was just not eating until lunch, and this was better. I’ve always known they were glorified candy bars, but hey, it worked so I went with it.

But I’ve been collecting recipes for awhile for how to make my own healthier alternative. I finally dug in and created a hybrid recipe to try. It went really well the first time. I will warn you that this makes a lot of bars. This batch lasted me about a month. I made a half batch the second time.

Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats
4 oz cashews, roasted, no salt added
4 oz almonds, roasted, no salt added
1/4 cup chia seeds
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup cocoa nibs
1/4 cup whole ground flax meal
4 oz dates, halved and pitted
4 oz dried cherries, soaked for 5+ minutes
1+ TBL cinnamon (I love cinnamon and regularly use 4+ times the amount a recipe will call for)
1/4 tspn kosher salt
8 oz fresh apple = I used 1 large granny smith
2+ TBL honey (I used a local organic raspberry honey)

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 F
2) line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and spread the rolled oats on it, and bake for 20 minutes. It should smell like they are toasting
3) If you get raw nuts, you should toast those for 20 minutes as well. I bought nuts that were already roasted but with no salt added.
4) add the dry ingredients (oats thru flax meal) to a food processor, run on low until there are no large chunks left, then add the dates, cherries, and pulse another minute or until it’s down to pretty small bits, and then add the apple and honey, and pulse until it’s starting to clump together, continue to process until well mixed. Add more honey, 1 TBL at a time until you get it clumping together, and not just looking like a mix of dry cereal bits.
5) line a medium size baking pan with parchment paper, leave enough excess for handles on either side for handles.
6) Move the sticky mass of ingredients to the pan and spread it as flat as you can. If you use enough parchment paper to cover the top, then you can lay it over and press it flat with your hands more easily without getting too messy.
7) bake for 20 minutes, let cool on a wire rack, then cut up into roughly 1.5″ squares.

Mike gave these a thumbs up right away. He says a small piece is great with coffee in the morning. [From the first batch] I tried eating one straight, with tea, and it was too dry for me. So, the next day I broke it up in a small bowl of (coconut) milk, and it was much easier to eat (see photo below). This really helps if they’re too dry. But the recipe above is now from the third batch and with more honey I don’t think they’re too dry any more.

Eggcake

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Aug. 2015 Update: Current recipe:
Ingredients: 1 egg, 1/4 cup apple sauce, 3 TBL flour, 1/4 tspn baking powder, 1/4 tspn baking soda, 1 tspn ground cinnamon (to taste), and optionally a couple TBLs of shredded cheese.
Instructions: Scramble together the ingredients in a bowl, then melt/brown a little butter in a small fry pan, pour in your batter, cover the pan with a lid and let it cook for 5-6 minutes. It should have bubbles on the surface like a regular pancake, and solid enough to flip. Cook another 5-6 minutes. You can continue to flip and cook until you think both sides are done enough. Serve and eat.

Looks like a pancake, but is mostly egg. Here’s what I did this morning, on whim, in an effort to make my fried egg more interesting:

  1. Scramble together 1 egg, 2 TBL apple sauce, 1 TBL flour, 1/4 tsp baking powder. (bacon bits and shredded cheese if you like)
  2. Brown 1/2 TBL butter is small fry pan. Pour in your egg batter, cover and let cook until top is firm enough to flip (5-7 mins on lowest setting here).
  3. Flip and let it cook for at least another 5 mins on the other side.
  4. Make toast and layer with a slice of swiss for a sort of fried egg sandwich.

It was good but needs to be tweaked before it becomes great. I think I might add more pancake ingredients and leave off the toast. Needs more flavor. Could add cinnamon to go with the apple sauce. Or add more cheese to the mix itself.

Breakfast Nibbles

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I made these great little breakfast cookies today. No sugar or fat added. Main ingredients are Oat flour, bananas, apple juice, and craisins. Audrey, I especially think you will like these. 🙂

20130519-Oat Banana Craisins03

Oat Banana Craisins (alt Chocolate chips)

Recipe:
4 cups oat flour (oats ground in “coffee” mill)
0.5 cup oats, whole (to taste, and desired texture)
2 ripe bananas, cut into pieces
1.25 cups apple juice
1 tsp, rounded – baking powder
0.5 tsp, rounded – baking soda
1 tsp, rounded – ground cinnamon
0.25 tsp – fresh ground nutmeg
0.5 cup craisins, hydrated (soak in hot water 15 mins)
(switched craisins to chocolate chips in the next batch)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Thoroughly mix all ingredients, Except the craisins, in the KitchenAid.
3. Drain water off craisins and hand stir into batter. Batter should be wet (see photo 1)
4. Drop spoonfuls onto cookie sheet (I use silipats on air-bake sheets). They do not puddle or spread much if at all, so you can pack one cookie sheet fairly dense.
5. Bake 12 – 15 mins

Note: Because these are not full of sugar, you’ll need to refrigerate them. We discovered this the hard way when we had to throw half the batch away because of mold. I do love living in Seattle, but food molds far too fast here.