Worth Repeating - Breakfast Bars

A recipe "Worth Repeating." This was originally published here in Oct. 2010. I would make them now with the GF flour since I learned I have a gluten intolerance. I would like to try making them again with add-ins that I can eat now. It would look a little different, but I'm sure they would still be good. :-)

I got this recipe for breakfast bars from my friend, Beth. I thought they were so delicious I could hardly stop eating them!

 
She made them with the Gluten Free flour as the recipe calls for. I didn’t have any, so I made them with whole wheat, oats and oat flour. I also used a different mixture of nuts and dried fruit. I have included her (slightly altered) recipe and my version as well. Make them to your own taste and family needs. The choice is up to you. :-)
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Gluten Free Breakfast Bars

1 ¼ cup GF flour
¼ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup honey (or agave nectar)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup pumpkin seeds
½ cup sunflower seeds
½ cup peanuts
¼ cup raisins

In a small bowl, combine flour, salt and baking soda.

In a large bowl, combine oil, agave and vanilla. Stir dry ingredients into wet. Mix in nuts and raisins. Grease an 8x8 baking dish with oil. Press the dough into the baking dish, wetting your hands with oil to help pat the dough down evenly if necessary.

Bake at 350° for 20 minutes (or till golden brown). Cool and Serve. Note: They are also good warm (with milk over them if desired), but will be crumbly when served this way.

My version (use same instructions as above):
1/2 C. whole wheat flour
1/2 C. oat flour
1/4 C. old fashioned oats
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 C. oil (grape seed)
1/4 C. honey
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 C. sliced almonds
1/2 C. peanuts (salted)
1/4 C. raisins
1/3 C. dried cranberries
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It will look something like this in the pan before you bake it.

These turned out really well, though I got mine just a bit too dark. I loved the nutty looking texture with the bits of red cranberry peaking out.

I ate some of it with milk on it like cereal. It was very good this way too! :-)

Grammy Beherrell's War Cake

This recipe was sent in by Gloria C. from California years ago. She says, "Here is one of my favorite recipes from my Grammy for a cake she made during the depression when ingredients were scarce..." Notice that it uses dark brown sugar (used to be the cheap sugar), no eggs, and no milk in the actual cake.

Grammy Beherrell's War Cake

2 cups dark brown sugar
2 cups cold water
3 Tbs Margarine [I recommend butter]
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup raisins
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1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup hot water
2 3/4 cup flour

Mix first 7 ingredients in 2 1/2 quart sauce pan and boil for 5 minutes. Cool.
To mixture add the tsp of baking soda mixed with the 1/4 cup hot water.
Add the 2 3/4 cups flour and beat for 2 minutes.
Pour into greased angel cake pan and bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees

Glaze:  [Optional]
1 1/2 Tbs butter
1 1/2 Tbs milk [use a plant based milk for dairy free]
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

Heat milk and butter just until butter melts add rest of ingredients and stir until smooth. Drizzle over cake.

Cooked Oatmeal Cake

[After I’d created this post I looked at the calendar and discovered that today is National Cereal Day.  How appropriate is that?! :-) ]
I hate wasting leftovers.  I always feel like I’m throwing away money!  Here’s a great way to use leftover cooked oatmeal.  If you don’t usually have leftovers and would like to make this cake, then make some extra next time! :-)

Cooked Oatmeal Cake

1 1/2 C. cooked oatmeal
1 C. brown sugar
2 eggs
1 stick butter (1/2 C.)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon (optional)
1 1/3 C. flour
Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat.  Mix in oatmeal.  Add and mix in soda, cinnamon and flour.  Pour into a greased 9x13 cake pan.  Bake at 350F for 35-40 minutes.
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Mom and I made this together recently with some leftover oatmeal that my husband had cooked.  He’d put in dried cherries, so we reduced to the sugar (to the amount given above) and it came out really well.  We also omitted the cinnamon and put some almond flavoring in instead.  Then at the last minute we added chocolate chips!  It was really good, and not too sweet.  We substituted white whole wheat for part of the flour as well, but I don’t remember the proportions we used.
Anyway, this is a quick and easy cake, a nice way to eat leftover oatmeal, and quite versatile!  Use it for breakfast, for coffee cake, for dessert, tea, lunches, or just for a healthier sweet snack.  Try your own variations too.  As you can see in the picture, the batch I’d made there had raisins or cranberries in the oatmeal.

Strawberry Coffee Cake

A week ago on a Saturday morning my brother called over the two way radio and asked if any of the rest of us had eaten breakfast yet. None of us had, so he suggested that we combine all our breakfasts and eat together. This is one of the great perks of having three households in a 10 acre area! It was a great family time.

On the spur of the moment I decided to make a strawberry coffee cake to contribute to the meal. It was something I'd had in the back of my mind for a while, and I just decided to see if I could pull it off in time. It made us a little late, and we got some ribbing for that, but it was a big hit with the family. :-)

I used the Banana Brownie recipe and made some changes using some frozen strawberries that I had thawed. (They were home frozen and were quite mushy when they were thawed out, which probably helped.)

Anyway, I thought I would share my changes here so you can try them if you like. Or maybe it till inspire you to venture your own alterations to create something "new"! :-)

Strawberry Coffee Cake

Mix together:

2/3 C. sugar

1/2 C. whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla

2/3 C. frozen strawberries, thawed and mashed

1/4 C. quick oats

2 eggs lightly beaten

Pour into a greased 8x8 inch pan. Bake 20-30 minutes at 350F or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes. Cut and serve warm directly from pan.