All the Morning Dreams

I consider myself on an endless quest for the perfect breakfast food. I am terribly picky, as far as breakfast goes, and this basically stems from the fact that I'm simply not hungry when I first wake up. (Just like my dad! Hi Dad!) And, with rare exception, I can't stand to eat anything until I've had coffee. So, the basic routine is like this: wake up, not hungry, have coffee, still not hungry, drive to work, still not hungry, arrive at work, suddenly starving. Agh, I know, I know -- first world problems. Sheesh.

My ultimate favorite thing to do is hunt down an egg sandwich as soon as I get to work, from either here or here, but I can't with good conscience spend six dollars on breakfast more than, oh, say, once a week. Right?! So this leaves me unfed and cranky for four days out of the week. So, here's the deal. (Forgive me for re-addressing this issue. Remember when I said many of these same words when I told you all about breakfast cookies?)

I do love a convenient breakfast food, but I don't want to get sugared up, and I don't want processed foods or chemicals to be a part of my morning, which leaves me, ultimately, fending for myself, which is a perfect punishment for someone as picky as me. I've tried many a muffin, many a granola, many a cereal bar, and many an oatmeal, but I recently found something new that is the perfect combination of all four, and it's just so nice.

Nice...nice...nice. What does that mean, again? I forget. Well, let's see! It's versatile, first of all, since you get to pick your jam flavor. It also has oatmeal AND cereal in it, it has nuts for protein and fiber, and you can add all sorts of other nutritious bits, like flax seed or wheat germ. The thing that's also so good is that it can double as a lunch dessert, or an after school snack, or even a dessert if need be. So, really, what are we waiting for? Let's do this!

Oatmeal Breakfast Bars

1 C flour
1 C oats
1 C puffed rice cereal (you can use Rice Krispies, but I prefer puffed brown rice)
1 C chopped pecans or walnuts
1 or 2 t cinnamon (you decide!)
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 C butter, softened
1/4 C vegetable oil
1/3 C packed brown sugar (or less, if you'd like)
1 t vanilla extract or paste
1 (10-ounce) jar all-fruit spread (I've tried cherry, strawberry, apricot and they were all good!)
wheat germ, opt.
ground flax seed, opt.

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly coat a 9" square baking pan with cooking spray.

Combine first 7 ingredients in a medium bowl. At this time, also add the flax or wheat germ, if you're using it.

Beat butter, oil, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl until well-blended and creamy. (You can use an electric mixer or a wooden spoon -- whatever you feel like.)

Add dry ingredients and mix until moistened and a crumbly dough forms. Reserve 1 1/2 cups of the dough for the topping. Press remaining dough into bottom of pan.

Spread fruit over dough in pan. Sprinkle the reserved dough on top and gently press to adhere topping to fruit layer.

Bake 30-35 minutes or until deep golden. Cool and slice into bars. It's breakfast! You're happy!