Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Bars

These bars have the distinct taste of bananas - perfect for breakfast in my opinion! These have less sugar than many recipes since the bananas add moisture and sweetness. The bananas also work as an egg substitute allowing these to turn out great without any eggs.

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Bars work great for a make-ahead quick breakfast option or also go well as an after school snack. I hope your family enjoys them as much as mine!

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Bars

Ingredients:

¾ cup brown sugar

¾  cup plain yogurt

¾ cup mashed bananas

2 tsp vanilla

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups old-fashioned oats

1 cup dried fruit or chocolate chips

Directions:

Mix brown sugar, yogurt, mashed bananas, vanilla and oil. Add dry ingredients and mix well. If mixture looks too dry, add 1-2 Tbsp milk. (The need for milk will depend on how thick your yogurt is. My homemade yogurt is thinner than store bought so I did not need to add any milk.) Add dried fruit or chocolate chips very last. Press into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 min. or until golden brown.Cut into bars. These freeze very well. Allow the bars to cool completely before placing in freezer bags or containers.

Whole Grain Pancake Mix

Here's my latest and greatest attempt at a whole grain pancake that doesn't require eggs. The battery is dead on my camera so you'll just get to imagine how good they look. I'd wait until I could take pictures again, but that could be forever with as crazy as my life has been. I decided you would probably rather get the recipe now and not wait on photos. Enjoy! Whole Grain Pancakes
1 cup whole wheat flour	1 Tbsp baking powder
1 cup rolled oats	1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup corn meal	5 Tbsp dry milk powder
1/4 cup sugar	Approx. 1 1/2 cups water
1 tsp cinnamon	2 Tbsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
Mix all the dry ingredients together. Add the water and mix well. Allow to sit for 10-15 minutes to soften the oats. Stir in the vinegar just before baking and add more water if needed to give you the right consistency. Cook on a hot griddle. This recipe can easily be turned into a large mix. Just multiply the recipe of the dry ingredients by 6 or more and store in an air tight container. To use: Measure out 3 cups of mix and then add the water and vinegar as in the recipe above.

Storable Breakfast Ideas

We all know we need to start our day off with a good breakfast. Here are a few recipes to try that could be added to your 3 month menu plan.

Good Morning Cookies
I used to make these many eons ago when my children were small. They are made with lots of healthy ingredients and can be refrigerated or frozen. I always freeze them because they never get really hard and thaw quickly. It is fun to have some of these cookies to pull out for a quick breakfast. The recipe calls for them to be sandwiched with peanut butter or cream cheese but this time I tried a couple of different fillings and loved them. I used raisins in the cookies (which I didn’t always do years ago and added some mini chocolate chips to some – which was a fun change.) For the filling I used homemade strawberry cream cheese on some and Nutella on the rest. Peanut butter is good too.

Here is the recipe for the cookies. It makes 8-10 sandwich cookies and I doubled the recipe since I was freezing them anyway.
¼ c. butter 

½ c. brown sugar
¾ c. applesauce
1 egg
½ c. rolled oats
1/3 c. bran
¼ c. dry milk
¾ c. whole wheat flour (use any flour combo you want to)
½ t. soda
½ t. cinnamon
¼ t. baking powder
¼ t. salt
¼ t. ground cloves
½ c. raisins (opt.)
¼ c. chopped nuts
Mini chocolate chips (optional)

Combine butter and sugar, mixing till creamy. Mix in egg and applesauce until well blended. Add remaining ingredients. Stir in raisins and nuts. Spray a baking sheet with Pam or use a Silicon baking mat. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls 2-3” apart. Spread dough so each cookie is about 2” across. Bake at 375º for 10 minutes or until set. Cool on rack. Use flavored cream cheese, peanut butter or Nutella to make “sandwiches”. Refrigerate or freeze. Y: 8 large sandwich cookies.

Source: preparedness365.blogspot.com

BAKED OATMEAL

Ingredients:
2 c. quick oats
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/3 c. raisins
1 T. chopped pecans
1 t. baking powder
1-1/2 c. skim milk (or 4-1/2 T non-instant, non-fat dry milk and 1-1/2 c. water)
1/2 c. applesauce
2 T butter, melted (or Red Feather Canned Butter or butter powder)
1 large egg, beaten (or 2 T dry egg powder and 4 T water)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Combine the first five ingredients in a medium bowl. If using dry milk and dry eggs, add those powders to the dry ingredients. Combine the milk (or water), applesauce, butter, and egg (or water) in a separate bowl. Add wet mixture to dry ingredients; stir well. Pour into a greased 8″ square baking dish. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until just set. Makes 4-5 servings.

Source: foodstoragemadeeasy.net

Potato Pancakes/Latkes
Quick and easy–we love them for breakfast or dinner.
3 cups dehydrated hash browns	Salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup dried, minced onion	¼ tsp garlic powder
¼ cup flour
Place hash browns and onions in a pan. Cover with water so the water comes above the potatoes 2–3 inches. Bring to a boil, cover, and remove from the heat. Allow to sit for 15–20 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Drain off any extra water. Place potatoes in a bowl and mix in flour and seasonings. Shape into patties and fry in a frying pan with about ¼-inch of oil in the bottom. Flip when potatoes begin turning brown on the edge and cook until done. Drain on a paper towel. Enjoy! Leftovers freeze well. Reheat in the oven to keep them crispy. Source: All Things Provident by Tamara Price

Surprise Pancakes
When we sit down to the table for breakfast, the kids always try to guess the "secret" ingredient. It makes for a fun and healthy breakfast.
Pancake mix	Cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
Fruit puree or yogurt
Use your favorite pancake mix. Before adding the water, pour in some fruit puree or yogurt. Add the water you need to make the right consistency. Sprinkle in a little spice. To help you know how much, we use about 3 cups of mix and I pour in ½–¾ cup fruit puree. Cook on a hot griddle. Source: All Things Provident by Tamara Price
Whole Grain Pancakes
1 cup whole wheat flour	1 Tbsp baking powder
1 cup rolled oats	1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup corn meal	5 Tbsp dry milk powder
1/4 cup sugar	Approx. 1 1/2 cups water
1 tsp cinnamon	2 Tbsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
Mix all the dry ingredients together. Add the water and mix well. Allow to sit for 10-15 minutes to soften the oats. Stir in the vinegar just before baking and add more water if needed to give you the right consistency. Cook on a hot griddle. This recipe can easily be turned into a large mix. Just multiply the recipe of the dry ingredients by 6 or more and store in an air tight container. To use: Measure out 3 cups of mix and then add the water and vinegar as in the recipe above. Source: allthingsprovident.blogspot.com

Chunky Cinnamon Applesauce

Apple season isn't over for us until I have made some of this delicious chunky applesauce. It is so yummy straight from the bottle! We love to serve it over waffles for breakfast. It is also delicious served warm with a scoop of ice cream or whipped cream for dessert. I love having a couple dozen of these bottles in my storage every year.

Begin by peeling your apples. Be sure to use an apple variety that will hold its shape after cooking. Some varieties are really only good for making sauce once they are cooked. My dad has red and golden delicious trees so I usually make this chunky sauce out of the apples we pick at his house. But many other varieties would work also.

Core and chop your apples.

Put the chopped apples in a pan of water. You want to keep the apples covered with water so they don't turn brown.

Drop a few vitamin C tablets in the water and let them dissolve. This also helps in keeping the apples from turning brown. You could use Fruit Fresh instead, but it is a lot more expensive and it never hurts to have extra vitamin C in our diet.

Once your pot is full, turn on high and bring to a boil. Cook until the apples are soft.

Drain, but reserve the juice so you can add some back if needed.

You'll add cinnamon, vanilla, and sugar to taste. I usually add about 1 tsp vanilla to a large pot and about the same amount of cinnamon. I then add sugar and taste.

Mix everything together with a potato masher. Mash some of the apples, but leave it chunky.

Here's my finished pot. I didn't add any juice back to this batch. The consistency was just right. Save the juice and let it cool down. My kids love to drink it.

Ladle into jars. Each pot only does 3-4 quarts. I store my bottles in the fridge and work on this project over a few days time until I have enough to fill my cooker.

Process in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes. Adjust for altitude if necessary.

Chunky Applesauce
Apples	Sugar
Vitamin C	Cinnamon
Water	Vanilla
Fill a large pan half full with water. Dissolve 3–4 vitamin C tablets into the water (or use Fruit Fresh to keep apples a light color.) Peel and chop your apples. (Choose a good cooking variety that will hold its shape when cooked. My parents have red and golden delicious trees so I usually use these varieties.) Add to the water. Make sure your apples stay covered with water. Bring to a boil. Simmer a few minutes until apples are tender. Remove from heat and drain most of the liquid off into another pan. I reserve the liquid to use with another batch of apples or to add a little back to my batch to get the right consistency. Mash warm apples just a bit with a potato masher. Add a little juice back in with apples, if needed to obtain the desired consistency. Sweeten to taste with sugar and cinnamon and just a touch of vanilla. Ladle into warm jars and process quarts for 20 minutes. Adjust time for elevation as needed.

Storable Breakfast or Snack - Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins

This if especially for those of you with dairy and egg allergies - but they are so good, no one else needs to know they are missing these key ingredients!

Here's a quick and tasty egg-free, fully-storable muffin! I'm getting better at being confident about tweaking a recipe. I looked up a few recipes online for oatmeal muffins and then came up with this variation. I baked them up on a Saturday night to be ready for a quick family breakfast before early church meetings the next day. I also figured that if they flopped, it would give me a chance to throw something else together. Why did I doubt myself? They were delicious!

Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins

1 cup quick cooking oats

1 cup water

½ cup applesauce

½ cup brown sugar, packed

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt         

½ tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp white vinegar

1 Tbsp oil (optional)

Soak the oats in the water for 10-15 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and stir just until moistened. Fill muffin cups ⅔ full. Bake at 400° F for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. If you choose to leave the oil out, the muffins just won't brown as nicely. They will still taste great.

Bread Making

Bread is a basic ingredient for many meals. It can become toast or French toast for breakfast and give us endless options for storable lunches and dinners. Cinnamon rolls and maple bars become fast favorites when they are homemade. If there ever comes a time that you need to live off your food storage, you are going to want to know how to make bread. So, find out where your "I can do it!" attitude has been hiding and decide to tackle it this week.

Basic Instructions That Work with All Recipes:

Mix all dry ingredients only adding half of the flour in your mixer bowl.

Add wet ingredients and begin mixing using the dough hook following the suggested speed in your mixer 

instruction book for bread. (Water should be about 115°–120° F to allow the yeast to rise.)

If using a Kitchen-aid mixer, set it on 2 for the entire bread mixing and kneading process

Gradually add additional flour until dough cleans the sides of the bowl. The exact amount of flour you will add will depend on the humidity in the air and whether you are using all whole wheat flour. Be patient as you add the flour. Only add ¼–½ cup at a time and watch to see if the dough pulls together and leaves the sides of the bowl basically clean. Remember that when making bread by hand, you are to knead the dough for 6–8 minutes. The mixer doesn't necessarily do it any faster, it just does the work for you. The mistake that often 

makes bread too heavy is adding too much flour.

There is not enough flour yet - the sides of the bowl are not clean.

This is good - stop adding flour and allow the mixer to knead 2-3 minutes.

Once the dough is pulling together and leaving the sides of the bowl clean, stop adding flour and just allow the 

mixer to knead the dough until smooth, elastic, and resistant. (About 2–3 minutes.)

Lightly oil top of dough (or spray with cooking spray), cover with a cloth and let rise until double in size. You can speed this step up by turning your oven to 150° F. Once it is hot, turn the oven off and set your bowl of dough into the oven. (If your mixer has a plastic bowl, you will want to transfer the dough to an oven safe bowl first.) On the counter, it usually takes an hour or more to let your dough rise. In the oven, it is double in size in about 20 minutes.

I spray the bowl before removing the bread hook so it can rise without sticking to the sides.

Remove the dough hook and spray the top of the dough as well.

Cover with a towel and allow to rise until doubled in a warm oven or on the counter.

I use the oven method most of the time.

Punch dough down and remove from bowl. (You can allow the dough to rise multiple times. Sometimes you just can't get to it when it's ready. Maybe the turkey is still in the oven or the baby needs to be fed or the phone rings. You know you have days like this. Just keep punching it down each time it is double in size. 

Letting it rise a few times actually makes for a fluffier, lighter texture.) When you punch the dough down, turn the oven on to preheat to the right baking temperature for your recipe.

My kids love to be the ones to punch it down - they always wind up a little before giving it their best punch!

Pour it out on the counter - it should leave your bowl pretty clean.

Shape into loaves or rolls on an oiled countertop and place in greased pans.

I oil the counter tops by just spraying them. You can spread a little oil with your hands if you want to. I love my solid surface counter for bread making, but we had laminate counters at our other homes and they were good to.

Grease your pans using pan spray. I store pan spray in my food storage for bread making. It makes it much more convenient.

Divide your dough into the number of loaves you will be making.

Make them as even as possible - some people actually weigh them with a kitchen scale. I don't get that technical.

Shape by grabbing and rolling back and forth a little to lengthen it into a loaf shape and round out the top. You want to manhandle the dough a little to get the air out so you don't end up with large bubbles in your bread.

Here's what it looks like on the top.

Place into greased pans.

Spray the tops of the loaves.

Cover with a cloth and let rise until almost double, about 20 minutes.

I like to pop them in the oven when they reach the top of the pans. You can see the my third loaf was a little smaller - I didn't use a scale.

Bake according to specific recipe instructions. Bread is done when it is golden brown and sounds hollow 

when you tap it.

Take bread out of pans when done and cool on a cooling rack. Spread melted butter over the tops of the bread if you want a soft crust.

Take a step back and admire your work - go ahead feel provident today! Homemade bread costs less than $.50 a loaf to make and you can control the ingredients. Find a favorite recipe and make up a few mixes to keep in your pantry to speed up the process another time. Only put half the flour in your mix along with the other dry ingredients and then you are ready to just dump it in your mixer and begin.

I'll post some of my favorite recipes soon.

Making Bread by Hand - you don't have to have a mixer!

Follow the basic instructions as above. You are just going to do the work the mixer usually would. It will take a few times of trying bread to determine just how much flour to add. It is better to add a little less flour than a little too much. Many women who bake bread all the time for their families find that they can do a larger batch by hand than they can do in a mixer so they prefer doing it by hand all the time. Don't let not having a mixer be an excuse not to bake bread!