What do mornings look like in your house?  For us it’s utter chaos.  O.K.  Maybe it’s not quite that bad, but some mornings that last half hour before I herd everyone into the van and make our way to the school gate can be quite trying.  Most mornings I can rely on the kids to help themselves to cereal, yoghurt, fruit and toast, but as the school year comes to a close I have been finding that at least one child will have fuddy-duddied around and left breakfast to the very last minute.  Nope, no picture-perfect scenes in our house of eight people.

I’m a big believer in Breakfast.  Let’s face it, if they don’t fuel-up, they may as well not bother going to school because they aren’t going to be alert and ready to learn, and by mid-morning they’ll be fading fast.  My answer to these chaotic mornings is breakfast bars.  They are made from ingredients I would normally be feeding my kids for breakfast like oats, milk, eggs and fruit, and they make for an easy grab-and-go breakfast if one of your little cherubs forgets to have any.  And they’re versatile, you can use any dried fruit you like, so be brave and experiment.  I also think they would be nice with an added teaspoon of vanilla, and maybe a little coconut.  I’ll let you know how that turns out.

Breakfast Bars

Ingredients:

3 1/2 Cups Old Fashioned Rolled Oats

1/3 Cup Sugar

2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Cinnamon

2/3 Cup Craisins, Dried Cranberries, Sultanas, Apples, Apricots etc (Choose your favourite or mix them up)

1/4 Cup Light Olive Oil

3 Eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/2 Cups Milk

Optional Ingredients:  1 tsp Vanilla, Coconut (I would suggest about 1/3 Cup for starters and if you are happy with the consistency, then you can try adding a little more next time)

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 180C.

Line a slice pan (I actually chose to use a large square cake tin) with baking paper making sure you leave enough paper to stand up around the edges.

Combine all of the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Combine the eggs and milk in a jug and give a good whisk to combine.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and give it a good stir to thoroughly combine.

Pour mixture into your prepared pan and spread out evenly.

Bake for approx. 30 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the slice.

You can slice and enjoy immediately if you like, or refrigerate for later.

Why not have some Christmas fun and cut the slice into Christmas Shapes using Biscuit Cutters to create a special breakfast for the kids.

P.S: My kids sometimes like to add this slice to their lunch boxes in preference to a Muesli Bar.  Maybe because it has a softer, more cakey consistency.