Breakfast of Champions

Beginning the day without eating breakfast is the equivalent of starting out on a long journey with no gas in the car. You can coast for a little while on the fumes but eventually wind up sputtering and stalled out on the side of the road. Eating a good breakfast sets the tone for the rest of the day, which in my case means the bitchiness is kept to a minimum for at least the first half of the day. We won't even discuss the ramifications if I don't get lunch.

I struggle with breakfast because I can't exactly go into the office kitchenette and whip up a full-fledged Bob Evans breakfast. There are very few portable breakfast items and too, I have a very low threshold for food boredom. After I've exhausted the breakfast burritos in every form, fashion and flavor and made the fruit and muffin round, I'm over it.

Perusing my dust-gathering cookbook collection for a new way to start the day, I ran across these breakfast cookies from the quaint Cafe Beaujolias in Mendocino, California. Manipulating the recipe just a bit to accommodate what I had on hand, I very much enjoyed the results. I picked up a few containers of yogurt, crumbled the cookies and added some fresh fruit for a tasty morning parfait.

So, grab a breakfast cookie, rev your engine and start the day on a full tank!


Breakfast Cookies
Morning Food - Cafe Beaujolias
Makes about 5-1/2 dozen

1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup regular rolled oats, toasted
1 cup Grape Nuts cereal ( I used Rice Krispies)
1/2 cup peanut butter
2-1/2 cups white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup + 1 tblsp toasted wheat germ (I omitted this)
1/3 cup + 1 tblsp oat bran (I used Steel Cut Oats)
1/3 cup + 1 tblsp nonfat dry milk powder
1 cup raisins or currants (I used dried cranberries)
1 cup toasted, chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. Cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg, then the oil and vanilla. Stir in the remaining ingredients.

Form into balls between 1 to 3 inches in diameter. Place on ungreased baking sheet and flatten with a fork. Bake for 12-18 minutes, depending on the size of the cookie. Check the bottoms because they are very brown to begin with and you must watch this closely. Remove from the pan and cool.