… or what the kids had for breakfast this morning!

I decided to do a full, warm-the-house-Fall breakfast for my sleepy little angels today.

Apple/oatmeal coffeecake, a classic that I’ve adapted over the years, was the main part of the meal (and it definitely takes the place of a bowl of oatmeal or cold cereal).
Ingredients:
1 cup unbleached flour; 1/2 cup whole wheat flour; 1/2 tsp baking powder; 1/4 tsp baking soda; 4 tbls butter; 1 egg; 1/4 cup plain yogurt; 1/4 cup 2% milk; 1/2 tsp vanilla. 2-3 apples, cored and sliced thin. Topping: 1 cup oats; 1/2 cup brown sugar; 2 tbls softened butter; 1/4 cup sliced almonds

to make:
Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9×9 square pan (if double recipe, use a 13×9)
Mix dry ingredients. Cut-in butter so resembles crumbs. Add egg, yogurt, milk and vanilla. Stir until blended and pat into a 9×9 square pan. Arrange apple slices on top of batter, pushing slightly into dough. Mix up topping ingredients, making sure well blended. Crumble on top of apples, covering apples completely. Place in preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, or until tests done. Cool about 30-45 minutes before serving.

I had made the Apple-Oatmeal Coffeecake (a full meal in itself), because I wanted to make this:

Home-made Hot Cocoa (serves 4) which takes a while to make (30-45 minutes) but is so much better than the storebought!

Ingredients:
4 tsp sugar, 8 tsp cocoa, 1 cup cold water, 4 cups milk, 2 tsp vanilla.
In a medium pot on the stove, mix the sugar, cocoa and cold water. Cooking over low heat, stir the mixture until the mixture comes to a boil. Boil for 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the milk and stir until the mixture begins to scald. Remove from heat, add vanilla and a pinch of salt, and whisk together.

Pour, while still hot, into mugs to which you’ve already added marshmallows.

And, I made the homemade hot cocoa because I had bought these at Miller Farms on Monday … home-made marshmallows … and this package was plenty for all four mugs of hot, frothy cocoa.

So this meal all came about because I bought $1.95 worth of treats … that the best $1.95 I’ve spent in a long time! And the house smells delicious on this rainy, ooky-mooky day while we read our read-aloud, The Westing Game, and eat made-from-scratch treats.