Yes… it’s that time.

Vacation is oooooovvvveeeerrrr.  Our inboxes are filling up.  Official mail (you know, like bills) are overshadowing the friend greetings and holiday cards in our mail boxes, and the gym sure is calling… isn’t it?

Yea.  That carefree week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is long gone.  Major bummer.

Before we totally freak out and put our work helmets on, can we just… have breakfast?

Let’s have a balanced breakfast… like the kind in the cereal commercials.  We’re talking glass of juice, slice of toast, and whole grain cold cereal… that kind of breakfast.

This is our version with hot oatmeal and a super healthful smoothie.

The only thing we’re missing the the cheesey eggs, crispy bacon, and side of doughnuts.  This is not that.  We can still deal.

We’re on the fast track this week.  The fast track back to work and into a busy new year!  There’s no use fighting it.  The best thing to do is bulk up (not literally) on breakfast.  Does a body wonders.

The oatmeal is topped with dried cranberries, big toasted coconut flakes, brown sugar, flax seed meal, and just a few cocoa nibs.  Hearty, warm and delicious.  Please make your own variation according to what you have on hand:  dates, dried apricots, chia seeds, fresh apples… go bonkers!

The smoothie is a healthful combination of banana, frozen blueberries and blackberries, orange juice, flax seed meal, and green!  I really love to add vitamin packed green powders to smoothies.  Secret health, on the double!  Amazing Grass is a favorite of mine (and no one is paying me to say that).  Boom.

I know everything is supposed to be  red and green and blue and white this time of year.

I know…

But look for brown and delicious I made everything?

Ok… I’m being weird.  Mostly because I, for some reason, can’t bring myself to make Christmas tree sugar cookies.  I just don’t want to do it.

Besides,  brown and delicious things come from butter and brown sugar and cinnamon and apples.  Just let this happen.

I was surprised how much I loved the addition of soft, fresh fruit to these cookies.

These cookies have crisp edges, hearty oats and walnuts and tender apple bits.  A dash of cinnamon sprinkled on top brings cinnamon right to your nose.  It’s delicious.  Don’t argue with me on this one.

Did you know that Baked Oatmeal is a thing?

I had no idea!

I knew I could boil oatmeal on the stove top.  I knew that I could bake oatmeal into cookies… but I’ve never thought of baking up my breakfast oatmeal in a pie dish.

Huh… go figure.

Baked Oatmeal is the perfect thing to pack into your belly before going on a very expensive, fancy bath product shopping spree.  I write from experience.

Incidentally… I smell amazing right now. 

This might look like your regular morning oatmeal getting ready for the boiling water on the stove top.

Except this time we’re mixing in eggs and baking powder and milk.

And it’s not going on the stove top at all.  No standing and stirring.  No hot bubbling oatmeal leaping out of the pan to burn your arm.

It’s all baked.  Plain and simple.

Baked Oatmeal is very different from the stove top variety.  The consistency is somewhere between a chewy granola bar and a cake.  It’s thick and a bit dry.  But wait!  Not dry in a bad way!  I promise.

I scooped a crumbly piece of baked oatmeal out  of the pie dish and into my breakfast bowl.  Topped with cold milk, fresh raspberries and pistachios, this breakfast was super filling, warm and satisfying.

I’d say it’s the best way to serve a hearty breakfast without slopping out gummy bowls of goopy oatmeal.  Kinda classy.

Here’s a fun game to play:

Grab a chef.  Any chef will do.

Ask that chef what their favorite Oatmeal Cookie recipe is.  I’ll bet you my favorite slippers (not that you would want those) that their favorite recipe for Oatmeal Cookies is the recipe right there on the Quaker Oats can.

I know… too easy right?  Take the easy.  Accept the easy.  Some things are complicated.  Other things are as simple as the Oatmeal Cookie recipe that I’ve been making since I was old enough to reach the counter.

Embrace the good, then add cherries and chocolate.

Because I simply can’t help myself, I jazzed these beauties up a bit with dried cherries and white chocolate chips.  Use any combination of dried fruit and chocolate you like.  The base recipe, with brown sugar and old fashioned oats is gorgeous enough with or without the jazz.  Keep in mind that chocolate does make everything better.  Fact.

With a deep breath and a big fat smile I welcome you to National I’m a Maniac and Posting On My Blog Everyday for and Entire Month, also known as NoBloPoMo.

Well…. here we are.  Now what do we do?  Can we just sit and stare at one another for an entire month?  No?  You mean you actually want me to cook things, take pictures and tell you all about them?  Ooooh.  I guess that makes sense.  What’s that?  You want my crazy good Apple Pie recipe?  Ok… we can do that.

What else?  I’m coming to you with an empty bowl and a clean spatula.  What would you like to see come from Joy the Baker in the next month?  Do you have a recipe you want to share?  Do you want me to make more pancakes?  Do you need some sort of tutorial?  Leave a comment announcing your deepest baking desires and we’ll see if I can make all your dreams come true.  It’s going to be just like Disneyland, with shorter lines and fewer mice.

And now…. oatmeal.

This oatmeal idea comes from Joy the Baker fanatic Elizabeth.  She claims to not have much baking prowess but I thought her oatmeal idea was pretty clever.  See, Elizabeth needs an instant oatmeal concoction that she can throw in a zip lock to take to the office and then microwave in a bowl once at work.  The packaged oatmeal is often packed with sugars and preservatives and barely there dried fruit.  We can do much better than that.

Thanks Elizabeth!

Now what do you want to see on Joy the Baker?

I’m a huge breakfast fanatic.  I usually go for something hearty, healthy and full of surprise goodies.  That’s not to say that I don’t sometimes reach for a donut and some coffee, but this go around I opted for old-fashioned oatmeal with the gorgeous flavors of cranberry, orange and almond.  I threw in a bit of brown sugar for good measure, and surrounded my oatmeal with cold milk.  It was a delightful breakfast- satisfying but not too heavy.  It’s the kind of breakfast that convinces you you’re ready to take on the world.  Brilliant

Thank you Dawn!  It was so sweet of you to send me these darling cards and pens!  I’ll put them to good use!  They’re absolutely beautiful!  Thank You!!

 By Sunday, my fridge is usually full of baking leftovers from the week-  a bit of cookie dough, scraps of cake, a tiny bit of frosting.  What to do with all these treats sometimes perplexes me.  This week, I married the leftover cookie dough I had in the freezer from my cookie extravaganza, and the Swiss Meringue Buttercream from my Blackberry Jam Cake.   Oatmeal sandwich cookies!  They’re great wrapped in wax paper and stacked in the fridge for a sweet snack.  They won’t last very long, I guarantee.  

 I remember the prepackaged, Little Debbie version of these cookies occasionally appearing in my lunch box.  The grown up version is crispy, buttery and so satisfying.   

Oatmeal Walnuts with Candied Ginger and Swiss Meringue Buttercream.  Delicious separate.  Over the moon when sandwiched together!

I’ll be the first to admit, that I’ve been breakfast obsessed lately.  I fall asleep thinking about the breakfast.  I wake up thinking I better hurry to the kitchen to get breakfast and tea started.  I eat breakfast standing in front of my kitchen window watching my morning get brighter and brighter with the sun and listening the the morning’s news on the radio.  It’s a ritual I’ve become attached to.  Oatmeal is my no fail breakfast treat, and I’ve had pecans on the brain lately.  This buttered pecan oatmeal is rich, earthy and filling. The warm, sweet and nutty combination would be great with fruit too- any fruit- bananas, apples, peaches, berries.  It’s the kind of breakfast my dreams are made of.