Oat-Almond Breakfast Bread

One of my favorite breakfast breads is this top-of-the-stove oat-almond bread. These cakes whip up easily and are such a nice change from the usual toast in the morning. Kids like oat bread, too, and if you use organic ingredients, your family will be eating a nutritious breakfast food.

You will need a blender or food processor the turn oats into oat flour and to grind your almonds. If you are using a regular blender, carefully push oats into blades as they work their way up the sides of the blender. I do this with a spatula.

It takes seconds to grind oats and almonds into flour, so for those who are short on time or patience, no worries, this is still an easy bread to make.

If you are unsure as to how to make oat flour or almond meal, please see the videos below--or skip and continue on with this recipe.

While fresh is always best, if you are short on time, follow this tip: I dump an entire bag of whole almonds into my food processor and then I have a ready supply of almond meal. I store this in a container in the fridge and each time I make my oat-almond breakfast bread, I simply sprinkle in however much nut meal I want, to make my bread rich and nourishing.

Add water and stir ingredients with a wooden spoon until a ball starts to form. Work dough with your hands until you have a ball.

Divide into portions and either flatten with hands or roll out, depending on time available and preference.

It's a great feeling knowing I'm eating a bread that provides calcium for my body. I have a milk allergy, as so many do, and adding ground almonds to my breakfast bread is an easy way to increase calcium intake.

Roll out dough on a floured counter and cut into rounds. If mixture crumbles, press dough together.

Keep forming left-over dough into another round clump, then roll out and cut out more rounds.

Add a liberal amount of olive oil to a fry pan and gently place your rounds into pan. Keep your heat setting on low and turn over to brown both sides. Cover with a lid so that oat-almond bread cooks on the inside.

Use care when turning rounds over because they will be slightly crispy and could crumble.

Serve your oat-almond breakfast bread warm or cold. This quick bread has a nice crispy texture and is delicious topped with either strawberry or raspberry jam.

I like to change things up a little, so my oat-almond bread may include a dolop of molasses and cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg or some vanilla. A sweetened bread is delicious and hard to stay out of!

Adding a sticky sweetener such as molasses or honey helps your bread to stay together. As well, I find larger thicker rounds also hold together well.

Don't be afraid to experiment until you get your bread where you want it.

Depending on the supplies you have on hand, you could also make this breakfast bread using 1 cup of ground sesame seeds instead of almonds or use half and half of both almonds and sesame seeds.

Sesame seeds create a nice flour and using either sesame seeds or ground almonds increases both nutritive value and taste of this oat bread.

If you desire a nuttier bread, simply increase the amount of nuts or seeds in this recipe and adjust liquid amounts, as needed.

Both sesame seeds and almonds are a nut-based source of calcium, so for those on vegan diets, this addition is ideal (and good for the rest of us!).

While nuts and seeds have gone up in price, the money you don't spend on sausages or bacon easily covers the cost of nuts and seeds.

If you happen to have trail mix, make the basic oat-almond dough, then add a handful of trail mix, which adds color and crunch to this bread.

This brightly colored bread may appeal to finicky children.

You can also shape your dough into larger balls and make pan size rounds, which you can flatten with your hands.

Consiousness is growing about the value of whole grains and nuts and seeds in the human diet. It is my hope that this recipe will help readers to learn a new way of looking at what we put into our bodies as fuel. Optimum health starts with choosing foods that offer more than convenience.

Even those who have busy schedules can make these up ahead of time, so they have them on hand for days when time is at a premium. The top-of-the-stove aspect makes this breakfast bread easier to prepare than working with a yeast dough.