Breakfast, That Neglected Meal

I love breakfast. It's possibly my favorite part of the day, what with me being a morning person and also a...well, a foodie, I guess. Most days we just eat regular oatmeal (with options of nuts and dried fruit to mix in), regular rice with some cinnamon and sugar on top, or Cream of Wheat, but here are some of our favorite special breakfasts that never leave leftovers!

Butterscotch oatmeal -- sort of a custard-based oatmeal, cooked with milk, eggs and sugar instead of just water. Creamy and filling and extra-sweet.

Rice pudding -- great for leftover rice, also a custardy milk/eggs/sugar deal, only baked in the oven and with cinnamon and raisins mixed in.

Cornmeal mush with syrup -- strangely enough, this is very popular with my kids. I use part regular cornmeal and part "polenta", a coarser-ground cornmeal that I get from Goya brand in the Hispanic section. I think I basically use 1 part cornmeal to 4 parts boiling water. Pass the syrup!

Muffins -- 2 dozen is almost not enough nowadays for our family, I don't know what I'll do when I need to make more... The 3 varieties that we use most are whole wheat pumpkin, blueberry, and oatmeal chocolate chip.

Pancake-in-the-Oven -- this is quite similar to a German pancake, only it's self-sweetened so you don't eat any fruit on top. German pancake with fruit is probably delicious, but this is what I grew up eating and so it's being passed on and enjoyed by my kids. Puffy, lightly sweet and buttery.

Granola -- I don't buy it, but I occasionally splurge for the ingredients (see sidebar of past recipes) and make a giant homemade batch. Then we all wonder where it went so fast.

Sourdough pancakes -- we technically don't eat these for breakfast ever, they're our Sunday night supper each week, but I had to include them as a delicious breakfast food. I actually prefer "regular" pancakes just every once in a while, but my husband simply lives for the sourdough flavor. A treat you can't get anywhere else anymore!

I keep hearing that breakfast is a meal that shouldn't be skipped, so go ahead and dig in.