Do you ever get into a breakfast rut? Because I can relate.

Over the years, I’ve cycled through so many breakfast options with the goal of keeping my first meal of the day quick to prepare and filling. Oh, and sweet. I like that shot of sweetness in the morning!

Since forever, I’ve loved cereal. And while it’s hard to beat a bowl of cereal with milk, sometimes you want a little something different. As a quick bread lover, this breakfast bread fits the bill. It’s topped with a crumbly, crunchy topping made with Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, and the recipe is easy enough to make with the kiddos!

Now that I’m at home more for the summer, I have to find ways to engage my little monsters until camp starts up in two weeks. Oh, camp. It’s the best. It’s when I finally get to take a nap.

But until then, I have a whole schedule to arrange for each day. It includes basic summer activities, like running through sprinklers, making crafts that usually turn out looking funny, and of course, an afternoon baking session. I try to find or create recipes that are pretty simple but that also involve some fun element. We can go shopping in the morning at our local Safeway and have all the ingredients ready for an afternoon baking extravaganza!

In this case, it’s easy to mix up the batter, but my kids can have all the fun of making the crumb topping. And while they do that, I can snack on Corn Flakes and have a fun moment to relax and stare at the wall. Every mom who is home all day with kids needs some quality wall-staring time.

The best part of this recipe is that in the morning when I’m rushing around trying to find clothes for everyone and make sure that nobody is beating anyone else up, this breakfast bread is ready to go. Everyone wants to eat it, everyone’s excited about eating it because they helped make it, and it tastes delightful. I mean, who doesn’t love crumb?

Cereal is the best, but being creative with it yields even better results. Kids might be happy with just cereal and milk, but adults need to go beyond and explore our inner foodies. This Corn Flake cinnamon crumb bread is just the ticket!

If you’re looking for more breakfast ideas, please visit this website for more inspiration for creative breakfast and snack creations. Hope you have some great summer breakfasts ahead of you!

After a while, it gets rough to keep feeding everybody. Sure, it’s nice the first day, but as house guests linger on, keeping up the hosting duties can be a real drag. That’s when it’s nice to make a really quick coffee cake for breakfast. Not for them, you understand. They can have Cheerios. This cake is for you!

I like having a warm, fresh cinnamon-laden treat first thing in the morning. I mean, who doesn’t? That’s why cinnamon rolls are popular. But this is a much simpler option, and all those flavors are still there.

This winter break, we’re having a staycation. Luckily, the D.C. area is full of activities, but these days are pretty exhausting. We wake up, chase the kids, drive them around, chase them some more, and eat at irregular intervals. It’s lots of fun.

I’d be lying if I said I weren’t more than a little jealous of anyone who went anywhere this week. People jet to Florida, or ski resorts, or indoor water parks. We considered all three options before we realized that, once again, our kids are a little too young this year to justify all the expense. If we’re going to shell out thousands of dollars for a few days, shouldn’t they not just be able to remember it, but also be able to do whatever activities are available?

Let’s just say that I can’t picture my youngest, who is a tiny person, being happy at a ski resort. She’d probably just cry a lot, and then I’d start crying too. Nope, a staycation is a much better idea. Plus, that means I can bake a lot and send you even more recipes!

For example, I’ve got fondue coming your way this week along with another video about the perfect fondue dipping plate, which includes these champagne brownies for New Year’s. Stay tuned! But first things first. Coffee cake.

This gets mixed up in about two minutes flat and baked in less than half an hour. The cake itself isn’t very sweet, which is perfect for coffee cake. The cinnamon in the middle and on top gives you all the sweetness you need, and I like to use brown sugar instead of regular in my cinnamon-sugar topping. It’s just a better flavor, and it caramelizes a bit more in the oven.

If you’re dealing with company this week, eat cake. If you’re having a busy staycation, eat cake. If you’re at work, eat lots and lots of cake. That’s about all the advice I have for you. Next time I see you, there will be fondue!

For some reason, people associate Mother’s Day with brunch. Okay, I know that it’s traditional to take mothers out for brunch on the big day, but why? Don’t we rate a fancy dinner?

Listen, I’m not trying to knock brunch. The food is delicious and decadent, and it’s totally fine to feature chocolate in your pancakes, or waffles, or French toast. How could I possibly object to that? But I really, really love going out for dinner. Dinner out means one night of not having to cook for greedy little mouths.

Still, to appease you brunch fanatics out there, I made this cinnamon crumb bread. It’s pretty awesome, and to be fair, you can also have it for dessert. After dinner out.

I’m being appreciated a lot this week. Yes, Sunday is Mother’s Day, but apparently, this week is Teacher Appreciation Week. That means I got a Reese’s peanut butter cup bar in my mailbox this morning (how well they know me), chips in my box yesterday, and an apple the day before. And it’s really nice to get all the free stuff.

The thing is, I really love coming to work. People talk about how exhausting teaching is, how drained you feel at the end of the day, how demanding everyone can be. So true. But sometimes we get into such a negative place about this profession that we don’t see the great stuff. Like, how every morning, some kid I don’t know holds the door open for me to enter or exit because their parents raised them properly. How my students say “thank you” as they leave the classroom. How I laugh out loud every day so many times, even though I’m not much of a laugher. I mean, kids are funny. Even the 17 year-old ones I teach.

They are also really cool about sharing ideas. I needed some baking inspiration last week, so I asked a few about summer dessert ideas. Boy, did they step up to the plate. It turns out that teenagers really like to think about food.

And so do I, which might be why I love being a high school teacher. It’s even more exciting when ideas come by surprise, like this bread. I never thought about making it until I made these Cinnamon Donuts with Chocolate Dipping Sauce a couple of weeks back, and that formed the basis for making a bread with tons of crumb on top.

You can’t lose with crumb. You can’t lose with cinnamon. And you definitely can’t lose if you celebrate life regularly, not just on the days or weeks that are meant as designated appreciation moments. Translation? Eat dessert daily. And for you moms and teachers out there, enjoy the next few days!

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been absent. It was totally beyond my control this time. That flu epidemic the CDC declared the other day found its way into my house. I’ve never been so sick in my life. A week down, unable to do anything but moan. And in the process, my blog just kind of stopped.

But now it’s back, and it’s a new year! Don’t expect me to go with the trend here and start posting healthy recipes. I have very strong feelings about resolutions this time of year. It’s not that I don’t believe in making healthy decisions, but doing it on January 1st is just plain odd. Why would you want to? That date seems to have an alarming failure rate.

And by the way, so does dieting. 95% of all diets fail because they’re unsustainable. What is sustainable is moderation. So by all means eat this amazing cinnamon breakfast cake, but then don’t have a giant brownie after lunch and a milkshake with dinner. Your coronary arteries will not be happy with you.

This cake is sheer, unadulterated cinnamon goodness. It’s got a thin layer of chocolate and cinnamon toward the bottom and then the rest is just light and fluffy. It’s perfect for breakfast when you’re in the mood for something a little less hard-hitting than your average cinnamon pastry but don’t want to sacrifice any of that flavor.

Incidentally, this guy is gluten-free. No, that’s not code for “healthy.” That just means that I used certified gluten-free oat flour in this cake, and it worked out beautifully. Oats and cinnamon are a perfect pair! The bottom layer is also quite joyous, combining not just cinnamon and chocolate but also a touch of coffee. So if coffee is your beverage of choice in the morning, you’ll be quite the happy camper.

I’ve missed you, and from the bottom of my heart, I curse the flu. Stay healthy out there, and I’m not talking about your food choices. Wash your hands and stay away from schools, day care centers, and doctors’ offices!

Years ago, I was part of a tour group in a foreign country. We stopped in a grocery store, and there on the shelf was a jar of Peter Pan, imported and outrageously marked up in price. I bought it immediately and without any hesitation, despite the fact that everyone in my group was mocking me for spending so much on a jar of peanut butter.

Well, folks, the laugh was on them. I sat on the tour bus, opened the jar, inhaled the sweet aroma and looked up, only to realize that the entire bus was eyeing my Peter Pan with what can only be described as mad lust. And for the rest of the trip, people kept asking if they could have a taste. They missed it so much, you see, and I was the smart one. I was also nice and shared, but not after a whole lotta “I told you so” lectures.

It was at that moment that I realized how powerful peanut butter was, and how much I wanted to try doing everything I could with it. So that’s at the root of so much of my baking, including this banana bread.

There’s a lot going on here. First of all, I added some nutrients to the batter by using peanut butter instead of actual butter, and I also used oat flour rather than all-purpose. Oat flour works really well in banana bread. Just imagine what oats do in other recipes, and you’ll start to see it! Plus, if you use gluten-free oat flour, that will help out your friends who can’t eat gluten. And oat flour is far better for your body than the white stuff.

But of course, life is about balance. So with the nice healthy adjustments, I also put in peanut butter chips, milk chocolate chips and mini peanut butter cups. A lot of them. Because peanut butter, chocolate and banana is a surprisingly addictive combination, and you’re hearing this from somebody who’s not that into bananas. In fact, when Ben and Jerry’s banana peanut butter Greek frozen yogurt came out, I never expected to like it, much less get addicted to it. But it happened! That stuff is the best!

This banana bread mixes up quickly in one bowl. Then you just pop it in the oven and try to be patient! The hardest part is being patient. Everything else is easy peasy.

I would also like to point out that I’m a gooey cake person. Not underbaked, but definitely on the gooey side. The oat flour helps with that and I’m a sucker for its softness. I prefer my cake cold (don’t judge!), but you can see that I photographed it while it was still warm with the chocolate all melty.

So happy Monday. My day is always so much better when there’s banana bread for breakfast!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter (creamy)
• 3 overripe bananas
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup oat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup mini Reese’s peanut butter cups, chopped in half
• 1/2 cup peanut butter chips
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350. Coat a loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, mash the bananas. Add in the other ingredients (except the chocolate and candy) and mix thoroughly. Reserving a few of each, fold in the peanut butter cups, peanut butter chips and milk chocolate chips.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and sprinkle the top with the reserved candy.

Bake for 45-50 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool and cut into slices.