Whole Grain Mornings

When I heard, sometime last year or the year before, I guess, that Megan Gordon was writing a book on whole-grain breakfasts, I could scarcely contain my glee. I had once owned Mollie Katzen's whole-grainy breakfast book Sunlight Café, but in a fit of house-cleaning or cross-country moving, I can't remember, had passed it on to someone else. (I am still regretting that bone-headed move – oh, Crunchy Millet Muffins, how I miss you! If someone out there has a copy of the book, would you like to earn my undying gratitude and send me the recipe so I can post it here for posterity and eat those muffins again?)

Signature granola

Megan is the powerhouse behind Marge Granola, and has been blogging about whole-grain baking and breakfasts and wholesome eating in general for several years now, both at her own blog and at the Kitchn. And with this book, she's collected her best breakfast recipes into something that is so darn useful it makes me happy just to see it on the shelf. I call it my little kitchen buddy. (I wake up worrying about breakfast more often than you might think?)

DSC_4737

I realized, while working on this post, that I have yet to even venture past the first chapter called Basics. It contains the master recipe for Megan's fantastic granola that is not too sweet (all three of us are obsessed with it), a method for oatmeal that was entirely new to me and resulted in the most wonderful bowl of oatmeal (you toast oats in butter, then add boiling milk and water to them and shut off the flame or stove and let the pot sit, covered, for 7-10 minutes before eating, winning the Least-Amount-of-Work-for-The-Best-Payoff Award and the Recipe-Worth-The-Price-of-The-Book Award), a whole-grain pancake mix that makes me feel like I've got money in the breakfast bank every day, to paraphrase Jenny, and the accompanying buttermilk pancakes (though I make them with half the amount of liquid called for).

Megan's oatmeal

But there's so much more in Whole-Grain Mornings that I can't wait to try, like the California Barley Bowls, any of the warm grain porridges, and the Peanut Butter Brown Rice Bars, Megan's whole-grain take on Rice Krispy Treats. It's such a home-run, this book, a total classic. I'll bet I'll still be cooking from it years from now.

(All the Amazon links are affiliate.)

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24 responses to “Megan Gordon’s Whole-Grain Mornings”

  1. Nuts about food Avatar

    Wait, I need more details about the oatmeal you mentioned… it sounds so good. What kind of oats did you use? Rolled oats? They look like steel cut oats, but are 7-10 minutes of soaking enough, when most recipes require a night of sitting???

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  2. Katie Avatar
    Katie

    You can google Crunchy Millet Muffins Molly Katzen and her recipe is in google books — also found it posted on other blogs too.

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  3. Megan Gordon Avatar

    Oh thank you so much for the sweet, generous words Luisa. I’m so glad you’re enjoying the book and that the granola + pancakes have been a hit in your house! Now I’m on a mission to dig up that Mollie Katzen book, too — sounds intriguing! Hope you have a wonderful week (with some hints of spring?!)

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  4. Luisa Avatar

    The oatmeal uses regular rolled oats! I think Molly posted about the steel-cut oatmeal version.

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  5. Luisa Avatar

    Whenever I’ve tried searching for it online, I only find adapted versions of it with slightly different ingredients. I want the original! 🙂

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  6. worldlypost Avatar

    Thank you so much for this post. I had a nice warm bowl of oatmeal this morning, and I begin nearly every morning with whole grains! Delicious! Happy Monday to you!

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  7. katy Avatar

    I too have been using and loving this book and for all the reasons you’ve stated here. I would also say that if you’ve been longing for crunchy millet muffins, Luisa, Megan’s book can give you something even better than that: the Smoked Salmon and Creme Fraiche Tart with a Millet and Cornmeal Crust is nothing short of fabulous. I consider it the West Coast’s version of the classic bagel.

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  8. Amy Avatar
    Amy

    I still have a copy of Sunlight cafe and live it. Here you go:
    Crunchy Millet muffins
    2 cups all purpose flour
    1/2 tsp salt
    1 1/2 tsp baking powder
    3/4 tsp cinnamon
    3/4 cup uncooked millet
    1/3 cup light brown sugar
    1 cup milk
    1 large egg
    1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
    4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
    1. 375 degree oven, oil 8 muffin cups
    2. Combine flour, salt, bak powder, cinn in a bowl. Add millet, crumble in b. sugar, & mix w/ fork until blended.
    3. Measure 1 cp milk in 2 cp liquid measure. Add egg & vanilla. Beat gently with fork until smooth.
    4. Slowly pour this mixture, along w/ butter, into dry ingredients. Using a spatula or spoon, stir from bottom of bowl until dry ingredients are all moistened. Do not overmix.
    5. Spoon batter into muffin cups. For small, fill 4/5 full, for large muffins fill to top.
    6. Bake in middle of oven for 20-25 min. Cool on rack out of the pan for 30 min.

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  9. steele@smccd.edu Avatar
    steele@smccd.edu

    Luisa,
    This Sunday I made April Bloomfield’s porridge, which you had posted in a previous blog. It requires steel-cut and rolled oats. We poured maple syrup over it, and my husband Joe was in heaven. What a great way to begin the sunny morning. Went out and worked in the garden afterward, planting arugula, beets, oak leaf lettuce and herbs in our raised beds. The porridge began a great California Sunday.

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  10. Nuts about food Avatar

    Thank you Luisa! Will try these

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  11. sarahkeith Avatar

    I have Sunlight Cafe and have loved it for years! Sounds like you’ve been hooked up with the recipe but if you need anything else let me know 🙂 I just checked out Whole Grain Mornings from my library and LOVE it. I made the Nutty Millet Breakfast Cookies and they are outstanding. New favorite cookie! And I’ve been making the adapted version of her oatmeal (from the Orangette blog) recently and enjoying it lots. I will probably have to buy Whole Grain Mornings– it’s got so much breakfast inspiration!

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  12. Molly Avatar

    Ordered. (Finally.)
    And how AWESOME is Amy, above? Man, I love this community…
    xo,
    Molly

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  13. Debra Avatar

    i agree! I can’t imagine any oatmal tasting better than April Bloofield’s porridge, but I’m willing to give it a try. This oatmeal is so good that I could eat it for dinner.

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  14. Luisa Avatar

    April’s oatmeal is so special! Just had some for breakfast this morning. Megan’s oatmeal isn’t really comparable – it’s less rich and silky, but I love her method for using rolled oats with very little fuss.

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  15. Luisa Avatar
  16. Luisa Avatar

    Thanks for the tip!

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  17. Claire Avatar
    Claire

    I’m an oatmeal fan for breakfast, I’ll have to try this!

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  18. Ali Bowling Avatar

    🙂 I had to copy that recipe for the muffins too. Love muffins. Thanks for the link to buy the book.

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  19. Stephanie-Oh Avatar
    Stephanie-Oh

    Megan Gordon’s Whole Grain Brkfst Cookbook is one of my fav. ckbks. It’s worth buying just for granola recipes alone. I made the Pistachio, Apricot, Coconut Granola for my son who loves granola. He just called me asking me to bring some more the next time I visit!

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  20. Aline Avatar

    Hi Luisa, I just wanted to say thank you for inspiring me and so many others with your beautiful writing and soft way of remembering the sweet and bitter moments of the past. I’m a brazilian journalist and I just have stated writing in a blog, after reading your book in the portuguese version. It’s being an amazing experience. I wrote a post about you and your book. Unfortunately, it’s in portuguese too. Thanks a lot for sharing your recipes and fellings.

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  21. Lynne Cutler Avatar
    Lynne Cutler

    Luisa, there are copies of Mollie Katzen’s Sunlight Cafe book on Alibris.com starting at 99 cents. I wanted to buy you one but wasn’t sure where to send it.

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  22. KatyBelle Avatar
    KatyBelle

    Thank you, Amy!!
    I’m very excited to try the Crunchy Millet Muffins! I need something substantial for my mornings!

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  23. Claudia ~ Food with a View Avatar

    Sounds like a must-have to me. I cook and bake with wholegrains & wholeflours a lot, but changing non-wholegrain recipes that I find in cookbooks and blogs to wholefoods by myself doesn’t always end up beautifully ;-). Got to get my hands on this one definitely – thanks for the inspiration, Luisa!

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