Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): Hoy preparé pan con harina de avena para el desayuno. - Today I prepared bread with oat flour for breakfast.

Preparé is preterite: it presents the action as a single, completed event.
- Hoy preparé pan… = Today I made bread (I started, finished – it’s a done event).
Preparaba is imperfect: it presents the action as ongoing, repeated, or giving background.
- Hoy preparaba pan cuando llegaste. = I was making bread today when you arrived.
- Cuando vivía con mis padres, preparaba pan todos los domingos. = I used to make bread every Sunday.

In your sentence, you’re just reporting a finished action that happened once today, so preparé is the natural choice.

Could I also say Hoy he preparado pan… instead of Hoy preparé pan…?

You can, and it is grammatically correct, but it sounds more natural in Spain than in most of Latin America.

In Spain, people often use he preparado (present perfect) with time expressions like hoy:
- Hoy he preparado pan.
In Latin America, the preterite is usually preferred with hoy:
- Hoy preparé pan.

So for Latin American Spanish, Hoy preparé pan… is more typical and idiomatic than Hoy he preparado pan….

What’s the difference between preparé pan and hice pan?

Both can often be translated as I made bread, but there is a nuance:

Hice pan focuses on making or producing the bread itself, especially from scratch.
Preparé pan is a bit broader: it can mean making it, but also getting it ready or preparing it (maybe using a mix, or just warming it up, depending on context).

In everyday conversation, they can overlap a lot, but:

If you want to emphasize you baked the bread: Hoy hice pan.
If you want to emphasize you prepared bread (maybe healthier, with oat flour, etc.): Hoy preparé pan con harina de avena.

Why is it pan con harina de avena and not pan de harina de avena or pan de avena?

All three are possible, but they don’t feel exactly the same:

Pan con harina de avena = bread with oat flour (suggests oat flour is one ingredient, maybe mixed with other flours).
Pan de harina de avena = bread of oat flour (more literal: the bread is made from oat flour; sounds a bit more technical).
Pan de avena = oat bread (a very common, natural way to name that kind of bread).

In everyday speech:

Pan de avena is the most typical way to name that type of bread.
Pan con harina de avena highlights the presence of oat flour, not necessarily as the only flour.

So your sentence suggests: bread that contains oat flour (maybe along with other flours).

Why is it harina de avena and not harina de la avena or harina de avenas?

Three points:

Avena behaves like a mass noun (like rice, flour, water):
- In Spanish we usually say avena, not avenas, when we mean the cereal in general.
The pattern harina de + noun is standard for naming flours:
- harina de trigo (wheat flour)
- harina de maíz (corn flour)
- harina de arroz (rice flour)
  So harina de avena fits this pattern.
We normally don’t use the article here:
- harina de avena (oat flour)
- harina de la avena would sound odd and unnecessarily specific, like “the flour of the oats” in a very literal, almost poetic way.

So the natural, standard expression is harina de avena.

Why is it para el desayuno instead of just para desayuno like English for breakfast?

Spanish uses articles differently from English:

English: for breakfast (no article)
Spanish: usually para el desayuno (with the definite article el).

In Spanish, meals are often treated like regular nouns with an article:

El desayuno está listo. = Breakfast is ready.
Preparamos pasta para la cena. = We made pasta for dinner.

You can omit the article in some fixed expressions (like desayuno incluido = breakfast included), but after para in your sentence, the natural way is:

para el desayuno, not para desayuno.

Can I move hoy or para el desayuno to a different position in the sentence?

Yes, Spanish word order is flexible. All of these are possible, with only slight changes in emphasis:

Hoy preparé pan con harina de avena para el desayuno.
Preparé pan con harina de avena para el desayuno hoy.
Para el desayuno, hoy preparé pan con harina de avena.
Hoy, para el desayuno, preparé pan con harina de avena.

The original is the most neutral. Moving words to the front can add emphasis:

Starting with Para el desayuno emphasizes the meal.
Starting with Hoy emphasizes today.

What does the accent in preparé change? How is it different from prepare without an accent?

The accent mark changes both pronunciation and meaning:

preparé (with accent):
- Stress on the last syllable: pre-pa-ré.
- Meaning: I prepared / I made (first person singular, preterite).
prepare (no accent) in Spanish:
- Stress on the second syllable: pre-pa-re.
- Form: present subjunctive or formal command:
  - Espero que él prepare pan. = I hope he prepares bread.
  - Prepare pan, por favor. = Please prepare bread (formal usted command).

So in your sentence, you must use preparé with an accent, because you’re talking about what you did in the past.

How should I pronounce hoy, harina, and avena?

Key pronunciation points:

hoy:
- The h is silent.
- Sounds like “oy” in English boy, but without the b.
- One syllable.
harina:
- The h is silent.
- Sounds like a-REE-nah (Latin American Spanish has a clear r, not like English ree exactly, but similar).
- Stress on the middle syllable: ha-RI-na.
avena:
- Sounds like a-VEH-na.
- v is pronounced very similar to b in Spanish (between b and v).
- Stress on the middle syllable: a-VE-na.

And desayuno: de-sa-YU-no (stress on yu).

Could I say para desayunar instead of para el desayuno?

Yes, but the nuance changes slightly:

para el desayuno = for breakfast (talks about the meal as a noun).
- Hoy preparé pan con harina de avena para el desayuno.
para desayunar = to have for breakfast / to eat for breakfast (uses the verb desayunar).
- Hoy preparé pan con harina de avena para desayunar.

Both are common and natural.
In many contexts, they’re interchangeable; para desayunar focuses a bit more on the action of eating breakfast, while para el desayuno focuses on the meal itself.