Living in a Cereal World

Picking up from last time, I wanted to include a few thoughts on Rice Chex. First off, they were basically my only option to eat with a banana--really, Raisin Bran, Golden Grahams, Lucky Charms? Meh. Rice Chex it is. They're the lightest and the crispiest of the Chex variations and if I had to eat a plain rice cereal, I would definitely go with this over the too-quickly soggy Rice Krispies. It is kind of plain, but I was expecting that. I poured as large a bowl as I could considering the shape of the dining hall cereal bowls and sliced my banana into it one half at time to minimize the mess (and not waste any banana). So, overall, it's okay. Inoffensive. Just kind of...there.

All right, so here we go. The dining hall had a couple of different areas: in the front were the drinks, about six different canisters of cereal, and an array of bread products by the toaster. In the back (the "kitchen" area) were the hot breakfast (eggs/potatoes/meats etc.) and cold breakfast sections (assorted fruits/cottage cheese/yogurt). Every day they also set out a tray with apples and ripe bananas. I chose to forego yogurt for the week, not knowing the type or brand. That was probably the one thing I missed the most. So the first day I was really too nervous to eat; I barely touched my raisin bran and juice. Thankfully, in addition to the milk dispensers, they had a tiny fridge with little Lactaid cartons--and soy milk, in case you were wondering. I also had raisin bran Wednesday and Friday, in a effort to keep things...running like clockwork, shall we say. Tuesday I opted for my weekly banana with a bowl of Rice Chex. I think I'll write a quick review of that n

My week was super-busy and super-fun and I know I said I'd recap how I survived breakfast every day (I took notes!) but I wanted to start with what I did Sunday. No time to unpack; I was determined to make my dad a belated Father's Day cake. I'm sure I've mentioned how much he likes carrot cake; this time around I decided to try a new one-- Mango-Carrot Cake, from Better Homes & Gardens a few months back. This may sound obvious but if you like mango and you like carrot cake, you will love this. Also, liking cake doughnuts wouldn't hurt. According to the magazine version of the recipe that's what the texture is supposed to resemble but I added too much mango juice so mine came out sticky. If the ingredient list had specified 1 1/4 cups of mango juice divided that might've cued me to look out for that step in the recipe. Also, catching up on sleep would've helped. It's still good, though. My dad's not picky. Cake is cake. ******* Next: my

Well, it's time to go traveling to that thing which has been taking up my time--Schoolcation, Nerd Camp, whatever you want to call it--and I'll be gone for a week. Yes, a full week . Without being able to cook for myself. Whatever shall I do about breakfast? I'll let you know when I get back. Yes, I'll have internet access (what place doesn't these days?) but I'd rather just take notes and write up a full blog entry when I get back. Wish me luck. I get the feeling there's going to be multiple people trying to feed me.

...and I haven't even gotten to the spring ones! It seems people will launch cereals whenever they please...not that I'm complaining. More blog topics for me! A quick roundup: Spotted in Wal-Mart yesterday: Hershey's Cookies and Creme (no, thank you, but I'm interested to see what others think of it) and Vanilla Chex. Vanilla, really? You see how well Vanilla Yogurt Burst Cheerios went over. Yeah, I had to buy it. And then I looked up new Kellogg's products because I'd read about some omega-3 Raisin Bran in a circular the other day: the full name is Raisin Bran Omega-3 from Flaxseed. Kind of an unwieldy name, we'll see about the cereal. Also, a new Multigrain Special K. I didn't realize the Oats & Honey flavor had dropped the "multigrain" from it's title. Oh, and some Special K Nourish hot cereal in individual containers but that'll have to wait. I do not want to think about heat right now. New tastes await...

(Yes, I know it's been out a while but I just got to it today, okay?) Anyway, I opened the bag with a little bit of struggle--they really glue those things tight these days--and took a sniff. Smelled like peanut butter cookies. Sold! Now I don't know if it's the wheat/rice grain combination but the peanut butter tasted stronger to me than in the Peanut Butter Multi-Grain Cheerios . But they're both General Mills, so the peanut butter flavor could be coming from the same vat in the factory for all I know. Still, there's something in this (maybe a hint of cinnamon?) that reminds you it's in the Toast Crunch family. That and a propensity to get soggy fast. I mixed it with Oatmeal Squares today; next time the PBTC goes on top. So if you like Cinnamon Toast Crunch and peanut butter flavored things, this is the cereal for you.

First off, this is the only granola Special K makes but it would be nice if they had at least one other flavor. You know me, I like variety. But that's not to say that I don't like this one. It someone manages to be light and filling at the same time. "Light" in that it isn't as crunchy as some granola brands--the oat clusters are practically just that--with a few crispy rice pieces mixed in, and yet all of that together can be very filling. The flavor is definitely just a touch of honey but there's also some molasses in there as well; I think you can taste it in the little crispy bits. You know, I welcome all these flavors when they come around and then I don't need to have them again for a while.

My mother requested a different take on tilapia this week, so I searched until I came up with the very first tilapia recipe we ever tried. Oddly enough, we hadn't had it since then (I think it was 2010 according to the printout date). No time like the present to try it again, right? Tilapia with Green Beans I think the most important thing here is to use fresh herbs. Dried just doesn't quite it done, and I know a lot of people complain about the blandness of tilapia. The dusting of flour provides just a little bit of a coating and pairs perfectly with the garlicky green beans and tomatoes. Oh, and if you really like green beans you might want to get 3/4 lb. instead. (How does this spellcheck not know "tilapia?") ***** I think I'll review a granola next...

I know it's been a week but I've really swamped with conference prep and haven't had the time to research blog topics. I should have granola and cereal reviews up in the next week but until then here's more breakfast: banana-blueberry buttermilk bread. This was one of those recipes that I just happened to come across while looking for something else, so I decided to hold on to it until the next time we had buttermilk pancakes so I could use the leftover buttermilk and blueberries. Worked out perfectly. I even timed my banana purchase just right so they were just the right amount of spotted and ready for baking. As for the finished product, well, you can't really go wrong with banana bread. I might have used a little too much banana and also didn't cook it long it enough, so I got that almost-gooey center. I think next time after 50 min. I'll turn the oven down to 350 and let it go ten more minutes without totally burning the outside.