Living in a Cereal World

Previously  I mentioned this leftover canned pumpkin I needed to use up--some of it went to french toast and the rest to this  Crunchy Pumpkin Spice Granola  (what can I say, Sally's granola recipes are reliable). I was most excited to use pumpkin seeds in a recipe for the first time. I know that's a weird thing to get excited about but I didn't find out until last month that I actually liked pumpkin seeds. What I haven't been able to find--although to be fair I haven't really looked that hard--is unsweetened coconut, which I do want to try. So I added raisins along with the dried cranberries. It may seem a little odd at first that this granola isn't totally crunchy (as per the recipe, the pumpkin will make it soften) but I got past that by the second bite. The flavor actually isn't that far off from the  Trail Mix Granola --thanks to the maple syrup, probably--but still, you can taste the difference between homemade and store-bought. My sister agreed and

(This morning I mixed Origins with Life. Deep.) So it's still October and I'm still eating pumpkin stuff. Sometimes circumstances keep you from trying a recipe when you want. For example, I've held on to this recipe for  Pumpkin French Toast  for a little over a year. Then last weekend two things fell into place: (1) I made pumpkin oatmeal cookies for my siblings, which left half a can of pumpkin; and (2) Giant recently started selling brioche and I've been dying to try it. That made it pumpkin french toast time! So brioche actually isn't all that different from challah. It's still a dense egg bread that holds up well to batter. The main difference is the more typical (albeit larger than average) loaf shape. And it's just as filling. One slice and a turkey sausage was all I could handle for breakfast. With regard to flavor: spices, spices, spices. Don't let it scare you. Remember, canned pumpkin would taste like nothing without it and, along that l

1. Thomas' claims to have a new recipe for their Swirl breads but to be honest, I don't remember what the old one tasted like. This new one has a deeper cinnamon flavor, not unlike Nature's Own raisin bread. Also there might be more of a swirl...? That would also explain the stronger cinnamon in the mix. 2. And speaking of cinnamon swirls, I couldn't help myself. I had to try Giant's pumpkin cinnamon rolls. I know, I know, canned cinnamon rolls? When you have so many recipes? But it's pumpkin! I justified to myself. Also it was a fat canister with five rolls so they weren't going to go to waste. The roll itself had a stronger pumpkin scent in the oven than actual taste. The icing had all the pumpkin flavor, like a melted-down slice of pumpkin pie. And for an icing, it wasn't all that sweet. There must have been a lot of nutmeg involved. So it was worth trying.

Cerealfyre, you're getting so old and boring! Well, one of those, anyway. I'm waiting for my siblings to visit and make fun of me because this box is huge . I really thought all Shredded Wheats were the same size until I went to put this one away and realized it dwarfed all my other boxes. This must've been the original spoon-size variety; I imagine at some point someone eating this said to themselves, "You know what this needs? Flavor !" and then came up with the other varieties. Because this has nothing. It's just wheat and bran in a dense little square. I didn't notice this the first time I ate it because I mixed it with Mini-Wheats and topped it with berries, as I usually do. So that's the key: add fruit for flavor if you don't want a bowl of dry boring-ness. I will say that it does what a bran cereal's supposed to do. And I'll leave it at that.

(I just opened this today so I thought I'd skip ahead and review it now.) This Special K is a rice/wheat blend--which I prefer to just rice; I think it holds up in milk a little longer--with apple cinnamon clusters that aren't unlike the bits from the Fruit & Yogurt cereal. Actually, I didn't even notice the clusters when I poured my bowl; I just tasted a flake, got a hint of "apple cinnamon" and that would've been fine. I was almost done eating before I tasted a cluster so I couldn't really pull out any extra apple cinnamon-ness. I should clarify what I mean by "apple cinnamon." It's like cinnamon but with something else tamping down the cinnamon. Or like the filling of a Nutri-Grain bar but translated into cereal. That's going to require another tasting. I don't know if the flakes are flavored or just plain but flavored by being stuffed in a bag with all those clusters.

(I apologize in advance for the paucity of posts this month. It's looking to get busy and I can't always make time for Blogger. The entries are written, though! I'm so far behind!) I know this is more of a pumpkin/apple time of year but sometimes I need to switch it up. I found this recipe for  Blueberry and White Chocolate Chunk Ginger Cookies  while looking for something else--no, I don't remember what, or if I ever found it--but it called for wheat germ and I just so happen to need to use up some wheat germ...so there you go. I also had just enough dark brown sugar and some white chocolate chips so I threw those in. The only ingredient I had to buy was the dried blueberries. I can't explain the satisfaction I get from using ingredients I have on hand. I know; it's weird. I reluctantly left out the crystallized ginger because nobody loves ginger as much as I do but the ground ginger still pulls all the other elements together. It was nice to have a cookie

And here's the other Origins product I have on the cereal shelf right now. There's two parts to this cereal: a whole grain blend flake and a whole grain blend puff, not unlike  Kashi Sprouted Grains  and something else I've had this year but am drawing a blank on. But the difference is in the flakes; they're pressed thinner and may not have as many grains pressed together. They gave me Honey Nut Clusters flashbacks with regard to the texture but not the flavor. Even though the box says "touch of honey" my tongue registered it as generically "sweet." It didn't have any particular flavor, like molasses or maple or honey. It's good for mixing or with fruit, though.

Skipping some entries (not that you would've known) to write this while it's still fresh. On my mind, I mean. Although the granola is still fresh, too. It's only been open a few days. Anyhoo, I finally got around to trying both Origins granola and  cereal (probably the next entry) and the first thing that's obvious about the raisin apple flavor is the amount of raisins and dried apples. I know what you're thinking: Duh.  But this is a good thing. Usually there's not enough of a promised fruit, or it's a fruit flavor instead of the dried bits you were expecting. But this is practically half fruit/half granola. Now maybe if I shook the bag up that wouldn't be the case but for now, thanks for all the fruit. Second is the flavor. There's not supposed to be any artificial flavors or sweeteners so it might not be as sweet as you're expecting or would prefer. I think it could've used some cinnamon but then I think everything's better with cinn