Living in a Cereal World

I hope everyone had a good Christmas, or whatever you celebrate, and good food. Including breakfast! I finally have time today to squeeze in this review. I opened my box of Cinnamon Star Crunch almost two weeks ago, but, you know, priorities. If your local grocery or big-box store is still trying to get rid of these, it wouldn't hurt to pick one up. Just be warned, they're not just star-shaped Cinnamon Toast Crunch, like I hoped. In fact, they are teensy little puffy stars, like someone took the stars out of Chicken and Stars soup, dehydrated them, and added cinnamon. Now I'm not complaining about the flavor. Just the size. It's not something to fill a bowl. I'm a slow eater, so I'd end up with little bits of mush about halfway through. So I'll probably be sprinkling it on various other cereals for the next month. In fact, this might be a fun cereal for granolas or cookie recipes. There's an idea.

So my brother comes home, tries all the cookies, and then says, "I forgot I don't like ginger." WHAT? This family. smh. Oh, well, more gingersnaps for me. Anyway, here's my three cookies: First I made Maple-Oatmeal Cookies . I wanted to make an oatmeal cookie recipe that was totally different from anything I'd made before. This is very simple, no stir-ins, but it spreads very thin. I should've followed the directions with regards to measuring. They're very sweet and you don't need more than one. Next came the Soft Gingersnap Cookies . It's the holiday season, I want gingerbread, I want ginger cookies, I basically want ginger everything. And I wanted a soft cookie. The only thing about these is that I could've used more ginger (or maybe molasses). The spices called for trick your taste buds/brain into thinking they're a soft pumpkin cookie instead. Finally, it wouldn't be a cookie tin without something from Sally

I think I'm in the midst of a ginger kick. First I made cookies (to be shared later), next week I'll be making granola, and this past weekend I made this Gingerbread Banana Oatmeal Bread . I was looking for a gingerbread I could eat for breakfast and then realized I also had a banana in the freezer, so I had to find a recipe that combined the two. It certainly didn't hurt that this one also called for oats--I don't know about you but I need all the fiber I can get this time of year. The oats also helped to make the batter really thick and the bread very dense. It's about as "bread-y" as a quick bread can get. Of course this means you don't need to eat as much in one sitting and can stretch it a little further... I would've liked more of a ginger-y flavor, but like I said, I'm on a ginger kick right now. I thought the banana was stronger in this recipe. I also like to eat the browner (almost burnt) end pieces, and they tasted almost coffee-lik

I like to keep my biscotti seasonal: last month was pumpkin so I thought this month I'd do cranberry. Actually I combined two recipes: White Chocolate Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti  from Sally's Baking Addiction and Cranberry, Orange, and White Chocolate Biscotti from Giant's Savory magazine. They looked like this but obviously not blurry: I'm not the best drizzler but people love the (white) chocolate anyway. These are the kind of biscotti I'm used to: thick batter (and thick-sliced), so dense you can only eat just one. I followed Sally's base recipe but subbed almonds because I have no idea if I can eat pistachios and this time of year just isn't right for my stomach to be experimenting. I also didn't want to fully dunk in white chocolate so I drizzled melted white chocolate chips from the other recipe. If you try these make sure to get a bite with everything; the flavors are meant to work together.

I didn't want to call it a throwback because we're only going as far as two Sundays ago--to our end-of-the-Thanksgiving holiday Sunday breakfast. I wanted to do something new, simple, and sweet, so I chose this Blueberry Stuffed French Toast . There's a lot of blueberry cream cheese stuffed French toast recipes on the Internet; I'm glad I wasn't aware of them last month. This was all I needed. And did I mention it was easy? I have a frying pan large enough to handle all four sandwiches at once. That's what it is, essentially--a blueberry sandwich. First you cook down the frozen blueberries, which takes hardly any time at all, then you spoon some on four slices of bread, cover with four more slices, dip in the batter and fry. Seriously easy. And it looks pretty (and pretty appetizing) topped with the rest of the blueberries and a dusting of powdered sugar. Yeah, that would have been a good one to get a shot of for the blog. I'll try to do better with the co

Or as I like to think of it, BIRTHDAY CAAAAKE (cue the flailing Muppet arms). I'm going to have to wing this entry because I didn't take notes. Like I said before, things were crazy that weekend. I came across this recipe for Applesauce-Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake  back in the summer and made up my mind right there and then that this would be my birthday cake. No changing my mind. Even if I found something better, or with pumpkin. I was looking for something different and cakes with chocolate chips are definitely different for me. I also was all for a cake made with applesauce. All the spices involved were a bonus. And the pepper (you can't really taste the pepper). I didn't get a chance to take a picture--you'll just have to believe that my slices looked just like the ones in the recipe. The cake really does get that dark; I guess it's from the spices. So it's basically a chocolate-chip spice cake; for my birthday I had a little bit with some apple pie ic

Now it's time to catch up on my birthday plans. I had planned to do birthday breakfast, dinner, and dessert all in one day but you know how plans go. The refrigerator broke so I had to swap dinners; I managed to get breakfast and the cake in the oven before figuring out what was going on. But the day started out great with breakfast. Let me start by saying I love omelets. If I go out to eat and get breakfast for dinner, it's usually an omelet. So when I found this recipe for Cheesy Italian Breakfast Bowl  I thought, hey, this is basically one big omelet inside a bread bowl. I'm doing this. I love Italian Turkey Sausage and red bell peppers, and am willing to eat red onion as long as it's not raw, and of course you need cheese in there, so...what's not to love? Ok, I admit, I'm actually not a big fan of sourdough bread. It has a weird aftertaste. Or during-taste. But brushing it with olive oil really helped. I would eat that as garlic bread for dinner. I coul

So how was your Thanksgiving? My actual Thanksgiving day was not nearly as stressful as usual, thanks to it being immediate family-only this year. I never realized how much of a distraction too many cooks in the kitchen can be. But the days before and after? Hectic and busy, as you can see by my just now sitting down to blog about it. I made two pies, which is really what this entry's for: The first is Gingery Pear and Apple Pie  which was not nearly as gingery as it could have been, as I'm sure I've mentioned recently about another recipe. Someday I will bake for people who appreciate fresh ginger. That being said, it was still delicious with only ground ginger. If you're hesitant about baking with pears this would be a good recipe to try. You really can't tell the difference between the pear and apple slices unless you're trying really hard to suss out the two textures (pears are softer). The second is a Classic Pumpkin Pie  with a key substitution:

The second pie's in the oven, we scrounged up enough decent-looking green beans, and the replacement fridge is working. So how's your Thanksgiving prep going? Yeah, it's been a crazy couple of days. I didn't even use the computer yesterday. No time. And I have all these blog entries and no idea where to start. Let me check my notes...oh, looks like cereal today. So last weekend I finally got around to opening my box of Strawberry Tiny Toast. I didn't like it as much as the Blueberry  flavor. The berry scent and taste were more artificial, like the filling of a Nutri-Grain bar or Pop Tart. That being said, I'm still going to eat it. Last week I mixed it with Pumpkin Spice Life and there wasn't really a flavor conflict there. ****** In holiday cereal news, I picked up a box of Cinnamon Star Crunch yesterday. Saving it for next month.

Even though things are crazy again (on top of regular Thanksgiving craziness) I still need to wrap up Pumpkin Week #2 first. Two requirements: I wanted a pumpkin yogurt recipe, and I wanted it to not use too much pumpkin. And not be a parfait. Okay, that's three things. But I only had a little bit of canned pumpkin left, so I went with this recipe: Protein Packed Pumpkin Pie Yogurt . Alliteration never hurts, either. I went ahead and made granola last week--anticipating this week's busyness (and I was right)--and used it to top my yogurt. Otherwise I would've used pepitas and store-bought granola. Oh, and I used plain Greek yogurt which wasn't my original plan but turned out to be a good call. I can't imagine how thinned out regular yogurt would've been. I guess what I learned this week is that you can make just about anything taste like pumpkin pie. Including pie. And after I make one for Thanksgiving I am done with pumpkin things in 2016. Come the new ye

Continuing Pumpkin Week 2...I still had canned pumpkin left but I didn't really want to do any more baking with it. I have a few pumpkin oatmeal recipes but then I thought, well, let me see if the Internet has any pumpkin Cream of Wheat recipes. Lo and behold: Pumpkin Pie Cream of Wheat . Yes, and definitely. This was another surprisingly filling breakfast, although my nearly full bowl should have tipped me off. It's also really easy--if you find making Cream of Wheat easy--to just add the canned pumpkin while you're already stirring. Just keep stirring 'til it blends. It will. Then you add in your spices. I waited until after pouring in my bowl to add maple syrup to taste. We'll call it two drizzles. And it tasted just like pumpkin pie but with a little more texture. I'll have to remember this one the next time I have a small amount of leftover canned pumpkin. Oh, but this week isn't done yet! I had enough pumpkin left for one more recipe. Maybe I'll

Continuing Pumpkin Week #2...a few weeks back I wondered if it would be possible to put pumpkin in a biscotti. One might think, no, the canned pumpkin is too moist, you'll just end up with soggy, gummy sticks. Well, not only is Pumpkin Biscotti  a thing, these particular biscotti are so light and crisp you'll be amazed (and be tempted to grab an extra one). The secret, I think, is in the oven-drying. This is a technique I've read about but never tried before. Basically you just turn the oven off, crack the door, and let the biscotti cool completely. I didn't even know my oven door could stay cracked. But these biscotti--there's actually too words coming to the front of my brain right now. They're a beautiful golden orange color. You can almost eat them without a hot beverage (but why would you?). And for only having half a cup of canned pumpkin they are soooo pumpkin-y. I was more than pleasantly surprised. I'm not sure I really need another pumpkin bisc

I wasn't trying to do it. I thought I'd left pumpkin behind in October. But then I decided to try to find a pumpkin scone recipe, and one thing led to another, and you can't waste perfectly good canned pumpkin, so here we are. Pumpkin Week 2: Return of the Pumpkin. Starting with the aforementioned scones: Harvest Pumpkin Scones . You know, King Arthur Flour has some pretty good recipes. That may be obvious to you, but that's not where I think to look first for recipes. What can I say, I grew up on Gold Medal. But anyway, these scones. They were a little bit drier than I'm used to, almost like a traditional scone. But I guess you wouldn't want to go too far in the other direction considering how moist your baked goods can get when you add pumpkin. Speaking of adding things, I threw in some Craisins that I needed to finish off (I'll get a new bag for Thanksgiving). It was only about half a cup and I really wished I could've filled up that cup with some c

So I hadn't really felt like writing--or eating--for the past two days. But then I remembered what this blog is about: a shared love of food. I believe breakfast is the most important meal of the day, whenever you eat it. So, my Internet friends, let's get back to it. ...although actually we're talking about dessert today (but if you eat one of these cookies for breakfast I won't say anything). Last week I made these Banana-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies  for several reasons: I had a banana in the freezer; I had some semisweet chocolate chips to finish off; and I had a taste for oatmeal cookies. Going by the title, though, I guess they're supposed to be chocolate chip cookies with oats added. The banana adds flavor (obviously) and a moistness but not an overly chewy texture. This cookie leans more toward the hearty side. And it's made with just a little bit of butter. Bananas are baking magic. (I've been eating these cookies while watching The Crown . Fa

What? Three entries in a row? I guess I'm making up for last month. I might even make it four tomorrow. Or not. So I bought this cereal back in September (just to make sure I got one) and I'm just now getting around to opening it. It's another multigrain Life--as opposed to just oats--but really, it's not much of a difference. The color is a very light orange, as opposed to something weird or neon. I'm still trying to figure which other pumpkin spice product to compare this to. It's very subtle, and I think the Life itself tricks your taste buds into thinking there's nutmeg involved. In fact, there's no spices in the ingredient list, only "natural flavor." Natural what flavor? Pumpkin? Spices? So the misleading product name was disappointing but the cereal's actually not half bad. After this, though, I need to take a break from Life. Also pumpkin products.

Remember back at the beginning of year when Quaker had their Bring Your Best Bowl contest? Well, it's time to vote for the three finalists: Apple Cheddar Rosemary, Lemon Ricotta Pancake, or Vanilla Chai. While I was a little disappointed that my Tropical Sweet Potato idea didn't make the cut, I didn't really have a compelling story to boost my entry anyway. "Because I thought they'd taste good together" was not going to help much. But anyway, today I tried the Vanilla Chai. Confession: as soon as I got the notification from Quaker in my inbox I went straight to the site and voted for this flavor. Then I went out and bought the oatmeal. And it was certainly worth my vote. These flavors can't be found in their current lineup, and I love the chai spices this time of year. I still felt like something was missing, though. What could complement vanilla? I thought about it: strawberries. Next time (unless someone gets to it before I do) I'll add my own

Don't freak out: I made bran muffins. I never thought I'd eat a bran muffin, much less make some but I had bran cereal left from these cookies  and buttermilk from two other things so I figured there had to be some way to put them together. When I think of bran muffins I think dry, brown, hard as rocks, good-for-you, flavorless. While there's nothing wrong with the benefits of bran, this recipe for 2-Week Bran Muffins  quelled my other fears. Does this look like a boring bran muffin to you? (Ignore the phone shadow; it was a last-second decision to get a shot of these. :P ) The scent wafting from the oven and the texture of the first bite reminded me of corn muffins, so if you don't like that grittiness this isn't the muffin for you. But there's also plenty of moist muffin goodness thanks to the buttermilk, and the best part was my decision to use dried apricots. No way was I making a raisin bran muffin, so I diced the apricots as fine as I could and

What to do with leftover pitas? Put scrambled eggs in them? That never would have occurred to me but this BHG recipe for Eggs and Canadian Bacon in Pita Pockets  sold me on the idea. It helped that I had some Canadian bacon that needed to be eaten. And a green onion. I just had to buy the avocado. That was the one thing I wasn't sure about. Not so much the avocado for breakfast but with scrambled eggs? I couldn't imagine the flavor/texture. Honestly, it was barely even noticeable. If you like salsa on a breakfast burrito then this (soft-chunk texture?) wouldn't bother your tongue either. In fact, adding salsa would make this even tastier. All we had were some old McDonald's picante sauce packets but it worked in a pinch. ******* Cereal reviews are coming. Honest! Next week or a few days after.

Or as the box says, Real Strawberries. As opposed to strawberry-shaped, red-dyed goo? Sorry. My sarcasm's getting away from me. We're in the middle of some repair work with repairmen on a totally random schedule, apparently, so I have to make time to blog when I can. And I absolutely couldn't let the month end without a cereal review. I mean, that's the essence of this blog... So after I reviewed the Honey Bunches of Oats with Vanilla Bunches  I figured I might as well try all the regular Honey Bunches of Oats varieties, and I had a taste for strawberries. The first thing I noticed was an oddly narrow bag. Are they planning to narrow the box in the future, too? The second thing: the flakes looked a little dried out. I tried a few and they didn't have any flavor, really. But were they supposed to? Also, I don't recall many oat clusters. Or strawberries. I really need to give the box a good shake next time. I will acknowledge that this cereal served its purpo

I don't know why it's taken me 'til now to write this entry. Last week I had a taste for peanut butter cookies, but nothing fancy. Flour, sugar (preferably brown) and peanut butter. The peanut-ier the better. Oh, and not a huge amount of cookies. So I settled on this Peanut Butter Cookies  recipe from Simply Recipes. One wrench in my plans: chilling the dough for three hours. Three hours? Really? Yes, really. And even after those three hours I had to keep rinsing my hands in cold water to keep rolling firm peanut butter dough balls. But other than that, pretty simple and straightforward. I made one change, which was to bake at 350 degrees because I know cookies will burn in my oven at 375. After about eleven minutes the first batch was perfect. The second batch, not so much. The second batch always cooks faster and I forgot to keep an eye on it. They're still edible, though. Just a little brown.

So as I've said before, I'm trying to avoid pumpkin overkill while also embracing fall flavors. So I thought I'd try these Apple Cinnamon Waffles . They're supposed to be vegan but my mother has a thing about seeds. They're supposed to be hard for her to digest or something, I don't know. So I subbed a real egg. But everything else is what it was supposed to be. I also learned that I'm the chief cooked apple-eater in the house. I'll remember that from now on. Two things to note: these are the chewy kind of waffles. If you like entirely crispy waffles this isn't for you. Also, unlike some other batters this one didn't spread when I put the lid down. If you want picture-perfect waffles like in the recipe be sure to spread the batter out before closing the lid of your waffle iron. And an extra note: I put the leftover apples in my oatmeal this morning. It tasted just like the Apple Cinnamon instant oatmeal packets we ate as kids (my brother esp

It was past time for my monthly homemade granola but it took a while to get the ingredients together. Seriously, no one around here sells large-flake coconut. And I absolutely had to have large-flake coconut to make this Strawberry Coconut Granola  from Minimalist Baker. I finally found some at a better (read: larger) Target than mine. I made two ingredient swaps, though: first, I didn't want more nuts than oats so I just swapped the amounts. It helped that I had a bag of slivered almonds that was exactly one-and-a-half cups. Second, I still haven't made the commitment to coconut oil because I don't want to keep bringing specialty foods into the house when I could be moving any month now. I already have a shelf in the smaller fridge with all my stuff stored. So I just used light olive oil. Obviously that takes away from the coconut-iness (coconuttiness?) of the granola but I'm hoping after being stored for a while it'll take on more of a strawberry flavor anyway.

My local newspaper prints excerpts from Meredith magazines including one full of pumpkin recipes. I forget the name of it, but the important thing is the name of this particular recipe: Honey-Glazed Pumpkin Banana Bread . I know, there's so much going on here, right? Honey. Glazed. Pumpkin. Banana. Any one of those components would be great in any recipe but all four combined? Must make. The only reason I didn't make it right away was that it makes two loaves. And as much as I love pumpkin, I didn't need two loaves. So I had to wait for my brother to come home to give away some bread. So I've made pumpkin bread before. And banana bread, of course. Naturally I assumed this would be super-extra moist. Actually it's more like perfectly moist. And maybe mine were a little brown around the edges but I always volunteer to eat the end pieces. As for flavor, the ginger comes across really strong, like you would expect from a banana bread. It almost overshadows everythi

I've eaten this a few times but today I purposely took the time to pay attention to what I was eating. Because it looks the same the as the Raisin & Honey granola (but with added dried cranberries and almonds) I really wanted there to be a distinct difference in taste. I was surprised that it wasn't as sweet as the other flavor, especially since honey is pretty high up in the ingredient list. But it's not nearly as honey-ish. I was actually able to pick up on the cinnamon, which is nice with cranberries. The only thing about this granola is its tendency to stick and clump together--and you really don't want a giant clump to fall apart on your yogurt, trust me. Of course it could just be the warmth of my kitchen but I thought I'd mention it.

I know you're probably wondering, where's cerealfyre been all week? Well, things have been crazy around here. Am I moving, what are my working hours, should I be bringing more cereal into the house? I guess it's settled for the next week, at least, so here's a cookie I found time to squeeze in yesterday. If you like a moist and chewy cookie, then Erin's Apple Oatmeal Cookies  are for you. If you're not accustomed to oatmeal cookies having a chewier consistency, you should try these anyway. I decided to make these for two reasons: 1. I wanted a small batch of cookies (it made fourteen), and 2. I'm trying not to overdo the pumpkin-flavored foods. Mostly because I already know that's coming up next weekend. But there's a lot to like about these. Mainly the flavors. Somehow the apple comes through so strongly (maybe I had a good Gala?) even with all the spices--also great--and the honey. Actually what was surprising was the honey had more of an effe

You remember Picture Day, right? When I was in school I think it was usually around the third week of September. So I'm a little late for my blog picture day. But anyway, here's the updated posts: Cheesecake Swirl Carrot Bundt Cake (check out that swirl!) Strawberry Layer Cake  (with slightly runny icing) Slow Cooker Cinnamon Rolls  (also taken post-eating. What can I say, we were hungry) ********* Back to reviews next month!

The weather may be slow to catch on but Fall has officially started, so I thought I'd take a blog post to commemorate summer with this list of smoothies. I thought about a separate entry for each one over the last few months but it didn't make sense to me. So here we go: I started with the recipes on the backs of the frozen VIP berries that I already use when berries aren't in season: Strawberry Bananarama Smoothie , Razzle-Dazzle Smoothie , and possibly the Peach Passion Smoothie  but I can't remember. I know I've made it before, though. From PopSugar: Vegan Peaches and Cream Smoothie  (I'm not actually vegan--obviously--but if something sounds good, I'll try it), Mango Lassi  (my first lassi!) From Two Peas and Their Pod (also on my blog list): Pineapple Coconut Smoothie  (and I really did use fresh pineapple) From EatingWell: Mango Pina Colada Smoothie --I didn't feel like buying a can of coconut milk so I subbed almond-coconut milk; be aware th

Or stay-at-home cookies. Take your cookies wherever you want. You know I like to travel with homemade oatmeal cookies to keep my digestive system in working order (even if it's just psychological :P) but this time I wanted something different. Something like these Honey-Bran Cookies . I know what you're thinking: Bran? Ewwww. That's old people stuff. And honestly? I wouldn't eat a bowl of those weird little sticks, either. But in a cookie? Sure, I'll try it. The cookie base is your typical dough--you'd expect there to be chocolate chips involved. But then there's the honey and the bran cereal which change up the experience. The sweetness of the honey isn't overpowering and I like the crunch of the bran. These cookies are a little on the chewy side, too, just so you know. And I haven't had any odd episodes from that extra little kick of bran, either. But Y(bathroom)MMV.

I usually make a cake for my dad's birthday every year, and every year he usually wants carrot cake. But I thought I'd challenge myself this year and try something else from scratch. Enter Sally's Marble Cake . Now I've made a Marble Pound Cake before (Cooking Light recipe ) but that wasn't the texture I was going for this time. Also it was--surprisingly--a bit less work. This was my first time working with cake flour--I've been putting off buying it for years. I don't know why; the box doesn't even take up that much space. And it makes such a soft cake. I had no idea. I followed the sheet cake variation and overbaked mine by about five minutes (and dried out the edges) but the center was still soft. And the chocolate wasn't too rich for me. This is why I've never made a chocolate cake (and work with chocolate chips sparingly); I'm afraid I won't be able to handle it. But I used a whole baking bar of semi-sweet chocolate and my stomach

And now we conclude Pumpkin Week with this new Special K. I don't know which part is supposed to be the crunch--the rice/wheat flakes have a nice crunch, but so do the spice clusters. Ok, I'm re-reading the description. I guess it's the flakes. But it also makes it seem as if all the spices are only in the clusters. It didn't taste that way. The wording is confusing. Surprisingly, what ties it all together is the brown sugar syrup. None of the spices are overwhelming; there's no weird aftertaste. I could eat this dry. This might be my most favorite pumpkin cereal yet. ******** --I know Pumpkin Spice Life didn't make it into Pumpkin Week. I probably won't even get to it 'til October. --If you missed it last year, Pumpkin Puffins  are out. Now's your chance!

Next up for Pumpkin Week: this Pumpkin Maple Pecan Granola  from Minimalist Baker. I hadn't been to this blog in ages but I think I found it again while searching for something else breakfast-related. Then I found a post with a bunch of granola recipes, including this one. And then , after Sunday's pancakes, I realized this recipe called for exactly what I had leftover from my can of pumpkin. The only thing I subbed was the nuts. I can't really do more than a teensy bit of pecans, so I used all the almonds I had in the cupboard and a half-cup of unsweetened coconut for good measure. It adds a surprising little flavor twist when you least expect it. Not to take away from the pumpkin and maple flavors, though. Those definitely come through. If you're in the mood for a pumpkin granola, this is a good bet.

So I opened it. I had to do it. And the first thing I was struck by was the shade of orange. It's not like artificial Cheetos orange but it's a very strong orange. Then I had to make sure I could smell the "pumpkin spices." Oh, and they're regular Cheerios, not those weird extra thick ones. I think they finally stopped making those. What about the taste? It starts out as a good pumpkin pie-ish flavor but then the nutmeg and cloves hit hard in the aftertaste. But that didn't matter as I wasn't going to eat these straight out of the box again. Adding milk mellows them out. They also didn't clash with my banana slices. I would have preferred to have a smaller box but I can share the Family Size. They'll get eaten.

It's Pumpkin Week here at Cereal World. It wasn't intentional but now that I have all the pumpkin cereals and have been working with canned pumpkin it's apparently a thing. Yesterday: I had a request for buttermilk pancakes, so I obliged with these Pumpkin Pancakes . I've already made several of the variations of these buttermilk pancakes so of course I was going to get to the pumpkin eventually. I didn't include the pecans but they were delicious nonetheless. Today: So now I had leftover canned pumpkin. I knew I wanted to make granola (which I'll get to later) but I had to find something else for the other 1/3 cup. Enter Pumpkin Pie Overnight Oats . I'll admit I was skeptical as I made this last night. I was afraid the amount of cinnamon would overwhelm the oats so I cut that in half. I tried to take into account that canned pumpkin is flavorless and I also put a lot of cinnamon on hot oatmeal, but I couldn't persuade myself. You might want to add a

I never thought I'd try any flavor from Kashi's GoLean line because I'm allergic to those little soy bits. A few months ago I read about this new flavor and immediately dismissed it. GoLean? Not happening. I don't know why I was suddenly moved last week to check out the actual ingredients, but I was. And I did. And there was no soy in sight. No soy flakes. No soy grits. No soy protein isolate. Well, now I'm intrigued by all these non-traditional cereal ingredients. I tasted each bit individually--or tried; the pea crisps were really too small to taste without getting a bite of something else. But I tried the red bean "flakes" first. Dried, smashed beans for breakfast? Weird. But it was really just a small, thick flake. Then I tried the popped sorghum, which looks and tastes just like a tiny piece of popcorn. Maybe even a vanilla Crunch N' Munch. Not like a bowl of popcorn with milk poured over it. No need to worry there. And the pepitas: well, the

I wasn't planning on reviewing a cereal that had been around for a while, but then I got curious: how was this different from the Whole Grain Vanilla Bunches?  Apparently not by much because they stopped making the other one. The original Vanilla Bunches actually has plenty of vanilla flavor in the flakes and oat bunches. That was a nice touch. And while I can't say for sure, I'm guessing the only difference between this and the Whole Grain version is the inclusion of corn meal? Oh, and the rice is not a whole grain. That still doesn't explain why they stopped making the other one. The Almond and Honey flavors still have Whole Grain equivalents. Eh. Whatever. ******** Gearing up for pumpkin season. I have all the cereals except the Cheerios. It should be out by now. I'm hoping to compare flavors before I finish the Mini-Wheats, heh.

Can you handle these cinnamon chips? I don't think you're ready for these cinnamon chips. You know I love cinnamon. I also enjoy baking cookies. So when I found these Soft and Chewy Cinnamon Chip Snickerdoodles  I thought, yesssssss. Snickerdoodles are definitely not something I make on a regular basis--or a yearly basis, for that matter. But I was intrigued, mainly because these weren't your typical thick and cake-y snickerdoodles. In fact, they taste just like some store-bought cookie I've had but can't put my finger on. I want to say it reminds me of Skinny Cow Snickerdoodle ice cream sandwiches but I can't say for sure. So, yeah, these cookies are delicious. And sweet. And rich. Definitely a one-cookie-at-a-sitting kind of treat. And now this cinnamon-lover actually needs a break from cinnamon.

Apparently this has been out for a while, but I first started seeing it this month. My parents like to top their yogurt with Raisin Bran, so my first thought was, well, that's a natural progression. I'm not sure they'd like this, though. There's a lot going on besides raisins and bran flakes. In fact, I don't even remember the granola clusters. They had to be there, though, or you couldn't call it granola. Mostly it was overshadow by the puffed cereal, which reminded me of Honey Smacks and dominated my tasting experience. I will say that I liked that weren't too many raisins; they get chewy and annoying after a while. And at some point I'll try the Cranberry Almond flavor. But next I'm looking forward to making another granola.

(It's a pun if you say it aloud.) I know I don't really share dinners here anymore but this one was a standout. I never thought my parents would enjoy a pizza that didn't have pepperoni or sausage. Or tomato sauce. It all started a weeks ago when my mother mentioned in passing that she'd like to try naan sometime. I had some chicken in the freezer so I'd thought put the two together. Actually, Hidden Valley put the two together with this Chicken Ranch Naan Pizza . And the garlic naan is a must. The combination of garlic, mozzarella, and tomato? I can't even put it into words. Which is not great for a blog. But I highly recommend this if you're bored with regular pizza. ****** I know I said I wasn't ready for Fall but I may have already opened my box of Pumpkin Spice Mini-Wheats. The spices taste a little stronger than I remembered. I'm still in the process of collecting the rest so I probably won't be opening them until September.

I'm not sure why I wanted to this; I guess I'm a sucker for berry-flavored products. And it has an adorable name. Tiny Toast! Which also never fails to remind me of Tiny Toons.  Funnily enough, I forgot about the toast part of the name when I poured and saw all these little fat toasts in my bowl. It basically looks like a shrunken slice of Texas Toast, dotted with blueberry. The flavor is almost too blueberry. Like they didn't want to err on the side of cautious flavoring. But it also reminds me of blueberry muffins. I'm sure someone will figure out how to work this into a muffin batter. It also has that weird grittiness that comes with some part-corn cereals. Thanks to the intense blueberry-ness, it's not as noticeable. And another plus, the thick pieces of cereal hold up nicely in milk. So I suppose now I'll have to try the strawberry.

I wasn't going to try these--you know chocolate cereal isn't my favorite thing--but my brother was home two weeks ago to help eat this/be a new cereal guinea pig. His verdict: "Interesting." I guess that's a good reaction because he ate it several days in a row. The thing about chocolate cereals is you can't eat a whole a bunch at one sitting--so it's going to take a while to finish. So you may remember my review for the original Baked Oat Bites : to put it simply, this is the chocolate version. The cereal itself looks like it was mixed with cocoa powder to achieve its dark brown color; it also has a chocolate(-y?) drizzle. So it has a very strong chocolate flavor and would be a good candidate for chocolate-ing up your milk, if that's important to you. If I had to rank this year's chocolate cereals, though, Dark Cocoa Karma  would come out on top. ******* So I am almost done with the new summer cereals; I have just the two flavors of Tiny To

So I just got back from a mini-vacation and I think my brain is still in travel mode. You know what I did as soon as I got home yesterday? Okay, laundry, but the second thing was have a bowl of cereal. I don't get cereal when traveling due to lack of access to tolerable milks so I really had a craving. And then this morning I had a smoothie. Cravings don't last long. But now I'm rambling. The point I wanted to make was that I'm behind in my posts. And one of those topics is Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies . I made them for my brother but froze some for the trip. You know I love my travel cookies. I chose this recipe because I wanted a peanut butter cookie. Then I wanted a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie. I almost made those but then realized, you know what, this trip's coming up, I should really make oatmeal cookies. As for the recipe itself, on first bite my reaction was, I miss the raisins. Which is silly because I didn't want an oatmeal

I don't know how I got so far behind--I have subjects to write about, I just haven't done it. So here's one. Muffins. 100% Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins , to be precise. My brother asked for only one thing during his brief visit: blueberry muffins. Simple blueberry muffins, nothing fancy. I wanted to make something with buttermilk that needed to be used up. So no lemon-blueberry muffins, so no banana-blueberry, and no crumble toppings. That's how I settled on this recipe. What I didn't notice, though, is that there's no egg in this recipe. The baking powder, baking soda, and buttermilk do all the heavy lifting. So this isn't the recipe for you if you like monster crowns on your muffins. But if you want simple ingredients to showcase your fresh blueberries, these are pretty good. They're filling but don't feel like you're eating a rock, if you catch my drift. Somehow weighty but delicate. It works.

(I always forget to take a picture before cutting into food.) So it's peach season and I felt like making a pie. Conveniently, Sally  came through again with this Brown Sugar Peach Crumble Pie . A few new elements for me: an oat-less crumble, made with melted butter (which actually makes sense if you don't want butter getting down into your fruit), and peaches cut into chunks instead of slices. I went ahead and sliced first and then cut those slices into chunk. And for some reason, slicing upside-down (stem-end down) was quicker for me. No idea why. I also strained my peaches twice to get the juice out--once before adding ingredients to the filling, and then using a slotted spoon to transfer the filling to the pie crust. And the crumble was damp but bakes into a regularly-textured crumble. And it goes without saying that it's delicious. Peaches, brown sugar, and cinnamon? That's a no-brainer.

Last month I tried the Honey Crunch flavor, so now I bring you the Almond Crunch O's. Well, not literally. But anyway, what was most notable for me was the lack of almonds. At first I thought, maybe it's like Honey Nut Cheerios where the nut flavor is in the O's--but that's not the case. Then I checked the picture on the front of the box: there's supposed to be almond slices. Finally, right before started typing this I remembered that I did see a few almonds two days ago; that wasn't a review bowl so I didn't make a note of it. I'm sure the almonds are all in the bottom of the box and I'll be pouring Almond Almond Almonds on top of something else. I should also note a surprisingly strong cinnamon flavor in the oat clusters. Always a plus.

It is. So. Hot . I had to run to the store yesterday around noon--bad idea. It was like walking through an oven. Seriously. I thought to myself, now I know how my apple cinnamon quick bread felt. But enough about me. More new cereal! You know chocolate isn't my most favorite thing, but it's Kashi and I was curious. The little wheat "biscuits" were smaller than I remember, so either it's been awhile or Kashi redesigned their cereal along with their boxes. And it had to pass my sniff test. Any chocolate cereal had better smell like chocolate when you open the bag. It did. Okay, so what about taste? Of course it tastes like dark chocolate. My only issue was the texture. It felt a little bit gritty for some reason. Maybe it's unavoidable with all the wheat wrapped around the filling. It's not a dealbreaker. It's going to take me forever to eat this, though, because I really only want a hint of chocolate, not a full bowl.

Remember how I memorialized Honey Graham Life  in the very first year of this blog? It had already been gone a few years but it was still my favorite cereal of all time. Luckily Maple Brown Sugar Life came along and was a more than satisfactory replacement. I always looked forward to buying a box roughly once a year (I eat a lot of different cereals, that's how long it usually takes to come around again). But now it seems this flavor has run its course and a new Life has been introduced -- Vanilla. So which vanilla was it going to be? Vanilla frosting? Vanilla ice cream? There's an artificial vanilla your tongue is primed for after so many years of eating cereals and what-have-you. Finally I settled on "vanilla bean/Life cereal." You know how Life has always had that weird burnt oat aftertaste? That's the main reason I didn't like it as a kid. Nothing else I can think of tastes like that. And even though the box clearly states that it's "multigrain&

Sometimes I plan my purchases: what to buy, when it fits into schedule/kitchen space, where to find it. And other times I just pick stuff up on a whim. This was one of those whims. I saw the flavor first--Apple Blueberry? I'm sold. I'm pretty sure I've seen the Back to Nature brand around but I've never really paid any attention to it. And it's a pretty good granola. More flake-y/piece-y than cluster-y, but cooked longer than some granolas for a nice toasted color. Also, I know I've tasted the apple bits but I still haven't seen them. Somehow I've been otherwise occupied every time I've eaten this. So far. Now I'll have to make a point of paying attention. Oh, and I will definitely try some of their other flavors.

Earlier this year I reviewed the first Nature Valley (flake) cereals: Honey Oat Clusters  and Chocolate Oat Clusters . Now they've added Raisin Oat Clusters to the lineup. But they could've added more raisins. Isn't that my usual complaint--where's all the raisins? And then they're usually at the bottom of the box? Well, this time it really does seem like there's just not a lot of raisins going on. There's the little corn flakes and the heartier wheat flakes and just enough sweetness--even apart from the raisins. But I could've used more raisins. I guess I could always sprinkle a few raisins on there if I really needed it.

For the items I don't feel warrant their own entry: 1. Pineapple Iced Tea . I wanted a drink for a crowd for the 4th, and this one made just enough for the pineapple imbibers. I didn't use all of the juice because I needed to save some of the pineapple chunks in something , so it didn't have as much flavor as it could have. But my brother appreciated that it wasn't overly sweet. 2. Old-Fashioned Macaroni Salad . Two requirements: I needed a lot to feed that same crowd, and I wanted pickles in it, since my grandma uses pickles in hers. And, boy, did I get a lot of macaroni salad. It took three days to finish. 3. Chili-Lime Grilled Chicken . For a change of pace from all the grilled sausage and beef the day before. The marinade leaves behind a hint of lime, and the chili powder and cumin give you a little spice. 4. Roasted Fingerling Potato Salad . For when you have leftover fingerling potatoes and don't know what to do with them. The lemon-thyme dressing is s

So for the July 4th get-together (actually this past weekend) I thought I'd contribute an apple pie. It doesn't get much more patriotic than that, right? Except for Flag Cake, maybe, but I was on pie duty. Anyway, I wanted to make a deep dish apple pie to feed a large crowd and I wanted to try a new recipe. So I went through my recipes and found this Deep Dish Apple Pie  by Sara Moulton from last fall. I have another recipe that requires pre-cooking half of the apples but this is the first one I've seen that calls for cooking down all of the apples. And it's a lot of apples. I think I had nine. Another first for me was using Macintosh apples. They're big but squat and fat and described in the article as being "applesauce apples"--which means now I'm going to have to try to make applesauce. But back to the pie. As I poured the cooked apples out to drain I noticed they smelled really lemony. Like lemon cleaner lemony. So I'll admit to adding a fe

I can't do regular Frosted Flakes anymore. Haven't for years. The sugar is just...too much. So I never thought much about finding an alternative. I just moved on. And then Annie's had to go and get into the cereal racket. Well, I guess since it says "oat..." Yeah, I can justify just about anything. But as for this cereal, after I poured some I thought, is this really 'frosted?' Because it doesn't look frosted. I tried to think back to the look of Frosted Flakes and these are definitely not as frosted-looking. This is not a complaint, though; you know I don't want all that sugar. I just wonder if there's cereal-labeling rules that define what can be called 'frosted.' (I can't help it--being a writer/word-nerd I get hung up on semantics.) So if you're looking for this to look like an oat version of Frosted Flakes, don't. But taste-wise, it's pretty good. If you like whole grain flakes with just enough sweetness, you

Proof that I really do bake everything I say I bake. Finally Sally  had a scone recipe that didn't call for heavy cream, so I jumped on that. Oh, right, the name: Raspberry Almond Buttermilk Scones . And can I just plug Wegmans for a second? I bought my raspberries there and they still haven't molded yet. Hopefully I can make more glaze for those unglazed scones tomorrow. Anyway, the time-consuming part was grating that stick of frozen butter. I don't think that's something I'll be doing again without a food processor. Don't get me wrong, the end result was worth it, just...tedious. And you should know, the dough will be really sticky. Reealllly sticky. Keep your flour handy. But after all that, I'm not complaining. Just tired of telling you about all the stuff I bake but not actually showing you. So maybe I'll do it again sometime. ******* (I expect to have some actual cereal reviews soon!)

My sister stopped by last weekend so of course I had to make some granola. Since I already had the applesauce to make the carrot cake  it made sense to try this Apple Cinnamon Granola . I was worried after cooling that my granola hadn't crisped up but then I remembered how applesauce makes oatmeal cookies extra chewy. It's a similar case here. Thankfully my sister didn't care either. It certainly doesn't affect the flavor. There's some nice background spices but most importantly plenty of apple flavor. It's nice when a recipe name promises something and proceeds to deliver. But if you prefer big crunchy clusters this isn't the granola for you.

...and an unintentional Sally  two-fer. First (actually second) we have my dad's favorite, carrot cake. Of course I had to make him one for Father's Day, and I couldn't resist this Cheesecake Swirl Carrot Bundt Cake . There's not a thing wrong with any of the words in that recipe name. Let me get this out of the way first: yes, I overbaked it (out of fear of a mushy cake inside), but no, my dad hasn't stopped eating it. It's soooo moist, which helps. Also, I used raisins, and the distribution of raisins and carrot throughout the cake was perfect. And , in case you were wondering, the cheesecake layer swirls itself. I don't know how that happened, but it did. Second (but baked first), I made cookies for my hairdresser's birthday (I told you I'd bake for anyone): Magic 5 Cookies . I never thought I'd say this but these might be the best oatmeal cookies I've ever tasted. Seriously. My first bite had chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and

I've been wanting to try this for a while--it's not sold in my town so I had to go and get it at Wegmans--and today just happened to be a good day for raisin bran. Sometimes things just fall into place. You may recall a few months back I settled for adding my own raisins to the Nature's Path Multibran Flakes  but I still wanted to try the real thing. The raisins in the Raisin Bran are on the small side and there weren't that many. I don't know if that's on purpose or just an issue of raisin distribution in the package. I'll be sure to shake up the box next time. The flakes, however, are exactly the same, as I suspected: wheat and wheat bran pressed together into slightly concave flakes, lightly sweetened with cane sugar. You might like your raisin bran a little sweeter but I'm good with this.

I know, I know, I've been leaving you in suspense long enough. Yes, I finally tried a new cereal. This past weekend, in fact. I'll admit, however, that I was in a bit of rush and didn't take the time to really taste as thoroughly as I usually do. It just slipped my mind. I did give it the eye-test, though: I'd say it's a pretty even mix of the typical tiny HBO corn flakes and the new O's, which are more the size of, say, Banana Nut Cheerios (not the regular kind). I also noticed that there wasn't as much flavor as I would've liked. It was more of a showcase for the fresh raspberries I had on top--so not really a complaint, just FYI. It'll be interesting to see how much flavor the almond O's have.

I know it's been awhile; I was on vacation for a long weekend and then had to come home and catch up on laundry and restock the larder. You know, typical post-vacation stuff. You should also know that I never travel without homemade oatmeal cookies. At least I'll get some fiber during a questionable eating period. I'm not sure why but I've recently been obsessed with putting coconut in my oatmeal cookies. I must have printed out ten recipes last week. The final decision came down to these Dark Chocolate Raspberry Coconut Oatmeal Cookies  because I've been wanting to try unsweetened shredded coconut. I'll admit to making a few changes, namely, subbing dark brown sugar for the coconut sugar (because I didn't want to commit to a big bag) and canola oil for the coconut oil--I know, I know, I'm missing out on all that coconutty goodness. When I have my own kitchen I'll probably stock every sugar and oil known to man. But they were still delicious cook

It's been a few days, hasn't it? I was sick all weekend and am still working on getting better. So I thought I'd use today's entry to list some of the foods I've made recently. 1. Sally's Favorite Cornbread . Is it mine too? I don't know yet. But I will say that I made it last week to go with one dinner, and then I ate it for breakfast...and then I ate it for breakfast again. That reminds me, there's still some in the freezer. I added blueberries because, why not? Even though plain buttery cornbread is absolutely fine--especially this one, which is moist and cake-like. You'll want to eat more than you should. 2. Beef Chimichangas . I got my first issue of Eating Well and marked this page immediately. I made this while my brother was home and everybody loved them. I don't think they even noticed the mushrooms. This was also my first time having fresh salsa. Definitely worth it. 3. I made these garlic pita chips  yesterday and they got a lit

When I first saw the displays of Limoncello products at my local Giant a few weeks back my first thought was, it's back again already? I couldn't remember any of the products (food or otherwise) striking my fancy last time so I didn't bother to look closely. But the next time I just happened to walk past a basket of Limoncello oatmeal cups. Limoncello oatmeal?, I thought. That sounds gross. I need to try it. Lemon and oats just don't go together in my mind, but I'd already tried the cookies--which weren't bad--and I really wanted to review something this month. The oatmeal itself was just okay. There was no fill line (as per the instructions) so I had to measure the boiling water myself and 2/3 of a cup was really too much. So I had thin, watery oatmeal that tasted like a lemon Oreo, but less sweet. Like I said, just okay.

(And speaking of cheese, I should note that we are now a mouse-free household again. I guess after almost two weeks it was finally hungry enough to take the bait. After dragging and twitching its way to my brother he put it out of its misery. The end. I hope.) So I wanted to make one last new thing during my brother's visit. We all love cheesecake--even I can eat it in moderation. And he especially loves blueberries. So I made these Lemon Cheesecake Crescent Rolls  and added fresh blueberries to one-third of them. Probably too many, though. You don't want to overstuff them or it'll be nearly impossible to roll them up. To the rest I added Smuckers Fruit & Honey . Have you ever tried this? I highly recommend the Tropical flavor. It even has chunks of fruit in it. (I also used Triple Berry in this recipe.) This is a very forgiving recipe that you could experiment with any kind of fruit--or don't add anything; the lemon zest really comes through in the cream cheese

Seriously. You've been warned. This Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie  recipe makes a lot of cookies. I even made them slightly (or more than slightly) bigger than they were supposed to be and it still made a lot of cookies. For the last two months I've had a craving for homemade chocolate chip cookies--don't know why; you know they're not my favorite--so as soon as I planned my pumpkin bread  I started looking for a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie to finish up that can of pumpkin. My favorite feature of any pumpkin cookie (or any pumpkin baked good, come to think of it) is that moist and chewy texture. Not gummy, but soft--almost melting in your mouth. Maybe even literally, if you were to eat a hot cookie fresh from the oven. And the pumpkin and chocolate flavors totally work together, probably because of the milk chocolate chips. I think a stronger chocolate flavor might be overpowering. So if you're looking for a different spin on chocolate chip cookies: these coo

It's been a crazy week since my brother popped in for a visit. Mainly, we've been having a mouse problem. The problem being that it won't show itself. So I've had to limit what I can bring into the house (in the cereal department) to what can fit in my temporary big plastic tub. If you've been wondering about the lack of cereal reviews lately, that's why. But I haven't let it stop me from baking. I had to do something for my brother. I realized I had a can of pumpkin from last fall that I didn't want to keep 'til next fall so I made this Pumpkin Cinnamon Swirl Bread . It's super, super moist--I'm guessing from the combination of pumpkin and buttermilk. I even had a nice swirl running through most of it. The only adjustment I could've made was to take it out about five minutes sooner. Even so, it didn't taste burnt. I appreciate a forgiving recipe. Next: what to do with the rest of the pumpkin? (You know I had a plan.)

I thought I'd be more direct today. Here's the Strawberry Layer Cake  I happened upon while searching for something else. I think this was back in March. Anyway, as soon as I saw it I thought, this is it. This is the Mother's Day cake. Although presentation is not number one on my list of qualifications, it swayed me this time. And yes, I did the strawberries around the base and the fanned berry on top (I really need to start adding pictures). I subbed Greek yogurt for the cream cheese in the frosting which made it a little runny but it firmed up in the fridge. As usual, nobody cared. It was cake; it got eaten. If you're going to do the decorative (but totally edible!) strawberries, make sure you buy two containers. This way I was able to take out the best berries for the outside and the weird, mushy berries for the cake batter's puree. And I just happened to have some really dark berries, which helped with the pink color. I didn't even bother to use all t

And mama wanted sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts. She didn't say together in one dish but I figured someone must have put those two together. I went with these Maple Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Sweet Potatoes  even though we had pancakes for breakfast. We won't be having maple syrup again anytime soon. A quick note on this recipe: my oven is super super hot so I roasted at 425 degrees. Even then I almost obliterated those sprouts. Always fix more sprouts than you think you need. As for the pancakes? I'm slowly working my way through the Whole-Grain Buttermilk Pancakes  variations from Eating Well. This time I made blueberry and set aside some berry-less batter for my mom. She went back for seconds and actually ate one with blueberries. And then I set aside some time yesterday for the cake. I should've really cleared my day but it couldn't work out that way. But I'll get to that in my next entry.

So while visiting my grandma a few weeks back I made sure to take a quick trip to Kroger, the exclusive seller of this Cranberry, Maple & Wild Rice flavor. Why the exclusivity? And why just Kroger? Who knows? The idea of wild rice in granola piqued my curiosity, however, so I was either going to pick some up while visiting my grandma or my brother, whichever came first. Also, $4.99? Seriously? Yeah, this is a one-time deal. Now to the particulars: it has a pleasant maple flavor (not too sweet/syrupy), very small cranberries (but not those weird "bits" you get in cereal sometimes), and of course, wild rice. I still don't get how the dry wild rice is made edible--it just looks like uncooked rice mixed into granola--but it works. It adds a nice crunch but otherwise doesn't stand out and doesn't feel or taste weird in your mouth. I'd like to know how to add that to my own granola.

I purposely bought this to eat while traveling--not too heavy, not too messy. But I was rushing that morning and didn't give it a second stir--that was a key step. As a result the flavor was a bit "off" at first; I had a few peaches but mostly oatmeal and I couldn't put my finger on any particular flavor. By the time I was closer to the bottom I realized, oh, that's where all the flavor is. So don't forget to stir right before you eat. I made this, put it in a paper bag and shoved the whole thing down in a cupholder until we were settled and on the highway--no more turns and fewer traffic lights (and no, I was not the driver). In that time, five to ten minutes, that oatmeal cup stayed hot . So hot I still had to blow on it. That was impressive. But now I really hope we're back to warm weather soon. I'm ready to put the oatmeal away for the season.

I almost missed out on the March/April issue of Savory , so it was well after St. Patrick's Day when I saw this recipe for Soda Bread with Almonds and Raisins . I'd never had soda bread before but the instructions sounded easy enough and I'm always up for an ingredient list that includes almonds and raisins. Also I just happened to have a fresh box of baking soda. That day I was reminded why I need a stand mixer. Sticky dough went everywhere, including up in the hand mixer and around my mixer blades. It was not easy cleaning in those little holes. But the dough came together, and quicker than I realized. I couldn't really get the almonds and raisins incorporated; I might've been better off stirring by hand. The next morning I made the suggested accompaniment, Rhubarb and Strawberry Compote . While it's not necessary, it was delicious and I may have eaten it almost every day that week. Even in yogurt. I should add that I used frozen rhubarb; since I wasn'

When I first opened the box the scent caught me--like a really intense blueberry muffin. The flavor, though, is not that sort of overwhelming at all. Basically, take my Cranberry review  and substitute dried, sticky blueberry bits and a vanilla drizzle. And I should have mentioned this aspect before: don't let this cereal languish in your cupboard/pantry/on top of your fridge (you know who you are) for too long because it gets really, really sticky. Some of you may like that fruit-snack chewiness; I am not one of those people.

So many words in that title. Anyway, this is one of those granola with a toastier honey flavor but I suppose that's more to do with the baking of the oats than the type of honey. It gives the sweetness more of a Honey Smacks-esque flavor. The chia seeds are noticeable in the granola clusters--not too many, not too sparse. What I particularly like here is the way the almonds are sliced. That might seem odd but it looks like I could've sliced whole almonds myself, so, a more authentic almond? What I'm trying to say here is this is about as close to homemade in appearance as you're going to get.

So I had no idea this existed. I just happened to be at Walmart buying bananas and cheese (as you do) when I saw this in a big main-aisle display with some other Cheerios. I actually said out loud , "Strawberry Cheerios?" Because, you know, it's been a few years since they stopped making Strawberry Yogurt Burst Cheerios. I guess someone at General Mills thought that flavor profile was lacking? Anyway, this is much better, in my opinion. It looks like a pink-tinted Honey Nut Cheerios but not a weird artificial pink. It's a shade you'd expect from mixing oats with strawberry puree. And they're not too sweet either. It's just enough flavor to not taste weird when eaten with sliced banana, as I did. Oh, and I also mixed it with Kashi's Heart to Heart Honey Toasted Oats  just in case I didn't like it; on the back of this box it said this cereal had a new, crispier texture. This turned out to be true. It used to be more dry and gritty; now it's

For my family waffles have become a special-occasion food: birthdays, Mother's/Father's Day, and of course, Xmas morning. But why can't we have waffles on any random Sunday? So we did. And not just any waffles. Banana Bread Waffles . I love foods that combine two other foods--especially two breakfast foods. And these waffles...let's start with the visual (I know, I know, pictures would help here). I was so taken with the color and I have no idea why; they just struck me as the most beautiful toasty brown. You know how most waffles are 'golden?' These were a few steps down from that. I don't know if it was the bananas or the almondmilk but...they were almost too pretty to eat. Almost. Taste is almost beside the point but you can't sit and look at waffles all day. You shouldn't, anyway. Of course they tasted like banana bread, and I had a few chunks of banana that could've been a bit more mashed but nobody noticed. Or if they did, nobody complain

I'll bet you were thinking I didn't make anything other than oatmeal cookies anymore...well, how about a cookie with raisins? These Soft Molasses Raisin Cookies  from King Arthur Flour satisfied my desire for raisins and molasses. I know that sounds obvious but at the time I was going through my cookie recipes I didn't know what I had a taste for--anything but chocolate (I'm getting to that next month). You know what your typical molasses/ginger cookie looks and tastes like, right? Kind of chewy, not quite a ginger snap? Well, this is not that. Imagine a chocolate chip cookie. Now add molasses. Okay, now remove the chocolate chips and replace them with raisins. That's this cookie. They're so soft and pillowy. It may not seem right but your taste buds will set you straight. Try it!

I don't know why I bought this when I did, except it was on sale (of course). I'm slowly working my way through the full Barbara's line--yes, there's more than Puffins--and I liked the look of Morning Oat Crunch. It reminded me of Oatmeal Squares. I probably should've started with the Original flavor but, you know, cinnamon . So, taste- and texture-wise, it basically is the Barbara's version of Oatmeal Squares but less dense. Airier. Crispier. And loaded with cinnamon. Seriously, it was way more than I anticipated. Now I want to try the other flavors but I think it'll take some searching to find anything other than Original and Cinnamon around here.

It wasn't my intention to try this but last month I had one of those occasions where I couldn't find a product I was looking for at Wegmans so I figured I might as well get some cereal. I mean, I didn't come all that way for nothing. And I think I was vaguely aware that Wegmans had their own brand of cereals. I picked this particular one because it reminded me of Honey Bunches of Oats. The box says "multigrain flakes" but I think there's corn flakes mixed in there, too. And of course, big oat-y bunches. And lots of almonds. Seriously. Soooo many almonds. I hope you like almonds, otherwise this is not the cereal for you.

In a word, disappointing. Don't get me wrong, there's nice-sized freeze-dried apple pieces in there and overall it has a good flavor, but the front of the box doesn't mention these little soy twig-like bits in the mix and I honestly didn't notice them in the picture, either. And it's a large picture. I knew I'd have a reaction to those things and I was right. They just fuzz my throat up. So I'm trying to be more nutrition label-conscious so that doesn't happen again. Luckily my sister (a) doesn't share my soy allergy and (b) also enjoys Special K so I passed that box on to her.

So my mother requested mini-tarts (tartlets?) for Easter and I tried to oblige. Unfortunately the best recipes all called for lemon curd, which I love but she does not. So I thought mini pies would be a good compromise: everyone likes pie and it wouldn't be as much work as a full-sized pie. I chose these Muffin Tin Fruit Pies  mostly because I could use refrigerated pie crust and I could cut the recipe in half. I didn't really need twelve pies. I made the apple filling but was a little short because half of one my apples didn't look so hot once I cut it open. (Note to self: always keep an extra apple on hand.) I think if they had been overloaded with filling they might have gotten more of a "wow" response. I liked them, though. The size and shape lends itself perfectly to a scoop of ice cream on top. And anything made in a muffin tin is adorable. This is why cupcakes exist. Speaking of which...I still need to try my hand at homemade cupcakes. Maybe Mother's D

A few months ago I figured out that I should always have granola in the house when my sister comes to visit. One, because I can't eat all of that granola (although I could freeze it); and two, because she also loves homemade granola. So I decided to try this Cranberry Orange Granola . Why this one? The flavors, of course. Although I must say the flavors of maple and cinnamon are what come through the strongest. I'm glad no one was around during my taste-testing; I was really sucking on a granola cluster till I picked up on the orange flavor. So it is there. And it was fun making the orange sugar. I would like to try that technique in some kind of dessert.

Cinnamon rolls have been on my "to-try" list for years and aside from a Fleischman's Bread Mix recipe--still not quite the real thing--I haven't wanted to make the time commitment. What with the rising and kneading and rising again plus the bake time--it just didn't seem feasible. Until I found this recipe for Easy Slow Cooker Cinnamon Rolls  (of course it's from Sally's Baking Addiction). I could do all the prep Saturday and have the slow cooker do the rest Sunday morning. So that's what I did. Ok, more details. I was skeptical of baking in my Crock Pot; I know plenty of baking recipes exist--I even have some others--but how does it actually work? It just seems like it shouldn't. But after two hours on HIGH the sides and bottom were golden brown. I did follow the suggestion of transferring to the oven to brown the tops; this way I was also able to reheat these  Amazing Muffin Cups at the same time. I was really proud of myself for all my f