Living in a Cereal World

I wanted to try this because I noted the hexagonal shape was similar to Crispix. In actuality, that's about all they have in common. You know how Crispix is "rice on one side, corn on the other?" Well, Multigrain Spoonfuls have wheat, corn, and oats all mixed together on both sides. And there's no air in the middle; it's more like a flat, hexagonal Life. So to stop comparing and judge it on its own merits, it's actually pretty good. Still, the best way to explain the flavor is like original Life without the big sugar crystals. All in all, I was pleasantly surprised.

In that I overdid it for Easter. But, you know, it's Easter. And I'm not even getting to that today. I still have three things from last week. First, these Banana Oatmeal Cookies . I'm always looking for a new spin on oatmeal cookies to send my brother for Easter or whatever occasion and I had a banana in the freezer. Ta-da. I already had this recipe printed out from quite a while ago so that just happened to work out. The ingredients to these aren't that different from Quaker's classic Vanishing Oatmeal Cookies. Just add banana and nutmeg, basically. I cut a little bit of the white sugar--maybe 1/4 cup?--which gave the nutmeg more of a punch. But I like all those spices in my cookies. If you'd rather have yours sweeter, by all means use the full amount of sugar. (Maybe by the end of the week I'll get to yesterday's goodness.)

So, to the third and final Nature Valley cereal. This is another flake-based cereal, with the same wheat and corn flakes as Honey Oat Clusters . The difference here is, obviously, the flavor. There's little squares of chocolate that look like teensy broken-off pieces of a Hershey bar as well as even smaller bits of chocolate in the oat clusters. So you get your chocolate's worth. Unless you want bigger pieces of chocolate. But, really, you already get so much chocolatey flavor. Even the flakes taste of it and that's just from being in the same bag--otherwise, they'd be plain. Speaking of bags, though, these just haven't wanted to open. Maybe I'm just rushing because I'm hungry/not a morning person but I could have used an easier bag. Just saying.

Actually more than okay: they might be my new favorite scones. These Morning Glory Scones  have everything you love about carrot cake--carrots, coconut, raisins, nuts--but for a less-guilty breakfast treat (don't act like you've never had cake for breakfast). But these scones. They're easy to make, just a little butter to cut in (or use your fingers) and a little bit of kneading. The only tricky part was working with the sticky dough. Just make sure your hands and work surface are well floured. Also. they may look awfully small but they bake up big. And mine were very brown; they probably could've come out sooner than eighteen minutes. I didn't make the glaze because I just wasn't in the mood-- that probably would've cemented them as my favorite scone (so far).

I've walked past the boxes plenty of times in the cereal aisle before I finally had an opening for them and I noticed how they kind of looked like Cracklin' Oat Bran. You know, thick square cereal, hole in the middle? So upon opening the box my initial thought was confirmed. It basically looks like Cracklin' Oat Bran but lighter and with a drizzle. And maybe smaller. I've never actually had Cracklin' Oat Bran but I watched my grandmother eat some a few years ago; they might have been even thicker and bigger. I just know it took her a while to eat but that might have denture-related. Anyway, this cereal. Baked Oat Bites. It's hard to explain the texture. It's not crispy; it's not hard as a rock. It reminds me of those Girl Scout oatmeal cookies. Same texture and flavor (minus the raisins). Or to keep it in the cereal family, a really compressed Mini-Wheat. And they totally fell apart in milk, which was really weird. I didn't mind it but just a head

Sometimes some products just call out to you from the cereal aisle: "Try meeee...try meeee." Or maybe that's just me. So I finally caved and picked up a box of this granola. It's the same lightly toasted, very crumbly granola base as their Coconut Chia Granola  but with two key differences: flax seeds embedded in the granola instead of chia seeds; and pumpkin seeds mixed in instead of coconut. So there's really no other flavor besides "generically lightly sweetened." It also could've used more pumpkin seeds. I suppose they could all be at the bottom of the box.

I wanted to title this entry "Gahhhh..." because that's how you'll feel as you inhale the compote, after the first flip of the brioche, and when all is said and done and you're full of French Toast with Warm Peach Compote . I'm not sure how I found this recipe--I'm guessing a breakfast and/or French toast slideshow--but it's been tucked away for about four years and it was past time to try it. I had my doubts about the eggy batter and the amount of time the bread sits and soaks it up but just do as the recipe says. No shortcuts. Don't cook it too high. You'll be rewarded with golden crispy slices (or chunks if, like me, you can't cut evenly) of not too sweet toast. This is a good thing. The flavor's in the compote. Not just the sweetness of brown sugar but the zip of cinnamon and nutmeg. And the, um, peachiness of peaches. I piled so many peaches on mine that I could only eat one slice. And this morning I reheated the leftover com

It's still cold over here, although this could be the last week. So these are still prime oatmeal mornings. I had to try SuperGrains while I was still in the mood. What exactly are the grains in this meal? Oats, barley, rye, quinoa and flax. The only one I wasn't sure about was the rye. I've never acquired a taste for rye bread. But, really, this just tastes like a chewier, heartier oatmeal. I think I noticed the flax seed and bigger pieces of oat than regular instant oatmeal. All these grains make it plenty filling, too. I also liked the big slivers of dried apple and the stronger cinnamon flavor (you know I love my cinnamon). Basically it's the grown up version of the apple cinnamon instant oatmeal you used to eat as a kid. And that was my least favorite flavor. When we had the variety pack I would always give my brother the apple cinnamon packets. This is much much better.

Finally a cereal review. So I just noticed while double-checking the name that these aren't Frosted Mini-Wheats. I mean, of course they aren't, they have a yogurt drizzle instead of a sugar coating but I just noticed the correct name. Anyway, when I opened the bag I did a sniff test first--it smelled like sugared cranberries. Then the eye test. Most of the pieces had a crisscrossed drizzle but some were more random. Unlike the Touch of Fruit filled variety, these had little bits of cranberry baked/wrapped right into the wheat. They're also not as sweet as Frosted Mini-Wheats. They could almost compete with the Kashi version were it not for that drizzle. But I applaud Kellogg's for trying something different.