Living in a Cereal World

I know it's a week late but I still wanted to squeeze this in before the new year. 😁 Two new cookies this year:  Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll  from Minimalist Baker (which I didn't glaze because I thought they were sweet enough even though  that takes away from their cinnamon roll-ness) and  Easy Jam Thumbprints  from Delish. I can't believe I'd never made a thumbprint cookie before. Mine are filled with raspberry fruit spread and peach-apricot jam. The other ones are your basic Pillsbury sugar cookie dough, which was a last-minute swap. Otherwise I could've attempted one of the (too many!) sugar cookie recipes I have. So after making and freezing a cookie every Sunday I still made two pies on Christmas Eve. First, this  Pumpkin Pie  that I also made last year because it really is that good, and second, this: Brown Sugar Peach Crumble Pie  from Sally's Baking Addiction. I went one pie plate size too high for both pies but that didn't affect baking or t

When you were a kid, did you ever wish you could pour yourself a bowl of Crunch N Munch with milk for breakfast? Well, you're in luck, because now you can. And I mean that in a good way. (By the way, what's with the apostrophe placement? I would've put it after  the N. Or maybe on both sides.) Anyway, this cereal. Of course any Cheerios variety that starts with MultiGrain Cheerios as the base is already plus one in my grade book. But then you add the honey flavor and use it to plaster individual oats to each O and give it a satisfying crunch? Come on. That's not right. I mean it is  right, but how dare you sneak in here with my new favorite cereal of 2019, General Mills? 😄 I don't remember what I said about the original cinnamon flavor (just checked: wasn't overwhelmed or underwhelmed, more just...whelmed) but this? This is a must try. 👍 ***** Hope you're enjoying your respective holidays!

Yeah, it's been a week, but you know I always share what I make for Thanksgiving (and may have finished Wednesday 😁). I had every intention of making this  Apple Cheddar Pie  correctly but I knew I was going to run out of time to make the pie crust. So it's a apple pie with a teensy bit of cheddar inside. 😜 (Please excuse the phone shadows; I didn't have time to set this up better!) Second dessert, not the same as the first. I made my belated birthday cake this year's other offering:  Pumpkin Cream Cheese Coffee Cake . It's dessert, it's breakfast, it's the best . Oh, and I swapped out the pecan topping for this  Oat Streusel . It was the perfect amount for this springform pan size.

Adult-tested; brother-approved. 👍 Next in my ongoing series "Cascadian Farm cereals I haven't gotten around to trying yet" is Berry Vanilla Puffs. I thought I'd try them while my brother was home since they reminded me of Berry Berry Kix (a cereal he used to love). In this particular bag the puffs seemed a little dry and not quite puffy enough; also they were smaller than I expected. They had a nice vanilla flavor but I couldn't pick up on any "berry." I happened to read the ingredients label right before typing this up and guess what? There's no berry. None. There's "natural flavor" but what's that supposed to mean? I guess "Berry-Colored Vanilla Puffs" doesn't have quite the same ring to it. My brother enjoyed it, though. He doesn't eat cereal much anymore so that's saying something. 😁

This wasn't what I intended to pick up, but you know how it is at Wegmans. It was at eye-level, it had cranberries, I wanted to review something  this week. 😁 So here we are, Cranberries & Almonds. The name is misleading, by the way--there's a lot more to it than that. So much so that I felt I need to test each element separately. Bran flakes: Thin, crisp. A simple bran flake that blends well with other ingredients. Corn flakes: same as the bran flakes, but made of corn. Honey-sweetened corn flakes: why two different corn flakes? I don't know, but I wouldn't turn down honey. Dried cranberries: plump, chewy. Not overly dry and tough like in some cereals. Probably my favorite part of the cereal. 👍 Oat clusters: simple, crunchy. Not difficult to bite. Almonds: I forgot to single out one of these, but, you know, it's a plain sliced almond. No surprises. Is this meant to compete with  Great Grains Cranberry Almond Crunch ? If so, it might actually be

(If you're looking for the previous two, you can find them  here  and  here. ) (Also, how did I miss 2018?) So I'm a month late with this entry. What can I say, it was hot, I kept making smoothies. To the best of my knowledge, these are the smoothies I had in 2019: Cinnamon Roll  -- because you shouldn't eat cinnamon rolls all  the time. 😜 Peach Pie -- again, treats for breakfast! Double-Berry Banana  -- although I think mine was single-berry, as I didn't have raspberry yogurt that day Pumpkin Pie  -- I have several pumpkin pie smoothie recipes but the picture looked familiar so I guess it was this one 😁 Raspberry Cheesecake Smoothie -- this is the only one I couldn't find. I know there was cottage cheese involved (which I'd never heard of before) but nothing in my searching rang a bell Pina Colada  -- this one's another guess. There's so many pina colada smoothies out there... Strawberry-Almond Butter  -- you know, the first time I had alm

Hey, a two-week turnaround, that's not bad: 1. Find out about new cereal. 2. Find new cereal in store and purchase right away. 3. Try new cereal. 4. Write review. 5. Share review. I'll be honest, the longer I sat on this review, the more this cereal grew on me. I figured I'd like it anyway, because, you know, coconut , but going out of my way to recommend it IRL? That's not as frequent as you might think. Let's get to the good stuff: sniff test first--like ordinary regular Cheerios. Did I want a stronger coconut scent? I hope this doesn't taste like regular Cheerios. Oh, it is  just oats, no other grains? Good job, sniffer. Eye test--they look like regular Cheerios, too, maybe just a little dusty. Not  like Frosted Cheerios. Taste test--this tastes like Honey Nut Cheerios. Where's the coconut? It's just a generic sweetness--oh, there's  the coconut on the back end. It's very subtle. Seriously, though, if you like Honey Nut Cheerios and

AKA the OG Honey Bunches of Oats. Would you believe after all these reviews, I've never gotten around to this one? Could you also believe I've never tried this flavor? True, I tried the  granola  many years ago, but not the cereal. Considering all the flavors of Honey Bunches of Oats that have come and gone, Honey Roasted is the constant. The known quantity. Why didn't I try this one first? Ok, so after all that hype I suppose you want to know what I thought of it. First off, the flakes in the freshly opened box were surprisingly sturdy. You know I've often pointed out the scraggly scraps of flakes in various Honey Bunches of Oats. To be fair, they're not called Honey Bunches of Flakes. But these had a nice crispness to them. Where they really stepped up--beyond my expectations, actually--was the size of the bunches. If you're sampling the original Honey Bunches of Oats, you want to know what's so great about the bunches. What's kept them in produ

Apple-ade isn't a thing, so what was I to do? I'm a problem solver and I enjoy a challenge, so of course I'd figure something out. Right away I thought of this  Crockpot Applesauce  recipe that I printed, literally, that morning. I'd never made applesauce before and this seemed pretty hands-off, so I was willing to give it a try. If you're willing to chop up apples and blend the finished product in batches, it's really not complicated. I even left the peel on, which I never do for pies and such. But everything cooks down and is totally edible. The best part? It tastes like apple pie. Exactly  like apple pie but without any crust or butter.👍 We ate it for dinner the first night and I used the rest in yogurt. This is definitely a make-again. So that was the Galas. But then I still had the golden delicious. I had a taste for waffles so I went with this  Apple Cinnamon Waffles  recipe from Minimalist Baker. I think I already had a copy of this recipe but never

As peach season was winding down I thought this should finally be the summer I try my hand at peach pie. Not any of the  peach-berry   combos  I've made over the years. Not my mom's favorite  Peach-Mango . Just peaches. Peaches and pie crust. Not even a crumble to disguise any faults. So I made this  Peach Pie  from Eating Well. And okay, I didn't make the pie crust from scratch. Next time. Still, who could turn down a pie that looks like this? I could have used one more peach, but no matter. We ate it. And two weeks later, because I wasn't quite ready to let go of the peaches, I made these  Peach Pie Oatmeal Cookies . And then forgot to take a picture. You know how it is after a trip, trying to get back into your daily rhythms--then I add baking to my tasks for the day. So these cookies: again, I could've used more peach chunks, or at least cut them smaller, but when you get a bite of everything it really does taste like peach pie.👍

Here's another Cascadian Farm cereal I overlooked until the box redesign. We'll keep this quick because raisin brans are pretty straightforward. I swear there's two different flakes in here. Supposedly it's just your classic wheat bran flakes but some of these flakes look like they have pressed oats in them...and some don't. These "oat-ier" flakes have more of a gray tinge than brown (cue the "cardboard" jokes). But other than that there's not really anything remarkable here. The raisins seem smaller than the usual. Could be a certain variety. There's no extra sweetness; like I said, it's a basic raisin bran. But if organic raisin bran is important to you, here's an option.

I like how they call it "limited batch" as opposed to "limited edition," as if bears were actually in the kitchen cranking this out. I had just about given up on finding this anywhere when I happened to walk past a display at a Giant in VA. Set it up in front of the self-checkout? Of course I'll see it. 😉 But it was worth the wait/search. Seriously, it's so  good. I don't usually rave about store-bought granola but I have to this time because I marvel at the ability of food scientists to put just the right flavors together. It's blueberry. It's lemon. And oh, is it cheesecake 😋. And my taste buds picked it up in exactly that order. You know that candy in Willy Wonka that tasted just like a complete dinner? (That's the one that turned Violet violet, right? It's been a while since I've seen that.) Anyway, it was like that experience. I don't know how they duplicated the cheesecake flavor but that just takes it over the top. I wo

It seems like a lot of blogs have been getting their Zucchini Weeks in lately. I didn't mean  to; I just had a taste for zucchini. It started with these  Zucchini Cookies with Chocolate Chips  from Well Plated that I've made before and wanted to make again. You can only make oatmeal raisin cookies but so many times, right? You should know, though, that the texture isn't for everybody. Even with most of the liquid squeezed out of the zucchini shreds they're still going to be soft and almost... fluffy. I love them. I store them in the fridge and then reheat in the microwave. Chocolate gooey goodness. Then I made this  Cinnamon Sugar Zucchini Coffee Cake  from Pinch of Yum. I was trying to finish up some buttermilk and I wondered, hmm, is there a zucchini coffee cake that calls for buttermilk?  There's almost always a recipe out there for whatever criteria I come up with. Thanks Google 😉. I did cut back on the brown sugar but it wasn't noticeable. Finally I ma

Well, after a planned trip followed immediately by an emergency trip I'm finally trying to get back into my routine. I also finally found this new flavor of Special K. I had to buy the value size at Walmart but it was worth it, I think. It had just a hint of a raspberry scent, and the same goes for the flavor. Maybe after  Blueberry Cheerios  I was expecting something more intense? But if you're a regular consumer of Special K--especially Red Berries--then you'll know how this fits perfectly in the Special K family. A little bit of sweetness in the wheat/rice flakes and a good ratio of freeze-dried berries to flakes. I still feel like it's lacking in the fruit flavor department. No matter; that can be rectified with my own additional of fresh berries.

Somehow I missed the clusters in the name. In case you hadn't heard, Kashi dropped the "Lean" from their GoLean cereals and added new verbs to each variety. This one says GOSpark, because nothing sparks your day like maple and brown sugar? Or maybe the flakes, the first in the GO line. I'd been avoiding these cereals due to the various soy iterations in the ingredients, but this one just has a multigrain flake and oat clusters. They both have a pleasing maple flavor but I wasn't crazy about the flakes. They're a bit on the dry side. There was one nice surprise, though. As I was finishing up I noticed something small and green floating in my milk. Is that...a pepita? Yep, there's actually pumpkin seeds in the oat clusters. I've been layering this with Raisin Bran just to give both an added dimension. Not bad. bonus mini-review: (new?) Fruity Lucky Charms If you're a regular reader of this blog then you know this isn't something I

Okay, so it was new two months ago when I bought it to hold to for my brother. Now that he's back, he's wrecking it. I figured I'd better get a taste before he polished off the box. Why not just buy my own? Well... Let's just review: first, the sniff test. Whoa. That is robust . Seriously. There's no doubt what that flavor's supposed to be. I feel like the blueberry scent neutralized my taste buds--that's how overpowering it was to me. And the weirdest thing is, I love blueberries! I just made these  Blueberry Pie Bars for the Fourth and I'm about to make this  Blueberry Bread this weekend. But this Blueberry Cheerios was just too much for me. I prefer the flavor variety of Very Berry Cheerios. I know; I surprised myself.😕

You can't go wrong with almonds...except when you don't have enough. As soon as I tore open the bag I was struck by "vanilla." It made its presence known. I also picked up notes of cinnamon which made the vanilla more complex and appealing. The taste was vanilla in everything. Not a complaint. Like I said above my main issue was the lack of almonds. Maybe they're further down in the bag, but not so much that first morning. Now prepare to have your mind blown (I assume you're reading this sitting down). There's no actual vanilla in this cereal. WHAT. I went to the website to make sure I had the name correct and the presence of cinnamon (yep--score one for my taste buds) but as I read the ingredients list--wheat, sugar, molasses, yeah yeah yeah--no vanilla. Oh, wait. "Natural Flavor." That has to be it. There's no way you could make a cereal this intensely vanilla without some vanilla bean or extract or something. Phew. I'm not cr

I just typed a mouthful. Really, that's a lot of name to squeeze into an attractive font on a cereal box. So what exactly is this cereal comprised of? Corn, sorghum, chickpea, sweet potato. It's all mixed together and pressed into little puffy squares--like a puffy Golden Grahams, but in two colors. I did not pick up a scent upon opening the bag and when tasting, my tongue went to texture first, not flavor. You know how I've brought up  puffy ,  gritty   cereals before? Well, this is the rare puffy cereal that does not have a weird gritty aftertaste/feel. So it didn't need the masking of too much honey and vanilla. On the other hand, I could've used more honey and vanilla. I swore when I was eating it that I was mainly tasting cinnamon--but there's no cinnamon in this, so I guess it's the combination of molasses and sugar. If it were an option from the emoji box, I'd give this a sideways thumb.

There's only two things in the world that my dad loves more than anything (besides his wife and kids, I'm guessing 😉): carrot cake and quiche. And I was determined to come through this year. We don't eat his favorite quiche anymore because it's too rich for the rest of us, but every now and then I'll come across something else to try. Case in point: this  Broccoli, Ham & Cheese Quiche from EatingWell. You've got your veggies, meat, cheese, potatoes...that's a meal right there. I even threw in some diced orange pepper I needed to use. Check out that hash brown crust 😍: It was pretty simple as far as quiches go.  As for the carrot cake, this year I went with a healthier spin:  One Bowl Carrot Cake Banana Bread . Although I ended up using three bowls. That's how I bowl. 😜  I also forgot to take a picture. I need to get back in the habit now. Just imagine the one from the website without the crumbled nuts on top. And I guess I should ment

If Goldilocks was critiquing peanut butter cereals, she'd say this one's juuuust right . You know, I don't think I've had a peanut butter cereal since Peanut Butter Multi-Grain Cheerios (oh, wait, here's  one I don't even remember!) because everything's always peanut butter and chocolate. Don't get me wrong, I love Reese's Peanut Butter Cups but that's where it ends. Candy. Not cereal. So as soon as I found out about Peanut Butter Chex last month I started looking for it (and found it at Target last week). I find the success of a peanut butter cereal depends on the grains involved--in the aforementioned Cheerios the different grains added varying levels of sweetness, but in a pleasant way. This Peanut Butter Chex is made of corn, which for some reason makes the peanut butter flavor linger after a bite--but not in a gross aftertaste kind of way. It's more peanut butter-y than sugary-sweet, and that's what I'm looking for in a pea

So I thought this overdue entry was going to be about Honey Bunches of Oats with Strawberries but it turns out I've already  reviewed it.  Twice . Oops. Was it that unmemorable? I know for sure I haven't had it since 2016. Now I know the only flavor I have left to review is the original. You'd think I would've done that one first. I'll keep that in mind in the next month or two. Now what else is there to mention? I wanted to blog at least once this week. Oh, I have the new flavor of Raisin Bran Crunch (Vanilla Almond), so that'll be my next review. I also spotted Chocolate Peanut Butter Pops--as in Corn Pops--and Birthday Cake Froot Loops, if you're into that sort of thing. Also, I made a strata for the first time yesterday. Now I know that's not off limits, as long as it's made with milk. Ok, that's it. An actual review is forthcoming. 😁

And here's another Cascadian Farm product that I never noticed until they redesigned the boxes. I was just looking for another cereal-mix option besides my usual Life or Oatmeal Squares. It was on sale that week, it was square, so I thought, hey, I'll give it a shot. The grains that make it "multi" are wheat, corn and rice, and the combination gives it a crispness like Chex. Actually, just looking at it you'd think, "flat Chex." It's not very sweet, which makes it perfect for mixing with other cereals that may have a stronger flavor profile. *bonus* mini-review: Nilla Banana Pudding My general rule of thumb is, if it's in the house, I'm tasting it. Generally . I know I've missed a few Frosted Flakes because I just don't remember to try it. But I saw that someone had purchased this Nilla cereal--which I wasn't interested in--so I figured it wouldn't hurt to taste it. The inside of the bag smelled like banana Runts (

You know I had to bring the strawberries for Mother's Day. And I just happened to find rhubarb at Wegmans. So I made this  Strawberry-Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake . Check it out: I have no idea why the photo worked this time, but yay me. And I didn't lose a single strawberry upon flipping. Annnnd this was my first olive oil cake. It's super, super moist and doesn't taste of olive oil at all. Just add a little whipped cream and you're good to go. 👍

Maybe one adventure. Or one and a half. Anyway, it all started back in February when I bought one too many acorn squash. I baked one half for a yogurt bowl (which was delicious and I really should go back and find/link to it) but didn't know what to do with the other half. Then, for some reason, I thought I'll just puree it and figure it out later . I should point out here that I've never pureed a squash before; I just figured I could do it. And thanks to this  handy blog post I was able to do so. Not gonna lie, it's kind of tedious. You have to have the time to do it and also want to do it. And yes, if like me, you only have a blender, this process still works. I did add a little bit of water just to be on the safe side--it would be strained out later anyway. How do I know I successfully pureed? Because yesterday I thawed it and made this  Roasted Acorn Squash Bread . Do not be deceived. It may look small but it's filling --I'm guessing from all of

I didn't think I was going to be able to try this. It was supposed to come out last month for National Cereal Day and I never saw it anywhere so I figured it was just going to be a "big city" release. But then a few days ago I happened to be walking down the main aisle of Walmart's grocery section and what do I see at the end of the cereal aisle. Dude, no way.😲  Both flavors, this one and Chicken and Waffles. So if you also couldn't find it, now's your chance. So I wasn't sure how I would feel about savory flavors in my cereal, but it helps that there's no actual meat involved. Picture crumbling bacon over your Maple Cheerios. I...cannot. First glance at the cereal: there's the typical corn flakes and some fat, puffy O's. Where's the oat bunches? I must not have poured any in my small sample. I tasted a flake first and got a hint of maple. Ok, going in for the "donuts." I don't know how they did it (chemistry!) but yes, tha

So to speak. 😉 So how was your weekend? I decided to switch things up and make one of my go-to pies for Easter:  Peach-Mango . This time I had the foresight to buy frozen mango in case I didn't have enough fresh. Good thing, because I was still a cup short. And I finally tried Reddi Wip's coconut milk variety. It's thicker than the regular kind and took some work to get it to spray out, but the flavor really adds something to pie. We also had these  Apple Buttermilk Pancakes . They were pretty good; my only (barely) complaint is that it made just enough for three. If you want leftovers or are feeding a lot of people, you'd have to double the recipe, at least . ******** In cereal news, Blueberry Cheerios are out! I got mine for the low, low introductory price of 99 cents. It remains to be seen if they were worth the 99 cents. 😜

I've held off buying this for the last couple of months hoping I could find a smaller box, but no such luck. Last week I finally caved and bought the family size box at Walmart. That turned out to be a good thing because I didn't realize this was a limited edition flavor and I could've missed out. 😧 To the cereal! Ok, scent first. Definitely picking up on apple, but there's something else clouding it, I can't put my finger on it. Let's take a look at the Mini-Wheat "biscuit." Typical size; the frosting is a peachy color with a hint of beige (understandable--if you go too orange it would look like Pumpkin Spice). Finally the flavor: predominantly pear. I never thought that would translate well to a cereal, but there you go. The combination of apple, peach, and pear works better together than any of those flavors individually. Cereal unity! So now I don't feel too bad about being stuck with that large box. It won't go to waste.😉

I was starting to think Fiber One had given up on introducing any more cereals--it seems like they've really been focused on the snack bar lineup for the last few years. And then suddenly, hey, we've figured out a new combination of flavors to tempt you. Strawberries and vanilla? Ok, I'm tempted. Sniff test first--there's a faint strawberry scent. Also: why do the vanilla clusters look pink? After pouring, I can see that everything has a faint dusting of pink. That's par for the course with freeze-dried strawberries. Speaking of which, you know I'm not the biggest fan of those berries (that's why I still haven't tried Special K Red Berries), but I wanted to see how it meshed with the other elements. I tasted a cluster first. Would it have a hint of strawberry? Nope, just vanilla. Good. I wanted to taste both along with the oat flakes. There's other bran ingredients but these flakes are primarily made from steel-cut oats, which explains the th

Well, that took about ten days to kick. I'm still not 100%, but I am eating cereal. And reviewing it. Like this morning's sample of Cinnamon Flakes. You may recall my review of  Vanilla Os from February. I thought I'd try the Cinnamon Flakes, because, you know, cinnamon. The first thing I noticed was the flake shape. It's not flat, more like it was pressed so hard it made a deep indentation. What's the word--concave, I believe. The combination of the three beans (navy, garbanzo, lentil) and rice flour makes for a surprisingly thick flake. It still had a crisp bean bite--and aftertaste--but it was definitely more substantial than the Os. As for the cinnamon--and you know I'm a harsh judge of cinnamon--it was just right. Not as much as I could've handled, but not underwhelming either. Not a disappointment. In fact, more of a 👍. ***** Quick note: I picked up a box of  Peach Cheerios last week. I didn't know that was coming out again this year.

(And I thought I had a picture of it, but apparently not.) Anyway, I was out of town for a few days (and brought back a cold!) so I'm just now getting caught up on life stuff, including blogging this Whole Wheat Sunflower Honey Oatmeal Bread I made two weekends ago. Let me tell you, making bread is definitely a weekend project. It's an all day project. Maybe it doesn't take as long for bread machine-based recipes but this isn't one of those. Second thing, I omitted the sunflower seeds. I don't think anybody in my family likes them at all , let alone in bread. Thirdly, I didn't have white whole wheat flour so I mixed regular whole wheat flour with all purpose. Did it make the bread more dense, as the recipe suggests? I can't say for sure, since I can't compare it to the original recipe bread, but it was definitely filling. I may have eaten the end- and next-to-end pieces the first morning. So. Much. Bread. 😵  So yeah...stick to one piece at time. On

How is it every year I manage to miss National Cereal Day? Not only that, but I also don't eat cereal that day. I did, however, have some of this granola. This is another one of the flavors Target introduced  last Fall . In brief, there's no false advertising here. First chew: hey, this is sweet. Second chew (same mouthful): ...and salty. I suppose you would call this a member of the "kettle corn" family of flavors. With almonds. It's a light sweetness, though. It's not like crushing up a box of Cracker Jack and sprinkling it over your yogurt (I wouldn't hate it if you did, though...😉). And because I believe in equal granola time, here's the most recent granola I made:  Gingerbread Granola . There's actually no sugar in this granola, which makes all the spices that much more intense. And I'm still eating it. I thawed some out this morning and sprinkled it on my  gingerbread pancakes . Yeah, I think I've reached gingerbread capacity for t

Anybody else hunkered down, waiting for this latest snow dump? Hopefully it's the last one. 👎 And now something more 👍: remember the  coffee cake   I made back in January? I needed only a little bit of Grape Nuts for the streusel, which left me with nearly an entire box of Grape Nuts. They may be small but those boxes contain a lot of those little wheat nuggets. What to do? Obviously I went to the Post website and looked up all of their Grape Nuts recipes.   Here's what I made: Mini-Frittatas. It says "Kale and Mozzarella" but I used spinach and cheddar because that's what I had. The cereal makes them more filling than your typical mini-frittata. Sweet Potato Chocolate Chip Cookies. This is the only recipe I made where you don't notice the Grape-Nuts at all. Also I may have had too much sweet potato. It would have been nice if the recipe had a more specific measurement. Banana Crunch Muffins. You can guess where the "crunch" comes in. I

Why do cranberries and oranges work so well together? You would think, tart on top of tart? Nah. More like, yeah, sweet-tart. If Kellogg's was smart they'd make a Raisin Bran with orange-soaked dried cranberries. And now that I've tied this into cereal, here's these  Cranberry Orange Scones . I still have holiday cranberries in the freezer and I felt like making scones, so, there you go. Why this recipe? Most importantly, I needed a cranberry scone recipe that didn't call for heavy cream. Buttermilk optional; in this case, milk was even better. I didn't want to get stuck with buttermilk, either. For maximum orange-iness, don't skip the glaze! I did skip the dusting with sugar because I didn't think both sugar toppings were necessary. One thing I would've done differently is flatten my dough disk out a little bit more (as opposed to stopping at a 7-inch round). Some of my scones were larger than others and didn't quite get baked all the wa

Do you ever wake up in the morning and say to yourself, "You know what I want for breakfast? Beans ." Yeah, me neither. Don't get me wrong, if it's part of a recipe for breakfast burritos or something, I'm not going to pick the beans out. I'm just saying I've never had a taste for a big bowl of beans in the a.m. But then Wegmans (no apostrophe!) had to go and create a new line of cereals with beans and lentils, so of course I had to try it. I decided to start with the Vanilla O's since that's not a flavor in the Cheerios line right now (that's a good idea, though). First off, although the bean flours are the first ingredient(s), you should know there's also oat and rice flours; I would think they'd give the finished product a little more bulk, more heft. Starting with the sniff test, of course: a good, natural vanilla scent. Then an examination of the O's themselves--a little flat, and larger than Cheerios. It reminded me of th

I've been holding on to this box for weeks and I finally went ahead and opened it. So let me start by saying 👏 you did it again, Honey Bunches of Oats. As much as I enjoyed the  Banana Bunches last Fall, this is...well, let me find the words. This is a blog, after all 😉. As soon as I opened the box I was hit by apples and caramel (figuratively speaking, of course). That would be a good predictor for the taste test. A momentary disappointment, however: the bag looked to be about half full. I know, contents may shift or whatever during shipping, but I'm pretty sure they aren't supposed to dissipate. I was glad I managed to get this on sale for $1.99. Ok, but back to the cereal: it smelled like a caramel apple pie, but how would it taste? The bits--well, slightly larger than bits--of freeze-dried apple have a crunch to them at first, followed by a nice chew. Not too gummy.  And the oat bunches are all caramel flavor without the stickiness. I don't really want to tan

Not mine, of course. You know I always  do something for my mom for  her birthday . This year I combined two of her favorites--a peach-blueberry combo and icing-less cake--to make a  Peach and Blueberry Upside Down Cake (you can probably guess I just substituted blueberries for the raspberries). Mom ate hers with whipped cream; I ate mine unadorned. It really doesn't need anything extra--that's how good it is. 😋 I failed to take a picture because my peach placement wasn't nearly as photogenic as Erin's. Also I had waaay too many blueberries. A strong hint: if you make this cake, arrange the peach slices first , then scatter your berries. Two other things my mom loves: gingerbread and buttermilk pancakes. She claims she wasn't ever a big fan of pancakes until I started making recipes with buttermilk. I guess she just Aunt Jemima'd us to death in our childhoods. So I found this  Gingerbread Pancakes recipe that called for just the amount of buttermilk I h

Are we really doing this again? It's almost February! Well, I did. Also, wow, it's cold. Why not warm yourself with a hot beverage of choice and a  Pumpkin Banana Biscotti with Maple Syrup Glaze ? This is what happens when you have leftover pumpkin and a banana in the freezer. Baking magic. Oh, and just enough maple syrup to glaze one batch of biscotti (I froze the other half). I will note that the texture of this biscotti starts crisp and ends chewy. Don't worry, they didn't go stale overnight--that's just the banana moisture. And maybe also the pumpkin, but I know I've made firmer pumpkin biscotti. That's not a knock on this biscotti by any means. I don't think I've made one yet that I didn't like. 😁 Or, hey, maybe you're more of a coffeecake person. I also made this  Pumpkin Streusel Coffeecake over the weekend, mainly because it called for a cup of pumpkin. The cake itself was moist and tender and pretty much perfect. You know I

Out of all the new cereals, this is the one I was most looking forward to trying. I'm not sure why. I rarely eat Rice Krispies. Perhaps it was the lure of the Strawberry. First, in case you were wondering, even though there's no "Rice" in the name, it's still Rice Krispies and not some grain blend. Red-dusted Rice Krispies. And that fresh bag scent...it's the cereal version of "strawberry," which is perfectly acceptable. I like to think of this as an upgraded Fruity Pebbles (although, to be fair, I haven't eaten that in years. Maybe even decades). Seriously, though, if you like Rice Krispies and you like Strawberry Cheerios, you will probably enjoy these. Bonus: yes, they will turn your milk into strawberry milk--color and flavor. Maybe next time I'll try it with sliced banana?

This wasn't supposed to be the first new cereal I reviewed this year--and if I'd noticed the word "soy" on the front, I might not have even picked it up. But we'll get back to that. First, it passed the smell test with flying colors. As soon as I opened the bag that honey aroma hit those brain receptors that tell you must eat NOW. So that was a plus. Then I bothered to read the ingredients. Soy protein isolate? Uh-oh. Remember my review of Special K  Nourish , and how it had these little soy twigs that I was allergic to? This time around the soy is mixed in with all the other grains into the flakes--which makes for a thick, dense flake by the way--and I had no reaction whatsoever. So, yay, Special K, I can keep you. The taste was kind of a letdown after the promise of the scent but I had only a small sample size the other day. I need at least one more tasting before forming a definitive opinion. So why not wait to write this blog entry? Because, that's

It's a new cereal year, so let's kick things off...with granola 😜. This is the only variety of this Fruit & Nut granola, which I thought was a bit odd. Usually there's at least two flavors. But okay, this is the only nut I can handle anyway. I open the bag and think, hey, clusters! I am never against clusters--unless it's that one that's so hard it's inedible. There's always one. What I like about these clusters is that they manage to have a crisp bite while maintaining that cluster-structure. Maybe it's the rice flour? The taste is what surprised me. It was as if the granola cluster had been coated in raisin juice. Seriously, I didn't know "raisin" could be a strong flavor. That was weird. Not bad, just unexpected. And it didn't appear to me that there was a ridiculous amount of raisins in there; in fact, I'd say there's a nice ratio of dried fruit to oats. What I didn't pay much attention to was the almonds. Wer

I know what you're thinking: this is how you're kicking off 2019? Well, actually, no. This is how I'm finishing 2018 so we can move on to the new cereals of 2019. Good? 👍 Apparently this Cascadian Farm offering has been around for fifteen years but I honestly never noticed it before. I was just thinking, hey, it's December, I could use the extra fiber. So imagine Raisin Bran Crunch without the raisins but with those little All-Bran twigs. That's basically it. The granola clusters and wheat flakes taste lightly sweetened but the bran "strands" (as they put it) are somehow dry and flavorless. Not that they need the flavor, mind you. But you probably wouldn't want to eat a whole bowl of just those. I topped mine with a little bit of Honey Bunches of Oats (for an added flavor dimension) and blueberries (because fruit 😋) and had a nice bowl of cereal. Now I can start acquiring the new stuff! 😀