Living in a Cereal World

Aside from all your typical kid-focused cereals--the Trixes, the Apple Jacks(es), the sugar-frosted sugar bombs--the one cereal I truly loved was Nut & Honey Crunch. It had sweet flakes coated with honey and little bits of nuts (obviously) and was so unlike everything else I ate. I even remember that blue box. But then, one day, like so many other cereals, it was gone. Had the flavor simply run its course? Had Kellogg's latched on to some new trend? I honestly don't know. Luckily, when I was in college, I discovered this: Honey Crunch Corn Flakes. Hey, I said to myself, isn't this the same thing? I should totally eat this. And eat it I did. Until my senior year, when it started disappearing from the shelves. Not again, I thought. The last box I saw was an English/Spanish version at Big Lots. My roommate said, "Why don't you buy it?" But I couldn't. I was already moving on. The only good thing about a cereal ending its run is that something interest...

(from 12Feb'12) Sundays are for hot breakfast, although not usually hot cereal. Today, though, I thought I'd have Cream of Wheat. Lately I've been trying out cinnamon on my oatmeal, so I sprinkled some on my Cream of Wheat. Not bad. Not bad at all.

I know, I'm a day late but I was messing around with the blog yesterday and ended up realizing I'd already done everything I wanted to do at the moment. So, anyway. Were you one of those kids suckered by themed cereals? Of course you were; we all wanted one at some point. I remember two specifically,  Batman and  Tiny Toons (full title, for info's sake: Tiny Toon Adventures, but nobody called it that). I remember being so psyched to actually have the Batman cereal--my mom would buy us the usual junk like Froot Loops and Apple Jacks, but drew the line at movie/TV tie-ins--and then sooo let down by the cereal itself. I have a vague memory of a sweet, gritty corn cereal. It was...disappointing, to say the least. Ugh, just thinking of the grit. When I first tasted the Dulce de Leche Cheerios it gave me flashbacks. It's only slightly better. Maybe higher quality ingredients? And then the Tiny Toons cereal. That must've been a year or two later. I have a clear...

I like trying new things. Ideally, I'd like to try one new thing a week, but that has yet to happen. So here's the three meals/sides I tried in April: 1. Barley Risotto with Ham and Mushrooms (from Food Network Magazine) I wanted to do something different with the leftover Easter ham this year--actually, turkey ham; we're not ham people--and I happened to come across this recipe. I have yet to attempt a real risotto; this sounded easier and less time-consuming. I thought it was pretty good. I had half a box of barley left from a soup recipe; both recipes called for the barley to be toasted, which gives it a nutty flavor that takes some getting used to. (Which reminds me, I should check to see which of my cereals contain barley. Just curious.) I don't cook with wine, but I have tried and liked restaurant dishes made with white wine, so that would probably round out the flavor nicely. Next time I'll probably add the fennel seeds, though. 2. Lemon-Dill Shrimp a...

If I had known nearly all of my current cereals would have some form of flakes and/or clusters I might have switched things up a bit... Anyway, here's yet another fiber cereal in my arsenal. Since I don't get around to eating each one but every so often sometimes I forget the components. This one has a nicely substantial wheat and rice flake that doesn't totally melt in milk and an oat cluster (me, upon opening the box: "Again?" ) that are both berry-flavored. Also, there's little yogurt bits, so you get exactly what's advertised here. I have to confess, when I first tried the Fiber Plus cereals I was underwhelmed. Basically my attitude was, "Who are you and why are you trying to upstage Fiber One?" I find that with most new foods I really need to try them twice to get a feel for them. So now everything's cool. Welcome to the fiber fold. *** Well, that's another month in the books. I guess it's time for my May tinkering. We...

Well, at least there's no surprise clusters in this one--it's right in the title. I eat almost all of the Cheerios, except Frosted (not that great), Apple Cinnamon (never did like the flavor), and (say it with me) Chocolate. I'm not sure why the Oat Cluster Crunch exists; it's basically just Multi-Grain with one extra ingredient. Not that I'm complaining; I had this with a banana today and it was pretty good. Maybe a little bit sweeter than Multi-Grain but not sickeningly sweet. One more review for the month, and then I can finally write about something else for a change. Have I mentioned that I like variety? Yes, even in a cereal blog.

(And the marathon continues...) You know, there was really no reason for me to buy this; I know what original Mini-Wheats taste like. Like I said before though, the smaller size lends itself well to mixing, and I did want to be able to say that I'd tried all the Mini-Wheats (except chocolate). Now I'm going to back up and tell you all about my experience with Mini-Wheats. This was my brother's favorite cereal as a preteen/teen; I couldn't stand it. I can't remember why, maybe it was the texture. It wasn't until college (yes, again; what does that say about me that most of my experimentation in those years was with cereal?) that I tried the frosted Big Bite version and decided it wasn't that bad. Along with that I would also snack on variety packs of cereal--the Kellogg's one had Bite Size Mini-Wheats in it. Over time it grew on me, and then they started introducing new flavors, and before I knew it, I was hooked. So who would've thought I'd...