Living in a Cereal World

Is Quaker living its best gingerbread spice Life? Well...not exactly. The first time I opened the box for a quick taste I gave it the sniff test and got nothing but cardboard so I figured I'd give it another chance when it came time for the full review. Second chance: still no gingerbread scent. That should have given me a hint as to the flavor. If you love gingerbread/ginger cookies (count me as one of those people) then you will be disappointed. I wanted to be eating a rich ginger-molasses breakfast in a bowl but all I got was subtlety. Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate a subtle flavor--in this instance, ginger--but the box was misleading. Actually, if they just marketed this as ginger/spice Life I'd buy it all year long. It's good enough to not limit it to holiday sales. It's just not gingerbread. ******* In other Quaker news, I need to issue a teensy apology. I may have been a little harsh when reviewing their  Overnight Oats (to be fair, it was just...

Okay, so I haven't totally given up on pumpkin-related foods. And last week I suddenly had an urge to bake. I started with this  Pumpkin Banana Bread . I like pumpkin bread, I like banana bread, so why not? I did have a few chunks of banana that I didn't quite mash all the way but maybe I like my banana bread chunky😛. And of course I gave some away; otherwise I wouldn't have made that particular recipe. Now what to do with the rest of the can? Oh, right, I printed off this recipe for  Chewy Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies . You know Sally knows her cookies. What I didn't know was that you could blot your pumpkin to get the moisture out to avoid cake-y cookies. You know how after a few days they get kind of gummy? Well, not these. They are chewy, they are oat-y, they are pumpkin-y. I also subbed white chocolate chips because that's all I had and I was super-busy last week. So, obviously, no pictures. (Sad trombone.) But the holidays will be here before yo...

I'm sticking my tongue out at pumpkin and going straight to my other fall favorites--cranberry and apple. Oh, hello blog, I didn't forget about you. Let's just say it's been a rough two weeks. I don't really want to get into it, maybe after some distance and time to decompress. Right now I just want to write about this cereal. Is this hard to find where you are? It certainly is here. I only know of one area grocery store carrying it. Even then I waited for a sale before buying it and now it's awfully close to the to the 'Best By' date (this particular store--which shall remain nameless--does this a lot👎). But I opened it over the weekend and it's still fresh so that's good. It's also extremely filling thanks to those grains (oats, wheat, rice). The dried cranberries were a little on the chewy side but not inedible. My one complaint is that I didn't see any dried apple pieces. I could taste apple on the flakes so I know it's in ...

Since this was a  surprisingly popular entry last year, I thought I'd do it again. A great way to wrap up summer, even though summer doesn't seem to be done wrapping us up. 😵 Mixed Berries and Banana Smoothie . I honestly don't remember this one. I would've had this back in May when it first stared warming up. Mango Pineapple Smoothie with Wheat Germ . For when you buy a jar of wheat germ for one recipe and don't know what to do with the rest of it. Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie . I really should have taken notes on all of these. But anyway, there's a lot of good smoothie recipes at Gimme Some Oven. Mixed Berry Smoothie. I can't find it on the website but it's on the back of the unsweetened vanilla (shelf-stable) Almond Breeze. Strawberry-Pineapple Smoothie. Same as above, except it's the original unsweetened Almond Breeze. I used a lot of pineapple this summer. Strawberry Cheesecake Smoothie . I love dessert-inspired smoothies, and smoot...

I promised I'd let you know what I did with the rest of the pumpkin leftover from the  cake . So here it is: first I made this  Pumpkin Granola . I know, I know, kind of expected but I was ready for some scratch granola. It's a bit on the chewy side but that's what happens when you work with pumpkin. Then I did something a bit more unexpected: I finally made a savory pumpkin recipe. Pumpkin, Sausage and Spinach Calzones . I realized after I took the picture that a hot, melty-cheesy calzone would've made for a more appealing image (than this leftover from the fridge) but at the time I really just wanted to eat 😛. And it was delicious. I've never worked with frozen pizza dough or made a calzone before but I will definitely do both again 😁!

The second of three flavors to  try . I don't know exactly what Post is up to but they're definitely giving Frosted Mini-Wheats a run for their money. First, the sniff test; instead of the whole box I just sniffed one piece--it smelled like cinnamon sugar. Then I tasted it and got a hint of vanilla; just enough, not over- or underwhelming. I was afraid it would have a gooey vanilla frosting center so I was glad that wasn't the case. Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway) the cinnamon and vanilla flavors complemented each other nicely. I wouldn't exactly call it a cinnamon roll, but I'd still call it good. 😊

Yes, I finally got to this last weekend. 🙌 Sniff test first, as always: it took a few sniffs to get a hint of blueberry. As I poured I thought, why do we need this when there's already  Blueberry Toast Crunch ? (And then I forgot to taste the dry cereal!) Well, it turns out there's some differences. This is a blueberry-flavored Rice Chex. Toast Crunch has an oats and corn base. Also Blueberry Chex has molasses in the ingredients list and Blueberry Toast Crunch does not. That's basically it. Now does the molasses blunt the blueberry flavor? Because this is my only complaint. If you're looking for a gluten-free blueberry-flavored cereal, Blueberry Chex is one. If you're looking for a stronger blueberry flavor, go with the Blueberry Toast Crunch.