Tag: cereal

Breakfast of Champions

A couple of weeks ago I went with a carload of friends down to the States to go shopping for cosplay elements that we just can’t get here in Canada. While we were there we stopped at a Walmart, which did mostly carry the same kinds of things as the Canadian version, but there were definitely some differences. I think that the biggest contrast was in the grocery section, and within that the cereals. There were a lot of extremely sugary cereals that we just don’t get here. And it’s not like we don’t have our own junk cereal, or that all of the cereal at this American Walmart was this sweet. But honestly, given how high the sugar content was on some of them, I’m quite sure that many aren’t allowed to be sold north of the border.

Of course that meant I had to try them.

The one that immediately caught my attention on the shelf was the Sour Patch Kids Breakfast Cereal. I liked the candies as much as any kid way back when, but I couldn’t see how it could possibly be any good as a cereal. As you can see from the photos, I couldn’t even wait to get home to try them out and instead shared them in the car. They were… Weird. I mean yes, they did taste like the candy, but then they had the consistency of a Froot Loop. We ate them dry, and even once I got them home I couldn’t see putting them in milk (almond milk in my case). The kids, who were slightly more enthusiastic about them than I was, also refused to put them in milk. Their sourness make it seem like the milk would curdle, and nobody wanted to take a chance on it.

Serving size: 32g (1 cup)
Grams of sugar per serving: 13g

The next cereal I tried was Reese’s Puffs Peanut Butter Bunnies Cereal. Now, you actually can get the non-seasonal version of this cereal in Canada upon occasion, but I had never tried it. It’s another candy they’ve tried to turn into a cereal, with mixed results. I mean, it wasn’t as odd as the Sour Patch Kids and the flavour does go well with milk — just because chocolate and peanut butter go well with milk anyway. But it’s extremely sweet; it tastes much sweeter than the actual chocolate, and apparently one serving of this breakfast treat has more sugar than an actual Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. And once again, it has the approximate consistency of a Froot Loop, which is not what I’m looking for with this flavour combination. Overall, it was better than the first cereal, but only marginally.

Serving Size: 29g (3/4 cup)
Grams of sugar per serving: 9g

(For comparison, one Reese’s Cup has 7g of sugar.)

The last cereal I tried was Cinnamon Toast Crunch Churros. I have to say that I actually liked this one quite a bit, but that’s probably because Apple Cinnamon Cheerios were a big treat for me growing up. The powdery cinnamon sugar coating on the cereal actually worked well because churros are often rolled in cinnamon sugar and end up with a similarly textured coating. In milk, the powder turns quickly to sludge, which to me is not ideal, so it’s much better dry. Overall, it’s nothing in comparison to fresh churros eaten while they’re still hot from the fryer, but the cereal is actually pretty tasty.

Serving Size: 31g (3/4 cup)
Grams of sugar per serving: 8g

As a bonus, I picked up some Limited Edition Frosted Sparkle-Licious Cherry Pop-Tarts for the girls. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to like them myself; I used to eat Pop-Tarts when on a sleepover once in a blue moon as a teen, and even then I found them both too sweet and too bland. These “limited edition” ones confirmed that opinion for me. The kids seem to like them, though — but for us they’re dessert, not breakfast. Actually, all of the “breakfast” food I brought home is being eaten as dessert, because none of us want to start the day with such a high dose of sugar. Even the kids! Me, I think I’ll stick with eggs and toast for the most part, and maybe some fruit if I want something sweet.

Serving Size: 52g (1 pastry)
Grams of sugar per serving: 16g

Pumpkin Spice Muffins & Cheerios

It’s no secret that I love pumpkin spice. A lot of people joke that it’s a flavouring made specifically for white women, and there may be some substance to that. After all, it does smell distinctly like the pumpkin pie that was a treat in my family around Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I’m guessing that other people of a similar background have similar nostalgia. They say that smell has a great deal of power when it comes to memory, at any rate.

When I was growing up, though, pumpkin spice wasn’t in everything come fall. Pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread, if you were lucky, and that was about it. The popularity of Starbucks’ pumpkin spice latte is what really got the ball rolling, at least around here. I’m not a coffee drinker, so I was later than many about hopping on the bandwagon. I really rather liked the Oreos and the Kahlua. That being said, I firmly believe that some things really don’t need to be pumpkin spice flavoured, or have been poorly done, so I like to try out a few new dishes every autumn as a kind of experiment.

The first dish that I tried this week was pumpkin spice muffins baked from Krusteaz Pumpkin Spice Quick Bread Mix, which I bought from Costco on a recent trip. The box says that you can make loaves, pancakes, cookies, and muffins, but I was feeling lazy so I just made the muffins. They rose nicely and looked great in the pan, but they fell and became rather overly moist once they left the oven, despite being cooked through. Even so, they were fairly tasty; the kids especially liked them.

For my part, I think I will stick to the Joy of Cooking‘s Pumpkin Bread recipe for this kind of muffin. I’ve had better luck with this recipe in the past. However, I do wonder, in the case of the mix, if it’s trying to do too many things — or if a different preparation might suit the mix better? At any rate, I have three more packages of mix to cook, so I should be able to try them all out.

I also tried some Pumpkin Spice Cheerios. These are definitely a sweet cereal, which to me isn’t suited to breakfast at all. Actually, I found them quite cloying in (unsweetened almond) milk. However, they’re not half bad dry, and make quite a nice snack. However, if I’m going for a sweet Cheerio, I much prefer Apple Cinnamon Cheerios. They came out in 1988, so they have a place in my heart as being a special treat from my childhood (we weren’t allowed sugary cereal except on special occasions). Also, I just find that they taste less sweet and cloying, which is funny because according to the nutrition info, pumpkin spice has 8g of sugar per serving, and apple cinnamon has 9g. Maybe it’s how it’s cooked, or just the spice mixture? It’s even stranger when you realize that one of the major components in pumpkin spice is actually cinnamon. At any rate, I still like Apple Cinnamon Cheerios better.

National Cereal Day

Yet another day of taking care of sick kiddos… It doesn’t leave much time (or inclination) to cook. Luckily, we had lots of bits and bobs from previous dinners in the fridge that needed to be eaten anyway, so yesterday became Leftover Night. Lunch, however, was a bit of a wash, so I just had a bowl of cereal.

Social media reminded me that today is National Cereal Day in the US, although it doesn’t even make the ,a href=”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_food_days”>list of food days on Wikipedia. According to that list, yesterday was actually National Crown Roast of Pork Day, which was way more complicated than I was up to trying. It occurs to me that if I planned our menu based on the national food days, we’d have quite the variety of diet, and I’d have the inspiration to try a whole bunch of new things.

Anyways, I ate a bowl of Apple Cinnamon Cheerios, which have been my favourite cereal since I was a kid. My parents wouldn’t let us get sugary cereals on a regular basis, so when we did get a box it was a real treat. This was pretty much the only sugary breakfast we ever had, except sometimes for those miniature boxes of cereal when we were camping/cottaging. I used to eat healthier cereal almost every day, but I slowly fell out of the habit as I became more sensitive to dairy (I don’t like my cereal dry). Now I eat it with almond milk, but I’ve come to prefer a hot breakfast or at least some toast in the morning. We always have cereal around, though, since the kids eat it all the time. Following my parents’ lead, I also only allow sugary cereal as the occasional treat. Much to my surprise, my kids don’t even like Apple Cinnamon Cheerios, so I don’t even have to share them!