So what do you make sure you always have in your pantry? I’m talking cold cereals here, not your hot cooked oatmeals or malt-o-meals or breakfast grits, etc.
Since the kids moved out, our variety has dropped off greatly. And with further advancing age, the number of required cereals have continued to shrink.
We currently require only three, between the Mrs. and I.
She must have her Fiber One.
I must have my Bran buds, and also my Crackling Oat Bran. The former is for the work week, where it constitutes my breakfast, and my additive to yogurt at lunch. The latter is my weekend treat. When I’m not cooking up hot oat groats, at least.
You may have detected a theme in our household. We are a very regular couple.
I keep Cheerios for when the grandbabies stay over and Honey Bunches of Oats for me. I am not a big cereal eater, but I do grab a bowl once or twice a week.
For my oldest son, a rotation of Apple Jacks, Mini-Wheats, Fruity Pebbles, Fruit Loops, Frosted Flakes and Honey-Nut Cheerios. For me, Quaker 100% Natural, sometimes grape nuts. Or his cereal, when I get a sweet tooth.
My youngest son refuses to eat cereal and is content with a cereal bar (!!!) and a banana every morning.
When I changed my diet to control my diabetes the first thing to go was my frosted mini wheats and my crunchy raisin bran. Generic cheerios are back in the cupboard now, my Wife still has bran flakes most mornings. I usually have plain oatmeal although I sometimes allow myself some blueberries or a squeeze of honey.
The Mrs. wants me to point out that what matters to her are the TOPPINGS! That’s where she shows her creativity (her words).
While her mainstay is Fiber One, she must always have milk of some sort, then she goes crazy with almonds and sometimes pecans, with the occasional dried cranberries, blueberries or cherries, along with fresh or frozen strawberries.
Me, I eat my cereal dry, unless I throw it into plain unflavored yogurt with a little fruit added by me. I wash it down with water or iced tea. Yes, I know. I’m weird that way.
We adults here, as a rule, don’t keep or eat cereal on the regular, nor do we encourage it for the little ones (low-carb…ish…family). But, if there’s one we usually have on hand, it’s the Special K flakes with strawberries. Or the generic equivalent. Everyone likes that one, from age 3 to 43.
I used to really love a (super-organic hippie-type) cereal that was a sort of blueberry
mueslie. High fiber, with dried blueberry, oat bits and random seeds and these wheaty nuggets that looked like a cartoon TNT block. Alas, I haven’t seen it in about a decade. It was really tasty, though, and relatively low-carb for cereal considering all the fiber.
Every now and then I get the taste for Count Chocula. Or Raisin Bran, of all things.
Special K Protein. Pair it with some blueberries, raisins or yogurt. It’s a whole meal.
I don’t keep any other cereals in the pantry. Every so often I’ll get a box of this or that and kill it off in a weekend. But in general cereal is no a diabetic’s friend.
Just Honey Nut Cheerios for the kiddies (or, actually, whatever the Aldi brand is called. Honey Nut Crispy Oats, I think.) I haven’t had any cereal for myself in years, but the regular Fiber One was my cereal of choice when I did eat it.
