Awesome breakfast concoction this morning!

I made my own cereal (which I consider a different thing entirely from muesli, because it’s more light and airy) out of a new product I stumbled upon yesterday at the grocery store.

I was looking all up and down the healthy cereal aisle for a cereal that was low on sugar but had great texture. All of those cereals were too sugary and too expensive though, but I did find this little gem for about $2…

I used to love cereals like Smack’s growing up, so I thought I could recreate something like that by adding a touch of honey to this Arrowhead Mills puffed wheat.

I bulked it up with some puffed amaranth, toasted buckwheat, raw pumpkin seeds, slivered almonds, and a topping of fresh blueberries. With a drizzle of honey and vanilla almond milk, it really did remind me of those sweet cereals of my childhood, but without all the extra sugar.

Puffed wheat cereal

A healthy cereal for a fraction of the cost of the boxed stuff.

Prep Time: 3 minutes

Total Time: 3 minutes

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup puffed wheat
• 2 tbsp. puffed amaranth
• 1 tbsp. toasted buckwheat
• sprinkle of slivered almonds
• sprinkle of raw pumpkin seeds
• drizzle of honey

Cooking Directions

1. Combine everything in a bowl, top with your favorite fresh fruit, and serve with your favorite milk or nut milk.

Just look at that honey drizzle!

This made for a light breakfast, perfect for a warm morning when I don’t want anything too heavy. Now if I could only find a way to make Fruity Pebbles healthy….

What was your favorite cereal as a child?

July 19, 2011 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 3 comments

I have been trying for over a year now to make Jeff some oats and honey flavored granola bars from scratch. Every time something goes wrong; I either burn them, they never bake in the middle, or they just fall apart.

This time, they just fell apart.

It was ok though! I tasted the oat crumbles and was completely in love with it as an unintentional granola.

Lemme show you what I did and what I came out with…

For the almond butter and honey oat granola I used:

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup oat bran
• 1/2 cup almond butter
• 1/8 cup honey

Start by toasting the oats and oat bran in a dry pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Keep stirring almost continuously so that nothing burns.

Microwave almond butter and honey together in a bowl for 40 seconds, stir, then heat for another 10 seconds and stir again.  Pour this over the toasted oats in a large bowl and mix together completely.

Line a loaf pan with wax paper and pour the mixture in.

Press mixture firmly into the loaf pan. I used the bottom of a drinking glass to really smash it down into the bottom of the pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

At this point I wanted to get it out of the hot pan so it wouldn’t continue to cook the bottom and edges, so I pulled it out and placed it on a cooling rack.

You can see that it started to crack and crumble immediately. I tasted a corner and it was really yummy though, so granola it is!

Here it is cooled and crumbled up, ready to top yogurt, cereal, ice cream, whatever…

I had some this morning over strawberry yogurt with bananas on top. The combination of the fruity yogurt and the almond-buttery granola reminded me of a classy PB&J sandwich!

I think if I were to make this again I could skip pressing it into a pan (since I’m not aiming to make it into bars) and just crumble it over a sheet pan and bake it for less time, maybe 10 minutes should do it. It’s certainly a very simple granola to make with only four ingredients.

Almond butter and honey oat granola

Super-fast honey oat granola recipe with the rich roasted flavor of almond butter.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Yield: About 2 cups

Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup oat bran
• 1/2 cup almond butter
• 1/8 cup honey

Cooking Directions

1. Toast oats and oat bran in a dry pan over medium heat, stirring almost continuously.
2. Microwave honey and almond butter together for 40 seconds, stir, then another 10 seconds.
3. Pour melted almond butter and honey over oats in a large bowl and mix well.
4. Either serve as is or bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees for extra crunchiness.

In your opinion, what makes the perfect granola?

February 26, 2011 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 4 comments