Optimize Your Cold Cereal Experience

The possibilities are endless.

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

The world is in a bad way right now. Many of us are trying to right wrongs, battle injustice, spread truth, and mourn with those that mourn—on top of paying the bills and taking care of our families. It’s all good work, and maybe it’s just me, but I get tired a lot and need to find little ways to refuel on a regular basis. One thing you can do, no matter what your ability in the kitchen, is shake things up snack-wise.

My kids don’t get a cold cereal breakfast very often for the simple reason that when they do, they’re hungry less than an hour later. Not good, even when you’re doing school at home. Oatmeal, eggs, and of course homemade baked goods like our Friday scones (recipe is coming!) have been staples for years. That’s how we do mornings.

BUT cereal makes an excellent snack. My husband feels breakfast foods should never be eaten after noon. Bishop, please. The man’s nearly perfect, but in this case, he’s dead wrong.

I like many kinds of cereal, from the heartiest muesli to the craziest, cartoon-festooned stuff we were too poor to buy when I was a kid. Whatever you like and whenever you eat it, here are some ways to zhuzh it up.

1) Freshness is king. There’s little as disappointing as a bowl of stale cereal. It makes me mad just thinking about it. When it comes to food, air is the enemy of freshness. To fix this, here’s what I do once I’m home from the store. I pour the new cereal into a zipper lock bag, get as much air out of the bag as possible (without crushing it), seal it, and keep it in the freezer. It thus stays crispy until it’s all gone. Unlike cookies or other treats, cereal doesn’t need any thawing time.

2) Mix and match. As much as I like cocoa-flavored or marshmallow-adorned varieties, they’re often too sweet for me. (“A little cloy,” as my grandmother would’ve said.) I counter this by mixing a sugar variety with a plain variety. For example, regular Cheerios cut the sweetness of sugared (Chocolate, Apple Cinnamon, etc.) Cheerios perfectly with a 1:1 ratio. I buy a box of each, mix them together in a zipper lock bag, and I’m set.

I prefer to pair like textures with like, as with Cocoa Krispies and Rice Krispies; Reese’s Puffs with Kix; and Chocolate Chex with Rice and/or Corn Chex. Plain Cheerios are super versatile, reducing the cloy factor of Apple Jacks, Froot Loops, and Lucky Charms.

However, you might want to experiment with mixing textures. The world is your bowl of Cap’n Crunch. Let me know if you come up with a winning combination.

(Side note: I love Lucky Charms, but these days, they have too many marshmallows for me. If I don’t want to cut my cereal with a plain type, I find the store-brand knock-offs—especially ALDI’s Marshmallows and Stars—generally have a better ratio.)

3) Consider your liquid. I won’t drink nut or oat milks, and I am not a fan of skim or low-fat milk, but do what you must. For me and my house, we will choose whole milk only—raw, whenever possible. An age-old principle of gastronomy is that fat carries flavor, which means your cereal will taste far better with whole milk than with something lesser.

There are other options, though. I’ve found that some cereals, like vanilla granola, are yummy with orange juice poured over. (Don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it.) My dear friend Camilla prefers her Frosted Flakes with half and half, and I applaud that. Some sturdy cereals, like any variety of shredded wheat or granola, are delicious if you heat the milk first. I recently tried Kashi’s Dark Cocoa Karma with hot milk, and it was love at first bite.

When I did an internet search on cold cereal, article after article touted the healthiest cereals, the lowest-sugar cereals, the highest-fiber cereals, yadda yadda yadda. I didn’t find a single piece celebrating the fun and ease and comfort that cold cereal can be—which is why I wrote this one.

Longtime readers of mine know I don’t hold with demonizing food. Unless you’re celiac or diabetic or something like that: lighten up, Francis. Use that energy you spend policing your eating on something that will really make a difference, like feeding the poor. In the meantime, be grateful and take simple pleasure where you can. Be well, my friends. Dig in and crunch up.

Photo by Providence Doucet on Unsplash