Confession: I love cold cereal.
I mean *LOVE* cold cereal.
See, growing up our weekday breakfasts were usually oatmeal, cream of wheat, ricesugarandmilk, or cracked wheat. On Saturdays my mom made pancakes, waffles, etc. And on Sundays - those blessed Sundays - we got [this must be said in a wistful, longing voice] cold cereal. When I was really little it was something simple like Rice Crispies (okay, it was actually a vanilla flavored Equadorian version of that, but you get my drift). Boy did I cherished those bowls of cereal! And unfortunately it stuck with me for life.
Winter semester my sophomore year at BYU I made a goal: eat [wistful] cold cereal for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks all semester. The only time I could eat non-cereal food was when I was taken out to eat on a date. And you know what? I didn't get sick of it. But I did gain 15 pounds. So after I completed my goal I reverted back to cereal-for-breakfast only.
Once we added kids to the mix, Sam and I had to make some budget cuts so that I could stay home with the kids. So we [gasp!] went off [wistful] cold cereal. :( Eating oatmeal and cream of wheat for breakfast saved us $100 a month! (It helps when you buy the 25 and 50 lb bags of oats, etc.) But you gotta make sacrifices to be a stay-at-home mom. It was hard. But it was worth it.
And then we moved out here. And I didn't have bulk amounts of oats. And I had a new baby. And for three weeks I had a 2 year-old, a 1 year-old, and a newborn. And I was tired. So we reverted back to cereal for breakfast. And we never went back. (Actually, the kids do those sugary oatmeal packets. I'm mean. Only Sam and I get [wistful] cold cereal.) I have been in heaven this past year. Even if Sam prefers "healthy" cereals to sugar cereals. Personally, I think he's crazy. But hey, who I am to judge? :)
Unfortunately, at the end of May we will be moving. I don't know where. It may be to my parent's basement. But we will be moving. And we just have to cut funds somewhere. So we are going off [wistful] cold cereal again. (I know. I want to cry.) I only have 99 more days to enjoy my beloved [wistful] cold cereal.
Tonight's dinner: Cocoa Pebbles (my personal favorite).
And if I'm not full after one bowl: Cinnamon Toast Crunch (a close second).
Monday, March 16, 2009
Cold Cereal
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31 comments:
cocoa pebbles? yuck! but i do love cereal too. i couldn't have any with the gestational diabetes thing, but now i can (yes!) and it's wonderful.
So funny. Timm LOVES cold cereal. He eats it for dessert most nights. And for breakfast and snacks. I'm pretty sure we'd have to cut funds somewhere other than cereal or I'd have one unhappy husband. Enjoy your last days of yummy cereal!
Oh my HEAVENS I love cereal.
And all I get is stinkin' "Sucrilhos" here -
I could break a commandment for a big bowl of Cheerios.
Oooooooooooooooooooooooooh....
Yeah, I've decided we all have this dysfunctional part of us that craves (wistful) cold cereal, because we were forced to eat healthy breakfasts as kids. :) I must admit, I love all kinds, sugary and non-sugary. It's all good. I go through phases of what I'm in the mood for (currently it's the malt-o-meal version of chocolate lucky charms...yum!) Barry loves a select few, with Cocoa Pebbles topping the chart (his others are Life Cereal, Cookie Crisp, and Honey Bunches of Oats- and that's about it.) He pukes at the mention of Cheerios- the weirdo. :) So you've done a post on cold cereal and a post on milk. All that's left is chocolate and you've covered it all. :)
oh, I forgot, Barry likes Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Golden Grahams too.
Becky - oh baby, do I relate to the foreign cereal thing!! Ugh!
Cara - Barry has awesome cereal tastes, if I do say so myself. None of that bran junk for me, thank you very much! ;)
Oh Janae. I so do not like cold cereal! I would have loved oatmeal & cream of wheat every morning growing up! Its funny you had cereal on Sunday mornings cause that's usually when we do our pancakes, waffles, omelets, etc :D
you.are.so.funny.
Did you really save $100 a month by going off cereal? Really? I wonder if we could do that . . .
How about bagels? Do you ever have bagels for breakfast? I don't think that I could ban those from our house. I think I would get a full blown mutiny.
You do realize that you can buy bulk oats from the bishops storehouse when you live away from the homeland (UTAH)? You could've bought a big bag and ate it for a year!
ha ha...
Nathan doesn't like cold cereal b/c he ate too much of it as a kid. Our breakfast rotation is: sugary oatmeal packs, pancakes, muffins from a pouch, waffles, cold cereal, etc. We eat cereal only once/week. But our other choices aren't extremely thrifty.
Also, how did you stay full living on cereal? I get hungry by 10 AM. Did you snack often? Did you eat it straight out of the box? : )
Rachel - yes, really. I did the math a long time ago, so I'm not sure if I can repeat it exactly. But we would usually go through one full box of cereal a day (if you added up the amount we ate each month, we each ate different cereals each day, obviously). At $3 average per box (give or take - I got some expensive fancy ones and some cheapo ones), that's $90 a month. With bulk oats, cream of wheat, etc. I'd spend about $10 a month. So $80 savings. The last $20 savings came from the fact that we used half as much milk (you use waaaay less on oatmeal than you do cereal). So cutting 2 gallons a week at 2.50 a gallon was $20. Crazy, huh?! I would do oatmeal, cream of wheat, etc. six days a week and then have Saturday be our bagels, pancakes, etc. day.
Alyn - oh, I definitely got hungry, so I was pretty much eating ALL THE TIME. Out of the box, with milk, whatever. Some of it was semi-filling, some of it not so much. Hence the 15 pound weight gain.
Alyn - oops, I meant to answer this too. Half the comments on this post are my own because I'm so spacey today. (Hey, I have an excuse. We are flu-ing here.) I found out about the Bishop's Storehouse a month ago. And since we are moving, I couldn't get up the guts to buy bulk that we might not use. But secretly, I was grateful not to know about it! ;)
I have never liked cold cereal my entire life! I usually chose to go without breakfast altogether rather than eat cold cereal. But since I've been pregnant, I CRAVE it! Its so funny how something I used to despise is now one of my favorite foods!
Janae-
You are funny. I, too, love cold cereal, especially the sugar-y chocolate-y ones. But Jason prefers stuff like mini-wheats (which I refer to as hay bales) and some kind of hearty Kelloggs stuff. Bleh. Anyway, I'm sure you will find a way to sneak a box or two when you move. I always do! :)
Ah yes, cold cereal. I could eat it all I wanted as a kid and I still love it. We have a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch that I'm not opening *on purpose* for awhile because I ate the last one way too fast!
The best oatmeal in the world is cooked in a crockpot over night on low. I add an apple pealed and chopped with some cinnamon and nutmeg. it is the best!! I make huge amounts and then put it in a tupperware and it microwaves the next day and then life is easy. P.S. i love your blog and I mean LOVE, You are so cute and creative. Loved the trip to B&O Railroad. My family on both sides were railmen. My GG father lost his life being Impailed by the coupler. My Uncle died trying to save a runaway train at the Kenecott mine and was run over just below the hips. i Love geneology and have ben doing ours for 2 years now. Ancestry is my best friend.
Keep up the good work, Kathy Creason
Okay so I am a total cereal fanatic as well... and ironically right now I am eating a bowl of cereal. But gosh, I think i was born craving the stuff! When i was about 4 years old, I would wake up really early every morning (like 4am) and I would go to my parents, wake them up, and say, "I haven't had any cereal yet..." and my mom would have to tell me it wasn't time for breakfast. My family knows me for my intense love of cereal.
But something weird has happened lately and I can't eat sugary stuff or I get sick (i think i am going diabetic from all the sugary cereals I ate! horrible i know)
So i have resorted to eating plain cheerios... i used to hate that, but now it's the only cereal i can eat, so i have gotten used to it. I'm going through withdrawls though. I miss my sugary delight!
Janae- I am so with you on cereal! It is my go to food. I love love love cereal and ate it Often growing up.
Janae you should get cereal and milk at Aldi's. They have all kinds of knock off kinds that are really good and they have the cheapest milk I've found. There's one in Baltimore and one in Glen Burnie.
I love cereal too. Steve doesn't care for it too much, but I love it. You should look into doing coupons (if you don't already). I do this program (couponsense.com) & I haven't paid more that $1 for cereal! I even get it free sometimes :) Check it out! Loved the post.
I'm not a fan of cereal - I'll eat but it doesn't float my boat too much. I'd rather eat a salty breakfast or yogurt and granola (I guess granola could kind of fall into the cereal category.
Derek, Megan and Luke however would eat cereal all day if they could. They eat it constantly even beyond breakfast. I think it is their preferred snack and dinner.
So when will you know where you are moving to? I'm dying to know if my prayers are being answered (please Heavenly Father send Sam and Janae to California. Please let them be my neighbor. Please let Janae plan parties with me and please help Sam to like me and want to by my private Photoshop and Illustrator tutor.)
I can't believe how many people comment on your blog so quickly! You're becoming pretty famous here!
I LOVE (wistful) cold cereal. Man, this is a huge sacrifice. As long as we don't go back to cracked wheat, though, I'm okay. If we go back to cracked wheat, I'm smuggling some Wheat Chex into my office.
(Thanks for the prayers Denise! :)
You know you must love cereal (and milk) if you do a post about them!! Cereal is okay but not I'm (wistful) about it. I think most people secretly like things they weren't allowed to have much as a kid. I'll always prefer white bread for this reason.
You know you must love cereal (and milk) if you do a post about them!! Cereal is okay but not I'm (wistful) about it. I think most people secretly like things they weren't allowed to have much as a kid. I'll always prefer white bread for this reason.
Huge bowl. Every morning. Must have.
Growing up we had the "plain stuff" (cheerios, corn flakes, oats) but on our BIRTHDAYS we could pick out WHATEVER CEREAL we wanted at the store--it was a HUGE DEAL!
You are so funny. I love cold cereal as well and have a bowl almost every day. But you have to know that there is a way to get cold cereal on a budget. The way I coupon shop, I never pay more thatn $1.00 for a box of cereal. And since I have stocked up so much, I usually won't pay more than 25 cents. If you are interested, email me and I can give you more info. It is worth it to me, because I don't like to go without cold cereal!
Yes, I am a little behind on my blog stalking. But I do love your blog and I just had to tell you that I am now going to eat a bowl of cereal. Your post made me really hungry.
PS they say that Coco pebbles, or something similar is really good to eat if you are craving chocolate - at least it is fortified, so you are getting something useful. Eat on!
Mindy - thanks for the consolation about Cocoa Pebbles! I think I'll go have a bowl right now. Need all those added vitamins and minerals. :)
Kind of funny that you want you didn't/don't have. I grew up on Malt o' Meal cereals because I had a working mom who didn't have time or energy to get up and cook a hot breakfast. Thus, I'm not a big fan of cold cereal or PB&J's either for the same reason. So breakfast is my most dreaded meal because my kids like cereal and frankly, I'm too lazy to cook a big breakfast just for me or to cook one for them and spend the next hour frustratingly reminding them to KEEP EATING!!!! So we often times have breakfast for dinner multiple times a month...French toast, waffles, pancakes, eggs & sausage, cocoa and toast (Jason's personal favorite, weird.) Strange how our childhood staples shape what kind of adults we'll be. ie. cereal loving vs. cereal loathing. :)
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