Quick, healthy & cheap recipe: Make your own cereal!

I love hot cereal.  Amen.  I could live on all varieties of it.  Really, I could! 

Before you go and call the boringmobile on me, let me share with you - beyond oatmeal.


But it sometimes costs over $4 for a pound of good, organic 7-grain or 10-grain cereal at our local grocery store. 

Being the healthy frugalista I am, I want to share with you how I remedied my expensive addiction.

Ready?
OK, I bought my own organic grains from a store and mixed them how I wanted and made my own hot cereal.  I know.  Tough stuff.  This is the only recipe you may ever see me 'create'.

I spend about $.85 a pound, saving lots of money also eliminate excess product packaging and have less waste.

I mix up 5-grain, 6-grain, 7-grain, 8-grain, and heck, I even get wild and make 12-grain cereals regularly.  I usually grind (although the hot cereal in these photos is not ground) all the ingredients in a food processor, or coffee bean grinder, so they cook faster (hello, fast meal before school!) and are easily digested.

 

Yum.

I should mention that it's also recommended that any time you are cooking with whole grains, you should soak the grains in an acidic medium, in order to fully enhance their nutritional value and to reduce cooking time.  Here is a link explaining a bit of how and why you should soak grains.

In case you haven't thought of this, and you are looking for a nutrionally dense, cheap, healthy breakfast, I wanted to share the endless possibilites of grains to make your own whole grain hot cereal.

Make your own hot cereal for breakfast:

First, mix your grains.  Whatever ones you want.  Go ahead.  Do it!!  And be brave! 

oats (great to help increase milk supply, breastfeeding moms!)
steel cut oats
oat bran
wheat bran
triticale
millet
buckwheat
bulgur
couscous
brown rice
amaranth
quinoa (rinse first, quinoa is bitter!)
wheat germ
barley
rye
corn meal
cracked wheat

Grind away, baby!  Once you have decided on your own combination, you can then grind them, if you choose.  Again, you don't have to.  I grind my grains about 25% of the time.  The other 75% of the time I am lazy.


Next, soak them overnight in warm water and an acidic medium (some people put them in the crockpot overnight, so it's ready to eat in the morning).  Of course this step isn't necessary, but it will reduce your cooking and therefore stirring and chaance-of-burning time drastically.

1/2 Cup dry grains mix, soaking in whey and water

In the morning, you can begin cooking in either water or milk right away.


Good morning, grains!

Once cooked, well, this is the fun part! Add all the yummy toppings!


Sweeteners:
honey
molasses
sugar
agave nectar
sucanat
maple syrup
fruit
stevia

Toppings:
ground flax seed
wheat germ
dried and fresh fruits
sunflower seeds
milk, cream, half &half
nuts
brewer's yeast (another one that helps milk supply)
cinnamon

Unconventional additions:
eggs (add a raw egg and cook it the last few minutes, and you will never eat plain cereal again!  I learned this trick in Asia!)
sea salt (get your minerals)
almond butter (a spoonful will add protein, healthy fat and a nice nutty flavor)
butter or coconut oil (more healthy fats that help your body process all the carbs)

One of my favorite whole grain hot cereal recipes:
oats, oat bran, steel cut oats, millet with ground flax seed, agave nectar and an egg.

A mix of 8 grains, with flax seed, craisins, almonds, and organic half and half!

There are other grains and additional elements you can use to make your own hot cereal.  This is just the beginning!  

 Have fun and happy eating!