(10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare)
By Lisa Messinger
Food and Cooking at Creators Syndicate
Packaged cereals always have been convenience products. Open, pour in a bowl, top with milk (whether that is dairy, soy, nut or other) and eat. However, with only slightly more effort, store-bought cereals also can provide the spark for unique hot breakfasts that will power you with whole grains.
--- Barley-based cereals, when eaten cold, are often crunchy little nuggets. However, warmed up, with a small amount of any milk or juice of your choice, they soften and deepen in flavor. That's enough for a change of pace, but even better, and what may draw in even more picky kidlet diners, is, while warming, to add some quick-cooking oats, a swirl of peanut butter and all-fruit spread (available in the jam aisle of most supermarkets).
--- Cold oat circle cereals are a good way to get some heart-healthy oats into your diet. The cheering will most likely continue if you try a cereal-based apple cinnamon crisp (yes, a lot like the kind we often enjoy for dessert) as an extremely memorable topping over hot oatmeal. Just substitute the flour in your favorite apple crisp recipe for cold oat cereal and use sugar-free sweetener suitable for baking instead of sugar and top your oatmeal with it. To change the flavor of the treat on another day, use pears instead of apples.
--- Whole-grain flake cereals: Slice bananas, roll in the cereal and use as a topping on cooked hot brown rice. Top with a slight amount of almond milk, soy milk or low-fat milk.
--- Bite-Sized shredded wheat cereals: Heat for a few seconds in microwave with small amount of your choice of milk. Top with layers of applesauce, fruit-flavored yogurt, dried cherries or cranberries and sprinkle with ground cinnamon.
--- Quinoa is an ancient seed, that's often treated as a grain-like cereal, enjoying current popularity as a salad ingredient or hot side dish because it's a whole food and has a higher amount of protein than most grains do. It's also easy to prepare. Cook according to package directions, making sure you don't stop short and that it becomes soft in texture. After it's cooked, mix in golden (or other) raisins and bran cereal flakes you've stirred into honey and sprinkled with allspice.
Fun fare like this also proves cooking can be easy, nutritious, economical, fun - and fast. They take just 10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare. The creative combinations are delicious proof that everyone has time for tasty home cooking and, more importantly, the healthy family togetherness that goes along with it!
Another benefit: You effortlessly become a better cook, since there are no right or wrong amounts. These are virtually-can't-go-wrong combinations, so whatever you - or your kidlet helpers - choose to use can't help but draw "wows" at breakfast that will reverberate all day long.
QUICK TIP OF THE WEEK: Consider creating a mini submarine bar for your kids to prepare their own school-day or weekend lunches. To keep portions in check, use whole-grain hot dog buns (which are smaller than sub sandwich rolls) and ask them to fill a third full with their choice of protein and two-thirds full with vegetable choices that are often available at sub shops. Those might include sweet bell pepper, greens, like spinach or arugula, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and herbs, like fresh cilantro or basil. Adventurous kids might also expand their palates and healthful choices with freshly ground black pepper and drizzles of olive oil and balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar.
Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food and nutrition writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the National Council Against Health Fraud and author of seven food books, including the best-selling
The Tofu Book: The New American Cuisine with 150 Recipes (Avery/Penguin Putnam) and
Turn Your Supermarket into a Health Food Store: The Brand-Name Guide to Shopping for a Better Diet (Pharos/Scripps Howard). She writes two nationally syndicated food and nutrition columns for Creators Syndicate and had been a longtime newspaper food and health section managing editor, as well as managing editor of Gayot/Gault Millau dining review company. Lisa traveled the globe writing about top chefs for Pulitzer Prize-winning Copley News Service and has written about health and nutrition for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Reader's Digest, Woman's World and Prevention Magazine Health Books. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.
