Box Cereal Eatins--Dry 'N' Milked

Boxed cereal consumers! Do you always consume yours with milk? Do you also consume some cereals dry, like they're munchies? I've done lots of dry munching on sweetish, often chocolatey cereals. I've tapered off on the grazing for a few years, but am not totally immune to the temptations.

The other day of store trek got me to thinking about cereals I'd loved to munch on but supplies indicate discontinuation or inconsistent availabilities at my supermarket.

• "Post® Shredded Wheat Spoon Size® Honey Nut Cereal" are available at WalMart, apparently. I might need to trek there to get my longtime yearning met.
• "French Toast Crunch", which has come and gone and come and gone.
• "OREO O's® cereal", thankfully made a comeback a few months ago after being gone for maybe a year or two.

HEB has stocked various lines of "Filled Squares", knockoffs of Kellogg's Krave cereals. Before Krave, HEB stocked a Mexican filled-square cereal that was delish and inexpensive. And better stuffed than Krave. Back to HEB's Filled Squares, the flavor I really craved was caramel-filled. Disappeared. Dang! In any case, I'm hoping to run into "H‑E‑B Sweet Creamy Filled Squares" some time soon.

My thoughts meandered to the entire stocked cereal cupboard (9 separate brands). Some are healthful with high amount of fiber, for the sensible grown-up focus. Others appeal to the palate (sugar!) despite little fiber.

 

The lineup in my video shows stagings of current cereals and some empty cereal boxes that represent a few recent consumptions. FWIW, the visuals could nudge you to think about the angel and devil that tug you to consume healthful but kinda boring cereal vs. yummy appeal-to-taste buds cereals that are less healthy to eat.

Chocolate Cereal Blocks Etc

The classic Rice Krispies cereal treat has been around for decades. Over time, I’ve noticed these cereal yummies have undergone two noticeable changes:

• Microwave directions for melting butter and marshmallows, replacing the kettle method
• Proliferation of pre-made packages

Chocolate Cereal Blocks Etc is my frequent deviation from the classic cereal treat, which I most recently prepared for a picnic. Received several raves, so I said I’d send out the recipe. Wellll, in the midst of writing it up, it started shaping up to be another blog article recipe. This recipe uses (in order) butter, caramel vanilla marshmallows and chocolate rice cereal for the cereal blocks. The ganachy icing has peanut butter meltable candies and chocolate frosting. For more details and ideas about the icing, read A Convenient Ganachey Icing.

The classic Rice Krispie blocks recipe uses 10 ounces of marshmallows, which throws a monkey wrench into cereal bar recipes if using Kraft novelty flavor marshmallows. (Curses! Kraft used to put out the novelty flavors in 10-ounce packages, but they’ve gotten greedy and now put them out as 8-ouncers!)

For convenience of those who want to make the classic blocks, I’ve pasted the very simple cooks.com recipe (printer-friendly). Deviation info follows.

CRISPY TREATS (MICROWAVE)
Printed from COOKS.COM
________________________________________
1/4 c. butter
4 c. miniature marshmallows
6 c. Rice Krispies cereal

Substitute 40 large marshmallows.

Butter microwave bowl big enough to hold all ingredients; microwave marshmallows 2 minutes then stir. Microwave again 1 minute. Stir in and mix well the Rice Krispies. Butter hands and put this mixture in a cake pan, flatten, cool and cut into squares.

My deviations from the cooks.com recipe:

• Primary ingredients:
• 3 tablespoons butter instead of ¼ cup (4 tablespoons)
• 10 oz. bag of Kraft caramel/vanilla marshmallows
• 8 cups Cocoa Pebbles. Key concept is chocolate rice cereal.
• Pan: I lined the pan with wax paper that overlapped two opposite sides. I used spray oil on hands instead of butter.
• Icing: I microwave-melted 4 ounces of Wilton Peanut Butter meltable candies (available at craft stores), stirred in 4 ounces of spreadable frosting, and microwaved some more, but using lower power. I poured the warm icing over the cereal mixture and squeegeed (using old but clean tool) it into the crevices.
• Yield: The cooks.com recipe says to cut the batch into 24 pieces. I cut my batch into 48, although some came out a bit smaller than others. Your sizes might vary also, depending on how well you wield your knife. :-)

2nd Life 4 Cereal Packaging

Reuse and repurpose your cereal packaging. Reuse the bags. Create stick fans and make campaign sings with the box fronts and backs.

About a year ago, I wrote about cold cereals. I mentioned I would return to talking about cereals, but regarding packaging. Most cereals come in waxy bags inside rectangular boxes. (Malt-O-Meal bagged cereal doesn't apply.)

Two re-uses for the packaging are bags for food storage and stick fan signs. The stick fans are especially timely for upcoming warm weather and this year's elections. The pixstrip shows the two main uses—food storage (bags), and message stick fans (box fronts and backs).

Food Storage

I don't save and use every cereal bag that I run across. And my usage is usually for some items that I freeze, mostly meats. I use bags of the cereals that are fairly flavor-neutral. These cereals tend to be unsweetened, nearly unsweetened, and free of gumminess or candy stickiness. I parcel servings so that the papers separate portions, whether for single or double servings. This usage is especially good for raw meat for easy defrost later.

If I cut and cook meat for stir-frying, after I cook and cool the meat, I parcel it into maybe one-pound packages, flatten each, fold over the tops, and freeze for a few hours. The flat shape freezes the cooked meat fast. And I can break up the layers into convenient portions for making my own microwave meals with other ingredients. Or I gather up the newly frozen bags and store them all into a Ziploc bag.

Stick Fan Signs

I put most cereal boxes in the recycle bucket these days because I eat way more cereal than I have reasons to make signs for. I share the information for reusers and repruposers who have not thought about another use for the boxes. Use fronts and backs for making campaign stick fans or I'm-here signs. At some events, you can use signs that serve both purposes.

The series of images in the second row of my pixstrip shows a progression of steps. You need a cereal box, something to cut it with (paper cutter recommended), craft sticks that are available at craft stores, stapler and staples, and sheets of paper with slogans.

1. Open up the cereal box. Trim as indicated—folded in half, tops and bottoms trimmed, sides trimmed.
2. Place a craft stick at each panel and staple twice. (Try different boxes for size. Rotate for landscape orientation.)
3. Create and print out slogans. Staple sheets onto the stick fans.

Tip: By cutting a tall cereal box in half along the width, you can make two smaller landscape signs.

You can also use snack food boxes for making signs. Think cheese crackers and boxed cookies. Happy signing!

Cereal Eatin's

Cereals have become increasingly varied over the last 10 years or so. Way back, the novelty cereal was Cheerios for shape. Other shapes were flakes (boring) and puffed rice (sugarless and pretty bland, unless you made Rice Krispie cereal blocks). Other cereals that come to mind are puffed wheat and puffed rice, which tasted surprisingly bland to me. Nabisco Shredded Wheat, to my recollection, came three pillow-shape, haystack-textured rectangles to a box, as unexciting as all getout for looks and taste.

The shapes that later came along to capture imaginations were Post Alpha-Bits and Chex shapes (wheat, rice, corn). Alpha-Bits seems to have spawned other shapes, like Lucky Charms and Trix. (Watch the Trix youtube video of the commercial for Bugs Bunny cameo.)

Lots of the cereals come and go. Most I can't remember. Seems that disappeared cereals are similar to mall store closings and some comic strips for me. When one disappears, I sense something changed, but unsure what had formerly occupied the space. Three cereals that come to mind are General Mills Fingos, Kellogg's Nut & Honey Crunch, and Post Crispy Critters. Just ran across a link for discontinued cereals. Read 'em and weep.

Fingos seemed to straddle between obvious snack and cereal. It didn't stay long. Some background info indicates that a $34 million launch in 1993 didn't guarantee market longevity. Nut & Honey cereal was maybe more famous for the catchphrase than the product itself. Crispy Critters had a jingle and catchy product name. Unfortunately, the cereal disappeared long ago also. Of course, the term crispy critters has evoked more of a negative image as years have passed.

I went through a long period that I skipped cereal, but have been eating them heartily for the last few years. What choices these days! Lots of different shapes and flavors!

I've recently been eating some cereals more out of the box instead of just than eating them with milk. They're yummy for munching while watching TV or working at my desk. Most of the munchable ones I pick are sub-bite-size and not messy or crumbly. They don't melt in my hand or mouth. They're nice alternatives to other, faster calorie-delivery munchies or snacks, like candy bars, bite-size candies, ice cream, snack crackers, chips, roasted peanuts, etc. (You know, those evil foods that often jump into the shopping carts.)

Nearly very week, I slowly amble along the supermarket aisle to see what I'm in the mood for to pick up. The following cereals often make it into my cart, not every week, of course.

• Kellogg's Cinnabon
• Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats Touch of Fruit in the Middle Mixed Berry
• Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats Blueberry Muffin
• Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats Cinnamon Streusel Bite Size
• Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats Little Bites Chocolate
• Post Shredded Wheat Honey Nut
• Post Shredded Wheat Vanilla Almond
• Cascadian Farms Dark Chocolate Almond Granola
• Post Honey Bunches of Oats Just Bunches Cinnamon
• Post Honey Bunches of Oats Just Bunches Honey Roasted
• Post Churros

I don't list any General Mills cereals. I would if they would make the Cinnamon Toast Crunch and French Toast Crunch cereals twice the square size. They're tasty, but too, uh, small for my taste. Not as much fun when I have to pull out several in each grab. Most of the munchie cereals I listed actually have some healthful aspects, of sorts.

• The shredded wheat ones, Chocolate Granola, and Just Bunches, have 5 to 10 grams of fiber per serving in them.
• They take longer to consume than candy bars, chocolates, cookies, and ice cream. (The yummies, with more fat and calories, go down much faster and have fewer nutrients.)
• They cost less by the mouthful. For example, Oreos and chocolate chip cookies don't seem to last as long in the house as cereals.

Munchie cereals are a little less fun to eat and messier as I reach towards the bottom of the box. When clumps become niblets, it's definitely better to mix the bits in milk. For that matter, it's fun to mix several cereal types and flavors together.

My cereal tastes don't extend to those that I consider to be really sweet. Sure, the ones I list are sugary, but not quite sugar bombs like Frosted Flakes and Corn Pops, both by Kellogg's. Actually, I do buy cereals that I pour milk into and eat, without regard to munchiness versatility. I definitely go for variety!

• Uncle Sam
• General Mills Fiber One Honey Clusters
• Cascadian Farms Vanilla Almond Crunch

As a result of eating lots of cereals, I empty out lots of boxes and bags. At another time, I'll write about handy ways to reuse them, up to a point.