Recipe: Dry Cereal

If you have been on the edge of your seat about how I was going to go about making cereal since my Facebook comment about it, your wait is over.  I did wait a few days to make any because I couldn't find a recipe that seemed edible by all 7 members of our family.  Then early this morning as I thought about the fact that I still hadn't made it and I didn't know what to make my soon-to-be-awake kids for breakfast, I remembered my trusty More With Less cookbook that I hadn't even consulted yet.  Sure enough, it has a recipe in it entitled Basic Dry Cereal Formula.  I made my version of it this morning and it was liked by all the kids.  Two ate it dry and the other 3 ate it with milk.  Most of us added dry peaches to it, but it was good without.  It would be excellent with raisins in my opinion.  The recipe as it is in the cookbook:


Preheat oven to 300 deg.
Combine in large bowl:
7 C. dry ingredients, including at least 2-3C rolled oats, plus other grains and nuts as desired:

wheat germ, whole wheat flour, wheat bran, wheat grits, cornmeal, soy flour or grits or roasted beans, grape nuts, uncooked cereal, sunflower seeds, roasted pumpkin seeds, fresh grated or dried coconut, dry milk solids, chopped nuts, spices--cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. 

Combine separately and pour over dry ingredients:
1 C. liquids, including as desired:

honey, syrup, molasses, brown sugar (use 2T water with 1/2C. sugar), oil, melted margarine, peanut butter, milk or cream

Bake in large greased baking pans 30-60 minutes, stirring often.  Do not overbrown.  Crunchiness depends on proportions and baking time.  For a chunkier cereal, allow to cool undisturbed, then break into pieces.  And when cool, as desired:

raisins, chopped dates, dried apples, apricots, other fruits

When I made it this morning, I used 4C rolled oats, 1C corn grits, 2C sunflower seeds, and 1C coconut flakes (yes, that does equal 8 not 7; I remembered the coconut later and didn't want to skip it...) .  I also added a pinch of salt and 1T cinnamon.  The liquids I used were just honey and oil.  I will try molasses soon.  I did change the cooking temperature and time because I wanted to go back to sleep (I was working on this at 5:30 y'all).  I cooked it in my jelly roll pan at 250 for 1 hour 15 minutes and stirred it once.  It came out perfectly (in my opinion, of course).


I feel I should answer the inevitable question from my siblings (who know I'm weird but why not try to explain myself anyway?) about why I wanted to make cereal. It is not necessarily about cost, though I did buy a 50# bag of oats at what I believe to be a super price (also, have you SEEN the price of cereal?).   I have not done a price comparison and probably won't.  I primarily wanted to make it because I hate going to the store.  I hate that the cereals that my kids like have food die in them.  I want an EASY breakfast that my kids like OK that is CHEAP and I can name all the ingredients.  Don't worry, I'm not a closet militant crunchy Mom.  


Updated: I made it this afternoon with the molasses. I used 1/4 C honey, 1/4C molasses, and 1/2 C oil.  Otherwise it was the same.  It is even better and the oldest says it tastes like Honey Bunches of Oats.