I want to drop cereal. But I love it and love the ease. Alternatives?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We almost completely extinguished a pretty heavy cereal habit here by doing two things: 1) I explained to the kids how much sugar is in Life cereal (or mainstay), and started buying only one small box per week, then stopped buying it altogether (we switched to plain Cheerios). 2) switched to non-dairy milk. Our boys were not interested in trying different mills to find one they liked, so they just stopped eating cereal. We do pancakes, muffins, and/or eggs and bacon now.

Plain Cheerios with non-dairy milk would make me quit too. They combo is gross.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are also trying to reduce cereal because of the price, plus just trying to eat fewer processed foods in general. Though cereal and commercial bread are really the only processed foods we eat so I don't stress that much about it. But yes, the cost! $6 a box is not sustainable for us.

Agree with others that some cereals are more filling than others. I don't even like Cheerios (DD loves the honey nut and DH is generally a fan), but I find Raising Bran, Life, and Grape Nuts all to be pretty filling. Though I will also note that these cereals also tend to be more expensive, probably because they are more dense and nutrient rich.

Alternatives: yogurt with granola, oatmeal, and muffins. I try to make a batch of muffins every Sunday night so that people can grab one for breakfast when they need to. I do bran muffins with chocolate chips, banana, carrot, zucchini, and "pancake muffins" that are literally made with pancake mix (homemade) and berries. My kids don't like the zucchini muffins but will eat everything else. DH often has an early morning commute and especially likes the muffins because he rarely has time to actually sit down and eat a proper breakfast on those days. Lots of ways to pack in fiber and protein to these.

Unless you are making oatmeal from scratch, every other breakfast will be more expensive than cereal.

Oatmeal not from scratch isn’t worth eating.

[Anonymous]

Add walnuts to plsin cheerios. I drizzle a little honey too. This is my current fave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Add walnuts to plsin cheerios. I drizzle a little honey too. This is my current fave.

And add a banana.

This is a better breakfast than a frozen waffle!

[Anonymous]

I don’t think Cheerios is bad for you, but if you wanna cut down consumption maybe limit cereal to breakfast x3 a week. That way you only have to come up with two other breakfast during the work week in school week. You can always cut back further from there.

Agree with others that for convenience, you could do individual oatmeal cups or packets. Yogurt and a banana is quick, and we do a lot of smoothies: I make baggies of fruit and some spinach leaves and then just grab one or two from the freezer to blend with milk or OJ.

[Anonymous]

5% plain fage mixed with granola and berries. It’s just as easy and can be as sweetened as you like depending on the granola, but it has a much better macro balance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are also trying to reduce cereal because of the price, plus just trying to eat fewer processed foods in general. Though cereal and commercial bread are really the only processed foods we eat so I don't stress that much about it. But yes, the cost! $6 a box is not sustainable for us.

Agree with others that some cereals are more filling than others. I don't even like Cheerios (DD loves the honey nut and DH is generally a fan), but I find Raising Bran, Life, and Grape Nuts all to be pretty filling. Though I will also note that these cereals also tend to be more expensive, probably because they are more dense and nutrient rich.

Alternatives: yogurt with granola, oatmeal, and muffins. I try to make a batch of muffins every Sunday night so that people can grab one for breakfast when they need to. I do bran muffins with chocolate chips, banana, carrot, zucchini, and "pancake muffins" that are literally made with pancake mix (homemade) and berries. My kids don't like the zucchini muffins but will eat everything else. DH often has an early morning commute and especially likes the muffins because he rarely has time to actually sit down and eat a proper breakfast on those days. Lots of ways to pack in fiber and protein to these.

Unless you are making oatmeal from scratch, every other breakfast will be more expensive than cereal.

I grant you that for yogurt/granola and any instant oatmeal (or oatmeal with lots of toppings/add ins) but not true for the muffins we make. I can make a dozen bran, banana, or carrot muffins for around $5. Even if you throw in chocolate chips, it doesn't substantially raise the price. That will feed our family of 3 for four mornings (one muffin with butter per person per morning). Might throw in some addition fruit on the side to round it out, but we do that with cereal, too.

So about the same as a $5 box of cereal, with around 12 servings in it. And some cereals cost more now and/or have fewer than 12 servings. I also find the muffins more satisfying because more protein rich than most cereals, plus the advantage of being homemade (no preservatives).

And actually, now that I think about it, if you buy big tubs of yogurt instead of individual servings, that can also be more economical than cereal. I find a bowl of yogurt with blueberries and a side of toast much more filling than a bowl of cereal, and if you buy the yogurt in bulk, it would cost about the same.

[Anonymous]

As a stepping stone, keep the cereal but add something with protein. You could do a 50/50 mix or cheerios and a higher protein cereal. Or serve a small 4 ounce smoothie with whey protein along with the cereal. Or scramble an egg (microwave eggs are speedy and require as much baby sitting). There’s just no protein and almost no fat in cereal. That’s where the hunger is coming from: spike in blood sugar and then a crash.

[Anonymous]

This is our rotation of breakfasts

-blueberry compote baked oatmeal served with Greek yogurt during summer I use peaches*
- stovetop oatmeal*
- French toast casserole with bacon*
- toast or bagel with butter/jelly plus chicken sausage plus fruit
-breakfast burritos*
- sausage hash brown casserole*
- eggs plus hash
- buttermilk waffles with bacon/sausage*
- crescent rolls with chicken sausage. Roll up jones chicken sausage in the crescent rolls and bake as directed.
- Greek yogurt with granola and fresh fruit
- smoothie with protein powder with or without muffin
- egg plus muffin
-overnight oats *
- copycat chick fila bowls *



everything with a * is make ahead. I even make regular French toast and then just put the slices in the toaster to reheat in the morning. I also do this with pancakes or homemade waffles. I'd rather wake up 20-30mij earlier and have a hot breakfast and if not hot, at least nutritous ans filling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plain Cheerios isn’t bad for you but I understand that it’s not really filling. What about some of the high fiber cereals?

Yes they are. They are full of glyphosate. Do like 30 seconds of googling on how good that junk is for you/your kids' health...

https://www.blogilates.com/blog/glyphosate-in-cheerios/

No need to toss the O’s. It MAY be carcinogenic in doses many times larger than a bowl of cereal could contain.

To put it in perspective, an average-sized person would need to eat THOUSANDS of servings of Cheerios every single day to ingest a comparable amount of glyphosate to those who come in direct contact with it and therefore may have an increased risk for cancer.

In fairness, it can seem like a teenager boy can eat thousands of servings of Cheerios.

[Anonymous]

I would keep the plain cheerios on hand. They are heathy-ish. Add some walnuts to them for some good fat and more protein/fiber.

Otherwise, oatmeal is easy and can customize to your liking. Eggs are quick too. A cheese omelette or scrambled egg takes just a couple minutes. Lots of mornings my kids will have a piece of whole grain bread toasted (from a small bakery, not grocery bread), a glass of milk and a piece of fruit.

[Anonymous]

I make oatmeal banana pancakes in silver dollar size in a big batch - https://www.thehealthymaven.com/banana-oatmeal-blender-pancakes/

I also make a rotating variety of muffins that have shredded carrot, shredded zucchini, wheat germ, and other healthy ingredients. Little jars of homemade chia pudding or overnight oats, copycat Starbucks egg bites, and baked oatmeal all last 2-3 days in the fridge. I make 2-3 on Sundays and kids have “grab and go” options for breakfast until they run out and then they eat yogurt, frozen waffles, and cereal until I bake again. Saturdays I usually make smoothies.

None of it is cheaper, and health can be debates. Most (all?) muffins are basically “breakfast cake” - but my kids are healthy weights, we don’t drink juice, and they combine muffins with fruit and peanut butter or cream cheese.

Eating multiple muffins or homemade waffles is no different than multiple bowls of commercial cereal. I just encourage them to eat a variety of foods - a muffin, a banana, a glass of milk, and maybe an egg bite piece of cheese if they are still hungry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I make my own cereal. I start out with bran buds or bran flakes and add puffed rice or millet for volume. Then I add some granola for flavor along with chopped nuts, chopped dried fruit, coconut shreds, pumpkin seeds, etc.

Barf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have never quit my cereal habit, but I do pick cereals that fill people up, like Frosted Mini-Wheats. Eating Cheerios is like eating air.

Cereal isn't a bad thing in and of itself. It's just about choosing ones that actually fill you up. For me, mini-wheats is more filling than steel-cut oatmeal, which is also something I eat.

I agree. I cut out cereal for about 2 years, but when I took a good look at what we were eating instead I saw it was worse, especially the cholesterol. Find healthy cereal and add a handful of nuts, a spoonful of flaxseed, and fruit. You can get a lot of variety. Use soy milk for extra protein. Change it up and mix cereal and fruit into Greek yogurt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plain Cheerios isn’t bad for you but I understand that it’s not really filling. What about some of the high fiber cereals?

Yes they are. They are full of glyphosate. Do like 30 seconds of googling on how good that junk is for you/your kids' health...

doesn’t oatmeal have it too?