Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Cereal, How I Love Thee. Let Me Count the Ways...

I have been craving corn flakes. You know, the kind that you grew up eating as a kid as you sat in front of the tube and watched Saturday morning cartoons. Yes I'm serious, kids did that back then, instead of playing around on their smart phones as toddlers, like they are doing now. So back to the flakes...

To my surprise (not really surprised at all), as I scanned the boxes in the grocery store's cereal isle, all of the corn flakes were filled with junk. Junk, trash, chemicals, trans fats, preservatives, and cancer-causing ingredients. No way am I going to put that trash in my temple body, especially my pregnant (and soon-to-be-nursing) body. Plan B, what will be my Plan B?



Luckily, I was introduced to Erewhon Organic Cereals, by Attune Foods, (you know, the makers of the probiotic dark chocolate candy bars and other wonderful products that you can find at Whole Foods) just in the nick of time! Erewhon Corn Flakes definitely fulfilled my cereal craving and then some.

Corn Flakes...hmmmmmm!

You will be delighted to know that Erewhon Corn Flakes contain no GMO ingredients. These cereals are NON GMO Project Verified. Yes, I mean it, a corn product that actually is real, old fashioned, corn and not some creepy GMO science experiment. The taste of this cereal is real, delicious, honest to goodness corn flake cereal. That is exactly what I was looking for. Golden in color, the way nature intended it, what cereal from corn should look like. I enjoyed a huge bowl (or two, or three, or four...) of these corn flakes with cold almond milk and I thoroughly enjoyed every solitary bite.

Ingredients: Organic Milled Corn, Sea Salt. <--- doesn't get much better than that now, does it?

Oh wait it does, each serving (who eats only 1 serving anyways?) contains 60mg of potassium, 3g of protein, and even some Vitamin A, Iron, Phosphorus, and Magnesium. Its not the hugest amounts of these vitamins and minerals, but again, who only eats just 1 cup of cereal? We go through boxes and boxes of cereal in my household per week; cereal is an important thing. Moving on...

Crispy Brown Rice, Gluten-free, tastes like I remember it!

I also tried the Erewhon Crispy Brown Rice, Gluten Free cereal and it reminded me of cereals past but way better. This actually tasted nutritious...because it is. You don't get that brown rice taste, it tastes like a white rice cereal would taste, however you get that nice fulfilled and satisfied feeling after a bowl of these little treasures. Gluten-free, contains 2g of protein per serving and less than 1g of sugar. Its healthy for your children too and they will never know its healthy. Shhh, it will be our secret.

Ingredients: Organic Brown Rice, Organic Brown Rice Syrup, Sea Salt.

Low on the Glycemic Index and safe for your health-food kick. You'll forget though, this cereal tastes that good; not kidding. Dirty it up, you ask? Do what I do and add a splash of Silk creamer to your vegan milk. For some reason I do this only when I eat rice cereal. I'm glad to have finally found a brown rice cereal that I love; this will be a staple in my cupboard for sure!

Last but certainly not least, my personal favorite, a superfood-cereal-powerhouse!

Erewhon's Supergrains, Buckwheat & Hemp cereal packs a nutritious punch, let me tell you. I love hemp, it is a perfect food for your body. Bodies love hemp. Buckwheat is also great for your body and the combination gives you fiber that your body needs to haul away harmful waste in your intestines. This cereal contains a whopping 6g of protein, 5g of dietary fiber, 9% iron, and 2% calcium. If you eat your cereal in generous portions the way I do and pair it with your nutritious vegan milk, you have yourself a super breakfast. This cereal is organic, it is gluten-free, and contains absolutely no GMOs. Six ingredients, that is it. Cereal that is so close to the whole food itself that your body can immediately begin to utilize it as fuel for your functions. This cereal is tasty too; if you eat any type of bran flake in the morning or use it for baking, I recommend trying Erewhon's Buckwheat & Hemp cereal. You can even process some in your blender and use it as a really healthy breadcrumb. I would suggest using it for breadcrumb in stuffed mushrooms; I think that would make a delicious and hearty appetizer.

All three of these cereals will be making regular appearances in my pantry and I'm excited to try other Erewhon cereals. Attune Foods makes other great vegan-friendly products, so keep your eye out for them at Whole Foods. It was exciting to share this with you because as you know, I am very passionate about good food and I'm obviously not going to keep it all to myself. These cereals are great finds and I feel comfortable feeding them to my family. That is a rare occurrence these days, as there are a lot of gross ingredients in packaged foods, so it is a relief to find products like these that work for the health conscious.
The Holy grail and ass-kicker of cereal! Yum!

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