Enviro Girl’s family loves cereal for breakfast. It’s fast, convenient to serve, and pleases everyone at the table. Trouble is, breakfast cereal can be full of sugar and chemicals, cost a lot of money, and generate a lot of trash. Even though bagels, oatmeal and smoothies are on their breakfast menu, Enviro Girl’s kids prefer cereal.
She’s long been one of those moms who parks her kids at the end of the cereal aisle while she runs down and selects the few brands she’ll let her kids eat. Life, Honey Nut Cheerios and some type of EnviroKidz cereal make it into the cart. No matter how much they fuss and beg and promise to clean their rooms, Enviro Girl does not buy her boys Frosted Fruity Sugar Bombs and Super Chocolate Munchos for breakfast. Too much sugar, not enough nutrition to give them a good start to their day.
Enviro Girl double-dog-dares you to find a breakfast cereal without high fructose corn syrup. It’s tough to do, which is why the selection in her pantry is so limited. Even the Honey Nut Cheerios is pushing the limit with 9 grams of sugar per serving.
Breakfast cereal costs a lot, too. At $4-$5 a box, a few boxes can make a dent in the grocery budget. But it’s a convenient, fast way to feed kids before school and they’ll eat it without complaint.
And breakfast cereal generates waste. The cardboard box can be composted or recycled, but the plastic bag inside, the bag keeping the cereal fresh, goes into the trash. Try as she might, Enviro Girl cannot find a use for those bags every week.
So imagine Enviro Girl’s delight when her oldest son went to Bible camp this summer and described with enthusiasm the homemade breakfast cereal he ate every morning. Enviro Girl got the recipe and tried it at home–it was a hit! Even her husband (a man raised on Pop Tarts and Captain Crunch for breakfast) ate bowlful after bowlful.
How to Make:
Mix 6 cups dry quick oats, 1 cup brown or white sugar, 1 cup melted margarine and 1 teaspoon (optional) cinnamon. Pour into a roaster or on a baking sheet and bake at 250 degrees for 2 hours, stirring every 15 minutes. The mixture will be golden brown and dry. You can add dried fruit (after baking) or nuts or coconut (before baking) for variety.
Enviro Girl loves this cereal because it’s healthy, it costs less than $2 a batch to make, and it generates comparatively less waste than buying boxes of cereal. She stores her homemade cereal in a glass jar. The cardboard oats container, the paper bag from the sugar, the jar from the cinnamon can all be recycled or composted. By buying the ingredients in bulk, you can reduce packaging waste even further. Easy to make, easy to love, Enviro Girl challenges readers to make their own cereal and make breakfast a greener meal.
What a great idea! And it’s so easy too.
Does this turn out like a granola cereal? I’m the main cereal eater in the house, and I could love this.
It does–depending on how much you stir it up, it’ll break down or stay clumpy. It is JUST like granola, but MUCH LESS MONEY!