Monday, March 4, 2013

Cereal!


Cereal. Such an easy, fun food to have. Such a delightfully crunchy food to munch on.

I admit, sometimes I miss those favorites cereals from the past: Reese's Puffs, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, even Cheerios! However, every time I walk down the cereal isle I wonder ... what on earth is this stuff really?

Yeah, okay, the boxes say their made from "whole" grains and contain "high" amounts of calcium, fiber or what-not but what kind of condition does a grain need to go under in order to create that delightfully puffy and crunchy substance?

Super high heated temperatures and pressurized conditions - that's what.

So all in all, even after the cereal has been "fortified" with this and that - it's then drenched in high amounts of sugar and submitted to extreme conditions. So what are we really getting?

Junk, I say.

So, in order to bring back what cereal really is, really used to be and is truly meant to be ... I came up with a cereal that we really like and look forward to eating every morning.

Here's the recipe:

6 cups sprouted buckwheat
6 cups oatmeal
1 1/2 cups finely shredded coconut
1 cup chia seeds
1 1/2 cups (blended/finely chopped) almonds
2 cups dried fruit (strawberries, currants, blueberries, bananas, goji berries, etc.)

Sweetener of choice such as: raw honey, dextrose, xylitol, sucanat, etc.

1. Sprout buckwheat by soaking in large bowl overnight. Drain and rinse (really well) the next morning. Place in colander, cover, and allow to sit for 24 hours, rinsing every few hours or so.

2. Before drying the sprouted buckwheat in the dehydrator, mix it with the oatmeal.

3. Spray some of the cereal mixture, while on the tray, with a mixture of 2 T. sweetener and 1/4 cup water. Do this to the mixture on each tray.

4. Dehydrate at or under 115° until its all dry.

5. Mix in the remaining ingredients and place in a container.

Fresh fruits and berries, etc. can be added to the cereal.

We like to use almond milk or raw milk for the cereal.

Enjoy!

2 comments:

  1. I've read that oats, more than other grains for sure need to be soaked, and for very long times, as well, and also a grain with phytase (like buckwheat or wheat) needs to be added so the phytase can break down the phytic acid. What do you think about this? I miss oatmeal. :(

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  2. I've read that as well. Which is why when I make my granola I soak the oats first THEN dehydrate them THEN mix them with the rest of the ingredients THEN dehydrate them again. Lots O' work I tell ya!

    But, honestly, I chose not to care for this cereal recipe. But, seeing as how I'm dehydrating the buckwheat anyway - might as well soak the oats (with a bit of yogurt or kefir) the night before and dehydrate with the buckwheat.

    And let me be honest - sometimes I wonder where all this information comes from. It seems like one person says something on the net like "wheat or rye" needs to be added to the soaking oatmeal to break down the phytase" - then suddenly everyone is saying it.

    It makes me wonder - where's the evidence? Who found this, through testing, to be absolute truth? And what kind of testing was done to prove this to be true?

    In my opinoin, the best test is to eat it one way and eat it the other way and pay attention to how your body felt when you ate it. Did your stomach get upset? Did your vibrational frequency or body energy go down after eating it? Did you get constipated? Did you get moody? etc.

    I wish I could pinpoint where these facts were coming from so that I could find out the absolute truth.

    But I understand if people are wanting to be safe rather than sorry - I fall into that category myself! :)

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