Comfort Foods: Cereal

There are times when a meal shouldn't be any more complicated than a bowl of cereal and nut milk. I miss those days. I have found no commercially available cereals that are low-carbohydrate. A hot cereal is easily made with buckwheat groats, hemp seeds, coconut flakes, and other things like chia seeds, flax seeds, and cinnamon. Cold cereal is an entirely different experience. All that is required is cold liquid and a box of crunchy flakes. Bowl and spoon are optional.

Homemade carbohydrate conscious cereal

No special equipment is needed to make cereal. If you have a dehydrator, you can make a raw cereal. If you have an oven, you can bake the cereal flakes.

Most cereals are fortified with vitamins and minerals. Not to be outdone, I used 3/4 cup of Garden of Life® RAW Meal. This stuff is expensive and is not necessary to make cereal. If you have some other sort of meal substitute powder, that would work. If you would like to try RAW Meal, you can buy sample packets. One packet would be enough for this recipe. Alternatively, a different type of flour can be used.

Items marked with * are NOT low carbohydrate. If carbohydrates don't tax your pancreas, you have the flexibility to add these ingredients.


Dry Ingredients
4 Tablespoons of seeds: flax, chia, hemp, sesame, sunflower, buckwheat groats, oat groats*
3/4 Cup flour: buckwheat, spelt*, oat*, quinoa*
3/4 Cup protein or meal substitute powder or flour: Garden of Life® RAW Meal or other type of flour
1/2 Cup nut meal: almond, pecan, walnut, cashew - what do you have on hand?
1/4 Cup whole crunchy things: this could be hemp seeds, buckwheat groats, almond slices or dried fruit*
1 Tablespoon protein powder: hemp, soy or omit - this is optional
1/2 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients
1 Tablespoon oil: coconut oil (melted), grape seed oil, or try omitting with an oil substitute
3/4 Cup water: don't add all at once!
1 - 2 Tablespoons flavoring: vanilla, maple, walnut - whatever you've got!
Sweetener: I used two squirts of vanilla stevia. If you have maple syrup*, barley malt syrup*, rice syrup* in the pantry, stir in 2 Tablespoons of liquid sweetener to the first 1/4 cup of water. If you don't have liquid sweetener, stir in 2 Tablespoons of dry sweetener to your first 1/4 cup of water.

Extras
Add cinnamon, cardamom, fenugreek seeds, rose petals or other goodies from the spice rack to taste.

Putting it Together
Mix together your special blend of dry ingredients.
4 Tablespoons of seeds
1 1/2 Cups of whole grain flour
1/2  Cup nut meal
1/4 Cup whole crunchies or dried fruit
1 Tablespoon of protein powder (optional)
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Oil
Add 1 Tablespoon of oil to the dry ingredients and mix as thoroughly as possible.

In a liquid measuring cup place:
1 - 2 Tablespoons of flavoring / extract
1 - 2 Tablespoons of sweetener (dry or wet) OR 2 droppers full of liquid stevia
1/4 Cup of water

Reserve 1/2 Cup water and add as needed.

Pour the sweetener and 1/4 Cup water into the dry ingredients mixed with oil and blend thoroughly.
Continue to add the remaining water until your cereal dough can be spread thinly with a knife but is not runny.

If baking in an oven, spread cereal dough onto parchment paper and bake at 300°F for 30 minutes, turning off heat at 20 minutes to prevent burning. If, after 30 minutes, the cereal is still sticky, return to oven for additional time.

If using a dehydrator, spread cereal dough onto Teflex sheets as thinly as possible. Set the dehydrator temperature to 200 for quicker results or at your preferred raw temperature. Check after 3 or 4 hours. If the cereal holds together, remove from Teflex and continue to dry until no moisture remains.

Break cereal into flakes. Store in airtight container if it lasts that long.


Making cereal isn't complicated. It may look that way because I listed options and substitutes. Use the whole grain organic items you already have in your kitchen to make your own comforting bowl of cereal free of GMOs, artificial coloring, artificial flavoring, mascots, and gimmicks.