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.

Mischief & Mayhem (Vegan Scrabble)

Scrabble clockwise starting from the left - Peanut butter chocolate chip, apple blueberry, savory, and blueberry squared

One of my favorite snacks as winter approaches is fresh citrus and Scrabble. The sweet juicy fruit mixing with the salty crunch seems like a complete meal. To eliminate the carbohydrates, the fruit has to go. This is the worst part. (Scientists in the lab, please work on a way for Type 1 diabetics to be able to eat fruit. Thanks.) The other high carbohydrate ingredient comes from the cereals.

To make Scrabble vegan and suitable for healthy diets, the margarine, Worcestershire sauce, and big brand GMO cereals need to be switched out. Most varieties of Worcestershire sauce have anchovies. Commercially, Wizard's and Annie's both make Worcestershire. Martha Stewart offers a homemade vegan recipe for Worcestershire sauce along with the suggestion of using it to make Colin Quinn's Irish Lamb Stew. *sigh* Her recipe doesn't use any clove or allspice, so it won't have the complexity of flavors of a well-brewed Worcestershire.

Accidentally, I stumbled upon a way to achieve that sought-after flavor of Scrabble mix. I am terribly excited about the recipe because it does not require a dehydrator, though I used one in this instance. The snack turned out to be an outstanding fuel source for the winter recreation created by the recent decent snowfall. It's high in fat and low in carbohydrates, so use wisely!

Not leaving well enough alone, I went back into the laboratory to replicate my results and came up with three additional flavor variations. First is the basic recipe so that you can consider making your own taste sensation followed by the variations. Before you slather the nut mix, taste the flavoring and adjust to suit. If you aren't using stevia, use a liquid sweetener you have on hand such as one tablespoon barley malt or maple syrup.

This recipe is not for hard core mathematicians. Relax and experiment. I did.

Basic Recipe
1/4 to 1/3 Cup flavored liquid (tamari or flavored balsamic vinegar)
1 Tablespoons fruit sweetened jam
seasonings
1 Tablespoon egg replacer
2 - 4 teaspoons of seasoning
2 - 4 Tablespoons water (if needed)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix well and pour over 2 to 2 1/2 cups of nuts and seeds. (whatever you have - raw almonds, cashews, pepitas, pumpkin seeds, buckwheat groats, flax seeds, pistachios, hemp seeds, hazelnuts)

Oven method: spread on cookie sheet/s and bake at 275°F for 40 minutes stirring every 10 minutes.
Dehydrator method: spread on teflex sheets and dehydrate at 200°F for an hour. Check to see if done and remove from teflex once pliable. Temperature may be reduced and dehyrating time increased as desired.

Store in an airtight container.

Savory Scrabble
1/4 to 1/3 Cup tamari (low sodium)
1 Tablespoon apricot fruit spread (no sugar)
1 Tablespoon egg replacer (Bob's or Ener-G)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp ginger powder
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
2 to 4 Tablespoons water (if needed)

Oven method: spread on cookie sheet/s and bake at 275°F for 40 minutes stirring every 10 minutes.
Dehydrator method: spread on teflex sheets and dehydrate at 200°F for an hour. Check to see if done and remove from teflex once pliable. Temperature may be reduced and dehyrating time increased as desired.

Store in an airtight container.

Sweet Fruit Srabble
1/4 cup flavored balsamic vinegar (blueberry, apple, apricot, whatever you've got)
1 Tablespoon complementary fruit spread (no sugar blueberry, apple, apricot, whatever you have)
1 Tablespoon egg replacer (Bob's or Ener-G)
1 squirt liquid stevia (apricot, vanilla, whatever you have on hand)

Oven method: spread on cookie sheet/s and bake at 275°F for 40 minutes stirring every 10 minutes.
Dehydrator method: spread on teflex sheets and dehydrate at 200°F for an hour. Check to see if done and remove from teflex once pliable. Temperature may be reduced and dehyrating time increased as desired.

Store in an airtight container.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Scrabble
1/4 cup peanut butter (salted, no sugar)
1 Tablespoon complementary fruitspread (no sugar strawberry, apricot, apple, grape)
1 Tablespoon egg replacer (Bob's or Ener-g)
1 squirt liquid stevia (apricot, chocolate raspberry, vanilla, whatever looks good)
1/2 cup Good Life chocolate chips (the tiny ones)

Oven method: spread on cookie sheet/s and bake at 275°F for 40 minutes stirring every 10 minutes.
Dehydrator method: spread on teflex sheets and dehydrate at 200°F for an hour. Check to see if done and remove from teflex once pliable. Temperature may be reduced and dehyrating time increased as desired.


Store in an airtight container.