Cereal prices are on the move up, up, up.
Have you sold any stock yet so you can keep eating your top-shelf Wheaties, Raisin Bran, Lucky Charms and the like?
I’ve given up the name brands long ago. My usual cereal purchase is made by Wegmans, flakes and squares that ably fill in for the pricier stuff you see on TV.
But the last two food shopping trips I took with my good wife Karen landed us at a Super WalMart and a Price Chopper, for expediency and convenience and, well, just because we don’t mind changing it up for excitement. Yeah, I did just say that.
I was out of the flakes first and then the squares.
Good choice and great value, yes.
My cereal blend.
The names on these store brands are too good not to share. The price was right, too.
My cereal concoction.
So I continue to mix and match my Bialczak Blend with 2 percent in my Jethro Bowl. Yum. And you Eagle Eyes may spy that I threw in just a smattering of Karen’s Kashi Heart to Heart circles for a warm cinnamon touch. And I’m not afraid to eat it for lunch.
Do you eat cereal, and why or why not? Do you go for store brands on any particular products, and why? What’s your go-to cereal, and why?
Mark Bialczak 
I don’t eat much cereal because I don’t like milk. I’ll have it dry sometimes. I like to eat plenty of nuts and dried berries, etc so I go that way if I’m on the go. My son eats honey bunches of oats or old fashioned granola mixed with yogurt. Hubby has Cheerios, and he has Golden Grahams when he gets them past me.
I don’t want to even be in the room with cooked oatmeal but I put oats in certain recipes.
They all deal with my buying store brands. Then when the name brands are on sale I’m a hero.
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It’s good to get the name brand on special, indeed, Rose. 🙂
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I stopped buying “Name” cereals after my kids grew up. Now I eat store brand bran flakes, and hardly ever in the AM. For some reason cold cereal tastes so much better as a midnight snack. Do you ever find that an anonymous hunger can only be quelled by a bowl of cold cereal?
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Yes, Benson, cold cereal is a wonderful go-to satisfier. 🙂
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Cereal, one of THE best comfort foods. Ever.
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Yes, the comfort factor is high, MBC. 🙂
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Store Brands all the way although the hubby still has to have his lucky charms!
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That’s funny, Danielle. Always after me lucky charms, hey? Good to see you!
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I love cereal, Mark! 🙂 I tend yo want ones that are not nutritional. Special K has a malt flavor to my taste buds. No one I have met says they agree with my flavor thoughts. Anyway, I like Great Grains pecan and maple cereal, Special K with dehydrated strawberries and I like Honey Nut Cheerios. When I am able to get oatmeal that is tasty like at a school or nursing home cafeteria, I will aggressive butter, brown sugar and raisins. I perspire all year at work and it must take toxins out, because I don’t have sugar or cholesterol problems like I did in my 40’s. Thank God for small blessings. (Meaning I would happily quit the warehouse if I had the money and go back to my no sugar or fat diet. Veggies all the way to freedom. . . 🙂
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This was a weird substitution of my cell phone, Mark!! Maybe Halloween possessed it? 🙂
“aggressive” in the comment by myself, means I will “add” those ingredients.
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I think your phone picked a word that kind of makes sense, Robin. 🙂
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I like your choices, Robin. And the fact that your hard physical job takes care of the sugar and cholesterol numbers is a benefit. Put I wish you had the cash to retire, too, my friend. ❤
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I don’t really eat cereal, unless I’m camping, and by god I try not to do that too often!
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Good plan about the camping, Jay. 🙂
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How pretty you arranged this photo with those flowers. And as for your breakfast, darn if that doesn’t look good and my mouth is watering! I guessed on most of the cereals …. at least 3 you got in that bowl. Maybe you could go so far as to patent your idea to come up with a brand new cereal. Just a thought …. Love, cuz from the west or am I east? Tee hee …. Can you tell me tired? Building that bookcase did me in! LOL ❤
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Thanks, Amy Rose, for the idea of a new combo cereal! The Mash-Up. 😉 You are to the west. I am to the east. Great work on the bookcase, my hard-working friend.
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Sighs sleepily …. thank you! Yes I am the west. The Mash-Up. Sounds like a plan ….. 🙂
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I’ve gone through a serial of cereals, Mark, but I scrupulously read labels these days looking for the least amount of sugar.
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Me, too, Ann. 🙂
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I pretty much avoid the highly processed cereals, for all the health reasons noted by other commenters, especially sugar. I do keep Trader Joe’s Pecan Praline Granola around, which is sweetened only with maple syrup and is YUMMY. And I have my dry cereal with unsweetened vanilla almond milk or yogurt sweetened only with honey. And I fix oatmeal sometimes; found if I put a tiny amount of maple syrup and cinnamon in the water and stir up before I put the oatmeal in and cook, it sweetens and flavors it enough all through without having to add more sweetener. I will admit, though, it’s pumpkin month at Trader Joe’s and I had to have a box of their pumpkin granola– I’m not used to that much sweetness in my cereal any more so one box is enough, but gotta have that one!
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Yes, I keep away from the high sugar, Leigh. Your oatmeal cooking method sounds pretty cool to me. Enjoy your box of Trader Joe’s pumpkin granola, my friend. 🙂
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Nope not big on processed cereals here Mark. I make granola, love yogurt topped with it, fruits, egg whites, French toast bakes using honey and fresh fruits. Oats area favorite as well. That’s all folks…Gatorette
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Sounds delicious, Gatorette.
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Must keep my babes healthy and strong they’re young and depend on me!!! Terp you know! The Gatorette.
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funny, mg has a jethro bowl too. ) i’m not a huge cereal person, because i would go for alphabits or trix, and that is not a good thing. love the flowers too and i like your cereal casserole.
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We men seem to like a big bowl to avoid unnecessary waste by spillage and spashing, Beth. 🙂 That’s my excuse, anyway. And I’ll pass along your flower compliment to the family arranger, my dear wife Karen. ❤
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No cold cereal. Oatmeal in the cold months at times. Mostly eggs, bagels, cheese…lots of protein here in the a.m. I miss my seasonal fruits with cottage cheese in the summer months.
☺ But…I did gift my son with a box of Count Chocula..his favorite from years ago, that only shows up at this time of year.
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I betcha your son is a happy camper, munching on the Count, Van. Nice touch. And, yes, your post about the seasonal fruit and cottage cheese was quite winning, I recall.
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Yes, I eat cereal every morning and it seems that they have been coming out with a lot of exotic flavors recently. I like to try different ones but mostly stay away from the generic brands…although if they’re cheap and tasty…why not? Couldn’t even tell you my reasoning. I discovered Cinnamon Toast Crunch (oh yeah, CTC) but now my kids eat it so I try to leave it for them.
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Don’t deny your cereal jones for the kids’ sake, Marissa. Buy more of the CTC and enjoy, says me. 😉
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I know what you mean. It just seems that no matter how much I buy it still seems like it’s theirs. Jewish mother guilt.
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I get it. Growing up on Long Island I was an honorary Jew, going off to my friends’ bar mitzvahs and proudly wearing the yarmmulke at Temple. But after totally devouring knishes, potato pancakes … I felt guilty.
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Well, there you do. That would make it official if nothing else.
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This is a great post… it feels like a sunny morning 🙂 ….cereal…. i dont eat cereal often bc I have a dairy and soy allergy :((( but I love oatmeal and an egg white omlet is my usual breakfast — unless of course I’m in the mood to make some french toast ~ which will forever be my favorite!!
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Dang, you’re making me hungry, West. I love French Toast, of course. Heavenly breakfast. 🙂 Thanks for your kind words, my friend.
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I like Honey Nut Cheerios and Grapenuts. My boys are making me eat oatmeal, which I am not a huge fan of, but I eat it dry mixed in with yogurt and topped with fruit, so it is pretty palatable. I love Captain Crunch, but I am not allowed to eat that anymore (no gains in eating Captain Crunch).
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The tastiest of cereals are way out of my sugar range, SD. Captain Crunch! I can close my eyes and remember the sweet goodness …
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The only problem with Captain Crunch is it scratches the roof of my mouth – but it is still yummy – the things we will suffer for yummy tasting cereal!!!!!
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Take care of your mouth ceiling, SD. 😉 That reminds me of the biggest woe in that part of my life: The first bite into too-hot pizza. Ouch! Mouth burn. ;-(
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Mouth burn is the worst because you live with it for days. I suppose it should teach us to be more patient and wait for the pizza to cool down, but who can do that, when you have a steaming hot pizza with gooey cheese sitting in front of you?
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Right, SD?! But my very worst case was when I ate my first fried green tomato, and the whole steaming hot ring of that app adhered itself to the roof of my mouth, leaving me to tongue-wrestle it out of there for the big pah-tooie release. Couple glasses of iced tea later, I was … ready to eat another cooled-down ring. Delicious.
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Oh that sounds horrible, but I do love fried green tomatoes. I bet you felt the residual sting for several days after that. The price we pay…….
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I had the skin flap for days, yes. Ohhhhhhh.
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I have to squinch my face up in empathy for your prolonged suffering. Sounds absolutely awful! Poor Mark!!!!!!
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And yet I lived to eat again, SD. 😉
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You are one tough guy!!!!
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Yeah, I spit nails. Eat coal and crap diamonds. Ha. Thanks for your viewpoint, cool SD.
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I got lots of viewpoints Mark. You can count on me!!!! (Eating my dry oatmeal – AARGH – no pain, no gain)
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I’m trying to picture it as a sort-of granola, SD.
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I tried to picture it as granola but really it just tastes like little shredded up pieces of cardboard mushed together in yogurt. It does fill you up though, but does nothing for the palate.
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Life is roughage, SD. ;-o
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Keeps the pipes clean – roughage does!!!!
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Made me remember this:
“Jethro, how many bowls of cereal have you had?”
“I’ve just had one bowl, Uncle Jed.”
“How many times did you fill it up?”
“Eight.”
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That’s the character for which my Jethro Bowl is named. Thanks for this ‘Beverly Hillbillies’ scene, Scott!
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GMO’s, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Cottonseed oil, big boxes/small quantities, and of course price….as we used to say on the farm “The ole gal is off her feed.” Course my Aunt was referencing her favorite sow…
But I digress.
Making my own granola again. Had forgotten just how good it was. And inexpensive to make.
Great post Mark.
Thinking I might scramble up a few of those $5.00 a dozen eggs for breakfast this morning.
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Homemade granola sounds fabulous, JoHanna. Your aunt would come up with a new saying for the thrift and ingenuity, right?
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Oh, I cringe at just the thought of some of her cost saving measures, and how wasteful she would consider the way I live. But she would love my granola. Probably sprinkle it over the pile of home made scrabble and half dozen scrambled eggs she would consume most mornings.
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Your grandma ate a healthier breakfast than my paternal grandfather, JoHanna. He’d crack a raw egg into a small tumbler of whiskey. No kidding! Made me queasy every time I was at their apartment in the morning.
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And the term “cast iron stomach’ was born!
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No kidding. Yikes!
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I do like cereal. I like to overeat cereal, so I don’t often eat it, lol!
Cheerios, big bales of shredded wheat, Great Grains — these are my faves. Now and again we’ll have some junk food cereal like Cap’n Crunch or Golden Grahams, and I’ll eat them for a snack, but not for breakfast. I prefer poached eggs and toast, warm, buttery grits, or oatmeal.
I cannot cope with mixed cereals. 😛
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I’ve been on a for-lunch run with it, Joey. Not overeating, just eating. A big bale of shredded wheat does sound good this a.m., but not as good as a poached egg, buttery grits or oatmeal. But I already ate my breakfast banana. 🙂
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I don’t often eat cereal Mark because I don’t process fiber well – part of my medical issues left over from the cancer. That said, I usually keep a box around for occasional munching – love raisin bran but can only eat it about once a month. I usually buy the store brand or wait until it is on special. Yum! That looks like a fun and tasty mix you are using.
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Your care in eating is fantastic, Paul. Lesser folks would eat now, suffer later. Raisin bran is too sugary for me, unfortunately. I keep to the lowest sugar content.
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Pain is a wonderful teacher. ha!
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It does leave its nasty footprint after stomping all over you, for sure, Paul.
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Good morning, Mark! When the girls were at home, we bought lots of cereal–and went through it quickly. Then it went to just Cheerios. Now, I stick to oatmeal. I buy the old fashioned kind (store brand) that I cook in a pot. I’m eating it now with brown sugar and raisins. Yum!
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I’m a fan of oatmeal, too, Merril. I like to put sugar-free syrup in it!
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My younger daughter likes cinnamon and jam.
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Jam! That’s a new one for me. Sounds delicious. 🙂
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