Cereal with Water and Other Cereal Compulsions
A friend of mine recently admitted to her daily cereal approach: water instead of milk. Sounds disgusting, she knows. But as a compulsive cereal eater—she eats two bowls a sitting, both at breakfast and for afternoon snacks—all that milk intake was too much. Sure, water will never be as good as the milk alternative (which she allows herself on Sunday mornings) but if you want the moisture without the milk, she offered some tips.
- Avoid the flake family. (Honey Bunches of Oats, Frosted Flakes, etc.)
- No Raisin Bran. Under any circumstances.
- Yes on clusters, freeze-dried fruit, and other chunky additions (Special K with Berries, granola, etc.)
- Yes on checkerboard squares (Chex, Life, etc.)
- Avoid drinking the leftover water. That's just nasty.
Maybe you'd rather just eat it dry. Understandable. Do you have any strange cereal-eating habits? Apparently there's a whole separate community that likes it with orange juice.
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43 Comments:
I tried the OJ thing in college. I had to endure 30 minutes of my friends making fun of me while I sat with a soggy bowl of cheerios on my tray. No good, man. No good.
shoneyjoe at 7:37AM on 10/26/09
i've eaten cheerios with OJ before and it was pretty good.
_greenbean at 7:46AM on 10/26/09
I also use water for my cereal because try to avoid dairy nowadays. Skim milk has a water consistency anyway, so I got used to it.
gargupie at 7:54AM on 10/26/09
I make my morning oatmeal with just cold water, that way it doesn't get too mushy.
redfish at 8:06AM on 10/26/09
My 15 year old son goes the chocolate milk route on rice krispies. A friend of mine in college used to have beer on his cereal on the weekends--I hope he's outgrown that habit.
dhorst at 8:08AM on 10/26/09
How 'bout corn flakes and puffed rice cereals, mixed together, with fresh blackberries and blueberries mixed in? No liquid; only berries for moisture.
Gets pricey in the winter, but the BF eats this at least four days a week.
honeybea at 8:13AM on 10/26/09
Erin, isn't the title of this post a bit misleading--your friend isn't obeying a compulsion, she's just not putting milk in her cereal to save calories. Actually, she's probably leaving out the substance with calcium and protein that (provided the milk is good) is healthier than the cereal!
Why not use unsweetened almond milk, vanilla flavored (I prefer nondairy milks personally)--that has only 40 calories a cup?
My weird compulsion--I haven't eaten cereal for years! As a kid, I used to love it, but now cereal tastes like cardboard to me, except oatmeal, which I love.
HeartofGlass at 8:33AM on 10/26/09
I love cereal, but unless it's oatmeal, I won't eat it for breakfast. Dinner or a snack, sure. Lunch, occasionally. Breakfast, nope.
gwenkern at 8:39AM on 10/26/09
Not too strange, but for several months I have been putting a few dollops of yogurt on my cereal, with a little milk also added.
I like the tangy taste of the yogurt.
Remander at 8:54AM on 10/26/09
I only use yogurt in cereal. It's just enough moisture, without the runniness of milk. I sometimes use just frozen berries -- they get juicy as they thaw.
piccola at 9:24AM on 10/26/09
Dry oatmeal with orange juice is my favorite, which is odd because I don't like drinking OJ.
greenteacups at 9:28AM on 10/26/09
I am reminded of a friend of Mr. Meatloaf who has a scoop of ice cream on his a.m. oatmeal - milk and sugar, he says, cools the oatmeal and saves time!
lemons at 9:42AM on 10/26/09
Ditto what HeartofGlass said -- plain unsweetened almond millk is great for those of us who can't do dairy and can't bring ourselves to pour water on cold cereal. No sugar, a nice hit of nutritional value, and most importantly, a delicious light nutty flavor. Far tastier than hemp, rice or soy milks, in my opinion.
Applesauce is another tasty cereal-mate, especially if you're dealing with cinnamon or peanut butter-flavored specimens.
lobsterfest at 9:43AM on 10/26/09
I cannot stand milk with my cereal so I usually eat it dry OR with yogurt. I'll have a little container of yogurt and sprinkle on cereal over the top, scoop it out, and add more. It's surprisingly delicious.
Hillabeans at 9:44AM on 10/26/09
I like to add a large dollop of either plain yogurt or low-fat cottage cheese to the bottom of my cereal bowl. Plunk on the puffed kamut. Add the fruit. Pour on the almond milk. Stir. Then add more puffed kamut and almond milk. Stir until everything is mixed up. The cottage cheese or yogurt make the cereal creamy. When I need some extra calories - I'll add in some Ensure/Boost type product.
I can also eat puffed kamut dry.
If I'm eating oatmeal, oat bran, etc., I start with water and then add in yogurt or cottage cheese once the overnight soaking process is complete. A spoonful of peanut butter is nice as well.
vickith at 9:48AM on 10/26/09
I love apple juice over cereal. I cannot believe that I'm the only one here who uses apple juice, I learned about it from a triathlete friend of mine who uses very little milk at all. The very best is apple juice over grape nuts and let it sit for about 3 minutes and YUM!
zilli at 10:02AM on 10/26/09
My wife is a water user. I also know someone who has his cereal with egg nog every Xmas morning.
pbelardo at 10:24AM on 10/26/09
My great-grandfather used is homemade red wine on his morning cereal.
OTC617 at 10:26AM on 10/26/09
I pour milk in my cereal and drink it all out of the bowl instantly-- I like my cereal to be just slightly wet.
lizaj at 11:31AM on 10/26/09
i looove cereal. when i eat it though, i need SUPER cold milk, so every morning i add an ice cube in my bowl.
Deeberry at 11:33AM on 10/26/09
I hate putting milk in my cereal - makes it too mushy. I have a small glass of milk nearby and take a small sip with every bite.
kellyad at 11:36AM on 10/26/09
I love my cereal dry,no liquid and have a cup of coffee with it. My Mom always had her cereal with coffee and milk added
peggy1116 at 11:38AM on 10/26/09
Milk bothers my stomach. I don't like lactose free milk very much. I find soy milk isn't that great, and almond and rice milks are too darn sweet.
Sometimes I eat my cereal with protein powder drink mixed with water.
Cold cereal isn't all that compared to a hot breakfast!
Cantaloupe Alone at 11:38AM on 10/26/09
Coming home drunk and, ahem, otherwise chemically altered one college evening back in the late 70s, I had a nasty case of the munchies. Being a college apartment though, my choices were limited. I settled on the dubious combination of Rice Krispies and Sloe Gin.
Not bad. Though for the life of me, I cannot recall if Messrs. Snap, Crackle, and/or Pop slurred their respective utterances.
Rhetor at 12:42PM on 10/26/09
I stopped having milk in my cereal at age 3 - decided it was gross. I tried juice for a bit when I was 4, but then found dry cereal. I've been eating it that way for over 20 years and I can't understand why people put liquid in their dry cereal no matter what liquid. I'll add fruit sometimes - berries or chopped apples or stone fruit, but that's for taste not moisture.
tangledgray at 12:52PM on 10/26/09
I can not even begin to point out how flawed the logic of eating cereal with water is. Does she think she is doing herself a favor by not eating the milk? I am not sure how much cereal she actually consumes, whether it's two bowls or four, but unless they are mixing bowl sized, the milk is not going to make her fat, the cereal is. And if she actually has a compulsion to eat four bowls of cereal a day, then she should get some counseling.
eeels at 1:08PM on 10/26/09
you all sound so healthy (except you, rhetor, well done)... in addition to wheaties + wheat beer, the scary favourite of mine was always cocoa krispies with cherry coke. so much sugar your teeth hurt. also, probably the loudest breakfast possible.
laerm at 1:42PM on 10/26/09
I eat cereal every morning with the exception of weekends when I have time to make a hot breakfast. I have a nice rotation of high fiber cereals going in our pantry and then throw in some steel cut oats every so often. I always add milk whether its hot or cold cereal. If we buy "junk food cereal" then that's a Saturday morning treat, not an everyday food.
moo1018 at 2:02PM on 10/26/09
I hated eating breakfast when I was little, so my mom concocted a yummy breakfast in a bowl that I'm still loving 25 years later:
Grape nuts + plump raisins (none of those chewy old raisins that you find in a cereal box) + milk + (secret ingredient:) a little chocolate syrup.
Not the healthiest breakfast once you've added the chocolate syrup, I know. But it's better than going to school without eating the most important meal of the day. I've now turned my boyfriend and my best friend onto this weird combo. Try it! I guarantee you'll love it!
ansfield at 2:33PM on 10/26/09
@Deeberry: I do the ice cube thing too! I started putting frozen fruit on my cereal and after that, cereal without always seems horribly warm. So if there's no frozen fruit around, I have to toss in a couple ice cubes.
when my dad was a kid he saw the picture on the cornflakes box of a bowl of cornflakes with peaches in it and thought the peaches were chunks of margarine. After this he went through a phase of insisting on eating his cereal with spoonfuls of margarine in it, no milk (you couldn't see any milk in the picture)
salthands at 3:31PM on 10/26/09
I used to commute on the train every day and there was a guy who ate his cereal with apple juice...
jsd517 at 3:40PM on 10/26/09
I like my cereal soggy and with milk. If there's no skim milk available, I'll use a little bit of whole milk mixed with water. But it MUST be soggy. And never for breakfast.
Kerosena at 4:06PM on 10/26/09
manufactured cereal: gross
manufactured cereal + water: grosser
Does the milk not have more nutrition than the cereal? (okay, manufacturer-added vitamins, maybe, but you could eat anything and take a vitamin pill just the same)
Lorenzo at 4:54PM on 10/26/09
Yeeech. Unsweetened almond milk or coconut milk (http://www.turtlemountain.com/products/coconut_milk_beverage.html) would save a lot of calories (either will be 40-50 calories per 8 ounce serving) and taste a whole lot better.
peachfish at 5:18PM on 10/26/09
I like almond or hazelnut milk on cereal sometimes myself. My sister swears by Crispix and hot cocoa.
Miss Cheesemonger (http://misscheesemonger.com)
Miss Cheesemonger at 5:43PM on 10/26/09
I once saw a lady pour diet coke,
on her cereal...AND eat it.
mtgall at 6:45PM on 10/26/09
@mtgall - well what else was she going to do with it? :p
Christina at 8:57PM on 10/26/09
when I was 13 or 14 I was visiting my dad, and he had almost nothing to eat in the house, (I think once I even ate expired bacos and cheese for dinner there) and I needed breakfast. I was starving.
there was cheerios, and the only liquid in the fridge was beer, so I ate cheerios and beer for breakfast. it was actually pretty good.
delilah at 2:31AM on 10/27/09
Bravo, Rhetor. Bravo.
My cereal mishaps have never had to do with the liquid (I won't use anything but non-dairy milk) but one time I was out of cereal, so I crumbled up granola bars and popcorn into the milk and ate that instead. Mmmm. Soggy starch.
awordforthat at 3:48AM on 10/27/09
The original post doesn't say anything about giving up milk due to calories. Only that it was too much milk. Since anyone who isn't of European descent (any many of us who are) shouldn't have cow's milk, I imagine it gave her digestive problems. My partner stopped having gastro-intestinal issues when she gave up cow's milk. I've noticed health improvements, too.
misha1by at 2:59PM on 10/27/09
- Avoid the flake family. (Honey Bunches of Oats, Frosted Flakes, etc.)
- Yes on clusters, freeze-dried fruit, and other chunky additions (Special K with Berries, granola, etc.)
Um...isn't Special K in the flake family? How does adding dried fruit make it okay. The flakes are still going to be unpalatable after getting soggy with the water instead of milk.
wunami at 1:32PM on 10/28/09
So happy about this post. I, like many people who commented, have had to endure endless ridicule for using water. Obviously it's not as yummy as milk, but in a pinch it works! My personal favorite is Honey Nut Cheerios. Hooray to Ms. Zimmer for making water and cereal ok!!!
mbfleck at 3:13PM on 10/28/09
@wunami: Toushe. I was wondering if someone would catch that. Maybe I'm delusional, but I believe the Special K with Berries flakes are more coated (ergo more protected against sogginess) than the normal Special K flakes. So I bumped them up to the other category. Does that make any sense?
Erin Zimmer at 11:40PM on 10/28/09