The kids and I discovered a new breakfast cereal we all love. It’s called Chocolate Delight Granola by Back to Nature.  While I don’t condone eating grains as “part of a healthy diet” per se, we do give in to the temptation of a fast and convenient breakfast food such as cold cereal.  So when we do eat cereal, I try to make it the best I can find.

That said, I am just not going to spend $5 on a box of cereal at the health food store, so I make do with what my local Publix has to offer.  They carry a fairly wide selection of Cascadian Farm, Barbara’s, etc., along with their own Greenwise brand, at lower prices than the health food store, closer to $3-4 per box.  The Chocolate Granola just happened to be buy-one-get-one-free (gotta love Publix!) so I couldn’t resist trying it.

What do I look for in a breakfast cereal?  My mind is not made up on the whole organic vs. non-organic issue.  I just don’t know whether to trust the guidelines of what makes something organic or not.  Among other things.  But I do have some simple criteria for the processed foods that I do buy (which isn’t many).

One is that is not contain high fructose corn syrup.  Or any other weird mutations of sugar (dextrose, maltodextrin, etc.).  Another is that it not contain hydrogenated oil.  Those are my two biggies to look for.  So when I buy “organic” cereal it is not necessarily the organic grains I’m going for but just a brand that doesn’t contain those two big nasties.

My kids’ favorites are (or have been):

• Barbara’s Bakery Honey Nut Os
• Publix Greenwise Honey Crunch & Oats
• Kashi Cinnamon Harvest, and their new Island Vanilla
• Cascadian Farm Multi Grain Squares
• Cascadian Farm Cinnamon Crunch

And now… I think I’ll go have some chocolate for breakfast!