Cereal is kind of Custer's last stand in my kitchen: I can't really make my own raisin bran... It's the least expensive and still the healthiest pre-packaged cereal out there, I can't stand cooked oatmeal, yet need fiber... It's a real headache to deal with, and seriously, the companies that produce "healthy" cereals would do well to live up to their branding, and knock it off already with something that's SO unnecessary: simple sugars. The least they could do is rev up the sweet with stevia, the only non-cal, natural sweetener that isn't non-digestible (non-digestible means it would give anyone the runs if they used it in any real quantity). Stevia is a blessing in disguise, and I'm so thankful the FDA finally approved it's being put on our store shelves.
Well, anyway, the best solution I've come up with is to just "water it down" as it were. So, I bought two huge and cheap bags of Western Family Raisin Bran, which is nice because it isn't contaminated with milk, and one giant cylinder of Quaker Old Fashioned Oats (the non-gooey-when-cooked kind). Plus a few extras, like dates (which do have a little sugar, but not enough for some of us to worry about anyway, diabetics should just skip these), blueberry flavored Craisins, and a large container of regular raisins. You can see where I'm going with this.
The real time-killer was the oats. I refuse to eat those things plain, particularly when some liquid has been poured over them (in my case, soy, almond, or tofu milk). Even if they don't turn to mush, they still blow up and become soggy... Ik. So, cookie sheet by cookie sheet, I toasted them. It was helpful that I have two cookie sheets to work with, but I was also busy working on some other cooking projects after a big shopping trip tonight, so I really didn't have the wherewithall to try coordinating the timings for everything without fearing that I'd get something mixed up. Not until the last couple batches - I had more time and attention, so I now can post two different methods of broiling the oats.
Yes, I said broil, not bake. Broiling rules. If it existed before toasters and toaster-ovens, I'm sure this must be one way people made toast, previous to those inventions. Pan frying with little or no oil would be the other way.
Ingredients
2 jumbo bags Western Family Raisin Bran
1 large container Quaker Old Fashioned Oats
5 packets Sun Crystals Stevia
Raisins (any amount, I used the whole canister)
Chopped Almonds
Craisins
Dates
Instructions
1. Place the top wrack in the oven to the mid-hight point, with the other wrack several inches below it. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Then put a layer of about 1/3" to 1/2" worth of the oats on a cookie sheet (you may lightly grease the cookie sheet if you like, which I did do), in a level layer (you shouldn't be able to see the cookie sheet bottom between any oats).
Broil Method #1
2. Broil for 10 minutes on the top wrack, then remove, and leave the oven on.
3. Place the cookie sheet on a wooden unfinished surface, such as a large cutting board - some surface you don't care about. With a hotpad on at least one hand, and a pancake turning spatula or a large spoon/fork in the other, turn the oats so that the majority which are on top are of a lighter color.
4. Broil again for 5 minutes, during which time, prepare a second cookie sheet with the oats for a second batch. Remove the first batch from the oven to cool, and replace it with the second batch.
5. Repeat steps 2 through 4, using the "done" batch (broiled a total of 15 minutes) as the newly emptied cookie sheet. The oats from finished batches should be allowed to further cool in a large metal or glass bowl.
Broil Method #2
(Slightly altered from what I actually did, but this makes more sense if you're starting and finishing with it.)
2. Repeat step 1 for a second cookie sheet's worth of oats. Broil both sheets for 10 minutes, with one sheet on the top wrack, the other on the bottom.
3. Place the cookie sheets on a large wooden unfinished surface, such as a large cutting board - some surface you don't care about. With a hotpad on at least one hand, and a pancake turning spatula or a large spoon/fork in the other, turn the oats so that the majority which are on top in each pan are of a lighter color.
4. Broil both sheets again for 5 minutes.
5. Repeat steps 2 through 4. The oats from finished batches should be allowed to further cool in a large metal or glass bowl.
Continued Instructions
6. When at least one full batch of oats has finished baking, start mixing in the raisins, Sun Crystals, dates, craisins, and chopped almonds. Keep adding more batches of broiled oats as they get finished, and stir them in immediately so they can start cooling. In the end, the large bowl should be full, with all ingredients well mixed together and reasonably cooled.
7. Using the canister from the raisins, scoop the oat mixture evenly into both bags of cereal. The large bowl should now be empty.
8. Pour one whole bag of cereal back into the large bowl, and mix well, until the raisin bran is evenly distributed throughout the oat mixture. Scoop it all back into the bag. Repeat this step for the second cereal bag.
Seriously - it's very good, and worth eating. I imagine that the glycemic index just dropped at least 40%, though I haven't calculated it all out. Anyway, it should now be sane to eat "healthy" cereal. You just have to add more actually healthy ingredients to it.
Total cost? $6 for the cereal, about $1.50 each for the raisins, crasins, and dates, and the Sun Crystals' cost was negligible. So, for two bags of healthy cereal, I spent about $10.50. That's $5.25/bag. But each bag now holds twice what it did, and started out at 32 oz. So really, comparatively, that's $2.62/32 oz batch of cereal. As compared to an average $4.00 per 15 oz to 21 oz box of standard cereal, if even that much.
I think it's worth it.
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