Quick & Hearty Healthy Cereal

I don’t know about you, but I can’t start my day without a hearty breakfast. Unlike my husband who doesn’t consume anything until lunchtime except coffee, I wake up hungry and need to eat right away (if I don’t, watch out! I’m not the most pleasant to be around.) I often have a thick slice of homemade bread  with peanut butter and jam but sometimes I like to change up the routine a bit. This quick and hearty healthy cereal is just the thing to fill my belly and fuel my body for several hours of work around the homestead. 

For a long time when I was younger, I hated hot cereal. My experience with it as a kid was eating pre-sweetened packets of instant oatmeal. They didn’t look appealing, were slimy, super sweet and left me still feeling a bit hungry. Then in college I started experimenting with homemade hot healthy cereal and adding in other nutritious and protein packed ingredients to really fill me up and fuel my body for a longer period of time. 

This quick and hearty healthy cereal is so easy to make that it can be made at home on the stove top in less than 15 minutes or over the campfire when camping. When we go camping, I throw all the ingredients for my hot cereal in a container to pack along. When it is time to eat breakfast, all I have to do is add water and cook. 

When making a quick and hearty hot breakfast cereal, I vary the types of grain I use. Sometimes I use old fashioned oats, sometimes a 7-grain cereal, and our recent favorite has been Bob’s Red Mill Organic High Fiber Cereal. I’ve used millet a few times, which is a nice gluten free alternative, but it takes 45 minutes to cook. That’s a bit too long for a quick and healthy breakfast cereal in my book! Bob’s high fiber cereal cooks the quickest in just 10 minutes.

Quick and Hearty Healthy Cereal Recipe

This recipe makes one large serving which is just perfect for my breakfast and a small bowl for Little A.  If you want to make a larger batch, just increase the ingredients accordingly. 

Ingredients: 

1/3 cup Bob’s Red Mill Organic High Fiber Cereal

3/4 water

1 tsp sea salt

1/4 cup dried fruit like raisins, apricots, Made in Nature Super Berry Fusion

1/4 cup chopped nuts like walnuts or Now Foods Raw Almonds

1 tsp  honey or Maple Valley Grade B Maple Syrup

Other variations to add (I don’t add all these together but like to mix and match for a different flavor combo each time):

1 TBS peanut butter

2 TBS shredded unsweetened coconut flakes

1 ripe mashed banana

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions: 

1. Place the water, high fiber cereal and salt in a saucepan. Cook on med/high until it starts to boil, making sure you stir it several times. Once it boils, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. When there are only a few minutes left of cooking time, add the dried fruit, nuts, maple syrup and any other added variations. Continue to stir the last few minutes so it does not stick to the pan. When it is done, pour into a bowl and enjoy!  

Be sure to check out my #hotforbreakfast partners and their amazing recipes: Jess at 104 Homestead – Jami at An Oregon Cottage – Susannah at Feast & West – Kathie at Homepun Seasonal Living – Tessa at Homestead Lady – Chris at Joybilee Farm – Sheila at Life, Love, and Good Food – Lynda at Me & My Pink Mixer – Annie at Montana Homesteader – Angi at Schneiderpeeps 

Thank you to our sponsors Bob’s Red Mill, Made in Nature, Now Foods, and Maple Valley for providing free products to use in our #hotforbreakfast month project.