Wednesday, September 17, 2008

I think I'm in LOOOOOVE

I go through breakfast phases. For a couple of months I'll eat a lot of one type of cold cereal; then I'll switch to hot cereal; then I'll get on a yogurt kick. When I was in my third trimester of pregnancy with Zoodle I ate a LOT of eggs thanks to the high-protein Brewer diet I was on. He came out healthy, but I didn't ever want to see another egg. (Luckily I got over that.)

Thanks to my friend Laurel who gave me some of her food when she moved, I am in love with my new breakfast discovery--Quaker Simple Harvest All Natural Instant Multigrain Hot Cereal. (Yeah, that's a mouthful.) I've tried the Apples with Cinnamon and Maple Brown Sugar with Pecans flavors. Both are excellent (and they're also good mixed together.) The second flavor actually has real diced pecans in it!

I usually shy away from instant oatmeal. According to Quaker's website, their traditional instant oatmeal, Maple and Brown Sugar flavor, contains artificial flavors, guar gum, and caramel color. It also contains 13 grams of sugar.

The Simple Harvest Maple Brown Sugar with Pecans, on the other hand, only contains 9 grams of sugar. The calorie count is the same as the original version (160 calories), and the fat is actually higher (thanks to the real pecans). The ingredients make me quite happy. They are "Whole grain rolled oats, whole grain rolled wheat, rolled barley, whole grain rolled rye, sugar, pecans, whole flaxseed, oat flour, natural flavors, salt, molasses." The nebulous term "natural flavors" probably isn't the greatest thing, but it beats the traditional instant oatmeal's flavor list, by far.

At my local Wal-Mart, the Simple Harvest instant oatmeal costs the same as the traditional (around $2.85 per box) but contains eight packets instead of the 10 packets in the traditional box.

I also tried Kashi's GoLean Hearty All Natural Instant Hot Cereal with Clusters (Honey & Cinnamon flavor), which only has 7 grams of sugar. I wasn't crazy about it, but if you like less-sweet hot cereal you may enjoy it. It does have a nice texture and at my local Wal-Mart it cost around 20 cents less less than the Quaker Simple Harvest.



What foods make you fall in looooooove with breakfast?

5 comments:

Becky said...

Yum...I like the Quaker Oats Simple Harvest oatmeal, too. I haven't tried the Kashi brand yet, though.

Right now, I'm on a Fiber One Bar kick. I love, love, love the oats & chocolate kind. One of those yummy bars is 35% of my RDA for fiber, so it's an easy way to get lots of fiber! Gotta be careful with those, though...if you eat more than two, well, um, you might be in the bathroom frequently for awhile. Not that I've done that or anything. Ahem.

Lyndsay said...

You know what is great? Mixing that Kashi Go Lean into yogurt. Gives the yogurt a good crunch/texture and beefs it up a bit.

nopinkhere said...

I have some of the apple Simple Harvest for my son, but I don't like hot cereal for breakfast. Every morning I eat the same thing: regular Kashi Go Lean cereal with cinnamon, flaxseeds, and usually a banana. I know, boring!

C. Beth said...

Becky-I was into those Fiber One bars for awhile! Thankfully I don't think I ever ate enough to "clean out the pipes"--LOL! I got tired of them. But I did appreciate they were lower in sugar than lots of other granola bars.

Lyndsay--That does sound good!

nopinkhere--That sounds like a good breakfast though of course I'd get tired of it quickly. I guess I have breakfast ADD. :)

Anonymous said...

My husband likes a hearty breakfast, so we usually saute up some red onion and bell peppers, scramble some eggs into it, top with cheese and avocado, and maybe do some potatoes on the side :)

but I'm definitely going to get that simple harvest the next time I'm at walmart!!