Cereal Bonanza!!

When I was a kid, I looked forward to my morning bowl of cereal every night before I went to sleep. I would drift off into dreamland, snuggling my chubby cheek against the pillow as visions of crunchy, sugar-coated goodness danced in my head. Not much has changed. I have a constant cinema of food-porn racing through my head at any given moment.  I'll always be a fat kid at heart.

I had my favorites, of course.  These are my Cereal Friends:

Number one on my list was ALWAYS Cap'n Crunch with Crunch Berries. This was the Jenna Jameson of my food fantasies, the ever-loving carbohydrate star. Even though it would cut your mouth to pieces after the first bowl, I'd always go back for more of those little golden nuggets with their artificially-colored spherical  buddies. I'd save the berries for last, chasing them around my bowl till the milk turned pink.

A close second was Cookie Crisp. The wizard on the box was creepy, and again, they made your mouth raw, but whoever figured out how to shrink those cookies was my hero. My mom would get pissed, but I would forget to roll the inner bag down on purpose, because I liked them a little stale. Sometimes, stale is better. I like donuts this way as well. Call me gross.

In third place was Corn POPS!  Can't forget the all CAPS - that's important!  Whatever high-fructose ooze they coated these babies with, it was delectable to my twelve-year-old taste buds. My fiance preferred the much touted "Mom-tested" KiX  corn cereal when he was a kid. His parents were health-conscious, I guess.  Mine, not so much. Hello childhood obesity!

Honeycomb was probably the "healthiest" cereal I consumed as a child proper. I think I thought it was healthy because it always had soccer players and other various athletes on the box. I was never a various athlete.  Maybe I thought Honeycomb could magically make me hit that softball and not get picked last for the team.

Next was Fruity Pebbles. It could have been because I loved "The Flintstones" and wanted to be Betty Rubble. But, I really think it was picking the dried, crusty leftovers off the rim of the bowl. This was the best part. I watch in amazement when I see my daughter do the same damn thing.  I let her. Those crusties are friggin'  hard to get off before you run that stupid bowl through the dishwasher.

When I was in high-school, I finally shed my so called baby-weight (I don't buy that. I think that is a lie from the pit of hell. The only time you shed "baby-weight" is after you spawn.)  In any event, I was trying to be conscious of the invisible highway from my hand to my mouth. I elevated my tastes to Raisin Bran. I would carefully measure the 3/4 cup serving, put in my skim milk, add more raisins and a heaping tablespoon of sugar. Don't judge. My Rocky Mountains still fit.

Cereal is great - while I have moved onto Kashi GoLean! with those ridiculously happy people of various ethnicities on the box, I still turn to cereal in times of food woe.  I still read all the information that surrounds the package, and peruse the nutritional information.  I take great pleasure in pouring the milk, hearing the crunch, and enjoying this all-around bowl of happiness. Where would bachelors, time-crunched single-moms, and various athletes be without it?





Tell me your favorites...