This week has been a long week of getting very little done around the house. The week started with my son getting sick, and then my daughter. Now all three of us are sick. Somehow my husband has avoided getting it so far. Since we haven’t felt too well, I wanted to share a shorter post with you about our favorite homemade cereal.
Before I share those with you though, I want to share with you something that is very exciting!
Streaming Videos
Schoolhouse Teachers, the curriculum that I use with my daughter, has added RightNow Media to their curriculum. It is like having Pureflix for your kids, but better! I love it! When we decided to get rid of all our streaming services last year, we also got rid of Pureflix. It just wasn’t used enough to make it worth paying for.
The videos on Schoolhouse Teachers are all part of different lessons throughout the curriculum. They have now just pulled all of those videos together into one place. RightNow Media has Superbook, Owlegories, Carlos Caterpillar, McGee and Me, and so much more. My kids absolutely love getting to watch these shows.
Along with that, they even have videos for parents! They have so many different categories of life to listen to and learn from. I am planning on starting one of the Women’s Bible Studies soon. It is just such a great video streaming option for your entire family.
The best part is that it is included in your Schoolhouse Teachers subscription plan. You do not need to pay extra for this. If you are interested in this, you can follow my affiliate link to it here: https://schoolhouseteachers.com/media/ref/119608/.
Homemade Cereal
When I decided that my family needed to eat more food from scratch, I started with the cereal that we eat. Every day, I would wake up with a bowl of Mini Wheats. My daughter loved eating Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and my son loved eating Cheerios. None of those cereals are good for you, so I figured we should start by changing how we start our day.
The idea of making your own homemade cereal can seem very daunting. Cereal has lots of small bites to it, which can take quite a bit of time to make. I spent so many hours cutting out tiny little squares and circles of cereal that would be gone by the end of the week. It just was not working for me. The two recipes below, are the quickest and best tasting ones that I have found so far.
Healthy Granola
I started by searching through Pinterest for a homemade cereal that would replace Mini Wheats. The only thing that looked appealing to me was granola. The day that I was about to make my first granola cereal I found on Pinterest, my Dad shared with me the recipe that he has been using.
My Dad has recently become allergic to peanuts, so he has had to make his own cereal with ingredients that haven’t been made in the same factory as peanuts. It has been a challenge for him, and a learning process. Well the recipe that he uses for his granola cereal, is absolutely delicious and so simple. Plus, when he comes out to visit, I now have a cereal that he can eat!
You can find this homemade cereal on Pinterest by Cookie and Kate!
Why I Love This Recipe
This granola is so simple, and is loved by everyone in my family! Currently I am using Quaker Oats for my oats, but now that there has been some pesticides found in Quaker Oats products, I will be changing to organic oats. For the nuts that can be added in, I use sliced almonds. The recipe gives you the option to use honey or pure maple syrup to bind everything together. I have used both options, and I enjoy both of them. Honey is less expensive though, so it tends to get used more often.
All that is involved in baking this cereal is pouring it out onto parchment paper lined pans. Then all you have to do is stir it halfway through the baking time. When it is done in the oven, you need to let it cool completely before breaking the granola up and storing it for breakfast. It is the fastest homemade cereal I have made so far.
Homemade Cheerios
My children had many different homemade cereal ideas in mind. Of course, my daughter wanted me to try to make Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I did make one weeks worth of it, and it tasted delicious. The problem was that it didn’t hold up well to being in milk. It became soggy very quickly.
Another cereal that I tried was Peanut Butter Crunch. This recipe was delicious when eaten dry. When it touched milk though, it turned to mush instantly. This sent me on a mission to find a tasty homemade cereal that could hold up to milk.
That is when I found the perfect recipe for homemade cereal. It can be added to milk, and it does not get soggy! The recipe for these Homemade Cheerios can be found below!
Why I Love This Recipe
These Cheerios do not taste like store bought Cheerios. They taste so much better!
For the ingredients, I save money by putting oats and sliced almonds in my food processor to create my oat flour and almond flour. These two ingredients are a big reason why this cereal does so well in milk. I haven’t found these two ingredients in many other cereal recipes.
The best part about this recipe is that close to the bottom of this recipe, it gives you different options on how you want your cereal to look and how to bake it. Well, being a busy Mom of two children, I chose the crumble option. The cereal does not look pretty, but it is quick, and the kids absolutely love it!
My daughter really wants to have some Fruit Loops for cereal, so I plan on playing around with different fruit flavors and plant based dyes to make them special for her. I have already tried adding pureed grapes to it and a little extra flour. It worked out well, but didn’t have enough grape flavor. If I come up with a great way to transform this recipe into delicious Fruit Loops, I will definitely share it with you.
Find Rest in the Lord
When you spend your entire week taking care of sick children, and trying to find time to take care of yourself and the house as well, it can be exhausting. Having a toddler who can’t tell you what is wrong or what hurts, is very stressful. At night, I have a baby monitor on him, and I can hear him wake up coughing all throughout the night. It keeps my worried Mom mind awake.
Along with the worry, I am praying daily that this sickness is over quickly. My daughter has her next dance competition this next Saturday, so I desperately need her to feel better. Plus, being miserable is absolutely no fun. I spent all week listening to my sad sounding children crying and coughing and sneezing. All at the same time, I am miserable, and having to take care of them.
Prayer
I think everyone can agree that it is always our prayer that our kids and family can be healthy. We never want them to be sick, and when they are we want them to feel better quickly. The sleepless nights, and many hours of trying to force myself to sleep can take quite a toll on me. This is when I am grateful that I can find rest in the Lord. Prayer during these exhausting hours can help so much. The Lord helps me find peace and quiet in the chaos and worry. This peace allows me to sleep when my mind rather stay awake worrying.
In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety. – Psalm 4:8
I pray that we are able to give all our worries about our children to the Lord. Our families need us to be well rested, and the Lord can help us find peace in order to do that. I know that it can be difficult to remember to pray and let go when we are in the middle of it all. Just know that the Lord has us and our little ones safely in His arms. He will take care of us!
I hope those who are exhausted are able to find very good rest this week. Then you can wake up to some delicious homemade cereal to start your day out right!