Monday, February 15, 2010

How Thrifty is My Hot Cereal?

Well, I felt smug because I bought my own bulk grains for hot cereal. I thought surely I beat Bob's Red Mill for price per pound. I did the calculations and lo, my cereal is not as cheap as I thought it was. Ahem.

Bob's Red Mill 5-Grain Cereal, in bulk from their website is $1.75/lb.

Suggested retail elsewhere puts the price at $2.55/lb.

My cereal is $1.48/lb.

Well, I'll finish the winter out with my thrown-together blend, but maybe next year I will start the winter with a big bag of Bob's and not fiddle with stocking separate grains, mixing them, and then grinding them in my blender.

For the record, anyway, here is a frequent winter breakfast for my family.



Bring 4 cups water and a little salt to boil. Grind 1 and 1/3 cups whole grains such as rye, spelt, quinoa, barley, buckwheat groats, amaranth, and millet in the blender until mostly powder with maybe a few nubbins.

Pour the grains slowly into the water, stirring, and stir frequently for the first few minutes. Cook on low, covered, for 12-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.



Serve as you would any hot cereal. In our house, we like it with milk, some brown sugar, raisins and nuts. This amount usually feeds my family of 2 adults and 2 small children; to adjust amounts, keep in mind that you should grind 1/3 cup grain for 1 cup boiling water. You really can use any whole grain and some people might also use legumes or beans for protein - we don't care for that taste and anyway, we get a complete protein from having the cereal with milk.



I consider myself a thrifty consumer, so I should know by now that I must always, always do the calculations. I should not assume that, for example, big stores or chain stores are always cheaper. . . that on sale at one store is cheaper than another store. . .that buying a bigger size of something means it's cheaper. . . that organic or local is more expensive. . .

Have you been caught by any of these stereotypes?

4 comments:

Beth said...

I go to Costco and have to price check against my grocery store often...most things ARE cheaper at Costco, but organic milk, for instance is not! Next up, see if it's cheaper to buy razors in bulk.

We eat oatmeal twice a week (well the kids do) - we put in peanut butter or almond butter, applesauce, cinnamon, sometimes a splash of vanilla for the ones who care :-)

Margo said...

nut butter in hot cereal? What a great idea!

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Beth said...

We started adding the nut butters to "beef it up" a bit...you know, make it more stick-to-your ribs!