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?