Quick Breakfast: Fruit with Cereal

I often eat cereal for breakfast on weekdays, but reading In Defense of Food got me wondering what exactly was in my various favorite cereals, almost all of which make heart-healthy or low-fat or other sorts of health claims. The answer? Many, many things I can't pronounce, that my great-great-grandmother would certainly not have recognized, and that fail just about every other food rule you could throw at it. So then I tried getting cereals that have relatively few ingredients, all pronounceable, without high fructose corn syrup, and without sugar as one of the first few ingredients. Except these tend to be dense and unsweet and not so tasty.












The answer, at least in the summertime? Fruit with cereal, instead of cereal with fruit. That way, most of it is a whole food, and the relatively small amount of cereal can be a decidedly unsweet, whole-grainy sort  of affair, which ends up bringing a pleasant crunch to the whole thing (and the lack of sweetness becomes a plus, because it doesn't overwhelm the sweetness of the fruit). Peel a peach, or slice a handful of strawberries, and toss into a bowl with a little granola or some multigrain flakes and a splash of pastured milk.