This post if from Nikki, the ever-amazing other part to this healthy endeavor:
3 years ago, my knowledge of grains was limited to processed wheat, oats (usually as granola bars), and white rice. Then around a year ago, I learned about the importance of whole grains and began the switch to whole wheat products and whole grain rice. I even tried quinoa and liked it!
Cereal is one of my absolute favorite foods - I can eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if it weren't for the fact that I know I need a few other food groups. So Kashi quickly became my new whole grain favorite...until there was the mold issue. Now I suddenly have a sensitivity to corn, wheat, and oats (among plenty of other things). I can include small amounts of each of these on a rotated basis, but there are some days that I can't handle any of them. My doctor gave me a cheat sheet of food groups that looked promising until I actually read it...Teff? Millet? Tapioca? Buckwheat? What in the world do I do with these???
I was longingly going down the cereal aisle at a local grocery store, looking for a decent rice cereal, and tucked away on a bottom shelf was
Arrowhead Mill's Puffed Millet cereal
. Ingredients: Puffed Millet. It sounded flavorless and unappetizing, but I grabbed a bag out of curiousity. Ready for the surprise? I was right! It tastes just like cardboard with a slightly chewy texture.
Remembering the research I did for
an article on Helium about sugar-free cooking, I got to work experimenting in the kitchen and came up with Toasted Millet & Pecan cereal. Ahhh (that's my contented sigh) My beloved crunchy cereal that I can eat on wheat-, corn-, and oat-free days!
Toasted Millet & Pecan Cereal
3 cups puffed millet
1/3 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup coarsely pureed pear or pearsauce*
2 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp salt
*For the pureed pear, I put 1 medium pear in the food processor. This recipe is very forgiving, so it doesn't have to be exactly 1/2 cup. You will just need to adjust the cooking time if you have a bit more or a little less liquid.
Cover a baking sheet with foil, leaving the dull non-stick side of the foil facing up. (You'd be surprised at how many recipes I've accidentally put the shiny side up and had everything stick.) Preheat oven to 275. In a small bowl, stir together pear, vanilla, and honey. In a large bowl, combine the pear mixture with all of the other ingredients. Stir until well combined. Spread the mixture onto the baking sheet and bake for approximately 1 hour, stirring the mixture every 20 minutes. Remove pan from oven when cereal is almost completely dry. It will harden as it cools.
Variations: For a fruity flavor, use pureed peaches, diced strawberries, or some berry fruit spread in place of the pears. Other combinations of spices work well too, such as 1/2 cup of pureed pumpkin with 1 1/2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice instead of the pears, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
