Dorset Cereals – Honey Granola

Dorset Cereals and their whole muesli thing has always appeared to me as overpriced bird food. (PS: I'm not a muesli fan) I do like granola, though, especially with nuts and honey, so I decided to give this box a try. (PS: It was on offer)

This cereal is seriously stripped down. Oats, pecans, almonds, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, all baked with the tiniest hint of honey and vanilla extract. This is perfect for people who absolutely love nuts and oats, as that's pretty much the main taste of the cereal.

I'm not too big on this cereal, but it's not bad either, considering how natural and healthy it is. A good choice for organic bunnies, but is definitely not for those looking for a Crunchy Nut or Cheerios alternative. And definitely no great after-cereal milk.

Sweet Home Farm Granola – Maple Pecan

It's been a while!

I wish I could say that I haven't been updating much because of my incredibly packed schedule due to being so super-popular that I have to meet up with three to four different friends per day, but that is not the case. While I am free and easy in Singapore, all my friends are in school on weekdays, and cooped up at home on weekends burying their heads in their books for the crazy school system which I've managed to escape!

Fortunately, before I head back to London next Wednesday, I'll be meeting up with friends for a bit, to celebrate birthdays and say goodbye!

When there is no pau, wonton mee, moon cake, egg tarts or curry puffs for breakfast, I grab myself a bowl, a spoon, some milk, and the carton of cereal above.

Wait a minute, those strange things don't sound like things people usually have for breakfast, says England. You're right, but only if you aren't in Asia.

Prior to contrary belief, Asians are in some ways pretttttty unhealthy eaters. Just walk through the Taiwanese streets full of fried-food vendors, or check out the Singporean ah peks ('uncles', i.e men aged 50-ish and above) in the kopitiams (hawker centres) at nine in the morning eating nasi lemak (fragrant Malaysian rice with varying side dishes) with fried chicken and egg.

To feel slightly back-to-routine again, I occasionally have a bowl of cereal when I sleep in and wake up too late to be served breakfast, or when Mum isn't in. USA-imported Sweet Home Farm cereals come in a fat carton and several other flavours which I haven't seen or tried.

The clusters in this cereal don't easily come apart like the one from Tesco, (which tastes amazing by the way) and the pecan nuts are wholesome and appealing. They taste noticeably unique, and far from the standard-sweetness of Tesco's and Sainsbury's versions – there's a deep, woody flavour in this cereal, a sigh of actual maple syrup! The sweetness doesn't hit you in the face, but there's a good amount which leaves a fabulous cereal milk to slurp up!

The milk used here is Pura's regular whole milk, which has been the standard purchase in the household for years – there's no annoying taste, yet it isn't completely bland, a perfect blank canvas for cereal-consumption, and even for drinking it on its own.

Going to creep to my kitchen now and eat out of the tupperware (which it has been transferred to due to potential pesky ants) with a spoon, shhh!

Crunchy Nut Clusters with milk chocolate curls and honey

"Crunchy Nut is on offer!" my sister suddenly half-yelled as I was standing in the cereal aisle of Tesco deciding between the healthier Special K options or Cookie Crisp and sugar-coated things.

For £2 (U.P £2.69) we got a 450g box of cereal clusters and chocolate curls.

The clusters of puffed rice, peanuts, and oats were simply decadent! The honey coating was extremely yummy, and as always for Crunchy Nut, the peanut fragrance really came through, in a sweet rather than nutty way.

The clusters really stuck together, and didn't fall apart easily even when submerged in milk. The chocolate curls were not so significant, but provided the tiniest hint of taste and soft texture. The milk became quite sweet as a result of the honey, hooray!

A great cereal, I'm definitely getting it again some time. This cereal is basically for everyone – kids, granola-lovers, nut fans, chocoholics, sweet teeth, the whole lot!

What is life without cereal? | MEGA-POST!

I feel like I have gone through a rite of passage with regards to the type of cereal which I eat.

Before coming to London, if someone mentioned 'cereal', I would think of Nestlé's Honey Stars, Cookie Crisp, or something sweet and crunchy which involves chocolate. (Click here for my first post, in which this mindset is demonstrated perfectly.) In my household, the normal cereal in the main cupboard was for my third brother and I, while the wheat-nut-leaves-whatever-stuff-grown-in-a-field-sort-of-thing cereal in the corner cupboard was eaten by mum and my second brother. I never cared to find out the difference between 'muesli' and 'granola' – I was happy with the Honey Stars.

This whole cereal business has become a different story ever since I came to London. The supermarkets' cereal aisles are filled with so many boxes of different brands and varieties, with font sizes getting bigger and bigger as they boast about their health benefits and energy releasing-powers.

There are choices of granola, muesli, oats, shredded wheat, puffed rice, cornflakes, porridge, bran, pillows – and half of them come in grab & go sizes, such as cereal bars, and even biscuits.

This post is going to be as long as the cereal aisle in a Tesco Extra.

These White Chocolate and Strawberry Cereal Bars from Tesco is an awesome buy, at 76p per box. Although each bar is relatively small, (20.8g) they taste fantastic. The bar is more chewy than crunchy, and sweet, with strawberry-flavoured bits, plus white chocolate chips – delightful.

This Kellogg's Special K Red Berry Cereal Bar tastes great too, and is slightly bigger than the previous one, but costs a lot more, at £2 for 5 bars (Tesco), and has a drizzle of yogurt for a topping instead of white chocolate chips, which doesn't do much for the bar, when you can really enjoy the white chocolate chips in the other one. It may be Special K, but doesn't have much calorific difference from the 76p option offered by Tesco.

While the cereal bar is yummy and sweet, I could not stand having more after the first serving of Kellogg's Special K 'Red Berries' cereal, which is made of rice and wheat flakes, with added dried red berries.

I had the impression that the cereal was going to be really good, because it is famous, and, gosh, just look at those generous, dried fruits. I had this cereal with milk, and all I tasted was the sourness of the dried berries, together with the bland cereal – needless to say, I did not like it at all. It would probably be edible with yoghurt, but it was just so unsatisfying with milk. I gave the rest of the box to a friend, in exchange for this:

Jordans Country Crisp with Chunky Nuts is probably one of the best cereals around.

This box of sweetened granola with hazelnuts, pecans, brazil nuts and almonds flakes just makes the world go round. They stay crunchy in milk, and the combined nutty flavours, with the perfect level of sweetness, make the cereal extremely moreish. 

It took me a while to realize and register that 'porridge' in this country does not refer to rice cooked in broth with meat, ginger, peanuts and sesame oil, but oats soaked in warm milk or water, until it all becomes creamy mush.

I have the impression that oats are pretty bland things, so I was a tad sceptical about Quaker's Oat So Simple porridge with Golden Syrup, but I trusted the promise of a Golden Syrup flavour.

I ended up really liking this porridge pot by Quaker Oats. After pouring boiling water into the pot, an aroma of golden syrup causes those nearby to turn their noses curiously. The taste isn't strong, but the porridge is satisfyingly creamy and yummy, and also very filling!

Source

Weetabix is barely edible until you know what to surround it with. Made from wheat, they come in "biscuits" which are basically round blocks which soften and separate in liquid. I have this in the mornings, as they warm me up in the ridiculous "spring" weather of two degrees celsius. After microwaving half a bowl of milk, I stir in two tablespoons of hot chocolate powder (Waitrose's own brand – my favourite so far), then drop in the biscuits and mush them around, making a warm, delicious chocolatey porridge. Golden syrup, honey, or sugar is also a popular choice of topping.

Tesco's Maple and Pecan Crisp is more in crumb-form than it is in cluster-form, and the pecans are barely distinguishable, but they're there among the crisped rice.

But mother of god, this is one good box of cereal. The maple and pecan flavours are so perfect and satisfying, you really can't help but want ten more spoonfuls.

Sainsbury's sells the same kind of cereal, and although it looks more promising, with whole pecans, solid clusters and all, its taste pales in comparison to the awesomeness of Tesco's version. There's just something in the fragrance of Tesco's Maple and Pecan Crisp which ruins it for the rest of the supermarkets' own brands.

I used to take horseback riding lessons when I was 10, so when I see the word 'bran', the first thing that comes to mind are the plain, brown pallets which serve as horse food. Needless to say, I was sceptical of anything on the shelves which call themselves 'bran'.

However, these snack packs of Kellogg's All-Bran Golden Crunch was on offer at Tesco, so I decided to give it a go. Boy, were they good. These were honey-coated or something, and each bite was sweet and yummy.

Kellogg's 'Krave' shouldn't even be classified as a type of cereal. They're more like chocolate-filled biscuit pillows, really.

They're not actually florescent yellow. Lighting issue!

Each biscuit pillow is filled with chocolate hazelnut cream which provides a nice burst of flavour when bitten into. The cream is more of a solid than a liquid, but that can be solved with the use of a microwave. Once you pop a Krave into your mouth, it's impossible to resist a second one. And a third.

Kellogg's Crunchy Nut is apparently voted the best-tasting cereal by, uh, some people, and rightfully so.

The nut in mention is the peanut. Its smell dances under your nose when you open the bag of cereal. Each cornflake is infused with peanut bits, and coated with sugar or something, which goes off into the milk and creates the best after-cereal milk result ever. I often find myself eating Crunchy Nut straight from the bag, unable to stop.

Graze #2

Click here for part one.

I found my second Graze box waiting for me when I got home on Friday evening. I don't remember why, but I remember feeling a little bit down that day.

I opened the box and could not help feeling better when I see four little punnets with cute illustrated fonts and doodles on them, each containing a yummy-looking snack.

Apple & Cinnamon flapjacks - A big YES to this one. I love the hint of cinnamon, and can feel little apple pieces, which don't overpower the almighty golden syrup taste. I've labelled this snack as "Love", which means that Graze will send me these flapjacks more often.

Informative page in my booklet

Cookies & Cream - Creative, but a little bit strange. This snack contains mini chocolate cookies, white chocolate buttons, (there were only four) raw hazelnuts and sunflower seeds. The sunflower seeds created a dull background flavour which had nothing to do with the cookies & cream concept, but I enjoyed the white chocolate. The cookies were alright, and although the hazelnuts were probably meant to compliment the chocolate flavours, the fact that they were raw and just there in the box didn't do much for the overall combination. Still a good snack, but just doesn't fit its title that well.

Boston Baguettes w/ BBQ Relish - The 'Baguettes' were crunchy breadsticks with salt and tomato seasoning, and the dip was a good-quality BBQ sauce with tomato chunks. It was delicious, and a good snack to have with just 84 calories to make you feel better about having it fifteen minutes before dinnertime because they were just sitting there on your table for no particular reason.

Toffee Apple - Thank goodness, this one survived the weekend and made it to school on Monday.   I felt that the apples had a strange texture – a dried exterior with rubbery, semi-moist insides. The taste of the apples dipped into the toffee isn't too bad, though, a pretty good snack.

Come on guys. Just order a free Graze box using that code, and I get £1 off my next box! These boxes are really lovely, the snacks are just so satisfying.

I went healthy food shopping

There's a tiny little corner shop next to the rail station near my place which sells whole foods – shelves and shelves of them – and I was curious. It was a lazy Sunday (I think) evening, and I was wandering around the area after doing my Tesco shopping for the week's lunch.

I always had the impression that "organic" and "whole foods" translates to "expensive", and I was right, so I went for a few items by the door which were under a pound.

Sea salt flavoured Cofresh Hummus Chips

This intrigued me, but they had too mild of a taste for my liking. They're made of chickpea flour, and the sea salt was minimal, but they were still edible, good for filling the tummy without feeling unhealthy, as there was barely any oil present.

Sunita sesame bar with honey

I'm not a huge nut-bar worshipper, but I know that nothing goes too wrong when coated with honey, and sesame seeds were familiar ground to me.

As you can see, there is no mid-bite photograph available. (ps: I just realized that I have run out of these, and am desperate to get some first thing tomorrow morning.)

Aside from the addictive sweet and nutty taste, it provides loads of energy and is healthy too!

Yes, nuts are high in calories and fat, but they are healthy, and good for you. At least that's what I keep reminding myself when I gorge down a giant mixed nut bar before bedtime. Furthermore, honey is good for your skin, anti-bacterial, and can actually reduce the risk of cancer. In fact, some mornings, I have two spoonfuls of honey with hot water, as a drink – so delicious, and it looks like cancer isn't coming my way anytime soon.

Next up are these things I got from Tesco. First is a belVita breakfast biscuit, sandwiched with yogurt.

It was pretty normal, nothing special about it.

Resembles an Oreo. No? Okay.

And then this baby takes belVita breakfast biscuits to a whole new level.

They sat on the counter of the Cs' kitchen for a few mornings, unopened, because: why have biscuits when you can have toast with chocolate spread, or cereal with yogurt?

There is no question once you have eaten a belVita breakfast biscuit with honey and nuts and little chocolate chips. The biscuit is crisp, sweet and tasty, and as addictive as chocolate digestives, (and anyone who has had those know what I'm talking about) or probably even more. The little chocolate chips are a real treat, and the nuts are just right, neither overstuffed nor scarce. They come in packets of four, which in my opinion is a dangerous quantity, as one can never successfully persuade oneself to eat two and keep the rest for later. They are currently on offer for half-price at Tesco, which makes me very happy.

These 'go ahead!' apple fruit bakes were on offer as well, (I think they still are) and after recently converting from a baked-apple skeptic to a lover of apple pies and cakes, these seemed appealing.

I'm not too sure what the 'bake' is. The closest thing I can compare it to is a shortcrust pastry. The shell is smooth and soft, and it isn't a crunchy biscuit. The apple filling is delicious. It's kind of sticky and paste-y, which makes the whole snack very easy to eat. It's a great bar, I really like it.

The last victim is 'go ahead!' 's strawberry yogurt break, which is a thin, cracker-sandwich filled with strawberry paste, with yogurt spread on top.

The cracker and yogurt combination of textures is slightly strange, but the overall taste is good, except for two things – the sultanas and currants. I absolutely detest raisins and their dehydrated cousins, so the biscuit is alright up to the point when I find myself chewing on something un-strawberry in the filling.

But several of my friends love this snack, so you can ignore my judgement on this one.