3 Wholesome Breakfast Alternatives to the Processed Cereal
Written by Ajay Chohan, Founder @ Small Batch Goodness
If you are determined to eliminate the ultra-processed cereal from your morning routine, but don’t quite have the time or desire to bust out breakfast burritos every day, here are some wholesome oatylicious alternatives.
When selecting anything we’ll be feeding ourselves, the most important thing is A. reading the full ingredients list and B. knowing where those ingredients came from — i.e. quality of the soil on which the grains, nuts and fruits were grown! Soil quality and aliveness determines e v e r y t h i n g from taste to the nutritional value of what grows from it. One really has to start from the very beginning of the supply chain. My focus is finding companies that maintain a close relation with farmers and growers who value the traditional organic ways of cultivating our land.
Let’s commence:
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Oatmeal
Making oatmeal can be as simple as putting some rolled oats in a bowl and pouring freshly boiled water over it, let it stand 3-4 minutes, and you are good. Add some raw cane sugar or raw honey if you like. And just this makes a much healthier breakfast that will give you sustained energy, versus having a processed cereal with extruded grains (if you want to learn more about extrusion, why it is bad for grains and how almost all cereals use this harmfully high heat process — you can read Part II of my article here). Now, steel cut oats are also easy to make and simply require boiling for 15 or so minutes. Oats are also gluten free, if you are looking for that.
High Quality Oatmeal Producers:
Bob’s Red Mill: Founded in 1974 by Bob Moore, it’s hard not to like this 100% employee owned company passionate about feeding all wholesomely whole grains (sorry I got carried away there). Their traditional stone grinding mills grind grains at a s l o w s p e e d whilst maintaining a cool temperature. Bob’s Red Mill classics include their organic extra thick rolled oats and the organic steel cut oats
Farm to Table Foods: The definition of ‘wholesomely delicious.’ Farm to Table Foods works directly with small batch farmers tending their land with love, not chemical fertilizers. The company’s flagship oatmeal is their Organic Ancient Super Grain — oats blended with kamut khorasan, spelt, rye, red wheat and flax seeds — all organically grown of course. This protein rich oatmeal will give you sustained and slowly released energy
Now, we can enhance our oatmeal further for taste + nutrition by adding fruits, nuts and healthy wholesome sources of sweetness.
Healthier Sources of Sweetness:
Raw Honey: Not all sources of sweetness are the same. Raw honey is full of life giving nutrients and live enzymes, unlike the highly processed and ultra-refined corn syrups or white refined sugar. Producers making raw and unfiltered honey — the only way honey should be — include Y.S. Eco Bee Farms and Really Raw Honey. Nature Nate’s honey is not raw and unfiltered BTW, you can read my article on them here
Raw Turbinado Sugar: Turbinado sugar is minimally processed and made from boiling sugarcane juice. It retains the natural molasses and nutrients that the further refined white sugar has lost. The wholesome turbinado sugar also tastes better. It’s still sugar though…so enjoy in moderation. I like the classic Trader Joe’s one but any raw cane sugar will do
Muesli
Muesli is a close cousin of oatmeal. The base is still oats here — rolled oats — but mixed with other whole grains like rye, wheat and barley. Muesli is made by soaking these whole grains overnight in a small amount of water. You take this the next day and add things like fruits and nuts, some like squeezing lemon in there, and have it with milk or yogurt. The overnight soaking makes the grains easier to digest for our bodies. Also muesli is generally served cold vs. the oatmeal above. You can make your own of course, starting with a base of rolled oats, or buy.
The uber healthy and easy on the gut Muesli is more common in Europe and Australia than the U.S., together we can change this ;). Couple farmer focused muesli producers I like are:
Nourishing Muesli Producers:
Seven Sundays: The founders Hannah and Brady Barnstable discovered muesli in New Zealand and started off by selling their own at a Minneapolis farmers market. Aware of the importance of soil health, they remain committed to regenerative agriculture practices as the company grows.
Their organic muesli is made with ingredients such as oats, buckwheat, currants, sorghum flakes and flax seeds. You get a wholesome breakfast that is truly diverse and rich in nutrients. Seven Sundays’ popular muesli varieties includes the Wild and Free Blueberry Chia and the Farmers Market Almond Date Currant muesli
Bob’s Red Mill: Only makes sense Bob’s Red Mill also makes an amazing muesli. Similar to Seven Sundays’ ‘international origin,' Bob Moore discovered muesli while spending time in the Scottish countryside. Bob’s Red Mill muesli is full of whole grains, dried berries and various seeds for wholesome taste + nutrition. Their muesli varieties include the Fruit & Seed Muesli and Old Country Style muesli
Granola - aka baked oats with some other things added
If you thought I was done with oats think again lol. I think you can make both oatmeal/muesli and granola equally nutritious. So it’s mostly a taste preference. I prefer oatmeal and muesli. But adding some wholesome granola on top of greek yogurt and topping it with fruits and raw honey doesn’t make a terrible breakfast either ;). Granola also makes a good snack on its own. Similar to above, my focus is finding granola makers who obsess with ingredient quality and are transparent about their high quality farm sources
Wholesome Granola Brands:
One Degree Organic Foods: One Degree publicly lists all the farmers and co-ops they source from. Also, sprouting oats is their specialty. Grains sprout naturally, but we don’t see them often as grains are generally harvested before they have a chance to sprout. Sprouted grains are more easily digested by our body and have more nutrients to begin with.
One Degree’s popular granolas include their Sprouted Oats + Hemp Seeds and the Sprouted Oats + Sprouted Quinoa + Cacao granolas. Coming back to oatmeal, they of course also have Sprouted Rolled + Sprouted Steel Cut oats. Everything is gluten free
Purely Elizabeth: The founder Elizabeth Stein aka the Granola Queen’s mission was creating nourishing granola with an exceptional taste. The ingredients in their granolas are thus both nutritious and selected for their taste + texture. These include quinoa, amaranth, flax and coconut sugar.
Pure Elizabeth also works closely with farmers practicing regenerative agriculture to improve soil health and thus the quality of the ingredients themselves. Their popular granolas include the Chocolate Sea Salt Probiotic and the Original Ancient Grain granolas
Tierra Farm: When the first words on a company’s site are “righteous food” and “integrity” — you know they are up to something good. Tierra Farm is genuinely conscious of how our entire ecosystem works — from taking care of the soil and the birds and the bees…to composting the right way. You can read about their ‘Compostable Bag Take-Back Program’ here, which they offer for free, respect.
Coming to granola, the staple is their ‘just granola’ made with flax, sunflower, chia and sesame seeds. And sweetened with maple syrup. All ingredients are organically grown. You can explore their full granola selection here. Other organic goodness from the company includes nut butters, coffee, maple syrup, raw honey and more
There you have it. Delightfully healthy and wholesome breakfast alternatives to the processed cereal. Think a loved one can benefit from this research based article? Do not forget to share!