Cereal: What is it good for?

"Now I know what cereal is actually good for", I loudly announced to hubby as he was engrossed in tv one night. I wanted to share my insight even though it was 8 p.m., prime sports viewing time.

I'm not a fan of cold cereal. Porridge, aka oatmeal, yes. Cereal, no. I suppose there are a lot of reasons for my thinking. Cereal to me is for the lazy. It's for people who don't have time or can't be bothered making a real breakfast. Cereal is for those who aren't really that conscious or aware of nutrition. I realize that there are some better than others, however, the protein content is usually minimal to none, the sodium and sugar are excessive. Don't even get me started on food colourings or unpronounceable chemicals. Besides, I find the ever shrinking boxes of cereal to be ever increasing in price.

Cereal is something you feed your infants, one little donut shaped nugget at a time. They gum it, drool on it and hopefully swallow it prior to putting their soggy little hands into their tiny tupperware dish to retrieve more.

You can give cereal to the birds in the depths of winter when you can't make it to the grocery store. At least, you can try to negotiate a deal with them. After all, you'd probably rather have the stale bread. So would they, but that's beside the point. If the birds don't want the cereal, let them eat cake.

Cereal is what children (specifically a boy and a girl) gather and use to mark a path through the deep dark woods when they haven't had enough time to find sparkly rocks. They hope that the cereal will guide their way out of the forest so that they might find their home and reunite with family members who are preferably not witches.

Cereal is what you use to make treats. You mix it with marshmallows or something else delicious to create quick,kid friendly snacks. You make bits and bites with it, although I might suggest that the bulk of the mix be pretzels and nuts. I'm not certain why you would create Malibu rum goodies. I could definitely find better uses for the rum than dumping it into colourful fruity cereal. It's even possible to make candy sushi using a variety of cereal. So this begs these questions. If you like sushi, why would you want it to be made out of cereal and candy? If you don't like sushi, why would you want candy that looks like it?

Ah yes...so many thoughts about cereal.  So what did I decide it was actually good for? The other night, I hadn't eaten much...no appetite. I did have to take an evening drug as so many seniors do and it needed to be swallowed with food of some description. Cereal, can be considered food of some description. I also admit, I was lazy. I poured the small woven squares into a bowl, added milk, grabbed my pill and headed to the family room to watch hubby, watch the Raptors while I shared my insight.

"Now I know what cereal is actually good for." I announced. " It's good for an evening snack so that you can take pills."

Since my pronouncement was met with a distracted "Uh huh" I decided that I can probably use this conversation starter and profound discovery a few more times in the future.