Cereal

Breakfast is the most vexing time of the day for those of a gluten-free necessity. I make estimates, mainly joking, that 80% of what I ate before I was diagnosed with celiac had gluten in it, and that's only mainly joking. For breakfast though, it has to be be accurate. Bagels, English Muffins, Donuts, Pancakes. Oatmeal laden with all sorts of fun contamination. Sure I'd have some eggs now and again or bacon or what have you but I work in a building with a cafeteria in it and it was usually a Mon-Fri cycle of Bagel/Donut/Oatmeal/Muffin/Pancakes for my week. Unlike other parts of the day, there aren't a lot of quick alternatives. My two favorites are making waffles and hot cereal, but we'll get to those. They both involve effort after all, even if it's minimal.

Today, I want to talk about cereal. There are a million cereal choices out there for the average person, crunchberries, little fake cookies/brownies/french toast, those oat squares with the brown sugar and cinnamon, pink hearts, yellow moons, green clovers, etc.

We're exponentially more limited, especially if you're worried about contamination (and with most pre-packaged stuff, I tend to be), but there are more options than I first realized when I was diagnosed, and it lets us sort of make it through the morning when we have to move quick.

Chex

Ah, salvation, thy name is Chex. Versatility and variety, ease of access, and some level of comfort. There is Corn Chex, Rice Chex, Vanilla Chex, Chocolate Chex, Honey Nut Chex, Cinnamon Chex. Obviously, we shouldn't be having Wheat Chex or the Multi-Grain Chex. When it comes to Chex Only Mix, I've had the Peppermint and Brownie versions without any incident, but I don't entirely suggest risking it unless you're feeling froggy. There's the old "made on a line with..." warning in there. The Peppermint kind is seasonal and great, though. Unfortunately, most of the standard prepackaged Chex Mixes are out. We can't eat normal pretzels or something? Who knew?

Now, Chex is not a super exciting breakfast w/milk solution. You can do worse, of course. If you're going to go this route, the chocolate/vanilla/cinnamon options are pretty good. For snacking out of the bag, they're ideal, but avoid those flavored ones because they'll get flavor dust (sugar? I think I'm going to stick with flavor dust) all over your hands. In this case the Honey Nut is ideal since it's a glaze. So far as snacking options go, you can do a lot worse. 

It's the versatility I find useful. As you well know, I'm sure, it's not always taste that's the issue for us. In fact, it's not even USUALLY taste. It's texture. Ice cream is great, and there are a few different sorts of GF ice cream cones you can get, but they're not the easiest thing to come by and they may not be exactly what you want. Putting rice chex on top of ice cream sort of simulates the experience in a quick and easy way. They also add a burst of texture to oatmeal/hot cereal. Moreover, and this is the sort of medium-level stuff that I don't often plan on mentioning, but... get this: my wife uses corn and rice chex in some sort of wacky 2 to 1 ratio in order to make a gf meatloaf that tastes really good and has a near spot on texture. I have no idea how one would do this. I suggest googling gf meatloaf chex, or googling "alchemy" or something.

Anyway, tasty enough, easy enough to find, inexpensive enough (because apparently they expect people who are not us to buy it too?), and versatile. They even have nice little testimonials about how great Chex is to GF people on the back of their box. Awwwr.

Fruity/Cocoa Pebbles

This scratches the "taste of youth/comfort food" itch a bit better. Sugar exploded flakes of rice and/or other things we're allowed to eat. Milk-color-turning goodness. I don't have a ton to say about these but they, more than the Chex, are usually part of an early conversation for the newly-minted gf eater that goes a little like. "Wait, are you serious? I can eat Cocoa Pebbles and Fruity Pebbles?" 

It's not counter-intuitive because of the ingredients. It's counter intuitive because other cereals that we think we should be able to eat (traditional big name ones that look to be just made with corn or rice) we can't, or shouldn't, or are warned against. So this thusly comes out like a strange exception. It's a welcome exception though. They're not as versatile as Chex and they make less adequate finger food, but I'm sure someone clever can find something to do with them (heck, put them on your ice cream. Put everything on your ice cream. I won't tell anyone). 

GF Rice Krispies 

Yes, they exist. No, you can't get them everywhere. Yes, they're a little more expensive. Yes, it's annoying we can't just eat regular Rice Krispies. Sure, they're fun to put into milk and hear the whole snap/crackle/pop thing, but if you're going to get these, it's mainly for making your Rice Krispie Treats (we can't have the prepackaged ones. Malt. The reason is Malt. Malt ruins everything, especially those Malted Milk Balls). I also stole that image from another gf blog which makes me feel somehow shameful.

Gorilla Munch

Okay, so Gorilla Munch is great. It's healthier than other things, or at least it claims to be and I'm not arguing with gorillas. It's got a great sweetness to it. You can fit a bunch in your mouth at once and sort of suck the sweetness out of them (and no laughing; we have to take our food joy however we can). They're good with milk. They're good finger food. They're good to toss in a plastic bag and take with you wherever you go. There are fun gorilla facts on the back of the box. 

More than that, and I kind of hate saying this or feeling like it's important in the least, but I always get the feeling that I'm some how special for eating Gorilla Munch. Most people don't seek it out. Sure, some organic, healthy, Trader Joe shopping people do, but I don't know a ton of them. Gorilla Munch is great, and in my head, it's sort of just for us, one of the secrets of the tribe or whatever. I know, I know. It's a silly feeling, but again, we take what warm, fuzziness we can get, and what's more warm and fuzzy than a gorilla?

There are also other brands by the company like Peanut Butter Panda Somethingorother (Puiffs, I googled it for you. I'm not posting the box but it has a triumphantly happy looking panda on it) and some sort of Lemur related substitute for Smacks and they're good but none of them are Gorilla Munch.

So, those are some of our options. There are others but these are priced pretty reasonably (for cereal. All cereal is way more expensive than it should be these days) and usually pretty easy to find. They're the bandaid stopgags on the gaping wound in our heart where breakfast once resided. We're much better off for having them. I know I am.