cereal Archives - Ari's Menu

Cereal Milk Ice Cream

June 15, 2014 · by Ari · 8 Comments

The sweet, starchy milk from the end of your cereal bowl in ICE CREAM form! This simple ice cream is made with only a handful of ingredients, and the best part is, you can customize with your favorite cereal and make it in a variety of flavors!

My mom has told me on multiple occasions that if she were on death row, her last meal would be Sugar Crisp (remember that cereal???) and heavy cream. She is also, like me, a huge fan of Frosted Flakes. One year, I made her a Frosted Flake ice cream cake. It was delicious, but the cereal absorbed the milk (like cereal does) and was a little soggy mixed into the ice cream. It had potential, but just wasn’t quite right.

Whenever I make a bowl of cereal (Because, yes, I totally make it. From scratch…errr box…), I always pour in extra milk so that I can drink it at the end. Please tell me you do that too?? After it’s soaked up all the sugar and starch from the cereal and is creamy and lightly sweet? It’s my favorite.

This year for Mother’s Day I decided to try cereal and ice cream together again, but this time I soaked the cereal in the milk for a couple of hours, tossed the cereal, then turned it into ICE CREAM! Do you have a favorite dessert? Mine always has and will forever be ice cream. It’s kinda tied with fro yo, but if I had the metabolism of a 16 year old boy, it would totally be ice cream. Oh and then cookies (obviously) come in that #3 slot.

My mom took one bite and told me this was the best thing I’ve ever made. She even said she wanted it again for her birthday just a few weeks later. Smooth, creamy, soft and scoopable straight out of the freezer, this ice cream is a total winner!

I used my current cereal obsession + some brown sugar for extra sweetness. I also added about a tablespoon of bourbon at the end, but that is totally optional. Alcohol does help the ice cream to stay soft and not over freeze, but with the vanilla extract in this one it should be fine without it. But honestly, in my house bourbon is never optional.

Also, a quick warning: This is not a healthy recipe. It is the real deal. Heavy cream and all. I’m not sorry. It’s worth it.

Cereal Milk Ice Cream

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 8 hours

Cereal Milk Ice Cream

Ingredients

2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups cereal (I used Honey Rice Puffins)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract, optional
1 tablespoon bourbon (or vodka), optional

Instructions

In a medium pot, combine whole milk and brown sugar over medium to medium-low heat. Stir constantly until sugar is melted and combined. Remove from heat.
Pour cereal in a large bowl (a shallow bowl will work best). Pour whole milk on top. Cereal should be completely submerged. Cover and chill for 1-4 hours. Longer is better, but an hour will do the trick if you're in a hurry. Stir every hour.
Strain milk through a fine mesh strainer. In a large bowl, combine strained milk, cream, and extracts. Cover and chill for an additional 1-2 hours or up to over night. You want the mixture to be fully chilled before transferring to your ice cream maker.
Freeze according to ice cream maker instructions. If desired, add bourbon during the last 2-3 minutes of freezing. Transfer to freezer safe container to finish freezing completely.

http://www.arismenu.com/cereal-milk-ice-cream/

Cookie Butter Puppy Chow

December 21, 2012 · by Ari · 4 Comments

Do you call it puppy chow or muddy buddies?

I call it delicious.

If you’re not familiar, first of all I’m so sorry, you’ve been missing out. Puppy chow is usually Chex cereal mixed with chocolate and peanut butter and then covered with powdered sugar. It’s one of those perfectly simple snacky desserts that takes about 5 minutes to make, and is always a hit. I’ve been making it for years since before I knew how to cook or bake, and I always find myself reaching back into the container to sneak more out.

One of the great things about puppy chow is that the possibilities are endless. I used to think I was “fancy” when I would add white chocolate. Back in the day, that’s what I considered “being creative”. I guess you could say that even before I knew what I was doing, I always wanted to change things up and add my own flair. I just can’t help it.

This recipe isn’t what you’d call innovative, or let’s be honest….healthy, BUT it is sososo yummy, and a perfect foodie gift to give to all of your friends, family, after school theatre teacher (they like presents too! 😉 ), or you know, yourself. I used TJ’s speculoos cookie butter, but you could also use Biscoff spread. The perfectly sweet spread pairs perfectly to create a mix with hints of cinnamon and ginger flavors to give you some extra holiday spirit.

Cookie Butter Puppy Chow

2/3 cup cookie butter or Biscoff spread
3 tbsp coconut oil
1 cup white chocolate chips (or dark chocolate chips, or cinnamon chips, or butterscotch chips…)
1 tsp vanilla extract
9 cups Corn Chex cereal
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine cookie butter, coconut oil and chocolate chips until fully melted and combined, stirring constantly. Slowly stir in cereal, mixing gently until cereal is fully coated.
Transfer to a large trash bag or paper bag and pour in powdered sugar. For lack of a better term, shake the heck out of it! Just keep shaking it around (make sure the top is fully sealed! 😉 ) until everything has come together. Lay out to cool on parchment paper, then store in an airtight container.

Cinnamon Toast Graham Cracker Cookies

January 31, 2012 · by Ari · Leave a Comment

I have a lot of ideas. Sometimes they turn out okay, sometimes they turn out terrible, and sometimes I want to bring cookies to absolutely everyone I know so that they can enjoy the deliciousness. Sometimes I even surprise myself with how delicious something can be, while still being moderately healthy. I mean, these aren’t a great source of nutrients. They are dessert. However, with only 1/4 cup of light butter and 1/2 cup of sugar in the entire batch + being whole grain, I’d say they’re not too shabby on the health scale.

What's that you say? Each of those big gooey cookies only has 75 calories? Oh okay, then I feel less bad about the 3 I demolished today 😉

My very favorite thing about the way these came out is the texture. Slightly crunchy on the outside, while gooey and doughy on the inside with the crunch of graham cracker throughout and an extra crunch of cinnamon cereal on top. Happy birth week to me!!!! Yes, I like to celebrate my birth for ~~months~~ weeks at a time. What can I say? I love my life, and I feel like it’s something to celebrate. To celebrate you wonderful people who are in my life, the goal is to do lots of baking this week. My way of saying you all make my life feel worth celebrating!

Cinnamon Toast Graham Cracker Cookies

yield about 2 dozen cookies

inspired by this recipe

1/4 cup light whipped butter, softened
1/4 cup fat free cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup honey apple butter (I was out of apple sauce and I ended up LOVING this substitution!)
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup Splenda
1/4 cup egg substitute
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
1 cup cinnamon whole wheat graham cracker crumbs
1-2 tsp cinnamon
dash salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
approx 48 pieces organic whole grain copy cat of Cinnamon Toast Crunch (my fav is Cascade Farm Cinnamon Crunch)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375.
Beat butter, cream cheese and apple butter together in a large bowl.
Add brown sugar and Splenda, and beat until fluffy.
Beat in vanilla, egg substitute, cinnamon, and baking soda.
Add flour and graham cracker crumbs and beat until just combined.
Use a cookie scoop (or your hands) to drop dough onto a large baking sheet in about tablespoon amounts. This dough is not super sticky, so you could also just spray a wide tablespoon and use that.
Flatten slightly and press 2 pieces of cinnamon cereal on top of each cookie.
Bake 8-10 minutes until just set, then remove and let stand 5-10 minutes to finish baking themselves.
Transfer to wire rack and cool completely.

Impatient Salad Making

October 18, 2011 · by Ari · 4 Comments

You know what I hate most about making salads? Putting away ingredients! I always complain to Steve about how I hate putting everything away at the end and he looks at me like I’m lazy and ridiculous, but seriously! When I start taking everything out, it’s exciting–Oooohhh I could add this and this and THIS! Then the chopping is semi therapeutic–that or I’m a freak, well I am a freak, but not sure that is the main reason 😉 Anyway, by the end when my salad is looking delicious and my stomach is growling in anticipation, I always get so annoyed that I have put a million and one ingredients away before I can eat. Boo. Today I was especially sad to put away the ingredients from this salad

Romain, tomato, cucumber, low fat cottage cheese, reduced fat feta cheese, red bell pepper, carrots, cilantro, black bean burger, and salsa. So many things to put back in the fridge after! But totally delicious and worth it. This may sound like the silliest thing ever, but I am a messy person who hates mess and loves salads. This is my life.

I started my day with Linda’s spin class! Linda is prob my favorite of all the gym teachers. This woman just ran a freaking marathon on Sunday and was here today kicking ass on the bike with us. She pushes me, she inspires me, and I want to be like her. Today was challenging, as always, buuuuuuut—I upped my flat road to gear 10!!! Whoot! I was so excited about it–double digits! She said there is one man who’s flat road is gear 14! Well, not that I’m competitive or anything, but obviously, I have to get to 15.

In other news, I am determined to recreate my own sugary kids cereals the healthy way. Any ideas where I can find some base recipes? Especially Lucky Charms! I spent a while looking today with no luck, but when I added a few marshmallow (yes, dad–the Kosher kind!) to my left over Koala Crispies, I knew I had to conquer one of my favorite bad for me foods in the world–cereal! Hopefully coming soon!