I ate you everyday for lunch for almost the entire winter of 2007.
I ignored strange looks and questions about what I was eating from my coworkers in the teacher’s lounge.
I eventually gave up packing you in plastic-ware and started keeping your whole box at work, complete with a 1/4 cup measuring cup stuck inside.
So when I saw a big yellow discontinued sign on you at Earth Fare last weekend, I got a little nostalgic of the days when I was content to eat cereal everyday for lunch…
…so I swooped you up and put you in my cart.
Some people have a repulsion for the crunchy earthy-tasting cereal, but I absolutely love it warm and mushy. I don’t know why it took me so long to remember this. I guess you always want what you can’t have.
I used to always eat 1/2 cup Grapenuts with 1/2 cup milk, warmed in the microwave for one minute.
This time, I prettied-it-up, just for you guys. Before heating it, I chopped the tiniest apple in the world threw it in on top of the cereal and milk (I used almond milk), and doused the whole thing in cinnamon.
Then I nuked it, per usual and topped it with one Tbsp. of TJ’s sunflower seed butter.
Holy cow, this was good.
Why are they discontinuing this stuff?
A little googling and I learned that the question of whether or not Grapenuts have been discontinued has been circling around the internet. Apparently you can still buy them on Amazon in bulk.
Back when I was eating this stuff all the time, I was really only concerned with calories, so it’s interesting to look at the nutrition label now, since I’ve never really took it all in before. There’s quite a bit of sodium, but I don’t plan to eat many (if any) processed foods today besides this, so that’s not really an issue.
Most of your sodium (75-80% of sodium in the American diet) comes from processed foods, not salt you actually add. (source)
There’s quite a bit of vitamins, most of which I assume are added to the cereal.
I think the most interesting thing to me was the amount of carbohydrates in Grapenuts: 48 grams. I am not a carb restrictor, but I do believe you can have too much of a good thing depending on what your body needs and your activity level.
For comparison, two of my favorite cereals: Kashi Go Lean has 30 grams of carbs and Kashi Go Lean Crunch has 37 grams.
You need carbs to run. And, since I’m positively sick of eating PB and banana on toast, this might be just the thing to try before my long runs, when and if I start racing again. 😉 It’s worth a shot, right?
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To follow up with my NoFizz Challenge last month, I did a write-up of why I chose to participate and how it went. You can read it here. My brother‘s story will be up Friday.