It’s true.  I have a secret guilty food pleasure: sugary cereals.  I blame it on my uber health conscious upbringing.

You see, when I was a little girl, I was rarely allowed junk food or sugary cereals.  My mom was steadfast about eating a healthy breakfast, so when we did eat cereal it was usually granola, oatmeal with wheat germ sprinkled on top, or the “healthier” commercial varieties like Grape Nuts, Shredded Wheat Biscuits, Corn Flakes, Raisin Bran, or Chex.

When it came to sugary cereals, which my brother and I longed for madly, our well intended, health food loving mom had a rigid system that she kept my brother and I to. We were each allowed our choice of any two boxes of sugary cereal per year.  Oh, and we got to try a box of any new sugary cereal that came out - once.  And that was it.  We were allowed to consume the stuff at a friend’s house, with the caveat that we weren’t ever allowed to ask; it had to be offered.

And so, the fetish for the forbidden Fruit Loops began.

My brother and I were like fiends when it came to the junk cereals.  When the half-year mark came up and we got to buy our coveted box of cereal, we knew exactly what box we were going to leave the store with, long before we scurried into the grocery store in a mad dash to the cereal aisle with our poor mom in tow.

In the weeks leading up to the blessed sugar fix, we would always attempt to negotiate some kind of split so we could each try two flavors, but we eventually gave in to the inevitable reality that it was an impossible idea, since we would surely fight over every grain of cereal, were we to attempt it. And since the boxes barely made it through the front door before hitting the bowls and swimming in milk,  we knew we would not have the patience to count out the highly prized nuggets.

And that is always what we chose.  Nuggets of sugary cereal.  We both shared a love for the now long gone cereal called King Vitamin.  Does anyone remember King Vitamin?  It was a lot like original Cap’n Crunch only with bigger nuggets shaped like crowns, and with a slightly different flavor.  My brother and I would each get a box of it as one of our two annual choices, until they discontinued it.

Update:  For those who may be interested, I have just discovered that King Vitamin is available online, as well as Quisp, my other favorite cereal that seemed to disappear around 1970-1971, here.

Our other consistent favorites were by Cap’n Crunch.  My all-time favorite was and still is Crunchberries, and JL’s favorite was Peanut Butter.  I am not pleased about the new multi-colored berries in the Crunchberries, but I still love the stuff.

There is a cereal bar in Los Angeles that I have been wanting to hit every time I am in town, but it has never been open when I want to go there. I am crazy about the concept, though.  You get to pick out any two cereal flavors from a long list, and then add mix-ins from an even longer list that includes everything from fresh and dried fruit, nuts, candy bars, cookies and chocolate covered pretzels to frosting, caramel sauce, whipped cream and condensed milk.  The only problem is: it should be a dessert scene, and thus should be open late.  Alas, it is not.  For some crazy reason they close at 5:00 p.m.

Nonetheless, I was so crazy about the concept that I visited their website in advance of our recent trip, and came up with three combos that sounded good.  (Yes, I am the type to peruse a menu online and come up with several dining options before hitting a restaurant.  Isn’t everyone?)  I mean, after all, I didn’t want to seem all un-hip standing there like a deer caught in the headlights with a million choices of mix-ins to choose from, hemming and hawing, while those in the know stood by impatiently cursing my dorkliness.  I like to be prepared - that’s how I roll.

Now, with that level of research invested in this particular unfulfilled junk food fix, I did feel more disappointed than ever that I didn’t get to try this crazy cereal bar concept.

So, I decided to bite the bullet, and buy all the ingredients, to make my own happy bowls of decadence.

After sampling a few variations, I have named my two favorite mix-in creations.  The first, and my absolute favorite is: Malted Cookie City.  It consists of Cookie Crisp, Cocoa Pebbles, Malt Balls, Wip Cream and Hot Fudge Sauce, covered in whole milk.  I tried adding more candy the first time around (sliced Snickers and crumbled Skor Bars), but it was overkill.   As I originally predicted, the malt balls were perfect with the malty flavor of the cookie crisp cookies and cocoa pebbles.

The runner up is Fruity Berry Crunchfest, and is a mix of Crunchberries, Fruity Pebbles, Lemon Chalet Creme Girl Scout Cookies (my new favorite Girl Scout Cookie), Reddi Whip and fresh raspberries.  I like the way the tart raspberries contrast with the frosting in the cookies and create a balance, but Tony liked this better without the cookies and raspberries.

I saved my third mix-in concept ( Apple Jacks, pecans, dried apples and caramel sauce) for the day when I actually do make it to the cereal bar.  Of course, that will probably be around six months from now.  Some things never change.

My junk filled recipes follow:

Malted Cookie City

Ingredients:

1 scoop  Cookie Crisp Cereal

1 scoop  Cocoa Pebbles

6 Chocolate Malt Balls  - sliced in half

Wip Kreme Stuff in a Can

Hot Fudge Sauce

Milk

Method:

Place Cookie Crisp, Cocoa Pebbles and malt balls in bowl and gently toss together.   Garnish with wip kreme and hot fudge sauce.  Pour milk over at last minute, and serve.

Fruity Berry Crunchfest

Ingredients:

1 scoop Crunchberries

1 scoop Fruity Pebbles

3 Lemon Chalet Creme Girl Scout Cookies (or other sandwich cookies - lemon or vanilla) - broken in pieces

A Handful of Raspberries

Canned Whipped Topping

Method:

Place Crunchberries and Fruity Pebbles in a bowl and mix to combine.  Crumble cookies over top.  Garnish with wip kreme topping and raspberries.  Pour milk at last minute, and serve.