stupid cereal

I had an exceptionally horrible 10th grade English teacher, and the only thing that got me through her class was the snarky comments made by me and my obnoxious friends who (naturally) sat in the back of the room. One day, after a particularly incoherent ramble, my friend Stephanie shot her eyes up to Miss Jones, then looked straight at me and said, “She woke up one morning, ate a box of stupid cereal, and never recovered!”

It became me and Steph’s slang (our version of “drink the Koolaid”, if you will) and it’s handy.

So I ate the stupid cereal today. By erasing all the pictures on my camera. Yep. Stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid. In general, I’ve been stupid a lot lately, and having so much free time due to joblessness, I have very little to think about other than the stupid things I do. It’s unpleasant. Thank God I got a summer internship before my real job starts!

Sooooooo after a lovely day I have one decent picture:

At least it was really good! Sweetgreen frozen yogurt in Georgetown (that’s Francis Scott Key park in the background, not far from the Exorcist stairs!).

Sweetgreen serves organic yogurt, has compostable packaging, uses wind energy, etc. etc. They’re great! As is the FroYo. I usually don’t get toppings, but it’s included in the price ($4 for the small size seen above) so I got my yogurt (they do only the tart flavor mmmmm) with blueberries, cinnamon cooked pears, and candied walnuts (!)

Rewinding to before I ate the stupid cereal, I beheld the “Mix Up Your Day” trail mix sent to me YouBar and thought to myself, “Most of those ingredients sound like rockin’ overnight oats!”

I took out the savory ingredient (oat bran sesame sticks which were AWWWWWWESOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMME for anyone looking to customize their own trail mix- crunchy and crazy flavorful!) and was left with what remained: coconut, goji berries, dried pineapples, cashews (raw, boo), and almonds.

I like making two bowls of overnight oats (one for me, one for my mama, who is now a confirmed addict). It takes the same amount of time as one and you can split up ingredients and I’ve come up with proportions I really like.

Each bowl received:

1/2 a cherry yogurt
1/2 cup oats
1 T Ruth’s Chia Goodness, apple cinnamon flavor
1/4 apple
1/2 a packet of the trail mix

So how’d the trail mix fare as a topping? I was SO SO SO CORRECT! This was the best bowl of o.o.’s I’ve had in recent memory! The goji berries are SERIOUSLY nummy, and the coconut added an awesome new textural component. The dried pineapple was also great, and my only complaint is that there wasn’t more of it!

Apologies for the lame artificially-lit picture. I took it last night. I took more this morning, but… yknow. The cereal.

Also, I’m particularly vexed about this picture:

Split the Honey Cashew YouBar (also a gift from YouBar) as a hiking snack and got a decent picture of it, but… stupid cereal! But saved a little bit because we were full (it’s vair filling!) so got a picture after the cereal bonanza.

But it was so so so intensely good that I’m hoping the enthusiasm of this review will make up for the lameness of the picture.

To that end: HONEY CASHEW YOUBARS TASTE LIKE DELICIOUS DELICIOUS COOKIES! Despite being bars with 10 grams of protein, they somehow taste like buttery crumbly slightly crisped COOKIES! Ingredients are simply cashew butter, honey, whey protein (also a plus! I get skeeved out by the ominpresence of soy), and Perky’s Nutty Rice Cereal, which has a name that cracks me up but a sublime texture that makes me happy.

Finally, I know this is a food blog, but I was reading the Times this morning and I noticed a map of where the protests and violence have been taking place in Bangkok.

Notice that green dot? I added that. It’s the location of the hotel where we stayed, a mere four months ago.

In Bangkok, I was overwhelmed by the hospitality and kindness of the Thai people. There was a general disdain for politicians but a genuine love for one’s neighbor. I’m praying, and I hope others are too, that the violence is quickly resolved and that the country is able to come back.