Recipe of the Week: JWR’s Cran-Bran Cold Cereal

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The following super-simple dry recipe is for my current favorite home-mixed breakfast cereal. Yes, I know that Cranberry Bran cereal is also commercially made. But since I have some Scottish blood, I tend toward frugality. Hence, I buy the inexpensive generic store brand bran flakes from the “nearby” supermarket. That is a little over 50 miles away. We buy our cranberries and almonds in bulk from Azure Standard. Thus, they cost us only half as much as buying name-brand froed cranberries — such as Ocean Spray. I make this “Cran-Bran” cereal up in quantity, and keep it in our pantry in one-gallon glass jars.

Ingredients
  • 16 cups plain bran flakes
  • 1+ cup of high-moisture dried cranberries. (Use a larger proportion, if that suits your taste and your digestion)
  • 1/2 cup slivered or finely-chopped raw almonds (optional)

This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled, to stock up.

Depending on your preferences, raisins can of course be substituted, or used in equal amounts with cranberries.

Directions
  1. Mix together in wide-mouth one-gallon jars, pouring in the ingredients with a large canning funnel.  I prefer to lay down alternating layers of the ingredients until the jar is two-thirds full, and then shake the jar for 10 to 15 seconds.
  2. Then add more bran and a few cranberries to completely fill the jar, and cap it. Voila!
SERVING

Serve with cream or milk. The milk can be warmed first (or come straight from your dairy cow or dairy goat), if it is a chilly morning. There is no need to add a sweetener — although I have found that a dash of maple syrup doesn’t clash with the bran, cranberry, and almond flavors. And, of course, eat the cereal right away, before it gets soggy.

STORAGE

Even with high-moisture cranberries, this seems to store well for two months. But for any longer duration, I presume that it is best to store the ingredients separately.

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Do you have a favorite home-mixed cereal (hot or cold) recipe that would appeal to SurvivalBlog readers?

In this weekly recipe column, we place emphasis on recipes that use long-term storage foods, recipes for wild game, dutch oven and slow cooker recipes, and any that use home garden produce. If you have any favorite recipes, then please send them via e-mail. Thanks!