Homemade Cream of Wheat

Yeah, this little nugget was important enough for me to drag myself off my death bed to share with you.

I've been suffering some insidious sort of illness involving sweats and chills and headaches, body aches, and a sore throat, OH! The sore throat. My favorite all time sick food is Cream of Wheat, easy on the throat, nutritious, warm, goes down easy and heaven-forbid, back up easy if the need arises...all the good things comfort food should be.

So I trudged my way to the pantry this morning in search of some COW goodness since I was going to have to take my vitamins and not eating again was not going to be an option. To my horror, I discovered that my stash was *gone*. Cream of Wheat is not one of those foods that I stock up on regularly. I literally bought a box this past summer to replace the box I brought with us from WY...nearly 7 years ago. *Groan* Why didn't I buy two boxes? I asked myself. Oh yeah, because the stuff costs nearly $5 a box, that's why.

I briefly considered throwing some whole wheat flour in a bowl with some milk and just going for it, but a goopy flour gruel didn't sound like the comfort food I craved. So I turned to my super google skillz and discovered a post on some site, which I can't even remember through the haze of my cold meds, and the woman used hard red wheat and the coarse setting on the Nutra-mill grinder to make homemade Cream of Wheat. So I gave it a whirl. I am here to tell you it works like a charm and I am here to tell you we are in the WRONG business people!!! $5 a box is like HIGHWAY ROBBERY!!! You can make your own homemade Cream of Wheat cereal for pennies. Here's what you do:

Take a few cups of hard red wheat...couldn't tell you how much I used...remember...cold meds.
Dump in the Nutra-mill.
Crank mill setting to the far right...that would be counter clockwise if you too are in a haze and can't read the "coarse" setting.
Take out the grainy floury looking substance and store it.
To prepare the cereal:
Mix 2/3 cup milk, or water, or milk and water with 1/3 cup of the grainy floury stuff, and cook it. Stove top or microwave..your choice. The lady in the post claims she cooked hers for 20 minutes...I could never have cooked mine that long. I did a few minutes on the stove, until it boiled over, made a mess and sent a stench into the air. Then I started over and tried 1:30 in the microwave, gave it a stir and put it back in for a minute more and perfection. I like mine thick, with ice cold milk over the top and white (yes, I know) white sugar on the top.

So there you have it. Homemade Cream of Wheat cereal for just pennies, and so easy a cold medicated sick person can make it. Try it if your kids hate oatmeal!