Tuesday, January 6, 2009

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!

11 comments:

Val in the Rose Garden said...

We just got over the same CRAZY flu! It suck a big one it did. I am sure you are better by now, but I wanted to commiserate.

Can't wait to look around here too. :)

Val

Val in the Rose Garden said...

Oh and I get 'creamed faraina' in bulk at my co-op and it is about $2/lb. :) Better than the box stuff too... just need to keep the directions somewhere on the jar. I put them on a sticky note on the jar.

Val

Unknown said...

this recipe is pretty bad i will just stick to store bought my grandmother always used to by it for me and my sister and brothers

Brenda Walker said...

I just made this for my family and they LOVED it! Thanks for the great recipe!

TiciaLicious said...

Just found this recipe and loved it. I added a little salt and it was so yummy. Thanks so much!

Sally said...

This is GREAT! The problem with store bought is there are lots of additives and preservatives. This is the healthiest way to eat!

Shandra said...

Thanks for this post! I have always wondered how to make your own. I figured you could do this method but didn't know for sure. Great tip!

I also LOVE food storage and blog about it on my blog www.dealstomeals.blogspot.com Stop over and say hi :)

Unknown said...

I live in England and was studying "How to make German MohnKuchen", which used cream of wheat(Cow). But I had never heard of COW even though I am 53 years of age. I found out it was semolina. So upon reading this article I noticed you did not like the idea of gruel. But how that can be I do not know. Surely it is almost identical to semolina(COW) except that it is smoother-so much smother in fact that it could be described as silky by comparison. Its great food in my book for recovering from illness as it is easy to digest, nutritious and may be served pipping hot. I really just wanted to suggest another product which I added to my collection of good foods to help recovery from colds, flues and sore throats. It is the new Ribena Strawberry drink. I kept a bottal of Ribena black currant juice on my table most of the winter and it is really surprising to find how many guests actually asked for a hot ribena in stead of just accepting my offer of tea or coffee. A month back when I suffered from a sore throat and a cough it was one of the most soothing drinks apart form the actual supermarket cough medicin which restricted it self to only 6 administrations a day. Where as the ribena could be drunk anytime day or night. That was when I decided to try the Ribena Stwaberry, it was also when I found another really nice drink with an incredible strawberry flavour as well as a good source of vitamin C which is well known as an anti-oxidant as well as helping fight colds. It is wonderful hot or cold. I just thought I would pass the information on to any would be sufferers of the cold or flu. It may be just another drink to help you get over the symptoms.

Debi Clark said...

Just what I was looking for! Thank you!

Unknown said...

we get our "cream of wheat" at a local amish grocery store and it is organic, taste the same as the boxed stuff, cost much, much less and is organic, NO additives

Grain Grinder said...

I just made this using hard red spring wheat. I ground it coarse and then I put it in my crockpot on high! I tripled the recipe...it took about an hour. With no burning or boiling over! I like butter and sugar on mine, with just a little salt. DELICIOUS! Thanks very much!