Forté Recipes: Cheerios & Blueberries

One piece of advice I always give my clients when planning meals is to make sure that each meal has at least three of the five main food groups (grains, fruit, vegetable, dairy, and protein which consists of beans, nuts, meat, and eggs). When you follow this general rule it helps you maintain a balance of carbs, protein and fat, as well as a varied source of micronutrients.

Cheerios & Blueberries

1 cup multigrain cheerios

1 cup milk

Toppings:

½ cup blueberries

One of the simplest breakfasts is good old-fashioned cold cereal. When you pair a bowl of whole grain cereal with some milk and fruit you automatically have a balanced meal. Unfortunately, the vast majority of cold cereals are not the best options. There are three main things I look at when picking a cold cereal: whole grain ingredients, the fiber content, and the sugar content. When you look at the nutrition label, make sure the first ingredient is a whole grain, like whole-grain whole-wheat flour, or whole oats. When looking at fiber it is best to choose a high-fiber cereal with at least 3-4 g of fiber in every serving. Lastly, I like to choose cereals with less than 5 g of added sugar per serving.

Some of my favorite cereal options include:

• Cheerios,
• Kashi Cinnamon or Autumn Harvest,
• Wheaties, and
• Cascadian Farms Multi-Grain Squares.

Adding fruit on top naturally sweetens the cereal with my favorite toppings being blueberries, strawberries or bananas.

-Heidi