Nutty Cheerio Snack

Nutty Cheerio Snack
Dorcas Annette Walker

I’ve always kept snacks around and carried them with me as I traveled due to the fact that I have hypoglycemia- where my blood sugar can suddenly drop. Snacks were also a lifesaver when my children were young. I think though the biggest fan of my snacks is my husband, Dana. Every time we headed down the road on a trip the first thing- almost before we were out of the driveway- Dana would ask is, “What did you bring along to snack on?” Since Dana’s heart surgery and being diabetic where his sugar swings, having a snack handy has saved the day more than once traveling back and forth to the doctors down in Cookeville. Now that my husband has to be on a strict diet, I’ve been doing research on heart healthy foods. It hasn’t been easy for Dana, who for years ate everything and anything, to switch to smaller portions of food and stay on his cardiac/diabetic diet. After hearing my poor husband complain for the umpteenth time that there was nothing for him to snack on- refusing the baby carrots, bananas, and apples that I keep handy for such a thing- I decide to combine a couple different items together and came up with my Nutty Cheerio Snack that was an instant hit with Dana.

Cheerios was invented in 1940 by Lester Borchardt, an employee of General Mills, after months of trial and error to figure out how to puff the oats into a circular shape. First named Cheeri Oats the name was changed to Cheerios in 1945. By 1954 Cheerios became General Mills’ most popular selling cold cereal partly due to the face that Cheerios sponsored “The Lone Ranger” radio show. Today there are more than ten varieties of Cheerios. In 1999 Cheerios earned the distinction of being the only cold cereal to effectively lower cholesterol. Cheerios have only one gram of sugar per serving, fiber, aren’t made with any artificial flavors or color dyes, are low in fat, is an excellent source of iron, and contains at least 10 percent of your calcium needs.

My Nutty Cheerio Snack is a perfect filling crunchy heart-healthy snack. You can substitute a different kind of Cheerios from regular Cheerios, add other nuts instead of pecans- as nuts are low in saturated fat and beneficial to your heart as well- or use different dried fruit in place of raisins. Preparation time for my Nutty Cheerio Snack is ten minutes and this recipe makes twenty cups.

Nutty Cheerio Snack

1 (15 oz) box of regular Cheerios
1 (16 oz) pkg of pecan halves
1 (12 oz) bag or box of raisins

Combine all three ingredients in a large bowl and store 1-cup servings in a sealed baggie.

Weekly tip: Besides making a healthy snack, you can crush Cheerios and add to flour for homemade baked items or used crushed Cheerios in place of bread crumbs!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcasannettewalker@gmail.com For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com