Thursday, February 12, 2009

Puffins Cereal - Trader Joe's


When I think of puffins I think of the book by Enid Blyton "The Sea of Adventure" (one of my favorite childhood book series). A British series involving 4 children (I think all cousins) that end up solving mysteries - and in the case of "The Sea of Adventure" they end up on an island with puffins.

This week, on our way to the dentist office, having about 30 minutes to waste b/c I always leave far earlier than I need to b/c I don't know what traffic situation I might find myself in and I HATE being late - I decided to stop at a Trader Joe's that we passed by. I think I had only been in a TJ one other time a couple of years ago. Once inside - I wished I had more than 30 minutes to spare.

One item I purchased was a box of cereal called "Puffins" - cinnamon variety (they also had peanut butter and I think one other flavor). Not only was the box interesting (the back has all kinds of info on puffins (as in the seabird) - BUT, and this is the most important aspect, it was high in fiber and low in sugar!...and low in calories.

Over the past year or so we have been revamping our breakfast cereal. We usually would buy whatever cereal we liked or the kids liked...weren't too concerned about the sugar or fiber. Now we have a rule that the cereal must be high in fiber and low in sugar (the sugar content must be 1/3 or less of the total carbohydrates)...not an easy combination to find...especially to find something like that that the kids would like.

In the past the kids have loved various sugarful cereals that also involved cinnamon - so I thought the Puffins might be the thing for them. And it was!

They both said they liked the taste and the girl liked it that the Puffins don't get soggy (whereas the boy and I prefer our cereal soggy). It is pretty heavy on the cinnamon taste - I guess to make up for the lack of sweetness.

This large box (18 0z) cost $2.79.

2 comments:

Heather said...

Due to food allergies my kids have grown up on "health store" cereals. Puffins is one of our favorites (the peanut butter are the best). Also worth a look are Envirokids cereals--my son adores the Koala Krisps, my daughters like Gorilla Munch. Also, Barbara's Bakery makes some fruit O's and Fruity pebbles sorts that are actually dyed using fruit that my husband really enjoys. Finally Trader Joes own brands of cereal are WONDERFUL, and cheaper than the other brands. My husband is addicted to their cranberry granola and the vanilla almond granola (and he HATES almonds). On the other hand my fiber hating daughter LOVES their Fiber O's (I like them to but I heat them up in some oatmeal.)

CanadianGrandma said...

I'll have to look and see whether I can find this cereal. Usually I eat All Bran with honey nut flavour or Red River Cereal both high in fibre and low to no sugar content.