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Giving up boxed breakfast cereal from the store is without a doubt one of the hardest tasks to accomplish after adopting a Traditional Diet. I was the Boxed Breakfast Cereal Queen before opting to get off the processed food train 2 decades ago. I would eat organic cereal morning, noon, and night, sometimes even a bowl before bed.
Can you believe I actually thought this practice was good for me?
Unfortunately, I learned that my boxed breakfast cereal habit, even though it was organic cereal, was far from healthy.
The problem is not with the ingredients themselves, which are simple and seem “whole” enough in the case of organic cereal. The unhealthy aspect of boxed cereal is due to the violent processing required to manufacture it.
Why Make Your Own Corn Flakes?
This factory driven process, called extrusion, applies so much heat and pressure to the cereal grains that they actually liquefy. This slurry allows the grains to be quickly and easily shaped into the puffs, flakes, and other shapes that make each cereal distinct.
According to the Weston A. Price Foundation, the manufacturing process used to make boxed cereal is so violent and denaturing that the proteins in the grains are actually rendered toxic and allergenic as a result. This is why whole grain boxed breakfast cereal is shockingly even more toxic than cheap boxed cereals made with white flour — because whole grains are higher in protein. The more protein, the more toxic the boxed cereal.
What’s a traditional eating family to do?
The good news is that unhealthy versions of processed foods like boxed breakfast cereal can usually be replicated at home using simple preparation techniques which do not denature the food or add toxins like what happens in a factory.
Boxed breakfast cereal is no exception. It is very possible to make tasty and healthy cold breakfast cereal yourself. I’ve posted articles and videos in the past about how to do this. Here are a few of the most popular:
- spelt homemade cold breakfast cereal recipe
- rice crispies recipe
- gluten free homemade breakfast cereal
- grain free homemade cold breakfast cereal
In the recipe below, I add another gluten free cereal recipe on how to make corn flakes!
Wait a Minute! Is Corn Healthy?
Some of you may be thinking – corn? No way. How is corn healthy?
Corn really does have a bad rap these days, doesn’t it?
The fact is that corn is a traditional food, particularly in my area of the country. The Indian tribes native to Florida ate a soaked corn gruel as a primary staple food. It sustained them well. They remained strong and vital on their native diet and were able to withstand battle after battle with the United States army and were never defeated. In 1957, the federal government officially recognized the sovereign rights of the Seminole tribe of Florida.
Corn Isn’t the Problem: GMOs are!
So corn itself is not the problem. What is unhealthy is genetically modified corn or corn that is violently processed. This creates frankenfoods like high fructose corn syrup and other additives included in supermarket foods. Worse, processed foods containing GMO corn contain residue of gut destroying glyphosate, known by consumers as Roundup.
Once you realize that corn is fine to eat when properly and traditionally prepared (unless you have an allergy to it) and that it is processed and genetically modified corn that is the real problem, you are free to enjoy this delicious traditional food!
How to Make Corn Flakes Cereal
Corn flakes cereal, in particular, is so yummy. It was always one of my favorites in my boxed breakfast cereal eating days.
In a burst of crazy and wild experimenting one afternoon, I came up with this recipe for homemade corn flakes cereal. My kids went nuts and so did I!
These healthy corn flakes taste just like the boxed corn flakes from the store, but this version is actually healthy and very filling!
What is also amazing about this healthy corn flakes cereal recipe is that it is so filling and satisfying. Just the small bowl you see in the picture above is plenty enough for breakfast or a snack. This compares with the several much larger bowls of processed corn flakes that don’t seem to fill you up that well and you are hungry again a short time later. Such is the overeating that occurs when one eats processed foods devoid of nutrients.
I hope you enjoy this corn flakes recipe as much as my family!
Homemade Corn Flakes
Easy recipe for homemade corn flakes that is sprouted, easy to digest, and loaded with nutrition.
Instructions
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In a large skillet, warm enough avocado oil so that it is about an inch deep. Heat to 300-325F, being careful not to let the temperature rise above 425F as this is the smokepoint of avocado oil. Free radicals begin to form in the oil if you exceed the smokepoint.
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Check the temperature using a digital food thermometer or just keep the tortillas to a light sizzle as they are frying and you will know that you are in the safe temperature range.
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Place several tortillas at a time into the heated oil. Fry until light brown. This will happen very fast - only a minute or so!
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Remove fried tortillas from the oil with stainless steel tongs and place on plates covered with an unbleached white towel. Very lightly sprinkle with sea salt.
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Continue the process until all 24 tortillas are fried.
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When the tortillas are cool to the touch on the towel lined plates, break each of them up into small, bite sized pieces.
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Serve homemade corn flakes immediately in a bowl with whole grassfed milk and a bit of whole sweetener or fruit. Store the remaining corn flakes cereal in a half gallon glass mason jar as shown in the picture or some other airtight container.
Recipe Notes
Be sure to use organic corn tortillas. Nonorganic corn is usually genetically modified (GMO).
If you wish to use nonsprouted corn tortillas, that is fine, but corn tortillas made with sprouted corn flour are much more nutritious.
I have to say that I was really excited to try this recipe, only to be disappointed in that these don’t taste like corn flakes, but homemade tortilla chips, so I used them in my homemade nachos, with salsa.I used a timer, and cooked them for a minute like you said, but It just tasted like a lightly salted version of Fritos, lol.
you are the 1st person who has confirmed my thinking regarding toxic stuff in bread and overdoing the protein. My family is a mess…1 has addisons,1 severe rheum arthr.,1 died of leukemia and 3 with horrible lethargy and many with horrible immune systems. 1 common thread …we all love healthy cereals and breads (we thought they were healthy types). I know there is some toxin that is killing all of us. If i am not on medicine I could sleep my life away and I see my kids following in my footsteps of how I grew up sicker than any other kids etc. while seemingly look extremely healthy and strong and active until we all fell apart. no one believes me fully. Can you explain exactly what you mean about toxins in what you used to eat etc. I have got to find out how to fix everything when I am a horrible cook and I hate it and we all hate veggies and healthy beans…it is just torture. My heart wont fully be in this until I know exactly what it is that I have to avoid and how i can work around it and what treats we can have to encourage us from going back and not losing our minds.
I too would like to know how long these would last in the pantry in a vacuumed sealed mason jar.
LOLWUT? Instead of non fried (=fat free) flakes you are suggesting fried industrial tortillas? Oh, America…
Those flakes are extruded in a factory with machinery which heats them and applies so much pressure that the proteins are completely denatured … the tortillas are sprouted (healthy, not denatured proteins) and fried in a healthy oil.
I tried this and was pleasantly surprised. I skipped the salt though (my sprouted tortillas had salt in the ingredient list). I look forward to trying the other cold cereal recipe.
Sarah, thank you SOO much for this recipe!! I missed eating cereal so much, especially my favorite Kellog’s corn flakes. I though no way will they taste like Kellog’s, but I thought it’s worth trying…well I fried up the tortillas and lo and behold!! They are so good! I can have cereal again! 🙂
Sarah,
Can you use the coconut oil again after frying? Seems like such a large amount of oil to just throw away.
My favorite grain is oats. I could live on Post Oat Flakes, but they stopped making them when they could get a higher price by selling them for horse food. 🙁 Any recipes for oat flake cereal?
I made these the other day and while they were good, the texture is just a little off, too thick. They are more like tortilla chips and my husband keeps stealing them to put on his salads. So, I decided to see if I could thin the tortillas out a bit before cooking them, but the store was out of the sprouted corn tortillas, so I bought the regular ezekiel tortillas (I know that they have soy in them and so not the BEST, but baby steps!) anyway, I ran them through my kitchenaid pasta maker attachment and made them thinner and kind of broke the tortillas up more into flakes before cooking them….and they turned out amazing! The texture was so much more like a normal cereal flake. I tossed them with cinnamon, raisins and sucanat. When I put them in milk, I added a little bit of pure maple syrup! They were to die for! Can’t wait to try this method with the sprouted corn tortillas!
I found sprouted corn tortillas at Sprouts….I live in Arizona.