How's this for a cozy winter breakfast? Rebecca Coleman's dad has been eating cream of wheat with cocoa mix sprinkled in for years - pure, sugary genius.
Sure, you might not want to give this to your kid everyday, but what a fun surprise it would be one blustery morning. Or perhaps as a festive winter birthday breakfast. Or a whole pot for the family on Christmas morning.
Visit Rebecca at Cooking With My Kid to find out what other, similar item he's been mixing in with his cream of wheat these days (also delicious sounding).
(Image: Cooking With My Kid)
The Ultimate Used Furniture Cleaning Kit
Ana Creates a Community at Home
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Z2 iPod Dock and Wi...
Soda Recipe: Homemade Ginger Ale
Recipe: Spring Fruit and Nut Tabouli
My parents tried this to get me to eat farina. I never fell for it. Bleh.
The way we've always done it in my family is to make a little well in the middle of the Cream of Wheat (which really *is* better than most brands of farina, which are far too fine), and put a little pat of butter. Let it melt and then put a spoon of plain unsweetened cocoa powder. Add a spoon of sugar, and mix all three together in the little well, essentially making a chocolate syrup. How you eat it is a matter of personal choice -- you either drag out a little bit of the syrup to eat with the plain Cream of Wheat, or you mix all of it up. Me, I like the former, but my kids the latter.
It's my daughter's favourite breakfast.
When I was a kid, I used to eat Cream of Wheat with chocolate chips sprinkled on top. I swirled them around and they melted nicely into the hot cereal. Delicious!
Yummm. This was the best after sledding all day when I was a kid. We used a brand called "Coco Wheats" that already had the cocoa mixed in. Does anyone else remember that stuff?
The Cocoa Wheat jingle was super catchy. Mmmm.
This is very similar to a classic breakfast dish in my family--chocolate oatmeal. Similar idea-dissolve some unsweetened cocoa in hot water and add to oatmeal while cooking. Tastes amazing sweetened with condensed milk--and, oddly, a side of bacon!
We started making cream of wheat with egg and vanilla after seeing a post on the Kitchn part of the site: http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/breakfast/recipe-enriched-cream-of-wheat-with-egg-and-vanilla-079472
It is so delicious on its own. It's my daughter's favourite. But what's great is each person eating can customize it. I've put a small amount of chocolate chips in my daughter's, my husband likes maple syrup. My favourite is fruit (either fresh or as a sauce made from frozen...strawberries that way are amazing!) on top.
I'm going to add cocoa powder to the list of possibilities now. I'm sure my daughter will love it!
Coco Wheats! Thanks for that blast from the past. Did you know you can still buy them online? google magic. Never thought about doctoring up cream of wheat....going to try it on the kiddos this weekend, thanks!
Never thought about putting cocoa powder in my son's semolina. He is quite happy to have it with just a little bit of honey, but I'll keep this idea for when winter rolls around!