Cereal: dogfood for people

Man, I love me a bowl of cereal. For years and years, I've had the same formula: cheerios, raisin bran (store brand), rolled oats, almonds, and raisins (more of em). Sometimes I mix it up a little: bananas! Strawberries! Blueberries! I loved Grape Nuts Flakes there for a while, and then we moved to a part of the state that apparently doesn't sell them (whazzup with that, Post Cereals?). Now I'm doing Kix in the mix, although I've gotten to that point in my love affair with a new cereal brand in which I can taste the component parts (Corn meal. Air. Oat flour. Aaand, some sort of synthetic food grade lacquer that makes me think of all the articles I've read on the evils of polydextrose.) I'm guessing the day will come soon when I stand in front of that supermarket display, weigh it, and decide to pass.

Not my cereal habit, though. I'm currently in a phase (known as "having no job to take me away from the pantry") in which I am trying to limit myself to one bowl of cereal a day. Okay, two. But THAT'S IT. It's not really a health thing--processedness aside, cereal isn't the worst thing I could be eating. Yes, it would be nice if I were to substitute produce items for vitamin-enriched wheat products that have been variously mashed, powdered, sprayed, puffed, and packaged, but that's not my main concern. It's more the, um, dog food aspect.

The problem with the dog food aspect? That's also what I like. Complete(ish) nutrition in a bowl! With no more effort than it takes to lift a box! And it's satisfying. When I get in one of my wouldn't-it-be-great-if-we-were-all-Kalahari-Bushmen moods, the one thing that stops me is breakfast. What do hunter-gatherers put in their food hole when they wake up with that low-blood-sugar craving for immediate carbohydrates? Gathered greens? Pine bark? Dried roots? Basically, without the cereal, my own personal food pyramid collapses. I might as well start living on cheetos and beer.

What about you? What's your food staple?