> everyone considers me a deviant for just wanting to start my day with cereal and milk

My ideas about breakfast were turned on their head many years ago when a German friend (his typical breakfast: rye bread, cheese, cured ham) remarked that he "can't understand how you can bear to eat sweet food first thing in the morning".

I suppose most of the world's breakfast traditions evolved from whatever is left over from the previous night's dinner. The idea of a custom synthetic breakfast food is quite an American thing.