Meet Kevin - a fan who enjoys our cereal dairy free.

Te Atatu Toasted fan Kevin Miller lives in a transitional villa in the Auckland suburb of Birkenhead with his wife Christine. The couple has two sons who live on the other side of the bridge in Mt Eden. Kevin is a semi-retired IT consultant working the Business Applications space.

My breakfast routine is… A sit-down breakfast, with fruit juice, muesli, toast and tea. I leave the coffee until later in the day.

My favourite Te Atatu Toasted cereal is…Original Blend Muesli

I love Te Atatu Toasted cereal because…it’s a healthy option. I have a vegan diet, plus seafood, with a low saturated fat focus, for health reasons. We used to make our own cereal to be safe with ingredients but have found the Te Atatu Toasted option hits all our buttons. 

I eat it with… Fruit, often homegrown rhubarb, with soy yoghurt topped with my daily dose of flaxseed oil, which I have for health reasons.

The best thing about signing up for a subscription to Te Atatu Toasted is… I get my monthly refresh right on time, and the 1.5kg bag with the handy measure just goes the distance. And it’s a good price. I have been subscribing now for 12 months after finding Te Atatu Toasted at the Hobsonville Market.

If I’m not eating cereal for breakfast… I’m having tea and toast in bed with the Weekend Herald, or occasionally a healthy vegan brunch out.

I believe the key to good health is… A balanced diet, with lots of fresh local produce, a balanced exercise programme (mine includes hydrotherapy and pilates classes) and mindfulness, again for balance.

Other boutique New Zealand food brands I love include… Birkenhead’s local Sprout the Grocer, for healthy bulk foods, and we used to have a Kai Box subscription for great vegan meals. We now do our own thing, often based on the Kai Box experience

My next holiday will be… To the South Island. We had one booked but cancelled in the second lockdown. We’ve had to rely on Facebook memories for our overseas experience - we usually head up to Fiji late winter for something warmer. Maybe next year!

My favourite restaurant is… The Engine Room on Northcote Point and we’re spoiled for local cafés in Hinemoa Street, Birkenhead. Generosity and Standing Room head our list.

Tell us about 2020 for your family…It’s has been a strange year. I’ve been working from home most days since April, and not travelling 30 kilometres each way to the office has been great. We’ve been lucky having a well set up home for working from home. We had to force ourselves to have a break during the day and stop work for some exercise before dinner. We coped surprisingly well in our bubble, but we did miss our family, particularly our grandchildren. It was difficult for our family, who have busy jobs, were badly affected by Covid, and faced working from home without home office space and meeting the demands of young children as well. Collectively, I believe the “Team of five million” has done remarkably well but I’m concerned that there is a real risk that we haven’t seen the end of this yet and the economic impact must still be uncertain. 

Selfishly, not knowing when we might next get overseas is something we think about, but with 2,000 active cases in my sister’s London community, it maybe some time away. We certainly live in different worlds and we need to be thankful about where we find ourselves.