#10 – Spooky Marshmallow Froot Loops

From Kellogg’s in 2002, this limited edition version of Froot Loops featured marshmallows in the shapes of ghosts, skeleton masks and bones. The cereal’s mascot, Toucan Sam, must love Halloween. He also appeared on Spooky Froot Loops (without marshmallows in 1996), Frightening Froot Loops (2000), Freaky Froot Loops (2003) and Haunted Froot Loops Manor (2004).

#9 – Kooky Cocoa Rice Krispies

During the Halloween season of 2003, Cocoa Rice Krispies were infused with marshmallow ghosts and skulls to become Kooky Cocoa Rice Krispies. The prior year, Kellogg’s gave us a similar cereal in the form of Creepy Coco Rice Krispies. These two cereals were followed up with Haunted Cocoa Rice Krispies Manor in 2004.

#8 – Candy Corn Pops

From 2001, this limited edition cereal from Kellogg’s was described as a “crunchy sweetened corn cereal with a special candy corn flavor.” The character on the front of the box was presumably a mad scientist.

#7 – Halloween Crunch

Cap’n Crunch has gotten into the Halloween spirit every year since 2007 with Quaker’s Halloween Crunch. Boxes have featured the Cap’n dressed as a mummy and a werewolf. The most recent box for 2012, shows Crunch’s face etched into a Jack O’lantern.

#6 – Ghostbusters Cereal

This Ralston brand cereal from 1985 is probably best described using its TV commercial jingle… to the theme from the movie Ghostbusters… everybody sing….

“There’s a new cereal in the neighborhood
with O’s and ghosts
(Tastes real good… Ghostbusters!)
Marshmallow ghosts… fruit flavored O’s
Ghostbusters taste great with milk and juice and toast
(a nutritious breakfast with the ghost… Ghostbusters!)
What you gonna crunch? (Ghostbusters!)”

#5 – Yummy Mummy

The last of the monster cereals introduced by General Mills is the first to make our Halloween countdown. This fruit flavored cereal with marshmallows came out in 1998. Its mascot was a colorful, unraveling mummy also called Yummy Mummy.

#4 – Fruit Brute

Introduced in 1974 (the same year as Boo Berry), this monster cereal from General Mills was described on the box as a “fruit flavor frosted cereal (with) marshmallow bits.” A television ad said that it had “the howling good taste of fruit.” A fun piece of trivia: The cereal made cameo appearances in two Quentin Tarantino films, Reservoir Dogs in 1992 and Pulp Fiction in 1994.

#3 – Franken Berry

Of the five monster cereals created by General Mills, only three are still being produced. They can be purchased all year online, but many store only carry them during the Halloween season. It’s these three cereals that round out our Halloween countdown. At number three is Franken Berry (introduced in 1971), the “sweet strawberry flavor cereal (with) marshmallow bits” featuring the cuddly, pink, Frankenstein-esque monster. In television commercials, the character Franken Berry was afraid of…

#2 – Boo Berry

When this cereal came out in 1973, a TV ad showed Franken Berry and his chocolate friend (more on him in a moment) being deathly afraid of a little blue ghost in the porkpie hat. The little guy was knocking on their castle door to introduce his new blueberry flavored cereal. “My name is Boo,” said the new mascot. To which, the pink and brown monsters seemed to hear only “boo” causing them to jump in terror.

#1 – Count Chocula

Completing the total domination of General Mills’ monster cereals in our Halloween countdown is Count Chocula. Introduced the same year as Franken Berry (1971), this cereal was described on the box as “a chocolate flavor frosted cereal (with) marshmallow bits.” Of the three monsters in our top three, only Count Chocula had a memorable slogan: “I vant to eat your cereal!” The character Count Chocula is a vampire who prefers chocolate to blood.

I think the awesome people who voted got it right. Count Chocula happens to be my favorite of the cereals mentioned. If the list was based on my personal favorites, I may have bumped Cap’n Crunch’s Halloween Crunch up to the third spot.

Cereal votes at The Cereal Project are cumulative. The results here were the favorites as of October 2012.

To see even more Halloween-themed breakfast cereals, visit The Cereal Project at MrBreakfast.com. There you’ll find pages dedicated to Monster Pops, Halloween Brew Waffle Crisp, Halloween Rice Krispies, Post Ghoasties, Jack ‘O’ Lantern Apple Jacks and many more.

Over the weekend, I made BLUEBERRY LEMON MUDDY BUDDIES with my 4-year-old daughter aka Kid Breakfast.  The ingredients (except for lemon and butter) were provided to us by General Mills in a “Happy Summer” promotional box which also included a cute serving bowl and a lemon-themed tea towel.  According to a card in the box, “Blueberry Lemon Muddy Buddies is the perfect mix to add zest to your summer get-togethers!”

For those unfamiliar, Muddy Buddies is a snack made with Chex cereal and chocolate that is coated in powdered sugar.  For the Blueberry Lemon version, you use Blueberry Chex (introduced in 2017) and white chocolate or white vanilla baking chips.

The complete list of ingredients:

• 1 box of Blueberry Chex Cereal
• 1 and 1/4 cups white vanilla baking chips
• 1/4 cup butter (optional)
• 4 teaspoons grated lemon peel
• 2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 cups powdered sugar

To start, you pour the whole box of cereal into a large bowl.  You should use a bigger bowl than pictured here. It got messy for us when it came time to mix.

Next, you place the baking chips, butter, lemon peel and lemon juice in a microwave-safe bowl.  Heat on high for 90 seconds – stirring every 30 seconds.  The image here shows the mixture after 1 minute.  It became smoother at 90 seconds.

You then pour the liquid mixture over the cereal and stir to coat the cereal pieces.

Next is the fun part… you pour the cereal and the powdered sugar into a huge plastic bag, seal it and shake the heck out of it to coat the Muddy Buddies with sugar.  If you don’t have 2-gallon sized plastic bags, you could do it in batches in 1-gallon sized bags or just throw everything into a plastic or paper shopping bag.

After that, you have to let the Blueberry Lemon Muddy Buddies cool on a baking pan for a half hour.  And then it’s time to eat.

The verdict:  An enthusiastic thumbs-up!

Thanks to General Mills for providing us with the recipe and the ingredients.

Last fall, I thought I would never again see so many limited-time-only, pumpkin-flavored products.  Then, I went to the grocery store this week and saw most of last year’s products had returned, plus there’s a whole new batch of stuff.  Autumn has arrived my friends.

Some of my favorite non-breakfast, pumpkin-spiced new products are Pumpkin Spice Peeps, LINDOR Pumpkin Spice Truffles, Pumpkin Spice Toll House Cookies and Pumpkin Spice Almonds from both Planters and Blue Diamond.

But this is a breakfast site, so to the business at hand… What is the best pumpkin spiced breakfast cereal introduced in 2016? There were 3 introduced by major cereal companies this year.  The following are listed from my least favorite to my most favorite:

Pumpkin Spice Cheerios (General Mills)

This was my least favorite, but it’s still pretty darn good.  The pumpkin spice flavor is super noticeable, especially in the first few spoonfuls.  Of all the cereals, the seasonal flavor here feels most like it was dusted on as opposed to being part of the recipe.  The biggest problem for this cereal is that Honey Nut Cheerios and original Cheerios are so very good.  Midway through my first bowl of this cereal, my mind was drifting to those other kinds of Cheerios – which are better than this new variety.

Pumpkin Spice Life (Quaker)

When eaten dry, the pumpkin spice in this cereal sort of sneaks up you and tastes a little overpowering.  But when you have it with milk, the flavors integrate and taste terrific.  I’m a big fan of Cinnamon Life cereal and this new variety feels kind of like that cereal’s nice uncle.  He’s interesting, fun, clearly-related, but somehow you’re strangely content to only see him during holidays.  While this was my second favorite, it was the hands-down top favorite of our 2 and 1/2 year old toddler.

Pumpkin Spice Crunch Special K (Kellogg’s)

The highest praise you can give to a pumpkin spice product is to say it tastes like pumpkin pie. The previous two cereals don’t taste like pumpkin pie.  They taste like cereals that have been infused with spices associated with pumpkin pie.  This new Special K cereal actually does taste a little like pumpkin pie.  I was surprised that there’s no pumpkin puree in the ingredients.  It might have to do with the sweet clusters you get in every other spoonful.  Alone, they taste like little clumps of plain sugar. But in the context of the whole cereal, they trigger thoughts of ice cream or whipped cream – to some, the best part of eating a piece of pie.  Of the three cereals, I also found that this one kept me feeling full for the longest time.  If you only try one pumpkin spice cereal this season, this is the one to buy.

Non-Cereal Shout-Out:  BelVita Pumpkin Spice Breakfast Biscuits (Nabisco)

With a house full of pumpkin spice breakfast products, I was bound to eventually get temporarily tired of pumpkin pie spice.  It happened quickly with the Cheerios cereal and it’s happening now with the Life cereal.  But… these biscuits that I’ve been snacking on every other day for a couple weeks are still tasting new and interesting.  There’s nothing amazing about them.  They’re basically just thin holiday cookies.  It could be that I’m usually extremely snacky when I have them.  Whatever the reason, I like them and I think you might too.

Be sure to check out the last year’s Battle Of The Fall 2015 Limited Edition Cereals.

The 7th of March is Cereal Day /

so we invited some friends to come over and play.

The table was set with all sorts of cereals /

with milk and with bowls and with other materials.

Older kids drank orange juice with champagne /

The younger ones had to drink their juice plain.

Boxes were opened and pieces were poured /

Three kinds of Cheerios were the first we explored.

There were wonderful smiles and rejoices of “yummy” /

As little round loops filled little round tummies.

Loops of all colors, fruit-flavored balls /

cinnamon squares… we sampled them all.

The children found every cereal delicious /

but one mother worried they weren’t that nutritious.

I told that mom something she didn’t know /

Most of these cereals are non-GMO.

That blew her mind, so I shattered her brain… /

all of these cereals are made with whole grains.

The children continued to eat with big grins /

and pieces of cereal stuck to their chins.

Once the bowls were all empty and gift bags were gifted /

I remembered a scene and my spirits were lifted.

A little girl eating with intense concentration /

with quite respect for this day in our nation.

Raise your spoons to the air and repeat what I say: /

All hail cereal! Happy #CerealDay!

Special thanks to General Mills for sending us a Cereal Day gift box with cereals and party favors which inspired us to hold this year’s party.

For everything you could ever want to know about breakfast cereals, visit The Cereal Project at MrBreakfast.com.

The blockbuster movie Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice hits theaters on March 25, 2016.  To commemorate the event, General Mills has introduced two new cereals based on the movie:  Batman Chocolate Strawberry Cereal and Superman Caramel Crunch Cereal.  I had a team of taste testers (including one toddler) put the new cereals to the test.  Here are the results of the Batman vs. Superman Cereal Showdown:

Superman Caramel Crunch Cereal

This is a caramel flavored cereal that has no high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors or artificial flavors.  The cereal pieces are meant to resemble the shield on Superman’s uniform.

Taste Testers Comments:  1) You can definitely tastes the caramel; 2) It’s okay… not great; 3) Very sweet; and 4) The milk picks up a little of the caramel flavor.

Mr Breakfast says:  I wish I could say Superman Caramel Crunch is truly super, but I can’t. It’s just alright.  If you’re a huge fan of caramel, you might want to give it a shot.  Although great appreciators of caramel might find the flavor overly artificial.  The cereal stays crunchy in milk for about 2 minutes.  I give this cereal a rating of 4 out of 7.

Toddler Reaction:  Skeptical of first taste, but eventually smiled and said, “Mo(re)… plee(ease).”  Ate 5 pieces and then decided to eat broccoli instead.

Batman Chocolate Strawberry Cereal

Like the name says, this is a chocolate and strawberry flavored cereal. Like the Superman cereal, it has no artificial colors, no artificial flavors and no high fructose corn syrup. The cereal pieces are meant to resemble the famous Batman bat emblem.

Taste Testers Comments:  1) I don’t understand what the flavor is supposed to be; 2) It tastes like chemicals; 3) Yuck;  4) I don’t like it; and 5) Do I have to eat anymore?

Mr Breakfast says: Batman Chocolate Strawberry Cereal is a colossal failure.  It’s one of the worst tasting cereals I’ve ever had.  The melding of chocolate and strawberry into the same cereal pieces causes flavor confusion.  If there were two kinds of cereal pieces – one chocolate and one strawberry – the flavor combination may have had a better chance. I give it a rating of 2 out 7.

Toddler Reaction:  Look of initial interest turned to look of disgust.  Pushed remaining cereal pieces away saying, “No. No. No.”

The winner of this cereal showdown is unequivocally and definitively… Superman!

The best thing about these cereals are the boxes.  They are really, really cool…  shiny and reflective with beautiful graphics.  If you’re looking for cereals to sell on eBay in 10 years, these are great cereals.  For eating, not so much.

General Mills sent me samples of the superhero cereals in an amazing over-sized cereal box that contained both cereals, a full-sized Superman cape and a Batman cowl.  That was super (man) cool of them.

Since I had to give these cereals a pretty lousy review, let me be super (man) and give a shout out to a new General Mills cereal that’s actually very good… my favorite cereal introduced in 2016 so far.  It’s called Nature Valley Oat Bites and it kicks Batman and Superman into the ground.

For more about the cereals in this post, see their individual listings in our encyclopedia of breakfast cereals:

• Batman Chocolate Strawberry Cereal
• Superman Caramel Crunch Cereal
• Nature Valley Oat Bites

Two images in this post (choose your side & it’s a bird) are originally from a Tumblr page called DC Super Heroes Cereal.

This is the year that everything became pumpkin spiced.  Here’s a partial list of grocery items that came in pumpkin spice varieties this fall: bread, ice cream, yogurt, cream cheese, coffee, coffee creamer, beer, vodka, almonds, potato chips and corn chips.

Many breakfast items also received the autumn treatment.  You could get Thomas Pumpkin Spice Bagels and English Muffins, Quaker Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal, Eggo Pumpkin Spice Waffles and Pumpkin Pie Pop-Tarts.

As for breakfast cereals, there were 3 major brand cereals introduced this year capitalizing on the flavors of fall.   Here they are listed from worst to best:

Pumpkin Puffins (Barbara’s)

Have you tasted pure pumpkin to see what it’s like before it’s sweetened and spiced for a pie?  I have and it tastes dull.  It’s a miracle that something so bland can become so marvelous.  Well, the good folks at Barbara’s have captured what pumpkin tastes like before it tastes good.  This cereal gets props for being relatively low in sugar, but that’s where the compliments end.  It’s annoyingly crunchy as milk doesn’t penetrate the pieces.  As a dry snack, it’s acceptable.  As a cereal, it’s (to quote Donald Trump) a real loser.

Pumpkin Spice Frosted Mini-Wheats (Kellogg’s)

This cereal is good because Frosted-Mini Wheats are good.  The flavor is exactly what you would expect: traditional Mini-Wheats with a healthy pinch of holiday flavor.  The new flavor is impressive in the first few spoonfuls, but midway through a bowl, the pumpkin spice aspect becomes less apparent… leaving you with the taste and texture of a cereal you already know.  This one is very sweet with the highest amount of sugar of the cereals featured here.

Apple Cinnamon Crunch Special K (Kellogg’s)

The best fall-themed breakfast cereal isn’t pumpkin flavored.  Instead of pumpkin pies and pumpkin patches, this cereal brings to mind apple pies and apple orchards on crisp autumn afternoons.  The flakes are crispy and light. Small apple cinnamon clusters make each spoonful sparkle with a flavor that’s familiar in pies and oatmeal but new and exciting in a breakfast cereal.  The milk at the bottom of the bowl takes on some of that flavor for a final slurp of cinnamon apple goodness.   Of the 3 cereals, this one has the best chance of jumping from a limited edition product to a full time offering. The next time you’re in the grocery store being pummeled by pumpkin products, look for this cereal.  It’s a winner.

Additional Reading:

Breakfast Product Reviews at MrBreakfast.com

The Cereal Project at MrBreakfast.com (Encyclopedia of over 1,500 Cereals)

I was very excited to open my mail this morning.  General Mills sent me this year’s boxes of Count Chocula, Franken Berry and Boo Berry Cereals.  The cereals themselves haven’t changed since last year, but the packaging is updated in a great way.

The cereals partnered with artists from DC Comics to give each monster a fresh look.

My favorite is Count Chocolate who is more expressive than in the past.  His huge nose and big buck teeth are less goofy and more menacing than past renditions.  The artists for that box were Terry and Rachel Dodson, a husband and wife pencil and ink team known for work on DC’s Wonder Woman and Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man.

Franken Berry has his familiar look but is a bit rougher around the edges. If you’ve never noticed his fingernails which are polished to look like individual strawberries, they’re emphasized in this illustration.  Strawberry fingernails might feminize other men, but Franken Berry makes it look tough.  The artist for this rendition was Dave Johnson who some may know for Marvel’s Captain America and DC’s Detective Batman series.

Probably the most notable artist involved, Jim Lee (X-Men, Superman and many, many more) did the illustration of Boo Berry. While cool, it was my least favorite of the three because it looked so similar to Boo Berry boxes from previous years.

The boxes I received were all signed by the artists.  Bonus!  I’m checking with a comic enthusiast friend of mine to see what they might be worth in the future.  Depending on what he says, I’ll either be having sweepstakes to give them away or I’ll be retiring in Maui – in which case, this will be my last post.

Here’s a quick look at how the monsters have changed over the years:

For more about these cereals and to see vintage boxes and commercials, check out the Monster Cereal Collection section of MrBreakfast.com which also includes Fruit Brute and Yummy Mummy.

See if you can identify the cereals that Fred passes by. After the screen shots, I’ll help you identify the discontinued and hard to find cereals you may not recognize or remember.

I’ll bet you identified most of the cereals that have remained big sellers since the mid-80s (like Life, Total, Lucky Charms, Count Chocula, Golden Grahams and Fruit Loops). Here’s 10 of the cereals that may have been less familiar:

Halfsies – Quaker; Introduced in 1979.

Kaboom – General Mills; Introduced in 1960.

Bran Chex – Ralston Purina; Introduced in 1978.

Wheat & Raisin Chex – Ralston Purina; Introduced in 1980.

Buc Wheats – General Mills; Introduced in 1971.

Pac-Man Cereal – General Mills; Introduced in 1983.

Donkey Kong Cereal – Ralston Purina; Introduced in 1982.

Raisins Rice & Rye – Kellogg’s; Introduced in 1980.

Most Cereal – Kellogg’s; Introduced in 1979.

Marshmallow Krispies – Kellogg’s; Introduced in 1982.

Thinking about your favorite cereals from the past? Be sure to check out The Cereal Project on MrBreakfast.com to see nearly 1,500 classic and current cereals.

!

Interesting Fact:

Mr. Rogers’ full name was Frederick McFeely Rogers. McFeely was the surname of Mr. Rogers’ maternal grandfather. Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood featured a character named Mr. McFeely who was a delivery man. Today, people who engage in over-aggressive touching (particularly of the unpleasant sort) are sometimes called Mr. McFeely. The name can also be used derogatorily to describe people who are needy or otherwise show excessive emotion.

Whenever I’m in a coffee shop, I lust over all those delectable pastries imprisoned behind that glass display case.  The Lemon Poppy Seed Muffin is always one of my favorites.  It has a light, refreshing taste, and goes equally well with coffee or tea, morning or afternoon. I decided to take those flavors and incorporate them into one of my favorite homemade snacks: granola.  This time around, I wanted a granola with LOTS of clusters and I’m happy to say that’s how it turned out.

This granola is inexpensive, easy to make and terrifically versatile!  I enjoy it as cereal (of course) but also as a crunchy topping for oatmeal and yogurt, as a stand-alone snack right out of the container, as a crispy “streusel” topping for cobblers and quick breads…  Homemade granola is a kitchen staple at the MrBreakfast Estate.

To make homemade granola, you really only need a few basic ingredients that most everyone already has in their pantry.  For the ingredients list and a printable recipe, click here.

In a large bowl, mix together the oats, flour, brown sugar, zest of 1 lemon, poppy seeds, salt and slivered almonds.  In a microwave safe bowl, melt the butter and stir in the maple syrup, honey and vanilla.

Add the butter mixture to the dry ingredients and stir it up with a wooden spoon to combine.

Spread the granola mixture out over a lightly greased baking sheet. (It should resemble a very thick, sticky, lumpy cookie dough.)  Press the granola down to make a large “cookie” that covers most of the sheet.  It won’t seem like granola at this stage, but once it bakes, it will easily crumble into the granola clusters you’re more accustomed to seeing.  (Note: At this stage it’s VERY sticky, so it’s much easier to make the layer even if you cover it with a sheet of waxed paper and smooth out the granola mixture.)

Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees. Flip the granola and bake an additional 15 minutes. Note: When you flip the granola, it is easiest to break it up into large pieces to flip. In the end, it all gets crumbled-so don’t worry about how many pieces it breaks up into!

One last step: remove the granola from the oven and reduce the heat to 300 degrees F. Use a wooden spoon to break up the pieces into bite size clusters. Add dried blueberries (if you’re using them – you don’t have to – but I really love lemon and blueberry together) and bake it 10 more minutes at 300 degrees.

At this point, keep a good eye on the oven.  You want the clusters to be golden brown – but watch to make sure they don’t get too brown.  After 10 minutes, remove the cookie sheet from oven. Allow the granola to cool completely before serving or storing.  When the granola is fresh out of the oven, it will look soft and crumbly.  Don’t let this fool you.  As soon as it cools, it will be perfectly crisp and crunchy.

The best part about making granola is that your imagination’s the limit when it comes to flavors.  Simply swap out the lemon zest and poppy seeds with coconut and dried pineapple for a tropical version.  Or flax seeds and walnuts for a super-Omega-3 granola. Or shred 1 apple, add a teaspoon of cinnamon and pecans for one my favorite flavors – Apple Pie Granola!

Can poppy seeds make you fail a drug test?

There isn’t one definitive answer, but usually, NO.  You would have to eat the equivalent of at least 15-20 poppy seed bagels (or 10 bowls of this granola!) in one day for trace amounts of opiates to be found in your bloodstream. That being said, there are several kinds of drug tests. Some tests flag ANY amount of opiates in your bloodstream, but most flag only the specific chemical compounds in heroin and prescription painkillers.  But, there have been accusations from people (who failed their drug test) who claim they had not used any illegal nor prescription drugs.  For this reason, most states have increased the minimum level of opiates that must be detected in order to designate a “positive” result.  All signs point to something fishy going on with people who claim the “poppy seed defense” – so unless you’re throwing back poppy seeds by the handful, you shouldn’t worry. 

This post is a companion piece to the following recipe on MrBreakfast.com:

Lemon Poppy Seed Granola Clusters

Kellogg’s recently introduced Vrooms Cereal – available only at Target Stores.  This product continues a great tradition of breakfast cereals dedicated to auto racing.  In this article, we’ll get to know Vrooms and take a look at some auto racing cereals of the past.

Three different boxes of Vrooms Cereal were introduced.  They feature:  Scottish driver Dario Franchitti;  Scott Dixon – a racer from New Zealand; and Juan Pablo Montoya, a Columbian driver.  Between the three of them, they have four wins at the Indianapolis 500.  The featured drivers are all part of the Target Chip Ganassi Racing Team, each sporting the Target bullseye logo on their suits. This explains why the cereal is only available at Target.  It’d be quite an advertising ploy to stock the cereal aisles of Kmart with Target logos.

The actual cereal consists of red and tan loops.  I tried it and it tasted remarkably like Cheerios.  It’s actually a little weird to have red cereal pieces but no hint of fruit or berry flavor.  If you can get over that, it’s pretty good.  For more about the new cereal, visit the page dedicated to Vrooms at the Cereal Project on MrBreakfast.com.

Let’s look at a few auto racing cereals from the past:

NASCAR Speedway Crunch (Kellogg’s 1999)

This box featured NASCAR driver Terry Labonte.  The cereal was O-shaped and described on the box as a “whole grain oat cereal.”

Racing Apple Jacks (Kellogg’s 2000)

This box featured legendary race car driver Jeff Gordon.  According to the box, it was part of the “Official Cereals Of NASCAR” at the time.  The cereal consisted of traditional Apple Jacks loops along with pieces with “new racing colors.”  Despite the new bright colors, it was said to have tasted just like regular Apple Jacks.

Richard Petty 43’s (General Mills 2003)

To be precise, the actual name of this one was “Cheerios Racing Presents Richard Petty 43’s.”  The number 43 was an ode to Petty’s famous Number 43 race cars. The cereal was basically Cheerios in the shapes of 3s and 4s.

Cap’n Crunch’s Race Car Crunch (Quaker 2009)

This cereal featured my personal favorite racer Cap’n Crunch.  He may have never won the Indy 500, but I’d like to see Jeff Gordon or Dario Franchitti fight off pirates that want to steal their cereal. Race Car Crunch consisted of regular Cap’n Crunch pieces along with “fun race car shapes” of blue, red and orange.

Of course, a driver doesn’t need to have his very own cereal to reach breakfast cereal fame.  Many have appeared on boxes of existing cereals, most notably Wheaties from General Mills and Kellogg’s Corn Flakes.  The image above (click it to enlarge) shows cereal box appearances from drivers Terry Labonte, Jeff Gordon, Greg Sacks, Richard Petty, Lee Petty, Ned Jarrett, Cale Yarborough, Benny Parsons, Dale Earnhardt, Johnny Benson and Bill Lester.

I’m proud – and at the same time, embarrassed – to say that everything I know about auto racing I learned from cereal boxes.  Before this morning, I had no idea who Scott Dixon and Juan Pablo Montoya were.  But they are now heroes of mine.  Like my other heroes, the Trix Rabbit, Count Chocula, and Tony the Tiger, they will forever have their own cereal.  Sure… it’d probably be more fun if Dixon and Montoya were cartoon animals or bumbling monsters.  Who knows?  Perhaps they are bumbling monsters in their own way.  This much I do know… today I enjoyed my breakfast and learned a little more about auto racing.  Thank you breakfast cereal!