Monkey Bread is a sort of variation on a cinnamon roll recipe that’s very easy to make. Basically, you chop up some biscuit dough, coat it with cinnamon and sugar and then top it with melted butter and brown sugar.  Bake, invert and presto… Monkey Bread.

You can eat it like an elegant gentleman with a knife and fork.  But it’s best to eat it with your fingers like a monkey.  According to Wikipedia, that’s how the bread got its name.

For the complete recipe, you can check out the original Monkey Bread Recipe page on MrBreakfast.com.  Or check out the Monkey Bread Recipe Cheat Sheet above.  Or better yet, check out our Monkey Bread Recipe Tutorial Video below.

I made the bold choice to have a monkey named Randy teach the tutorial.  As for what the pig is doing there… you’ll see.

_{Video: How To Make Monkey Bread w/ Randy The Monkey}

As a breakfast expert, I recommend that you only have this for breakfast on special occasions.  It’s extremely sweet (but ohhhh… so tasty).  I hope you give it a try.  Let me know how it goes.

Be afraid, be very afraid… of starting your day with too much energy. I’ve created a monster… a healthy beast made of oatmeal, apples and bananas. My, what big teeth he has.  The better to eat you with! Or more correctly stated, the better for you to eat because his choppers are made of delicious slivered almonds.  In this article, I’ll show you two ways to make apple teeth – one with almonds and the other with peanut butter and marshmallows.

Making apple teeth with almonds is super easy. Cut an apple into quarters and then take a slice out of each quarter.  Next, just poke in almond slivers for the teeth.  Done. As you’ll notice, I also tried using toasted almonds.  That turned out great because they look like dirty teeth.

I played around with using a cherry to act as a tongue.   It didn’t work how I wanted.  You can see above that it made the teeth look like eyes.  Too weird.  And this is coming from a guy who just spent hours making teeth out of food.

The second way to make apple teeth isn’t quite as impressive looking, but it may be a little more delicious.  For these, you cut an apple into wedges.  Spread peanut butter on one side of each wedge.  Then, arrange mini-marshmallows as teeth.  Sandwich the wedges together and you’re ready to stick your teeth into your teeth.

As with the almonds, it’d probably be fun to toast the mini-marshmallows.  I’ll leave it to you to find a miniature campfire and a tiny stick.

So, that’s all there is to it.  Put the teeth in a bowl of oatmeal with some banana eyes to make your own breakfast monster.  You can do the same thing on a pancake or a waffle.

This can be a fun Halloween project for kids.  They’ll love helping to make apple teeth and they’ll love eating them. If you can make apples seem cool in this season of candy, that’s quite an accomplishment.

Happy Halloween breakfast lovers!

I have to go now.  There’s a Goblin in my Granola!  Another story for another time.

Additional Resources:

Oatmeal, Pancake And Waffle Recipes

More Halloween Breakfast Recipes

These Jack O’ Lantern Fruit Cups (alternatively called Halloween Breakfast Cups) are fun to make, adorable and a tricky way to get kids to eat fruit.  If you look at the pictures, you’ll get the idea, but I’ve included a few instructions if you feel like reading.

The only tools you need are a small, sharp paring knife and a grapefruit spoon (the kind with a serrated edge).   Cut off the top of the orange.  Cut around the inside with a knife to loosen the pulp and remove it with the grapefruit spoon.  Now, just cut out a face as you would with a pumpkin.  If you like, you can draw the face first with a marker and then cut along the lines.

Note: If your Jack O’ Lantern is unbalanced, you may want to take a thin slice out of the bottom so your orange will have a base to stand on.

When you’re happy with your Jack O’ Lantern, all that’s left is to fill it with mixed fruit. You’re options are basically limitless.  If it grows and can be cut, it’ll probably work.  Here’s a few suggestions: oranges (obviously), bananas, grapes, apples, peaches, pears, kiwi, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, pineapple, watermelon,  honeydew melon, etc.  As you can see, I’m just basically listing every fruit known to man.  However, this reminds me of a great joke:

Knock. Knock.

Who’s there?

Honeydew

Honeydew who?

Honeydew you love me?

The answer is yes.  If someone comes knocking and wants a delicious, healthy treat served in a unique way, they will love you.

When it comes down to it, the scariest thing about Halloween may be the amount of sweets kids eat.  Bless their hearts, my parents used to let me have a piece of my trick-or-treat candy with breakfast.  Then, I’d secretly take 5 or 6 more pieces to school.  I was a fat little kid.  Later in life, I’d have a fat complex and perceive myself as chubby even when I wasn’t.  That made me awkward around chicks.  Help your kids avoid this horror story and start serving Jack O’ Lantern Fruit Cups today!

For more Halloween breakfast recipes and ideas, please check out the Halloween Headquarters page of MrBreakfast.com.  You’ll find a few more special projects, a bunch of pumpkin recipes and even a couple Halloween jokes.

Happy Halloween!

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.

A couple Thanksgivings ago, I introduced you to the Pancake Turkey.  This year, I’d like you to meet Pancake Turkey II, a variation on the concept of pancake turkeys.  I’ll also introduce you to a special, new Thanksgiving friend… the Fruit Turkey. If that’s not enough… new for Thanksgiving 2014, I will show you the rare and exotic Muffins Turkey.

This (above) is the first pancake turkey I ever made. For this gobbler, you need a pancake mix (or homemade pancake batter), a banana, candy corn, a chocolate chip or a raisin and a maraschino cherry or a small dollop of red jam.  You can get complete instructions right here.

This is my latest attempt at the craft of pancake turkeys.  This one has a little more dimension.  To make this guy, you need pancakes, a banana, raisins, sliced almonds and a cashew.

Making the body is just a matter of making one normal pancake and one that’s vaguely phallic.  Slice the banana and you’re ready to go.

Now, this handsome follow is a rare, endangered fruit turkey.  He’s endangered because I’m seriously about to eat him.  Fortunately, you can help repopulate the fruit turkey population with a pear, an apple, an orange, 2 mini-chocolate chips, a raisin and a cashew.

What should I name my fruit turkey?  Your comments are welcome below.

Here’s a pair of exotic Muffin Turkeys.  You can make these with any muffins.  You’ll need some grapes, candy corn (wedged into the grape) and some red and green apple slices.  A toothpick is used to attach the grape head to the muffin body.  I made eyes with icing and chocolate sprinkles.  You could also just dab on some chocolate sauce or peanut butter.  The muffins I used for these turkeys were Apple Bran Muffins.

That concludes today’s lesson in the art of breakfast turkeys.  All that’s left to say is “Happy Thanksgiving!”  I hope it’s your best one ever!

Further Reading:

Turning Thanksgiving Leftovers Into Great Breakfasts

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.

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.

Here’s a few frighteningly fun and fascinatingly freaky ideas to turn your October morning meals into Halloween Breakfast Extravaganzas. From kid-friendly fare as easy as making faces with fruit to more intricate recipes for pumpkin quick breads and baked goods, you’re sure to find something here to make your breakfast spooky, kookie and delicious.

#1. Pumpkin Pancakes, Waffles And French Toast

Add some pumpkin puree and a few pinches of pumpkin pie spice to regular breakfast batters and you’re in for a Halloween treat (this is not a trick).  Here’s some recipes to try:

Pumpkin Pancakes

Pumpkin Waffles

Pumpkin French Toast

#2. Make Your Breakfast Look So Scary, It’s Adorable

There’s a ton of ways you can make your morning meal more monstrous.  A couple chocolate chips in misshapen pancakes make great ghosts.  Banana eyes and teeth made from apples can make your oatmeal a real scream.  Carve a grapefruit into a Jack O’ Lantern and fill it with fruit… it’s bewitchingly cute.  Here’s a few ideas you might want to try:

Pancake Ghosts

Oatmeal Monsters

Jack O’ Lantern Fruit Cups

Breakfast Sausage Mummies

#3. Scare Away Doctors And Disease By Eating Healthy Pumpkin Hot Cereals

Did you know there’s over 40 studies that indicate eating oatmeal can help reduce your risk of heat disease.  Oatmeal may also reduce your risk for type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.  It’s as if hot cereals are saying, “I vant to suck your blood… pressure down to healthy levels.”  Here’s some healthy hot cereals with the added benefit of tasty pumpkin:

Pumpkin Pie Breakfast Polenta

Pumpkin Pecan Oatmeal

Baked Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

Brown Rice & Pumpkin Porridge

#4. Drink Some Pumpkin

We’ve all eaten pumpkin in some form or another, but have you every drunk it?  Here’s two very different Halloween breakfast beverages:

Pumpkin Milkshake

Easy Pumpkin Latte

#5. Get Baked!

That heading might seem like an inside joke to reckless teenagers, but seasoned seasonal cooks know that Halloween is the official early start of holiday season cooking.  Satisfy your taste for pumpkin as you try these baked goods (maybe you’ll find something you’ll want to make again for Thanksgiving or Christmas!):

Cranberry Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Sour Cream Pumpkin Coffee Cake

Pumpkin Bread

Halloween Pumpkin Pecan Pie Granola

For even more Halloween Breakfast Ideas, visit Mr Boooo… breakfast’s Halloween Head Quarters.

Happy Halloween 2017!

Here’s a fun project to brighten your morning.  Kids of any age will love helping to make their own personal waffle butterfly.  If you use frozen waffles, the whole thing takes about 3 minutes.  Best of all, your kids will be having such a good time decorating, they won’t realize that they’re inadvertently getting a serving of fruit.

When it comes to making pictures and characters out of food, it’s important that the dish be prepared quickly.  There’s a guy at a site called Jim’s Pancakes (now defunct) who is making incredible, intricate sculptures out of pancakes.  I love what he’s doing, but there’s a problem with making complex, edible spaceships and football stadiums for breakfast.  If you play with your food for too long, your breakfast might look cool… but hot?  It is not.

That’s what I like about these waffle butterflies.  Once the components are prepped, the butterflies take just seconds to make and your waffles are still warm and crisp.

You’ll need 2 waffles – frozen or homemade.  Besides a banana, you’ll need a small selection of other fruits or berries.  I decided to decorate my butterfly with a kiwi and some strawberries.  You might also try blueberries, raspberries, cherries or dried cranberries.  The more colorful the fruit, the more lovely your butterfly.

I like to think of the ingredients as a cocoon – ready to release a breakfast of unmatched glory.  Or if I’m in a bad mood, I just think of them as 2 waffles and some fruit.  But then, everything comes together and my bad mood flies away like some kind of winged insect.

Now, let’s transform these simple ingredients into a beautiful butterfly.

Slice a long lengthwise piece of banana to make the body.  Then, chop the remaining fruit into various pieces.  Take two waffles and cut them each in half to make the wings.

Decorate the wings with the fruit pieces.  Use two very thin slices of one of your fruits to make antennae.

How could someone eat something so beautiful?  Easy!  Just drown it in warm maple syrup.

For 150 waffle recipes, visit the Waffle Recipes section of MrBreakfast.com.

Put away your forks.  Today, we’re eating French toast with our fingers.  These little golden nuggets are soaked in a vanilla custard and lightly fried on multiple sides.  Their appetizer-shape makes them perfect for dipping in maple syrup or a flavored icing.  These particular French Toast Nuggets get their golden color from lemon bread.  One other small detail:  They are delicious!

As regular readers know, I was inspired recently by Denny’s new, limited-time-only Hobbit menu.  Two days ago, I recreated their Hobbit Hole Breakfast.  These French toast nuggets also owe a nod to Denny’s.  On their special menu, they offer a dish called Lonely Mountain Treasure which they describe as “Seed Cake French Toast cut into 9 squares and served with a side of cream cheese icing for dipping.”

Unlike the Hobbit Holes – which I tried to replicate almost exactly, I saw immediate room for improvement in Denny’s bite-size French toast.  To me, the best bites of French toast are those with a golden brown, eggy exterior and a soft, moist interior.  A couple of the pieces in Denny’s dish were like that, but the majority were plain – like they hadn’t gone through the French toast process at all.

This is how it looked when I ordered it.  I liked it, but I knew it could be better and I knew how to fix it. Instead of chopping up a piece of French toast, I would chop up the bread before frying and make several mini-French toasts.  The difference may sound subtle, but the difference in taste and texture is pretty big.

Other improvements:  Having a dipping sauce is great.  Having 3 dipping sauces is better.  Finally, the name…  I’ve seen all three Lord Of The Rings movies and the term “Lonely Mountain Treasure” means nothing to me.  So, let’s call it like we see it.  These are delicious golden nuggets of French toast.

Let’s make some French Toast Golden Nuggets!

For the short, printable version of this recipe: click here.

I went for a nice lemon bread that I found at the grocery store.  My first inclination was to use a poppy seed loaf, but they didn’t have any.  The custard mixture you soak the bread in is just a standard French toast custard made from eggs, milk, vanilla and a pinch of salt. (I skipped sugar because the bread was already very sweet.)

First, you cut the bread into bite-size pieces and then beat together your custard ingredients.  I transferred the bread to a baking dish and covered the pieces with custard – flipping them once so they absorbed the maximum amount of goodness.  (You can dip the pieces in the bowl that you mix the custard in, but that gets messy and time-consuming.)

Next, melt a couple Tablespoons of butter in your frying pan or on your griddle and start frying nuggets.  I used medium heat for these.  I’d normally go with medium-high for French toast, but you want to give yourself more time and flexibility because you have a lot of flipping to do.  Once the nuggets are golden brown on both sides (2 or 3 minutes per side), you’re ready to go.

Word of warning:  Don’t overload the pan like I did.  I ended up breaking a few pieces because I didn’t have ample room to flip.  You’d be better off frying in batches and keeping completed pieces warm in a 250 degree oven.

And here they are… French Toast Golden Nuggets.

For the dipping sauces, I went with maple syrup, vanilla icing and strawberry icing.

To make simple icing for dipping:

Put some powdered sugar in a mixing bowl.  (I started with 1 cup of powdered sugar.) Then, whisk in milk by the Tablespoon until you get a smooth, thick sauce.  Add a quarter teaspoon of vanilla to make vanilla icing.  Add a Tablespoon of strawberry jam and 1 drop of red food coloring to make strawberry icing.  You can always add more powder sugar if the sauce gets too thin.

That’s all there is to it.  If you make your own French Toast Golden Nuggets, let me know how it goes in the comments below.  Have a golden day!

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

French Toast Bites Recipe

For over 170 other French toast recipes, check out the French Toast Recipe Index at MrBreakfast.com.

Insider’s Photography Tip:  That’s not maple syrup in the photos… it’s coffee.  I was out of maple syrup.  The other two sauces are legitimate. Yes, I did try dipping a nugget in coffee.  It was weird.