Today, we’re making two kinds of Breakfast Cereal Valentine’s Treats.  The first is classic Rice Krispies Treats in the shape of a heart (with several decorating options).  Next, we’ll apply the technique of making Rice Krispies Treats to any other cereals you might have lying around the house.

You start with the Classic Rice Krispies Treats Recipe. Melt about 3 Tablespoons of butter in a large saucepan over low heat.  Add a 10-ounce bag of marshmallows and stir until they’re completely melted.  At this point, I added 2 drops of red food coloring so my final treats would have a pink hue.

Take the pan off the heat and add the Rice Krispies.  Mix it up really good.

Lay out a big piece of wax paper.  Turn out the Rice Krispies mixture and mold it into a rectangle about 10 x 12-inches.  Let this set and firm up for about 20 minutes. Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out heart-shaped treats.

Now the fun part… decorating the hearts.

I used a reliable donut icing recipe to make icing for the treats.  It’s just 2 cups of powdered sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla and enough water or milk so that an icing forms when stirred (usually just 3 or 4 Tablespoons of liquid).

Dip part of each treat in the icing and then sprinkle with jimmies or small candies like Red Hots.

Other decorating ideas you might try: 1) Use icing to drizzle words on the hearts like “Be Mine” or someone’s name;  2) Embed one of those conversational heart candies in each of the treats; or 3) Stick a stick in each heart to make Valentine’s Cereal Pops.

Once you know the recipe for Rice Krispies treats, you can start using other cereals to make super unique Valentine’s treats.

I randomly grabbed some Whole Hearts, Cinnamon Jacks and FiberOne 80 Calories Chocolate Cereal for a Valentine’s Day treat made with love and fiber.

The marshmallow mixture is exactly the same.  I used about 5 and 1/2 cups total cereal and the treats held together wonderfully.

For these, I thought a chocolate icing might be a little more apropos. So, I took the icing recipe mentioned above and just added 1/2 cup of chocolate chips that were melted with 1/3 cup warm milk and used that for the liquid component of the icing.

That’s all there is to it.  If you’ve got a couple marshmallows and a half-empty box of cereal, you can make somebody’s day!

Recipe Realities:

Rice Krispies Treats can actually be frustrating to prepare.  They’re sticky and there’s usually a moment after you combine everything where you’ll worry the treats will never form a cohesive shape.  Don’t worry.  Have “heart” – it works 97% of the time, even if your marshmallow to cereal ratio is off.

To avoid frustration, make sure that your pan is quite large. If you don’t have a big sauce pan, mix the melted marshmallows and cereal pieces together in a large mixing bowl.

To get a nice pre-cut block of treats to work with, I’ll usually transfer everything to a 13 x 9-inch baking pan and then invert the pan onto waxed paper.  This gives you a starter-rectangle to work with.  Use another large sheet of wax paper on top of the cereal block to press the ingredients to the dimensions you want.  Everything will be sticky, but the wax paper will help considerably.

Have a couple small biscuit cutters standing by.  The treats won’t work like a dough where you can clump the remnants back together. I was able to get six 4-inch hearts from each batch and also eight small round treats (which worked great for pops).

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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!

#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.

Happy Independence Day!  Today’s ideas are all about adding some red, white and blue flare to your morning meal.  If you have some berries and bananas, you have the power to transform an ordinary breakfast into an All-American Fourth of July Spectacular Breakfast.  Add some whipped cream or yogurt and the patriotic possibilities are endless.

The easiest (and maybe most fun) thing you can do is arrange berries to make an American flag pattern on waffles, pancakes or French toast.

Here, you can see combinations of blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, banana slices and whipped cream.  Those are Apple Cinnamon Waffles in the pictures.  The warm apple pieces in the waffles tasted amazing with the fresh berries on top.  For standard waffles, I’d recommend the following recipes: Best Waffles Ever (quick waffles without yeast) or Overnight Waffle Batter (yeast waffles from a batter that needs to rest at least 7 hours).

In a matter of seconds, you can turn ordinary toast into USA-mazing toast.  A spread of cream cheese gives you a white canvas to work with.  Strawberry jam is used to make the red stripes of the flag which are offset by banana pieces to make the white stripes.  I especially love this idea because it’s so kid-friendly. Wee ones will have a blast making a flag out of a piece of toast.  You don’t really need a recipe for this, but here’s one anyway:  American Flag Fruit Toast.

A super cute way to add Yankee Doodle yumminess to breakfast is to make Fourth of July Berry Bites.  These are just large strawberries with the stems removed and the bottoms sliced so they’ll stand upright.  Fill the hole where the stem was with whipped cream and top with a blueberry.  This idea is awesome because you can use it as a garnish with eggs and omelets and still get some red, white and blue on the plate.

A parfait is a great way to add patriotism and nutrition to your breakfast. In the picture above, you see Fourth Of July Breakfast Parfaits made with vanilla yogurt, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries.  You can easily adjust this recipe to include bananas, cherries, whipped cream or any other ingredients that match the colors of the holiday.  For a bigger twist, try using oatmeal in place of the yogurt.

Now that we’ve conquered using fruit in its God-given form, we can graduate to fruit compotes as seen in the Red, White & Blueberry Pancakes above.  On the Fourth of July, I’m all about making a beautiful breakfast quickly so I can go out and enjoy the day.  So, I’ll use jam, water and berries to make compotes in half the time as other compote recipes.  You simply cook down about 1/3 cup of jam with a couple of Tablespoons of water until it’s thin and fluid.  Stir in berries and turn off the heat.  In few minutes, it’ll start to thicken again and, just like that, you have a fruit topping.

The toppings in the recipe above can also be used on French toast and waffles.  You can also swirl the compotes into oatmeal for Oat-rageously American Hot Cereal.

With liberty and breakfast for all… I wish you a very happy Fourth of July!

Also see:

Red, White & Blue Oatmeal Parfaits

As American As Apple Pie Oatmeal

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.