Kellogg's Love Your Cereal Mom's Breakfast Club- Week 5

This is sponsored content by BlogHer and Kelloggs.

For all practical purposes, summer is over around here. The kids have been in school for several weeks now, and we're in the throes of the school-year routine.

We didn't really have the lazy days of summer this year for a couple of reasons. First, the oil spill prevented us from going on our usual beach trip. Also, our middle child started high school, and he took two summer courses (for new credit), and school lasted 18 days. Add all that to our daughter's volleyball training, and the youngest's sports camps, and it made for a very busy time.

But, this summer wasn't all a routine drag, I got to take the boys to Los Angeles, and it was their first plane trip, ever and we made a trip to St. Louis to visit with good friends.

One of the most memorable parts of that trip was a brunch our friends fixed for us on the 4th of July. It was a great time, and we all took the time to sit and relax and enjoy each other's company. Yes, there was cereal involved, as you're never too old to start the day off with it.

Cereal can be a convenient and affordable part of a balanced, nutritious breakfast. Want to know more? Check out Kellogg's Love Your Cereal.

The contest

Enter for a chance to win a $100 Visa Gift Card (that would buy a lot of cereal)

To enter, leave a comment below and tell us a great memory about this summer.

Contest ends 5pm PST September 13, 2010.

Rules:

* No duplicate comments.
* You may receive one (1)additional entry by linking on twitter and leaving a link to your tweet in the comments OR by blogging about the sweepstakes and leaving a link to your post in the comments.
* This giveaway is open to US-Residents aged 18 and older
* Winner will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail.
* You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

Official rules

Be sure to check out the BlogHer.com Kellogg exclusive offers page for 24 other chances to win a $100 Visa Gift Card and be sure to come back here each week, I'm doing a giveaway for the next 6 weeks.

Mom’s Breakfast Club was started to help educate moms and families about kids’ cereal and share the scoop on their nutritional benefits and ingredients. To learn more about the program, visit www.loveyourcereal.com.

Kellogg's Love Your Cereal Mom's Breakfast Club- Week 4

This is sponsored content by BlogHer and Kelloggs.

I want to tell you that we always have time for a complete breakfast around here.

I want you to believe I get up and cook a hot breakfast in the cold of winter each morning before I lovingly send my family out into the world.

I also want a pony, but that's probably not going to happen, so you can imagine that my previous 2 statements may be a bit lacking in truthiness.

The fact is, I have 2 teenagers with variable eating habits, and an 8 year old that is like me, and really doesn't get hungry until the middle of the morning.

Combine that with us all needing to leave the house by 7am for three different places each weekday and a busy sports schedule on the weekends, some mornings we're lucky to have clothes on by the time we hit the door, much less a complete, sit-down breakfast.

On those in-a-hurry mornings, we are all about the cereal bars:



(Please note, this is my actual pantry, it was not specially stocked for this post, the Nutrigrain Bars are possibly the reason my children are still alive.)

The kids scoop them up and run when we're late, or have to be somewhere at the crack of dawn. I think Busy Dad even keeps a box of them in his car. They're also often my youngest kid's morning snack at school since he may or may not have eaten the breakfast he was served at home.

What's your go-to breakfast when you're in a hurry at home?

Cereal can be a convenient and affordable part of a balanced, nutritious breakfast. Want to know more? Check out Kellogg's Love Your Cereal.

The contest

Enter for a chance to win a $100 Visa Gift Card (that would buy a lot of cereal)

To enter, leave a comment below and tell us about your favorite go-to breakfast when you're in a hurry.

Contest ends 5pm PST September 6, 2010.

Rules:

* No duplicate comments.
* You may receive one (1)additional entry by linking on twitter and leaving a link to your tweet in the comments OR by blogging about the sweepstakes and leaving a link to your post in the comments.
* This giveaway is open to US-Residents aged 18 and older
* Winner will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail.
* You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

Official rules

Be sure to check out the BlogHer.com Kellogg exclusive offers page for 24 other chances to win a $100 Visa Gift Card and be sure to come back here each week, I'm doing a giveaway for the next 7 weeks.

Mom’s Breakfast Club was started to help educate moms and families about kids’ cereal and share the scoop on their nutritional benefits and ingredients. To learn more about the program, visit www.loveyourcereal.com.

Kellogg's Love Your Cereal Mom's Breakfast Club- Week 3

This is sponsored content by BlogHer and Kellogg's.

I'm an only child, and I wasn't a big breakfast eater, so my mother didn't always buy the popular cereals simply because I didn't eat them fast enough. But, oh how I wanted the prizes in the box, and I especially liked Frosted Flakes and Rice Krispies.

Actually, when I did get cereal at home, I think I can recall her dumping it in a bowl so I could get the prize, and I'm willing to be I might not have been as interested in the cereal after that. I may be wrong, though.

I always enjoyed spending the night at my friends' houses and waking up on Saturday morning to cartoons, and a wide variety of cereal to choose from, and I learned about such delicacies as Corn Pops and Sugar Smacks.

Anyway, it was a grand day when I discovered that as an adult, I could buy any cereal I wanted, even if I didn't eat it fast enough. I still have a hard time passing up Rice Krispies, and I LOVE Special K:



I have 3 kids of my own, so we go through a lot of cereal, and Frosted Flakes and Corn Pops are big here, and I'm trying to pass along my love of Rice Krispies, but it has been translated into Cocoa Krispies for my kids.

Do you have any cereals that you enjoyed as a kid? Do you still eat them? Do your kids like the same ones?

Cereal can be a convenient and affordable part of a balanced, nutritious breakfast. Want to know more? Check out Kellogg's Love Your Cereal.

The contest

Enter for a chance to win a $100 Visa Gift Card (that would buy a lot of cereal)

To enter, leave a comment below and tell us about your favorite breakfast cereal.

Contest ends 5pm PST August 30, 2010.

Rules:

* No duplicate comments.
* You may receive one (1)additional entry by linking on twitter and leaving a link to your tweet in the comments OR by blogging about the sweepstakes and leaving a link to your post in the comments.
* This giveaway is open to US-Residents aged 18 and older
* Winner will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail.
* You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

Official rules

Be sure to check out the BlogHer.com Kellogg exclusive offers page for 24 other chances to win a $100 Visa Gift Card and be sure to come back here each week, I'm doing a giveaway for the next 8 weeks.

Mom’s Breakfast Club was started to help educate moms and families about kids’ cereal and share the scoop on their nutritional benefits and ingredients. To learn more about the program, visit www.loveyourcereal.com.

Recent Winners

The Laughing Cow winner was jh289

The Ritz Crackerfuls winner was queenie001

The Week 1 Kellogg's Love Your Cereal winner was gmissycat.

Look for an e-mail from me.

Thanks to everyone for entering, and be sure to check out my other chances to win:

Enter for a chance to win another $150 Visa Gift Card from The Laughing Cow


Enter for a chance to win a $200 Visa Gift Card from Smucker's Kidvitations.

Kellogg's Love Your Cereal Mom's Breakfast Club- Week 2

This is sponsored content by BlogHer and Kellogg's.

My kids are back in school, but, summer is still winding down for many of you. Since the weather is still warm (understatement!) and the days are still long, we're usually still able to continue a few summer activities around here. If everyone gets their homework done in a timely manner, one of our favorite things to do is go swimming in the evening, or at least play outside since it's still plenty warm enough:



With school being in session, our ability to travel is decreased, but we're always on the lookout for a short weekend getaway. Or, we make a point to bring the whole family when one of the kids has a sporting event out of town.

No matter the activity, it's important to us to have family time before the intense part of the school year starts. It's also important for your body to have the proper fuel to enjoy the time together.

Cereal can be a convenient and affordable part of a balanced, nutritious breakfast. Want to know more? Check out Kellogg's Love Your Cereal.

The contest

Enter for a chance to win a $100 Visa Gift Card (that would buy a lot of cereal)

To enter, leave a comment below and tell us about a favorite family activity as summer draws to a close.

Contest ends 5pm PST August 23, 2010.

Rules:

* No duplicate comments.
* You may receive one (1)additional entry by linking on twitter and leaving a link to your tweet in the comments OR by blogging about the sweepstakes and leaving a link to your post in the comments.
* This giveaway is open to US-Residents aged 18 and older
* Winner will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail.
* You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

Official rules

Be sure to check out the BlogHer.com Kellogg exclusive offers page for 24 other chances to win a $100 Visa Gift Card and be sure to come back here each week, I'm doing a giveaway for the next 10 weeks.

Mom’s Breakfast Club was started to help educate moms and families about kids’ cereal and share the scoop on their nutritional benefits and ingredients. To learn more about the program, visit www.loveyourcereal.com.

Kellogg's Love Your Cereal Mom's Breakfast Club- Week 1

This is sponsored content by BlogHer and Kelloggs.

School has begun around these parts (I know!), and we're back to the regular morning routine. OK, we're trying to get back in the routine, you caught me.

We've all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and since all five of us need to be up and out of the house by 7:10 at the latest,a breakfast routine is important. We try to make breakfast quick and nutritious and provide variety, especially during the busy weekdays.

Since we have to keep to a pretty tight schedule, breakfast isn't elaborate. We always have several kinds of cereal, and frozen waffles are big around here, too. Occasionally, my daughter will have some sort of breakfast sandwich if she has to play volleyball in the morning.

While none of our breakfast fare is particularly gourmet, oddly enough, my kids can make all these things portable if they need to. My middle child has taken to eating cereal and milk in a sandwich bag (whatever?) if we are running late.

Not only is cereal convenient, it's affordable and can be a good part of a balanced, nutritious breakfast. Want to know more? Check out Kellogg's Love Your Cereal.

The contest

Enter for a chance to win a $100 Visa Gift Card (that would buy a lot of cereal)

To enter, leave a comment below and tell us about your favorite breakfast food.

Contest ends 5pm PST August 16, 2010.

Rules:

* No duplicate comments.
* You may receive one (1)additional entry by linking on twitter and leaving a link to your tweet in the comments OR by blogging about the sweepstakes and leaving a link to your post in the comments.
* This giveaway is open to US-Residents aged 18 and older
* Winner will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail.
* You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

Official rules

Be sure to check out the BlogHer.com Kellogg exclusive offers page for 24 other chances to win a $100 Visa Gift Card and be sure to come back here each week, I'm doing a giveaway for the next 12 weeks.

Mom’s Breakfast Club was started to help educate moms and families about kids’ cereal and share the scoop on their nutritional benefits and ingredients. To learn more about the program, visit www.loveyourcereal.com.

Not-so smoothie - Win a $150 Visa Gift Card from The Laughing Cow

This is sponsored content from BlogHer and The Laughing Cow.

Adding healthy stuff like vegetable puree to kids' meals hoping it goes undetected, is a popular concept to get a little more nutrition in them.

I'm not very good at it.

The Internet is rife with people extolling the virtues of smoothies. More specifically, smoothies made supersonically healthy by putting spinach in them.

Spinach? Yeah, that's what I thought, too, but people swear you can't taste it.

I like to think I'm open to new things, and there's no doubt I need to eat more vegetables, so I thought, "Why not give it a try?" I mean, if it's good enough for the Internet, it's good enough for me.

Internet? You lied. My beloved strawberry-banana smoothies were green, slightly earthy and had stems.

What? You're supposed to use baby spinach? Take out stems? Use less? Uh...

So, I either need a new recipe, a new blender, or I just need to grow up.

Have you had any funny food mishaps in your quest to eat more healthfully?

Share a funny story in the comment section, tweet or blog about this entry (be sure to leave a link to your efforts in the comments below), and you will be entered to win a $150 Visa gift card.

Two (2) valid entries per person, please.

Please keep your comments G-rated as any profanity or offensive content will automatically disqualify you from sweepstakes entry.

Don't forget to check out the The Laughing Cow Daily Laugh at BlogHer for more chances to win.

Sweepstakes ends 9/12/2010. Find out more from the official contest rules.