Over the summer, I had the pleasure of attending a beautiful breakfast (in the same building Nate Berkus lives in!) hosted by the Kellogg's brand during BlogHer '10 in New York City and got the chance to greet (and eat!) with many of my fellow Mom's Breakfast Club bloggers.
Last week, I attended the Kellogg's Blogger Summit held at their headquarters in Battle Creek, MI (but, more on that later in the week!)
Yesterday, it was my turn -- I hosted a brunch at my home, for some of my closest mom-type friends, courtesy of Kellogg's.
We laughed, we learned and of course, we ate!
Today, I'd like to share a few of the highlights from the event (seriously, getting together with my mom friends IRL is no easy feat) and then share some really great recipes I made (yes, ME!) using Kellogg's cereals.
Mini-blueberry muffins, anyone?
It's no secret, we pretty much knew that eating breakfast is very important and my friends and I agreed that our kids would eat cereal morning, noon and night -- if we let them.
We had the chance to talk with Cheryl Dolven (via speakerphone) who is a certified nutrionist and also works for Kellogg's (met her during the blogger summit) and we were ALL surprised to learn that, according to recent studies (references are available, upon request) regular cereal eaters tend to have lower BMI's and are less likely to be overweight than those who eat cereal less frequently.
One of the many breakfast challenges my mom friends and I discussed is that our children all wake up and leave for school at different times, every morning.
School days start at 5:30 a.m. and I drop the last kid (my youngest) off at 8:30 a.m. Then, MY day starts. It can be REAL difficult to convince my teenagers that eating a healthy breakfast is sometimes MORE important than getting their hair/makeup, you now, just right.
Especially, when I sometimes don't get to eat breakfast until around lunchtime.
At my house, providing a variety of favorite choices, like cereal, fresh fruit, yogurt and granola helps.
Still. My friends and I are concerned about each of our family's sugar intake -- especially, around kid-friendly holidays, like Halloween -- and voiced our concerns about kids' cereals being high in sugar, heavily processed or the neverending debate over high fructose corn syrup.
Cheryl is a mom (she's got a 7-year-old) however, although she is a trained science professional, she also admitted to not basing her purchasing decisions on just one particular ingredient, alone.
My friends were very surprised to learn that cereal provides a small proportion (only 5%) of the average child’s daily intake of sugar (we were thinking more like 25%) she also told us that 2/3 of Kellogg's cereals do NOT include HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) and the Kellogg's brand has several low in sugar cereals such as Kashi.
Takeaway: Although, admittedly, our hectic and ever-changing lifestyles seem to dictate how our families eat breakfast (or, don't) it's nice to know that companies (like, Kellogg's) are FINALLY addressing the fact that, no matter how much we hate food shopping (seriously, seems like half the day is gone, sometimes, right?) consumers (like me) ARE taking the time to read labels and really think about what we're feeding our families...for breakfast, lunch and sometimes even dinner, too!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Kellogg's and TheMotherHood.com for allowing me the chance to spend some quality time with my friends. Also, a BIG virtual hug to Cheryl (thanks for calling us back and understanding moms can run late, sometimes!) and a HUGE shout out to my husband, Garth (not his real name) for picking up the gorgeous mums for each of the moms to take home.
Forgetting to take a group picture, not so much :(
Tomorrow, I'll be sharing our mini-blueberry muffin recipe (adapted from Kellogg's Complete Blueberry Bran Muffins recipe) and the Rice Krispies Lemon Coffee Cake that made my friends on Twitter and Facebook, you know, drool :)
Want to know more about cereal and a good breakfast? Check out Kellogg's Love Your Cereal.
© 2010 TFH Gone Shopping / This Full House Blog
This event was part of a paid campaign, and I'm proud to be working with The Motherhood and Kellogg’s. Kellogg’s supplied some cereal, small participant gifts, informational brochures and a stipend to cover other breakfast expenses. The words as always are all my own..
