MomReviews

My mailbox has been filling up with Summer Camp brochures in the last few weeks, my boys could spend the summer doing science experiments, learning five new sports, studying cooking or photography or calligraphy. Whew! What ever happened to spending the summer riding your bike and playing Kick-The-Can with the neighborhood kids?

We all want the best for our kids and for them to be successful, but it’s also important to remember that they are just KIDS, and that childhood goes by oh-so-quickly. I know mine sure did! To help parents and kids embrace childhood, the Kellogg’s® Rice Krispies® brand team created the “Childhood Is Calling™: Celebrating Kids Just Being Kids” report. The report offers expert and real-mom insight on the importance of savoring childhood and advice for families to find simple moments of joy and connection. As part of Operation Spark, Childhood is Calling is an educational initiative devoted to providing parents with ways to create meaningful memories with their children.

The Childhood is Calling website has information on Playing for Keeps, “a national not-for-profit organization founded in 1999 that exists to help bridge the gap between what researchers have learned about play and what parents and professionals who impact kids’ lives on a day-to-day, hour-by-hour need to know to help nurture our precious children to their full potential.”

In addition to that, the Rice Krispies “Childhood is Calling” website is also just plain fun. It has links to a music video by Ralph of Ralph’s World, fun games, recipes for Rice Krispie Treats, and “The Tale”, which tells more about the history of Rice Krispies including a dropdown menu with all of the cereal box covers. Show your kids what the Rice Krispies box looked like the year you were born!

For participating in this blog tour, Mom Central and Kellogg’s will be sending me a box of Rice Krispies and two vintage cereal bowls, which I am very excited about because the five of us eat a TON of cereal. I’m also scoping out the Recipe Exchange section of the Childhood is Calling site-people make some really interesting recipes with Rice Krispies! Please check out the Childhood is Calling site when you have a few minutes, both you and your kids are sure to like it.

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After 56 years of gracing the boxes of one of America’s favorite breakfast cereals, Tony the Tiger is still going strong! The newest way to feel grrrreat at breakfast is with Frosted Flakes Gold. With 10 grams of whole grain and three grams of fiber in each serving, it provides another option to give our kids the right start to their day. In addition, the cereal is baked with honey to give it that sweet taste that kids love. The flavor reminded me of another Kellogg’s cereal that I used to eat a LOT of in college, Honey Smacks.

Now, this is very cool. To encourage kids to be more active, eat right and work hard to achieve their goals, Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes® created the Earn Your Stripes™ program. As part of this program, Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes Gold™, in partnership with the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO), Little League® International and Girls on the Run International, created the Five Golden Rules of Sportsmanship to give coaches and parents the tools they need to help kids succeed on and off the field. The Five Golden Rules advocate being a winner no matter what the scoreboard says, treating coaches, officials and opponents with respect, being a good teammate and finding good in the game.

I took a look at Earn Your Stripes™, which is on the Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes website, it is REALLY comprehensive. The Sports section has interactive training videos and tips for baseball, basketball, and soccer, and I mean interactive! On the baseball page, for example (warning, there is sound), there are interactive training modules (games), training videos that teach skills and show drills, and team game ideas to practice skills in batting, throwing, and fielding. Your sports lover is SURE to enjoy spending time on the Earn Your Stripes website!

I’d like to thank MomCentral and the Kellogg company for sending my family the box of Frosted Flakes Gold for this review. I barely got a bowlful for myself because my kids liked it so much!

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I am a big fan of Kashi products, not only because they taste good but because the company believes in using only natural ingredients, in producing food made from, what a concept, REAL FOOD. You won’t find unpronounceable strings of chemicals that do nothing to nourish your body in Kashi foods.

I received two new Kashi Granola cereals and three Thin Crust Pizzas for this review, and although two of the pizzas are still in the freezer (not a fan of mushrooms, and the kids refuse to even try the one with broccoli and artichokes), I want to spread the word about how delicious and healthy the other products we tried are.

Kashi Summer Berry Granola is a delicious combination of sweet, crunchy granola and bits of freeze-dried fruit. The granola is made with Kashi’s blend of Seven Whole Grains mixed with honey, and then it’s blended with pieces of strawberries, blackberries, and in a tasty surprise, pieces of kiwi fruit. The fruit is so fresh tasting once it mixes with milk that it really tastes like you sliced fresh fruit onto a bowl of granola. One half-cup contains 210 calories, 6 grams of fat (from expeller-pressed canola oil used to make the granola), 6 grams of fiber and 6 grams of protein. While you may be thinking you can’t eat a cereal with 6 grams of fat, think of how many grams of fat are in a cinnamon roll, a bagel with cream cheese, a donut. Plus, Kashi Granola is going to keep you full a whole lot longer than those other breakfasts.

Kashi Cocoa Beach Granola is so good, I barely got a half-cup of it for myself. My son Ryan ate it for breakfast and snacks for two days, and when the box was empty, told me it was the best granola EVER. Crunchy seven-grain granola clusters are infused with cocoa and then mixed with flakes of coconut and almonds for a sweet, chocolatey treat. This cereal is higher in calories and fat than the Berry flavor, it has 230 calories in a half-cup, 9 grams of fat, 6 grams of fiber, and 6 grams of protein. Now, 9 grams of fat is pretty high for cereal, but again, if you replace empty calories with this, you come out ahead.

I also received three Kashi Thin Crust Pizzas, one of the Tomato Garlic Cheese, one Roasted Vegetable, and one Mushroom Trio with Spinach. Ryan and I ate the Tomato Garlic Cheese, which has Roma tomatoes, mozzarella and provolone cheeses with a tomato basil sauceand we both agreed that the toppings were delicious. He enjoyed the very thin, almost crackery crust, I was less of a fan. I see on the site that there is also a Tomato Garlic on Original crust, I’d really like to try that one. All of the pizzas feature a crust made with the Kashi Seven Whole Grains & Sesame. The Roasted Vegetable is topped with Broccoli, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, onions and garlic, mozzarella and provolone cheeses with a tomato pesto sauce. The Mushroom Trio and Spinach has Baby Portobello, Champignon and Shiitake mushrooms with spinach, mozzarella and provolone cheeses with a tomato parmesan sauce.

I highly recommend the granola cereals and the Tomato Garlic Cheese pizza, especially if you are looking for products that have natural ingredients, whole grains, and fiber. There’s no reason not to enjoy pizza and get some healthy food in you at the same time! Thank you again to Elizabeth Lee from Formula PR for sending me these tasty food products to review.

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Have you tried Cheerios Snack Mix yet? If not, pick up a bag the next time you are at the grocery store. Take it home, pour it into a bowl, and watch how fast it disappears. We got a bag of the Cheddar flavor, which was just okay, next time I’d like to try the Original. Cheerios Snack Mix is a General Mills product.

The mix consists of six different things-Multigrain Cheerios, small twist pretzels, Wheat Chex (also a General Mills brand), Corn Chex, triangle-shaped cheese crackers, and bread twists. The cheddar flavoring reminded me a LOT of the powder used in Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, to be honest. I would have preferred a sharper tasting cheese, but my boys thought it was just the right flavor. We all wished there were more of the “bread twists”, which are like a small breadstick. Interestingly, the bread twists had the least amount of cheese powder on them too. Some of the Chex pieces were so covered in the powder, they were almost too salty.

Nutritionally, Cheerios Snack Mix is not a bad choice. A 2/3 cup serving has 120 calories, 3 grams of fat (0 grams of trans fat), 1 gram of fiber, and 3 grams of protein. The sodium content is high though, 310 milligrams per serving, and that’s assuming you stop after just 2/3 cup. The amount that fits in one of those plastic snack-size storage bags is perfect for tossing in a lunch box or taking along in the car for when the munchies hit. I still prefer the original Chex Mix, but Cheerios Snack Mix is a yummy alternative.

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