The Mommyhood Life – Travel, Crafts, Food, and Florida Family Fun

Breakfast

3 Tips to Get Your Family to the Breakfast Table + A Great Deal on Big G Cereal #BigGBreakfast

/ Breakfast, Motherhood / 13 Comments

This post is written by me on behalf of General Mills. All opinions are entirely my own. This shop has been compensated by Acorn Influence, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.
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My favorite times with my family is around the kitchen table.  As the kids have gotten older, I’ve realized this is one of the few times that they are all able to get along and focus on sharing what is going on in their lives.  However, by the time all three children reached school age, getting everyone to the breakfast table became my most dreaded time of the day.  With three children to get dressed, homework to find, lunches to pack, and of course that one missing shoe to find as the bus pulls down the road, food just wasn’t on my mind.
Big-G-Cereal
Yet I still missed that special time in the morning when I could look around the table and love on my family before the day starts and life gets messy.  After a few weeks of chaos and my mommy intuition nagging at me, I took a few steps to make sure we all got to the breakfast table every morning.
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1.  Lay out everything the kids will need the next day before bed.  I used to do this as a kid, but with my oldest son being incredibly picky about clothes and my daughter wanting to wear every accessorie she owns, I tried to just let them have a free for all to avoid a mommy melt down.  Big mistake!  Now they have 30 minutes before bed to decide exactly what they want to wear down to their socks and undies.
Also backpacks are fully packed.  If homework is not finished by bedtime, they have to explain it to their teacher because gone are the days of rushed homework before school.  Lastly shoes are left by the door and ready to go, no more missing pairs.  Plus I may or may not have threatened to make them wear their snowboots to school the next time they loose their shoes (we moved to Florida this year, snowboots arn’t in fashion).  Having absolutly everything ready to go has helped smooth out our mornings the most.

2. Wake up 15 minutes before I have to wake up the kids.  I used to roll out of bed, stumble to drag each child out of bed, before pushing the start button on the coffee maker.  I am now a morning person at all, so waking up even just 15 minutes early was a transition for me, but it has been a huge help.  In that 15 minutes, I am able to drink some coffee and take a minute to enjoy the calm before the storm.  In turn the kids feed off of my more relaxed energy and have a much more pleasant morning.

Breakfast-cereal
3.  Get easy and quick breakfast options everyone likes, like Big G Cereal!  Big G Cereal keeps my kids smiling with cereals such as Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Trix, and Cookie Crisp.  Plus they have mommy’s favorite Honey Nut Cheerios, so everytime I’m at Publix I make sure to stock up on all my families favorites.  By putting the kid’s favorite Big G Cereals on the table, everyone comes to the breakfast table happy and ready to enjoy some family time.

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Breakfast-tips-weekday

Gooey Halloween Cereal Bars ~ The Perfect Sweet Treat! #SpooktacularSnacks

/ Breakfast, Halloween / 0 comment
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SpooktacularSnacks #CollectiveBias #Ad
It’s almost Halloween and that means everyone’s favorite Halloween cereal is back!  General Mills Count Chocula®, Boo Berry® and Franken Berry® is back in stores with a fun twist, Target’s exclusive packaging has a cool build-able castle on the back of the boxes.  This had my kids jumping with excitement over the perfect combination of a yummy treat and a fun activity.
Once we got home from our shopping trip, the kids were ansy to start building their castle.  This meant I needed to pull out the cereal bags from the three boxes.  So there was no better time to whip up some Gooey Halloween Cereal Treats!
These are incredible simple to make and the perfect sweet treat to celebrate the Halloween season.  Here is my recipe:

Gooey Cereal Treats
prep time: 30 minutes + a couple hours of letting treats set
makes 12 large bars

Ingredients:
6 cups of cereal
4 tbs Butter
10oz bag of mini marshmellows
Melting chocolate or chocolate chips in choice of color
Holiday sprinkles
Melt butter in a large sauce pan on low heat.  Add marshmellows and stir continuously so that the marshmallow doesn’t get stuck to the pan.
Once the marshmallows are fully melted, stir in the 6 cups of cereal and mix everything together.  Mix until all the cereal is coated with gooey marshmallow.
Remove from heat and spread the mixture over a tray or pan.
Add sprinkles as desired over top of mixture, then set aside for a couple hours while marshmallow hardens.
Once the treats are set, cut them into bars.  You can make them any size you’d like.
Next dip the bottoms in chocolate.  For Halloween I chose orange melting chocolate.  Once they are all dipped, place them in the fridge for a couple minutes to harden the chocolate.
Once the bottom chocolate layer is hardened, turn them over and drizzle chocolate over the tops of the treats.  You can also add more sprinkles to make them extra festive.
Place the treats back in the fridge for a couple more minutes so that all the chocolate is hardened.
That’s it, your Halloween sweet treats are ready to be devoured!
Before we sat down to enjoy these yummy treats, we had fun making our Halloween castle.
On the back of each of the Count Chocula, Boo Berry, and Franken Berry cereal boxes from Target have the pieces to the castle.
Once you’ve collected all three boxes, cut out all the pieces of the castle.
Next fold both sides of the Count Chocula piece along the solid lines, and cut the marked slits at the bottom and top of the castle piece.
Once the Count Chocula piece is set up, next take the Franken Berry castle side pieces and cut the marked slits.  Then attach them to each side of the Count Chocula center piece.  Tape the top of the pieces together for added strength.
The last piece of the castle is on the Boo-Berry box.  Insert the castle’s tower into the slits on the top of the center piece.
After the castle is build, you can put together the characters and accessories to add to the fun.
You can also pull out your craft supplies and add your own personal touch to the castle.  We sprayed ours down with glitter spray because Lilly says “every castle needs some sparkle”!  Not sure Dracula would agree, but Lilly loves our new spooky castle.

Halloween is a fun time to put a festive twist on everyday recipes.  What’s your favorite Spooktacular treat?
 Find other great recipes and snacks here!

Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls Recipe from Scratch

/ Breakfast / 10 Comments
Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls

Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls

These Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls are the perfect way to start any Fall morning!

Have I mentioned that I love Fall? The cool air, the hint that Winter is on its way, and the fact that everyone you turn, it’s getting closer and closer to apple picking time!

Backing with apples is actually quite a bit of fun. Depending on the type of apple that you get, you can make something sweet, tart or downright mouth-puckering good. The great part about cooking with apples? They are actually quite forgiving and simple to use!

Nothing says Fall better than these Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls. Warm from the oven are an amazing way to eat them but truth be told, they are seriously just as good eating them the next morning. (or in the middle of the night when you need a pick me up!)

Keep this recipe handy because it’s a winner for sure. I love making these for the kiddos before school or even having a fresh pan waiting for them after. And be ready…there’s no way that anyone can stop at one. Trust me…We’ve tested this theory out time and time again!

Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls Bake

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