The new breakfast favorite on our table is Mini Max by Kellogg’s.  Kellogg’s sent us a sample box of Mini Max, their first new cereal for something crazy like 20 years, absolutely ages ago.

I always judge a consumable test by whether my kids eat more than the first bowl and the sample box or whether I end up finishing it.  Whether when the box is finished it is still requested or they happily return to the usual breakfasts suspects.  Today as I added two boxes of Mini Max to my online shopping order I realised how much of a staple Mini Max has become in this house.  We have the original but Kellogg’s also make a Chocolate Mini Max.  Thanks Kellogg’s Mini Max is a great addition to you family and ours!   Please note you have to be quick to get a piccie of the Mini Max!

I don’t particularly care about the minutiae of nutritional value, my kids eat a good healthy and balanced diet but if nutritional stats are your thing you can find them here.

I am a mum, I work, I also happen to blog.  I work in marketing and have done for over, shhh, 15 years – but I look a lot younger – honest!  I’ve been working with Princes and lots of lovely bloggers on their latest campaign reminding you, your neighbour, your friends and the world that their canned fruit products are great at breakfast.  We created a fabulous breakfast goodie box and there is one for you my lovely readers - lots of opportunities to enter too with my new sparkly Rafflecopter gizmo but first check out what everyone else wrote and made with their Princes Breakfast Boxes.

First post into my reader when the boxes started to land was from Mummy Space, followed by Nicki from Curly and Candid created a fab photo galley.  From Yorkshire the breakfast box headed South to Katie and the Kids where they gave breakfast the Princes overhaul then out to the Seasider in the City had the most competition entries (so far!) and Susan K Mann put the boxes through the challenges of a working mum and made loads including the Princes Peaches & Cream Fairy Wings.  Scottish Mum , Mellow Mummy and Kat from Housewife Confidential all made muffins – these have been very popular both made with canned peach and pear slices here’s the Princes muffin recipe.   Topping the breakfast heart monitor challenge on the morning of the Mad’s was Kate over at The Five F’s and managing every morning with five children was Nova over at Cherished by Me, also Thinly Spread, see what I did there, was Christine and her brood enjoying the fruit straight up as it comes.  Mrs M, Mummys Little Monkey  and Freckles Family all gave Princes Fruit for breakfast a whirl. Also trying it and liking it were White Lily Green, Mummy Musings and Princes Breakfast was enjoyed in Kels Hiding Place.  Flying the economic flag was Cass at Frugal Family creating a fabulous Peach Cobbler, Nova’s Pear Golden Syrup  Microwave Cake is on my wish list to try too.  Nickie from I am Typecast and Amy from and 1 more means 5 spent the day in a radio studio being interviewed about the stresses at breakfast time for mums.  The results from the heart monitor tests undertaken by our bloggers showed that during the morning shift, some mums experienced a heart rate of more than 170 – that’s the equivalent to a long run – the mystery as to the whereabouts of my size 6 body continues!  As Amy , who is a massive pancake fan, pointed out during the radio day who really knows how to cut open a pineapple, and who could really eat a whole one?  Princes canned pineapple is a favourite here at Villa Lancaster as pizza topping and also in sweet and sour.

As you can see there is loads you can make and enjoy with a fruity Breakfast Box from Princes, to be in with a chance of winning one just enter the competition below which will run for a week.  A BIG thank you from me, the PR agency and Princes to all the bloggers for their posts, photo’s, tweets and all their readers for all your entries.  You can get more information and recipe inspirations head over at the Princes website http://www.princes.co.uk/

No Monday Morning Blues for me tomorrow, no siree!  This Monday morning I do the breakfast, dressing and out the door for the school run, then shoot over to my mums to drop Baby G off for some quality grandparenting time and whizz myself into The Lowry Hotel Manchester for 10am for a breakfast blogger briefing with Kelloggs followed by a bit of quality me time in their Spa.

Below is a cute pic of Lil H enjoying a bowl of Kelloggs new Rice Krispies Multi-Grain Shapes, there is a story in every bowl for the kids, the small print for mum is that’s its high in fibre and made from the goodness of three grains (rice, oats and corn) as well as fortified with vitamins and minerals.  Wholesome start to the day – done!  One less thing for mum to worry about.  I am sure I will be hearing more about Kelloggs new Rice Krispies Multi-Grain Shapes and more tomorrow between chillaxing with the other bloggers – I shall let you know!  Claire x

Kelloggs Rice Krispies Multi-Grain Shapes will be available in all major supermarkets and independent retailers priced at £2.39 for 350g box.

I was invited along with Lil H and Baby G to Stockley Farm by Nutella during February half term - Nutella, Stockley Farm and Child Care during half term … you had me at Nutella!  The whet our appetites literally Nutella sent us us an amazing basket of breads and a jar of Nutella. 

We arrived and Lil H was off with his blogging posse from previous events enjoying a morning of party games and goat racing.  Mummies, daddies and the babies and toddlers settled down to discuss the challenges of feeding little people nutrious balanced diets.  Things we discussed:

• A love of eating Nutella with just a spoon
• A love of eating Nutella with just your finger (come on, I am not the only one that does this!)
• Nutella is NOT a chocolate spread
• Nutella is a HAZLENUT spread (the clue is in the name NUTella – I was shocked too!)
• Is Nutella bad for you
• Is Nutella good for you
• Ways of handling childrens eating challenges

My take on the session was that Nutella is better than some breakfast options, worse than others.  If it is a vehicle to get a child to eat wholemeal toast rather than white bread toast then that is a better dietary choice.  Kate over at The Five F’s Blog wrote a great and very thorough post about the nutritional content of Nutella definately worth a read.  Its not chocolate spread – that was news to me I’ll be honest, in fact there’s only a dash of cocoa in a 15g portion and its the hazlenuts which are the dominant flavour and give Nutella its colour.  Be honest didn’t you think it was chocolate spread?  I stand corrected! 

You can make loads of lovely things for breakfast with it not just spread it on toast.  We made smoothies, here is Lil H putting the PR and his very lovely “I have this because I don’t have children” suit through its paces!  Thanks for all your help Scott x

Here’s the receipe for Nutella Super Smoothie if you want to have a go yourself, it will serve 6-8 depending on glass size.

Ingredients

• 6 tbsp nutella
• 1 large pot (500g) low-fat vanilla yogurt
• 110ml skimmed milk
• 568ml/1 pint mixed fruit, frozen (tip into measuring jug)
• 1 large banana, cut into 2.5cm/1-inch pieces

Method

1. Put all ingredients in a blender or put into bowl if using hand held blender and purée for 2 minutes or until smooth.
2. Pour into glasses. Garnish with fresh berries.

Tip: experiment with different fruit such as an exotic mix or mixed berries

We also made very delicious nutella breakfast roll ups which are a tortilla wrap spread with nutella, rolled around a banana which is then cut into thick disks – yum!  Replacing the tortilla wrap with pancakes was how was ate ours on Shrove Tuesday – nom, nom nom!   My personal recommendation is to stir a teaspoon into a milky coffee for a hazlenut latte start to the morning. 

Then we were off out to meet the animals, enjoy the great adventure playground and enjoy a tractor ride to finish off our day down on the farm.

We were so lucky with the weather, it was seriously the best day of the year we’d had so far and we had a great day.  Thank you so much to Nutella for putting on a great event and Stockley Farm for hosting – we had a brilliant day.

We spent the day with familiar and new friends who blog.  You can read their posts about Nutella and the day on the links below:

So a couple of weeks ago Lil H & I spent a FABULOUS morning with the team at Kellogg’s and lots of lovely bloggers. Check out this post  to see the beautiful bloggers with links to all their Snap, Crackle & Blog posts.

Mum bloggers were there because mums rock and make the world go round, well maybe that too, but mainly as the key household decision makers and primary feeders of the family.

Salt and sugar levels in cereal was discussed early on with the overriding perception being that they were high. My take is that breakfast cereals are one of, if not the, largest food categories. This makes them one of the largest and highest profile media targets to raise awareness of healthy dietary advice to reduce salt and sugar intakes. The reality at Kellogg’s is that enormous reductions in salt and sugar levels, over 50% in some products, have been made and Kellogg’s has a committed and ongoing programme to focus on continued reductions without compromising taste.

Sara one of the team of nutritionists shocked the room with the stats that 1 in 6 children skip breakfast and that £646million (of parents hard earned NET income, makes me want to weep!) is spent on sweets, crisps and fizzy drinks on the way to school. OMG! Sometimes time is short at Lancaster Towers on a pre-school morning and that’s where cereal bars are particularly useful – an alfresco breakfast on the school run. Lil H regards this as a special treat which is interesting given an alfresco breakfast to means we are seriously running late which is not a treat in my book!

I checked on the milk recommendations as I’ve just moved Baby G from formula to whole milk and shall switch over to semi-skimmed when she turns two. Changing from full fat to semi-skimmed is a lesser known fact, I talked about this before here. Just one more year of more milk types than fridge space for us then, what are you pouring on your Cornflakes? We ate and took home lots of cereal and cereal bars, Kellogg’s new Coco Pops Choc ‘n’ Roll is crunchier and less sweet than Coco Pops now Mr L’s favourite with milk and Baby G has them dry as a snack. Lil H does Cornflakes but likes to stick Choc ‘n’ Roll as wheels on his artistic efforts.

Of all the information shared during the morning when Greg Pearson, Managing Director of Kellogg’s in the UK told us “doing whats right for the population is right Kellogg’s” was the key thought for me. Kellogg’s are focussed on doing the right thing for families and are very much on our side.

Kellogg’s hosted the best blog event I have yet to have the pleasure of attending, Lil H had a blast in the crèche – thanks so much to everyone involved in organising the day – it really was great.

Now why not check out the Kellogg’s Breakfast Club here which links to all the Snap, Crackle & Blog posts.