Treasures Inside the Cereal Box

This shop taking me back through memory lane of toy hunting in the General Mills cereal boxes has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.

#The7thMinion #CollectiveBias

When I was a kid a new box of cereal was something to get excited about. It didn’t matter what kind of cereal it was, well, ok maybe it did, but really the head spinning craze we had as kids resulted from that prize in the box. You know what I’m talking about. Being the first kid to rummage through the grocery bags, locate the cereal and dig in to find the toy. Once you had the toy in hand you’d hold it high above your head in triumph for all the other kids to see that you won this round. If they were lucky, they’d win the title next time.

Or maybe that was just our family growing up?

Either way, there has always been an excitement when finding something in a box, no matter how big or small. It was more about the hunt than it was about the toy. This may explain my absolute love for geocaching now.

I don’t know about that, but I do know that I’m starting to introduce my kids to the joy of finding the toy in the box too!

Check it out, the Minions have made their way into General Mills cereals!

That’s right, seven different Minions to collect and I have a feeling we’re going to be finding all seven of them!

In case you didn’t notice that fine print on there, the final Minion, they call him the 7th Minion, is exclusively at Walmart. So if you want to find him, you’ll want to make sure you head to Walmart to grab some General Mills cereal. They’re easy to find, right smack dab in the middle of the cereal aisle.

I picked up a few boxes of cereal and we proceeded to start the hunt for the Minions. I was surprised at how easy the hunt was. When I opened the box of Cocoa Puffs, the Minion was sitting right on top! I didn’t even have to rummage through the cereal to get it like we did in the old days. I guess that’s my walked both ways uphill in snow to school story.

“That’s right kids, in my day we had to dig through cereal to be rewarded with a cereal box toy.”

This isn’t an entirely bad thing. When I was younger, I had a one track mind. I didn’t take the time to even consider there may be easier ways to find the toy buried in the cereal box. My answer was usually to dig right into the bag, without washing my hands of course. I’m sure my family really appreciated that…

My mom had to get creative to help make sure the cereal stayed contamination free and because she had a lot more foresight into the situation than I allowed myself, she had a great solution. She picked up one of those plastic cereal dispensers. I’m pretty sure these were created specifically for mom’s trying to avoid grubby hands inspecting every grain of cereal in the box. It’s the only explanation.

These plastic cereal boxes really did help way back when. Considering the toy was always at the very bottom of the bag we could dump the cereal into the plastic container and like magic the toy would appear at the top! In hindsight, I guess I could have just opened the box from the bottom to get to the toy, but that would disrupt the natural order of the pantry world and having a box in there upside down probably would have made the world implode or something just as bad.

Another option I had to retrieve my prize from the cereal box in the past, was simply to pour it all out into a large bowl. In all it’s simplicity I still failed to notice this solution.

No matter which method you find yourself needing, I can see that my mom, in her infinite wisdom, was much more efficient at finding the toys in the cereal box. Unfortunately this isn’t a challenge my kids will have to deal with but they still get excited for the prize and that’s all that matters.

We now have two of the seven Minions! Five to go.

With Minions in hand we realized we have a lot of cereal right now. As much as I love a bowl of cereal with milk, it just isn’t right if I don’t do something creative with it. Because it’s summer, I decided we needed to make some S’mores cereal bars.

That’s the finished product, now let me show you just how easy it is to make!

S’mores Cereal Bars

Ingredients

• 3 cups Golden Grahams
• 3 cups Cocoa Puffs
• 1 cup freeze dried marshmallow minis
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 3 tbsp butter
• 5 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows

Instructions

First combine the Golden Grahams, Cocoa Puffs, marshmallow minis and chocolate chips in a large bowl.

Next melt the butter in a 3 quart pot at about medium heat. Once the butter is melted stir in the marshmallows. Continue heating at medium heat stirring constantly just until marshmallows are completely melted. Don’t overcook or it will make the marshmallows too tough.

When marshmallows are melted, pour over cereal mix and stir immediately until all cereal is coated.

Transfer the marshmallow and cereal mix to a well greased  9×13 pan. I like to wet my hands and press the cereal into the pan. The wet hands will keep the marshmallow from sticking. If you notice it starting to stick, just re-wet your hands with more water.

Let the cereal bars cool completely, then cut into individual bars.

Enjoy! Soft, gooey and delicious!

Have fun searching for the 7th Minion at Walmart, and have fun trying out fun cereal bar recipes with all the fantastic General Mills cereal you’ll be picking up!

I shared my favorite memories about searching for the toys in the cereal box, now it’s time for you to share your journey searching for the 7th Minion! Or, if you’d like, you can also tell me your favorite combinations for cereal bars in the comments below.