I love this cereal mascot reunion image from SketchBlog!

Can you identify all the characters? I got 4 out of 5. Check out SketchBlog for the answers.

More importantly, what characters do you think should have been invited? I'm a fan of Snap, Crackle, and Pop. I think they would surely be more fun at the party than these guys. Also, where are the ladies?

If you'd like your own copy of this print, you can buy a 22" x 17" for $80 US (plus shipping) or a 17" x 11" for $50 US (plus shipping).

It sure does seem like I've heard about a lot of recalls lately. Is it always like this, or did I just not pay attention before? I don't know about that, but I do know that Malt-o-Meal is voluntarily recalling some of it's cereals due to the possibility of salmonella contamination.

The unsweetened Puffed Rice and unsweetened Puffed Wheat cereals with the "best if used by" dates from April 8, 2008 to March 18, 2009 are the focus of the recall. Malt-o-Meal says that the recall is a result of internal safety testing and that no one has reported becoming ill.

You can get full details and information here.

The photo to the right is of a sample-sized box of Curves Honey Crunch cereal. It was featured on the blog Photoshop Disasters.

Looking at the two toned woman, my first thought was that this had to be a joke. This could never have gone to print. However, I confirmed that the same box was found on the Curves Food site.

Then, I read the comments on the Photoshop Disasters blog and someone pointed out that it was a "matching light orange undershirt/camisole/tank top.. not her skin."

Did you have to look twice to see if it was an orange undershirt or was this obvious to you from the get go?

Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments and not by using the "Tell us what you think" phone number on the box. I don't think that this was the topic Curves had in mind.

I wasn't always a breakfast person. That's changed in the last few years as I've discovered how much better I feel after having a substantial breakfast. Unfortunately, there are some tough choices to make. Most traditional breakfast foods are either all carbs or high in fat, or so it seems. I know there are good choices too, but the bad ones seem easier.

A researcher at the University of Illinois is working on changing that. She is on the tail end of creating a cereal made with as much soy protein as can be packed into it without having off flavors or textures. Apparently those are common problems when working with soy. The cereal also passes the FDA test to claim high fiber and high protein. The developer also worked to make the cereal low in fat.

Sounds great to me, if it tastes good. The researcher says that while it does need to be tweaked, the cereal has compared well with other healthy cereals already on the market in taste tests.

Well, I don't even know if this cereal will ever happen or if it's real in the first place. I do think it sounds promising, though. So what do you think? The perfect breakfast or ...something else?

Kashi, a company once known for its hippy-dippy, fiber-rich cereals with cheesy names (Heart-to-Heart and Good Friends immediately come to mind), has ditched its nerdy image and now boasts everything from cookies to crackers to frozen pizza.

The company's website even highlights a few recipes that (obviously) prominently feature its products. And like the store bought stuff, the recipes are deceptively healthy. (They even offer full nutrition info, if you're into that sort of thing).

The recipes range from stuffing to smoothies, but one that caught my eye was the Blueberry Almond bars, the stars of the recipe being the Heart-to-Heart Wild Blueberry and Oat Flakes and the GOLEAN Crunch! Honey Almond Flax cereals. Simple recipe tweaks, like adding tofu and soy milk and replacing white flour with wheat, make it the perfect guilt-free breakfast, snack or dessert.

In a funny post on a Seattle Post-Intelligencer reader blog, blogger Christina Hyun talks about growing up in an Asian household, and how her friends always told her that her house smelled better than their's did. On the flip side, Hyun always marveled at the huge quantity of bread/cereal/cookie products in her Caucasian friends' houses.

I can't relate as much to the cultural aspect, but as a kid, I was definitely envious of my friends' kitchens. My own mother tried to keep our diets pretty healthy, and flat-out refused to buy certain products (Fruit Roll-Ups, Ssips fruit punch, and Cookie Crisp cereal immediately come to mind). Other kids' parents often commented on my "healthy" appetite, as I downed cakes, cookies and fruit punch like it was going out of style. "Oh - my mom won't let us buy this stuff," I'd say, mouth half-full of Tastykake pie, red goo stuck to my chin. The mothers would nod warily as they added "Tastykake pies" to the grocery list.

As I got older, the rules loosened, and I heard rumors that my mom even allowed soda in the house - after I went off to college, of course. But by then the thrill was gone, and fear-mongering about obesity and diabetes had taken its place.

What about you? What products did other kids' kitchens have that made you green with envy? (Or were you that "other kid?")

Over at Culinate, Catherine Bennett Dunster wrote an interesting article/explanation about probiotics -- live microorganisms found in foods which may have health benefits. Dunster writes that probiotics have been reported to improve intestinal health, boost immune systems and reduce lactose intolerance, but adds that there is currently minimal strong scientific evidence to support these claims.

As an immune-suppressed, lactose-intolerant person with an auto-immune intestinal disease, I've tried my fair share of probiotics. Though I used to take a powdered, lemonade-flavored probiotic, VSL3, which I dissolved in water, I've switched to just trying to eat probiotic-friendly foods. My experiences are pretty much in line with Dunster's report, in that I don't notice a big difference in how I feel based on how much of these foods I consume (my doctors warned of this). Mostly, I just eat them because they taste good and I figure they can't hurt.

My favorite probiotic-containing food is Kashi Vive, a cereal for digestive health that I eat -- again -- because it tastes delicious. I have to be careful not to consume too much, though, because it's also high in fiber (which isn't great for my intestines). Many yogurts are also well-known for containing them, and some companies have even launched lines of yogurts aimed at promoting digestive health (though there has been backlash). Check out a longer list of brand-name foods containing probiotics here at The Nibble, and definitely let us know if you've had success with any of them!

So this day is dedicated to food that is served in bowls (bowls...Super Bowl...get it? Ha!), and what is the ultimate bowl food? That's right, cereal!

I had planned to do a series of posts where I mix two different kinds of cereal and then review how they taste together. But I forgot to buy the cereal last night and all I have in the cupboard is Crispix and All-Bran Complete Wheat Flakes, and it's not worth doing if that's all I have right now. So how about we find some cereal recipes from around the web? Starting with this Crockpot Cereal, which takes a while to make but sounds like it would be really comforting on cold winter days.

And yes, there's nothing wrong with having cereal as a meal.

OK, this is just plain freaky. When I sit down to eat a meal, I don't want to see its eyes. It reminds me of that Nightmare on Elm Street movie where Freddy Krueger's body had all those writhing faces of his victims. In this pic, all I can think about is the little cereal pieces screaming "help us!" in a high pitched voice.

Though I can imagine the pancakes singing and dancing in an animated Disney movie.

[via Cute Overload]

Last year I picked the 8 best school lunch items I remember from my school days (admittedly, a long time ago). But what about the lunches that a lot of kids hate? Here are my choices:

1. Mystery meat: What exactly was this? I'm trying to go through my mental Rolodex and I can't remember. Was it meatloaf? Salisbury steak? I'm not sure, but it just seemed to be this mass-produced glob of grayness topped with lame gravy. The days I saw that this was the lunch were the days I just had something to drink and maybe a bag of chips.

Do you eat breakfast?

I usually don't eat anything for breakfast. Yes, I know, that's bad. "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day" and all that, but I'm never in the mood to cook anything in the morning (and I'm trying not to eat as many muffins or breakfast bars), so I usually just grab a cup of hot tea. Even that's only in the fall and winter since I don't eat hot tea in the spring and summer, so I usually go breakfast-less.

However, because September is Better Breakfast Month, maybe this is the month that I actually start eating breakfast on a regular basis. Eating breakfast can actually help you lose weight and improve your mind, and the A View of America site has a ton of recipes you can try, including everything from Apple Omelettes and Eggs Benedict to Party Salmon Crepes and Swedish Pancakes.

There are two things I have been trying like the Dickens to change about my diet: 1) drinking more water, and 2) eating food with more fiber. The water part is hard for me because I don't like how plain water tastes (yes, water does have a taste, you know), and I have an unholy addiction to Diet Coke and energy drinks.

The fiber part is even harder. I love fresh fruits and vegetables, but that's not the issue. The issue is my lifestyle. I don't just have a full-time job. I have the fullest-time job possible, I blog, and I live alone. This combination makes it near impossible to cook proper meals that include fresh produce and grains with fiber. For a while, I was taking fiber supplements in the form of, you know, those "drink" things, but that stopped as soon as I realized how bloated I was getting from it.

FiberOne is a candidate in my quest for quick sources of fiber. FiberOne is a line from cereal and food company General Mills that has a few products, all focusing on high fiber. The basic cereal looks like any other fiber cereal - little "noodles" or "branches" - that definitely look too healthy to enjoy. General Mills has expanded the line with two more family friendly cereals, meaning that in the bowl, they look a lot less clinical.

I tried FiberOne Raisn Bran Clusters, which is FiberOne's entrant in the raisin bran cereal playing field, which is dominated by Kellog's Raisin Bran. However, if the marketing on the cereal box is accurate, FiberOne beats all other raisin brans with 40% of the recommended daily intake of fiber. Supposedly, that makes FiberOne's Raisin Bran Clusters the leader.

Sometimes we forget that all the products in a supermarket are actually invented by someone. They all don't just "come about" in some way. Take cereal. There are many brands and styles, but a lot of the cereal is actually the same. The difference might be in the shape of the cereal or the mascot on the box or something you add to the cereal.

But Cap 'n Crunch has a distinct taste, and the inventor of that taste, Pamela Low, passed away last week.

Love cereal? Well, then you and Jerry Seinfeld may soon be paying a lot more for the stuff (though I'm sure the increased cost won't bother Jerry too much).

Because of unfavorable weather conditions in key areas (who knew one of the places we get our wheat for cereal from was the Black Sea region of the Ukraine??), the cost of wheat is going up, and if those prices continue to be high then companies like Kellogg and General Mills will have to raise prices on their boxes of cereal.

If that wasn't enough bad news? The price of milk is also going up! Milk prices in the U.S. are up 3% this year, and could skyrocket towards the end of the year.

It's been a long time since I've eaten a bowl of cold cereal, which is surprising, since my lifestyle right now is even more turbo-charged than it was when I was eating a bowl of Special K standing over my kitchen sink at 11 PM every night for "dinner."

However, it was a nice surprise to be offered the opportunity to try a new extension of the Cheerios line of cereals: Fruity Cheerios! Not only had it been a while since I've had cereal, but it's been a while since I'd eaten something so...colorful.