Cheerios: Good for Treating Sunburns, Making Fun Treats and More

When it comes to cold breakfast cereal, Cheerios is one of the cereals that really stands out. Most everyone is familiar with this brand of cereal and the cartoon bee often seen in commercials as well as on the boxes of Cheerios stocked on store shelves. I recently came across a great sale for Cheerios cereal and bought myself two large boxes. While eating Cheerios in a bowl with some milk, or dry, is delicious enough there are also many other ways to eat or use Cheerios that are fun and tasty. Here are just some of the ways you can eat or use Cheerios in everyday life.

Candy bracelets are often a hit with young girls. Instead of giving your young daughters this sugary treat replace them with Cheerios Bracelets. Just use ordinary string and some cheerios to thread on. Tie the loose ends together and you have yourself a homemade Cheerios bracelet that your child can eat. For more variety of colors you can use Fruity Cheerios for your homemade bracelets. Other flavors such as Honey Nut Cheerios would be tasty as well. Your child can even make Cheerios necklaces if they'd like.

Cheerios also make great first foods for babies to learn self feeding with. My baby started on Cheerios when she turned nine months old (she also has six teeth). Cheerios is great for babies learning to self feed and it is perfect for babies with little teeth as they easily dissolve in the mouth. Cheerios are also small enough to allow babies learning to self feed to grasp them with their fingers (pincer grasp). I often bring along a little baggie filled with Cheerios to help keep my baby entertained while shopping for groceries as well.

Dry cereals such as Cheerios also make great materials for creating art. Cheerios can be glued onto paper and transformed into eyes, nose, mouth, sand on a beach, etc. You can use colorful Cheerios, such as the Fruity kind, to add some color to your child's work of art. Your child can also create some fun "sand" art by crushing Cheerios and sprinkling on paper which has been covered with glue using a glue stick. You could also mix in some glitter with the crushed Cheerios to add a bit of "shine" to your artwork.

I have recently begun seeing Cheerios brand snack mix (think Chex Mix). The bags however often aren't on sale and the mix looks easy to make. Children will also most likely like the taste of Cheerios over the traditional Chex cereal. To make a snack mix using Cheerios you only need some Cheerios cereal, pretzels, crackers, and whatever else you would like to add to your snack mix. This can make a tasty after school snack for kids or even a snack to eat while watching a movie at home.

Cheerios can also make a great substitute for Rice Krispies when making Rice Krispies Treats. Instead of Rice Krispies Treats you can make Cheerios Treats using the same recipe. You can make your Cheerios treats more fun by using flavored Cheerios, multi colored mini marshmallows, and even adding in some sprinkles or nuts. For an even sweeter treat you could drizzle melted chocolate over the treats after spreading the mixture in your pan.

Another tasty way to enjoy Cheerios is to add some to your yogurt, parfait, or ice cream sundae. Cheerios can be added whole or crushed and mixed in. For a delicious yogurt parfait you can add some yogurt to a parfait glass, top with fresh fruit (strawberries or blueberries are delicious choices) and Cheerios, then repeat. You could substitute the yogurt for ice cream and add some chocolate sauce with the fruit as well to make an ice cream parfait.

If your child is not fond of the taste of Cheerios you can always mix some in with another cereal they like that are shaped as rings. For example, you could mix the Cheerios in with some Fruit Loops or Apple Jacks to make the box of cereal last longer as well as toning down on the sugar content, but still allowing your child to enjoy their favorite cereals.

If you are dealing with bad sunburn then you could take a bath filled with crushed Cheerios to help soothe the pain. The oats in the cereal apparently contain soothing properties which will help ease the burn. You may also use this as a relief for itchy dry skin.

Cheerios are tasty and for kids they can even be fun to play with. If you cannot find Cheerios on sale you could use generic brands to create art projects with because you do not have to worry about taste. However I did find that some generic brands of Cheerios do taste nearly the same. Cheerios is not only tasty and fun it also provides you with calcium, fiber, and minerals as part of a healthy diet. The next time you find yourself with a box of Cheerios you can try some of the fun and tasty ideas above.