Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, hands down. I’m convinced that a great breakfast is the perfect start to a great day. As much as I love it, though, I don’t always have a ton of time to spend in the kitchen on busy mornings, especially on hectic school and work days. I’m always on the look out for ways to make breakfast fun and special, but also quick and easy. Not a simple task, but thankfully, Quaker® Real Medleys® Yogurt Cups fit the bill.

By simply adding cold milk, the dry ingredients transform into a tasty yogurt treat! It’s a bit of breakfast magic, and who doesn’t need that? The fact that they are a delicious blend of yogurt and multigrain granola with real fruit and crunchy nuts makes my family’s taste buds happy. That they are satisfying with 25 grams of whole grains and 10 grams of protein with 1/2 cup of cold skim milk makes the mom in me happy.

Flavors include: Strawberry Almond, Apple Cinnamon, and Raspberry Pecan.

My husband opted for the Strawberry Almond, and my daughter wanted to try the Apple Cinnamon. It was really convenient – we simply added cold milk & stirred. (Note: The milk must be cold. It won’t work with warm milk.) This is the first shelf-stable convergence of granola, fruit and yogurt – all in a single serve cup! I’ve seen nothing like this before.

When I asked them to describe it after a few bites and I heard, “Crunchy.” “Cool.” and “Yum!”

You will find this product in either the cold or ready-to-eat cereal aisles. I picked up ours on a recent school supply run to Walmart. If you are headed to your Walmart, you may be able to check out a demo of this fun product. Find the list of demos here.

I also find that making items ahead of time can streamline the morning rush, so I whipped up some chocolate chip muffins, which were a sweet treat to go with the yogurt cups.

Chocolate Chip Muffin Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup (1 stick)unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup whole or lowfat milk (I used 2%)

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper lines or coat with cooking spray.

2. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Combine the granulated sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.

3. Whisk together the cooled melted butter, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, and milk in a lare mixing bowl.  With a wooden spoon, stir in the flower mixture until just combined. Then add chocolate chips.

4. Fill each muffin cup approximately 3/4 full. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture on top (approximately a teaspoon).

5. Bake the muffins until they are golden and toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 22-25 minutes.

6. Allow muffins to cool in pan for 5 minutes, then complete cooling on a wire rack.

These muffins are not only so good, they freeze well and will last for around a month.

(Recipe adapted from Mom’s Big Book of Baking by Lauren Chattman)

Download the Blippar app from your Apple or Android store to scan your package and receive information tutorials on Quaker® Real Medleys® Yogurt Cups. Be sure to check out more delicious recipes with Quaker Real Medleys Yogurt Cups at QuakerLove.com. I’d love to hear your favorite!

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We deployed the crescent rolls that were in our fridge and used them to make peanut butter and chocolate croissants.

These peanut butter and chocolate croissants were easy enough for her to make and delicious enough for everyone to enjoy. I think summer is a great time to get kids into the kitchen.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Croissant Recipe

Ingredients:

1 8 oz. tube crescent rolls (I used Pillsbury)
1/3 cup chocolate chips, plus handful
1/3 cup peanut butter chips

Instructions:

Unroll crescent rolls and place chocolate chips and peanut butter chips (around 20 total) on each triangle.

Roll them up, keeping the chips from escaping.

Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 12 minutes until brown.

While they are baking, melt the remaining chocolate chips in the microwave.

When the croissants are done, drizzle melted chocolate on top. No fancy work here – we just dipped a fork in the chocolate and waved it over the croissants.

(These were inspired by Chocolate Croissants by the Noble Pig.)

This makes a great snack, but it would be a wonderful dessert, too. They went really well with a glass of cold milk.

My daughter and I agreed that these were best after they were out of the oven and cool but not cold. The next day they were fine after a few seconds in the microwave, but just not quite the same. If you’re on the chocolate and peanut butter bandwagon, these are worth a try. And if you’re not, well, my husband is happy for the company.

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Not only did it make my fruit salad the hit of the party, it led to a brand new creation of delicious homemade orange soda that is delicious. The idea of making my own orange soda had never crossed my mind, but both necessity and leftovers are the mothers of invention.

The syrup was upper easy to make and we tweaked it just a bit because, well, I’m not the kind of woman who always has a vanilla bean on hand. Maybe in my next life? Nah, probably not.

When deciding what to do with the syrup that didn’t go on the fruit salad, I looked around the pantry, and we also had orange flavored sparkling water from Trader Joe’s.

I mixed the orange-vanilla syrup and the soda water together. Voila!

It’s delicious. Even better, my daughter loved it. A sweet treat but with much less sugar than actual soda. Mom score!

For adults, add a bit of orange flavored vodka, and you have an orange party in your mouth.

Orange-Vanilla Syrup

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
Zest and juice of 1 orange
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or vanilla bean)

Place the sugar, 1 cup water, orange zest, juice and vanilla in a small pan and stir to dissolve the sugar. Then bring to a boil. Turn the heat to low and simmer for about 15 minutes to thicken. Set aside to cool.

We add approximately 1/4 cup of syrup to a tall glass of soda (approximately 14 ounces).

Now, my daughter loves vanilla. It’s her favorite, so this was a big hit. Even then, just a little goes a long way. Depending on the amount of vanilla, you could call it orange cream soda.

If your people aren’t huge vanilla fans, skip it. The orange has enough oomph to carry this syrup all by itself.

We made another batch recently and found that using Cara Cara oranges works well given how sweet that they are.

It was an interesting experiment to compare the number of ingredients in a something like a Fanta orange soda to this incredibly simple recipe for homemade orange soda.

The fizz and the orange combine to make this a perfect warm weather treat that’s not too sweet, not too tart.

We are thinking we’ll try this with either lemons or limes next, as Trader Joe’s also has lemon and raspberry-lime flavored sparkling water.

Looks like we found our summer beverage! What are you drinking these days?

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