Giveaway: General Mills Whole Grain Cereals

I try to eat somewhat healthfully. We'll ignore the s'mores Mister Man, my husband, and I made for dessert out of Trefoil Girl Scout cookies. It's a one time thing. Generally, we try to focus on what we're eating - which is why I make a lot of foods from scratch. I can't always do that for breakfast - much as I'd love to, I love my sleep more.

In the mornings, I want to make sure that we're starting our day off right, and part of that means getting in whole grains. That's is some of why cereal has typically been more of a treat than an everyday item in my house. But did you know that five General Mills cereals have whole grains as the first ingredient?

Why yes... yes, they do. Seven General Mills cereals, including Cheerios®, Lucky Charms®, Cinnamon Toast Crunch®, Honey Nut Cheerios®, and Total® all have whole wheat or whole oats listed as the first ingredient. (Ingredients on packaging are listed in order of prevalence. The first item is the most common and the last has the least of it in the item.) Even better for my family, three of these five cereals use real sugar as the sweetener, too, something that makes Mister Man very happy.

While General Mills has also introduced the white check that shows the amount of whole grain in a serving of the cereal. The General Mills cereals with the white check let you know that there is more whole grain in there than any other ingredient. That said, claims on labels are not regulated, so always read the ingredient list first to see what's really in there.

Personally, I love seeing that more and more food manufacturers are responding to consumers' demands for foods that contain more whole grains and other recommended dietary changes. I've taught the wee ones to read labels, and you should see Mister Man's face light up when he sees a cereal like this that he's able to eat and feel good about.

And the nice thing about these cereals? To me - and to the wee ones - they still taste good. Adding whole grains doesn't mean that they taste like cardboard. Far from it, in fact. I had zero complaints from the wee ones, and to me they tasted exactly the same as they always have. And that's a good thing.

Learn more about whole grains and why they matter at the Whole Grain Nation site. While there, you can also play a Fast Lane for Whole Grain game to win all 50 plus Big G cereals.

Ready to try out the five General Mills cereals made with more whole grain than any other ingredient? You can... I have a prize pack of these cereals to give away. So what do you have to do to win the prize pack? First of all, let me stress that you must follow all the rules. If you do not follow the rules, your entry will not count! That means that please please please leave your contact information. If I cannot get ahold of you, you cannot win!

This giveaway is open until Thursday March 8 at 7pm CST. I must have a valid way to reach you, so leave me your email address in your comment or be sure your profile has your email address visible. No duplicate comments will count. This giveaway is open to US residents age 18 and older. Winners will be selected via random.org and must respond within 24 hours of being notified by me or I will select a new winner.

Mandatory Entry: Tell me: Which of the five General Mills cereals featuring whole grain as the first ingredient would you choose first?

Bonus Entries (leave a comment for each entry - if you put it all in one comment, I'll count it as one entry):

1) Earn one additional entry for following me on Twitter, then tweeting this contest with the following tweet: "I entered to win a General Mills prize pack #giveaway from @honestandtruly. Have you? http://bit.ly/xpy3cP" (leave a link to your tweet as your comment and make sure you do all the steps!)
2) Earn one additional entry by following this review blog publicly via Google Friend Connect.
3) Earn one additional entry by following my “regular” blog Honest & Truly! publicly via Google Friend Connect.
4) Earn one additional entry by liking Honest & Truly! on Facebook. (Yay, it's legal again, so long as you know you have to leave a comment here to enter and that simply liking me isn't the entry, along with acknowledging the fact that Facebook has nothing to do with this giveaway whatsoever.
5) Earn an additional entry by putting me in your Google Plus circle. Am I already in your G+ circle? No problem - just leave a comment letting me know that you've added me or already have me there.

Good luck!

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a box of each of the five cereals as described above courtesy of General Mills via MyBlogSpark. I received no compensation, and all opinions remain my own.