Invite and Delight: A CEREALsly Fun Dinner

Who doesn't love a party you can come dressed in your pajamas? That is exactly the kind of party I hosted last night. It was a CEREALsly Fun Monthly Dinner with all the decorations and food made with various cereals.

Invite: I designed the invite on Photo Shop and tried to use names of cereals somehow in the wording. Another cute idea would be to mail mini cereal boxes to each guest with the party details, but I was last minute (as usual), and sent my invites by email.

Entry Decor: I made this Frosted Flakes sign out of foam board and card stock. It took me some time to draw and cut out Tony, the Cricut letters, and put it all together, but I think it's GR-R-REAT!!

Here's a close-up. I also put a bowl of frosted flakes in front of the entry sign.

Inside Decor: I set my table with a bright green tablecloth and then made cereal themed centerpieces. In the middle of the table I filled an outer vase with Fruit Loops and an inner vase held colorful flowers. I also saved two milk cartons and used them as vases on each side of the glass vase.

Above the table, I hung empty cereal boxes with fishing line.

For place cards, I bought individual boxes of cereal, and attached a spoon with alphabet beads (bought at Michaels) that spelled out the guest's name.

My 5 year old daughter helped me make the napkins rings. I think she ate more Fruit Loops than she put on each ribbon, but she was eager to help!

I made this banner out of cereal box fronts to put behind my beverage table. Oh...and a little photo prop for the evening out of another cereal box..

It was hard to think of cereal brands that went with wine, but I settled on Oh's and Total to inspire the labels I wrapped around my red and white wine.

This is the full image of the labels.

I didn't get a good photo of the wine charms, but I used the charms in Lucky Charms cereal. I threaded a needle through the charm and attached them with sewing thread.

Menu: All the cereal party theme ideas I saw online served just various cereals, but since I was serving dinner, I needed to adapt the menu for a late day meal. I had to invent entrees, but all were delicious. We started off with a green salad. To add in the cereal, I made croutons out of Mini Wheats (not the frosted kind). I poured melted button over the mini wheats and seasoned them with garlic salt and Italian seasoning. I baked them in a 300 degree oven for about 15 minutes. They were actually very tasty on the salad.

For the main dish, I served chicken coated in Corn Flakes. This was yummy, and I will definitely make it again.

1 3/4 cup corn flakes

1 egg

1 cup nonfat milk

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

3 lbs chicken (I did 7 whole breasts)

3 tablespoons margarine (melted)

2 teaspoons garlic powder

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put corn flakes in a bowl or pie tin. In a medium bowl, beat eggs and milk. Add flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika and mix until smooth. Dip the chicken in the batter and roll in crumbs. Place on a pan with foil and drizzle with butter. Bake uncovered for 45-60 minutes.

I also served crispy rice to represent Rice Krispies.

On top of the green beans, I sprinkled Grape Nuts right before serving. These don't have much flavor, but they gave the beans a crunchy kick.

For dessert, I made a crust out of Cocoa Pebbles. I mixed 3 cups of Cocoa Pebbles, 1/2 cup of melted butter, and 1/2 cup sugar and then shaped this on the bottom of a spring-form pan. After it hardened I topped it with vanilla ice cream, a layer of fudge, then more ice cream. For decoration on the top I sprinkled more Cocoa Pebbles and drizzled butterscotch.

Favor: As a parting gift, I made each guest Chex Mix. I used Photo Shop to create a mini cereal box inspired by the Rice Chex box front and just added the word Mix to it. The slogan on the back of the box read "Chex you later. Can't wait to MIX it up with you again!"