It's OK--it's part of a balanced breakfast

Don't let anyone tell you I'm not a festive person. I began celebrating St. Patrick's Day at 6:30 am with a generous bowl of Lucky Charms--but not just any Lucky Charms. New CHOCOLATE Lucky Charms . Chocolate! I fell for that gimmick, hook, line, and sinker. But the marshmallows were all weird. If I remember correctly, an I believe I do, Lucky Charms always had marshmallows shaped like pink hearts, orange stars, yellow moons, green clovers, and blue diamonds. I watch enough cartoons to have seen the commercials for new marshmallows over the years; I'm fully aware of purple horseshoes and even red balloons. But these Chocolate Lucky Charms had none of the above mentioned original marshmallow shapes, save for a bastardized green clover (it was some weird sort of multi-colored, clover-inside-a-clover deal). No pink hearts (although there were pink lumps of some sort. Maybe they were supposed to be hearts. I don't know.). No orange stars. No yellow moons. No blue diamonds. I was, and am, thoroughly disappointed. I'll have to do some scientific research to see if this marshmallow epidemic has infiltrated regular lucky charms as well.

I don't even like the marshmallows in marshmallow cereals. The have the consistency of chalk when I bite on them, so I suck all of the sugary goodness out of them instead. But I couldn't resist the chocolate factor, and, well, it is St. Patrick's Day. Normally, when I need to satisfy my need for sugary cereal, I go straight for the Cocoa Puffs. I am, one could say, coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs.

Of course, these cereals were never allowed in our home when I was a child. My mom's favorite rule: "If one of the first three ingredients is sugar, you can't have it." She might as well have said we couldn't have it if one of the first three ingredients was "fun." Thank goodness for Cheerios. But my mom totally put her money where her mouth was, and regularly ground up fresh walnuts and mixed them with honey to put on our cereal, and voila: home made honey-nut Cheerios. Let's see that stupid cartoon bee do that.