Contrary to Kermit the Frog’s famous saying, it IS easy being green! That’s especially true this time of year, when saving time and money is as important as ever! This holiday season; keep our planet on the top of your gift list with these five easy tips for an earth-friendly celebration:

Send holiday cards online: Writers’ cramp affects millions of people every year. Or at least tens of people. Give your favorite fountain pen the year off and instead address your holiday greetings electronically. It doesn’t just cut back on paper; it saves you money, too! Plus you’ll need all that hand-strength for wrapping presents…

Wrap gifts in gently used materials: Remember all that tissue paper your Aunt Sally used to wrap that teeny tiny birthday gift in a big huge bag? You can use it again! Re-gifting wrapping paper isn’t the same as sending that fruit cake from last year to your neighbor down the block. Consider it a gift for the environment and your pocket book. No used gift wrap at your house? Use the comics section of your favorite newspaper and remember to save the paper you unwrap from gifts this year for next holiday season.

Give homemade gifts or give the gift of an experience: Are you a three-years-running tri-state area cookie-baking champion? Create a catalog of your ten favorite recipes and enclose a batch of your best cookies as a gift.  Not culinary or crafty? Give tickets to a concert or purchase a service: zero packaging, tons of fun.

Twinkle and glow efficiently: Need to replace some holiday lights this year? Look for the LED kind! They’re more energy efficient than the incandescent variety.

Buy Smart Packaging: During your holiday shopping trips keep an eye out for sustainable packaging.  Start at the grocery store! Malt-O-Meal® cereals come in bags, instead of bags inside of boxes.  If there’s less packaging to begin with, there’s less to dispose of later!

What better way to make pancakes than to include another favorite breakfast food: Malt-O-Meal® cereal! Adding Corn Bursts® to her pancake recipe won Naomi Kress the blue ribbon at this summer’s Utah State Fair.

It was only after sampling a several Malt-O-Meal varieties in her recipe that Naomi selected Corn Bursts® as being the best contender for her blue-ribbon winning creation. She thinks the key to her success was using quality ingredients, like real whipped cream, fresh blueberries and real maple syrup.

Carol Bartholemew brought home second place honors with her Peaches and Cream dessert, which included Malt-O-Meal Honey Graham Squares® cereal.

Naomi Kress shows off her 1st place ribbon.

Utah State Fair Winning Recipes:
Naomi Kress, 1st place, Utah State Fair 2010

Deluxe Corn Bursts® Pancakes
Ingredients:
1 cup Malt-0-Meal® Corn Burst Cereal crumbs (finely ground in blender)
1-1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/4 butter, melted
2 cups milk

6 slices bacon, finely diced
Butter
Maple Syrup
Whipped Cream
Blueberries

Cook the bacon in a frying pan until crisp. Drain fat and set aside. Stir together dry ingredients in a bowl. In separate bowl, mix eggs, yogurt, butter, milk, and bacon. Pour dry ingredients and stir until well blended. Pour 1/4 cup mixture onto hot oiled skillet. Cook until bottom is lightly browned. Turn pancakes and cook other side until done. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve with warm maple syrup, whipped cream, and fresh blueberries. Yields: 15 pancakes.

Carol Bartholomew, 2nd Place, Utah State Fair

Peaches and Cream

Crust:
1 ½ cups crushed Malt-O-Meal® Honey Graham Squares® cereal
1 Tbsp. sugar
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
1/3 c. melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a 2-quart mixing bowl, stir together cereal, sugar and cinnamon. Mix in the butter thoroughly. Press into the bottom and sides of a 10” springform pan. Set aside.

Filling:
3 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
1 c. sugar
4 eggs
1 ½ tsp. almond extract

In 4-quart mixing bowl, using electric beaters whip together cream cheese with sugar, beat in eggs one at a time, then add almond extract. Pour this mixture into the prepared crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. While baking, prepare peach topping. Remove to cooling rack and allow to cool.

Peach Topping:
3 c. peeled, pitted and diced peaches (fresh or frozen)
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
¾ c. sugar
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. almond extract

In 2-quart heavy pan, place prepared peaches and lemon juice. Separately, stir together sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon; add this gently into diced peaches. Cook on medium heat, gently stirring, until juice from peaches is thickened. Stir in almond extract. Allow to cool. Pour over cooled backed cheesecake. Chill well.

Makes 12 servings.

Esther May, 3rd Place, Utah State Fair

Raspberry Crunch Bars

Ingredients:
4 c. Malt-O-Meal® Berry Colossal Crunch®
½ c. butter
1 can sweet and condensed milk
1 cup raspberry jam
1 cup unsweetened coconut
1 cup white chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a saucepan, melt butter. Crumble cereal then mix with the butter. Pat the crumb mixture into a 9×13 pan. Pour sweet and condensed milk over the cereal mixture. Place dollops of jam throughout the milk. Sprinkle coconut and white chocolate chips on top. Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes. Bars should be a little brown on top. Let cool, slice and enjoy!