My visit to Minneapolis, MN with General Mills

I flew directly from Los Angeles to Minneapolis, MN last Wednesday as a guest of General Mills. I was invited by the cereal team to join 14 other bloggers (mostly mommy, some nutritionists, some comedy, others food). At first I said, of course! I’ve heard lovely things about MSP and was excited about the agenda. It was not a paid trip but my flight and hotel were covered.

Then came the Kohl’s shoot and I almost said no. Luckily, I have great family and they told me to do both! I took advantage of their generosity and off I went. Since I already shared LA, here is what we did in Minneapolis.

We stayed at the Hewing Hotel which has to be one of my favorite hotels that I have ever stayed at. It was the definition of cool. Shortly after my arrival, I headed up to the roof top for a drink.

You could see the top of the Twin’s stadium from the roof top which was very cool. I ate dinner with a bunch of the other mom’s and we headed to bed early.

The next morning, I thought about getting up and going to a workout class at Alchemy but I opted not to set my alarm and alas, I slept too late to go. We spent the morning at General Mills, first getting a little tour and then learning about how the cereal gets made.

My favorite part about meeting other bloggers is learning for each other. Here I’m showing Natalie of Super Healthy Kids how to zoom in on an Insta story.

I ended up hanging out with these two moms probably the most. Seated to my right is Dude Mom Amanda who has 3 boys and to my left is Karen of Baby Side Burns. 

Karen used to live in Boston and as it turns out, I have like 20 IRL friends that are diehard fans! We has so many small world connections and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next and all her blog posts are hilarious.

Also on the agenda included creating a recipe in the Betty Crocker Kitchen. PS did you know she’s not a real person?

We had a bunch of ingredients to choose from and so many women got super creative. I only know how to make workout food recipes so I naturally made an energy ball and used blended up lucky charms instead of protein powder. It came out great.

Everyone seems to be making these totally creative recipes and I was just like…. ahhhh, gimme some nut butter, dates and whatever else you got and I’m good.

I sorted the lucky charms and used the marshmallows for crunch on top. I forgot how good these things were.

General Mills is amazing with their allergy safety. Cheerios are proudly gluten free as are Lucky Charms!

The entire trip was very positive and uplifting. I joked that my lowest moment came when I saw how bad I was at food styling compared to the other bloggers, lol.

I just wasn’t satisfied when I looked around! Comparison really is the thief of joy!

I think they came out pretty good. Recipe is on my Instagram page here.

Did you know that Honey Nut Cheerios is actually the number 1 seller? I did not but I do now! Tommy totally prefers HNC but the annoying mom that I am, I always give him regular Cheerios. 

After day 1, we went back to the hotel and I went for a short 20 minute run along the Mississippi river. It was short because we had a dinner reservation at the coolest restaurant!

Dinner was at a place called Travail. It was one of my top 10 restaurants that I have eaten at in my life. It was so so good. I can’t even tell you what I ate but it was nothing short of amazing and there were 12 course!!!!! I almost ate everything… almost. 

Day 2 involved a visit to the Pinch of Yum studios. POY offers workshops to learn food photography and blogging basics. Apparently the classes sell out fast but we were able to get in for a short session. I learned a ton in the short 45 minute session and will share with you what we learned in a separate post.

Afterwards, it was time for lunch and then I left for the airport a little early. We learned so much from each other and about General Mills as a brand. I had no idea how many organic brands were under their umbrella including Lara Bars, Purely Elizabeth, Cascadian Farms, Nature’s Promise and more.

You can buy Cheerios at Whole Foods these days and after learning how their source and create their products, I now know why. It was also really great to hear their emphasis on Whole Grains.

If you’re curious to learn more about Pinch of Yum studios, let me know in the comments. I’m happy to share what I learned in a new separate post!

Again, this was not a sponsored trip but General Mills did cover my flight and hotel.