ParadiseO has me cooking more, but anyone who knows me knows half my meals are cereal and soy milk. One of my faves: Puffins.

If you haven’t tried these, you’re really, really missing out. Crunchy, not too sweet, bite-sized yummy squares you can eat dry as a snack. Sadly, the cereal’s not organic, though many Barbara’s Bakery cereals are.

Still, Puffins cereals are pretty healthy. And the name isn’t just logo branding — Barbara’s Bakery is a regular contributor to Audubon’s Project Puffin conservation effort.

I’ve been in love with these birdies since I saw them at the zoo a couple years ago. They can dive and swim underwater at shocking speeds!

So far, they’ve adopted 8 puffins, proudly pictured here. The cutest, in my opinion, is Chip (right).

Best of all, cereal lovers can help — by eating cereal! At first I was gonna try and adopt my very own, real live puffin, but then I did some calculations: I’d need to collect 250 box tops, and even at my average rate of 1 box o’ Puffins a week, that would take like 5 years (I’d be over 30! AAAHHH!).

But for 2 box tops and $6.95, you can get a 6″ beanie puffin. So, as usual, I emailed:

Hello — I’m interested in getting a beanie puffin, but was wondering what materials the beanie puffins are made out of, and if they are sweatshop free. Just wanna make sure the toy’s environmentally and socailly kind :) Looking forward to hearing back from you! I’m a big fan of the peanut butter flavor :) Siel

Susan of Barb’s Bakery wrote back:

The plant we are contracted with in China is family-owned and our vendor visits every year. He assures us that the workers are treated and paid fairly. As for the materials, they are new polyester fiber. We hope this information assists you in making your decision and that you continue to enjoy our products in excellent health!

And 3 weeks later, Puffet arrived. Here she is, atop a half-knit scarf –

And I haven’t given up on the real-live puffin adoption. After all, I’ll still be over 30 one day, whether or not I eat 250 boxes of Puffins cereal –

Update, 10/4/06: Now, I use the rest of the cereal box to make business cards :)