THE PIN: Well... there are several so my normal format won't work here. I'll just list my favorites and approximate cost. For do-ability, you can consider them all extremely easy, because basically you just dump everything into a bowl. How hard is that? If there are any special steps I'll make sure to note them. :) As far as Pinning these bad boys? Consider them all good Pins (otherwise they wouldn't be worthy of this post!) A couple of things to keep in mind here... some of my favorite mixes have ingredients that are "seasonal", so as I am writing this post in the middle of the summer, some of them just might not make the list... this time. I tried to pick "summery" mixes. That doesn't make them not worthy (cue Wayne's World... "We're not worthy... we're not worthy!"). Stay tuned for more Snack Mix Compilations. We love snack mixes that much! Here goes...
"Bear Lake Trail Mix"
Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. Swedish fish
1 (18.75 oz.) bag traditional Chex mix
2 1/2 c. chocolate chip teddy grahams (*we used honey)
1 1/2 c. goldfish crackers (*we used the cheddar ones)
1 c. licorice bits (you can leave this out if you wish - good both ways!)
1 1/2 c. pretzel M&Ms (make sure you use the pretzel ones - it matters!)
2 1/2 c. Bugles
Cost: $$ If you buy all the ingredients it will put you back about $15, but it makes two gallon size baggies. Save one for your next road trip and it will STILL last you a few weeks.
I had never had "Puppy Chow" until college when my friend, Brandi, (or was it Michelle?...) introduced me to it. So, thanks to Brandi... or Michelle. I now know that "Puppy Chow" is a delicious treat for humans... not puppies. So... *Note: (It has to be said...) this is NOT for dogs... this "Puppy Chow" mix is for humans. Don't feed it to your dog! Unless you really dislike him...
This one takes a little bit of special preparation, in true Puppy Chow form. There is some melting and mixing to take into account, but nothing a beginner cook can't handle... as long as you can use a microwave and shake stuff, you're good. Also, it is made in two batches, so I separated out the ingredients below.
Ingredients:
Chocolate Part5 c. Rice Chex
1 1/2 c. semisweet or milk chocolate chips
12 Thin Mint cookies, finely crushed
1/4 c. powdered sugar
Put the Rice Chex into a big bowl (use the biggest bowl you have). Melt the chocolate chips for about 90 seconds in the micro, stopping halfway to stir (otherwise the chocolate could burn). While the chocolate is melting, put the thin mints into a baggie and use a rolling pin to crush them (perfect for kids to help with!) Once the chocolate is melted, pour it over the Chex and mix genlty until all of them are coated. Pour the crushed up Thin Mints and powdered sugar into a gallon size baggie and add the chocolate-coated cereal. Close the bag and shake the dickens out of it (kids are GREAT at this!) Lay the cereal out on wax paper to let it cool awhile.
Green Part
5 c. Rice Chex
1 1/2 c. white chocolate melts or white chocolate chips, you can use green melts if you want **
Green GEL food coloring (optional, but make sure it's gel) **
1/4 c. powdered sugar
Repeat all of the above minus the thin mints part (you don't use them for this batch). The amounts are all the same, except you use white choc chips or white choc melts instead of chocolate chips and you dye them green, if desired (but if you dye the white chocolate, make sure to read my side note below **).
** Heads up: When I melted the white choc chips, they were nice and smooth and ready to spread on to the Chex. Then I added the food coloring. It was a clumpy, green disaster. I tried adding milk... don't do this. It makes it worse. It was impossible to spread the chocolate out onto the cereal. Since I live in SmallTown, Wyoming, we don't have mint or green melting chips (enter: Amazon). I didn't want to wait two days for Amazon to ship them so I tried the food coloring in the white chips. I had to redo it. The second time I did it, I used white chocolate Almond Bark instead, which is specifically for melting and molding. Right on the package it said "If it gets too thick, add vegetable oil. Do not try to thin with water, milk, or butter". Good to know... I did thin it a bit with veg oil and it worked like a charm. Green Puppy Chow. Brilliant.
Thin Mints are both my husband and my daughter's favorite GS cookie. Girl Scout cookies and Puppy Chow combined into one treat... Who whouldn't love that? Aside from the one road block (had to redo the "green" part), it was pretty easy and sinfully good! If you're addicted to Girl Scout cookies, definitely give this a try!
Cost: $$ If the Chex are not on sale, this will also run you about $15. It cost me $20 because I had to buy a second box of Chex. Just the Chex and cookies are about $9 together... over half of your cost! It's worth it!
"Hershey's S'more Trail Mix"
Ingredients:
1 bag Hershey's melts (8 oz). - I couldn't find them in Small Town so I used two packages of mini Hershey's candy bars broken apart. Same taste.
1 c. Mini Graham crackers - couldn't find these (curse you Small Town!) so I bought Despicable Me minion graham cracker bites. They were fun.
1 can roasted/salted pecan halves - I left them out because my kids don't like nuts so this can easily be altered for nut allergies.
1 c. mini marshmallows
This one was just okay from an adult perspective. From a kid perspective (and I quote)... "BEST... DAY... EVER!" That coming from my 5-year old. So with the kids it was a big hit, and I loved it because it was super easy to throw together (and WAY less messy than the real thing!). All in all it was good for kiddos, but I'd definitely want to try to find another recipe for S'mores snack mix. Stay tuned!
Cost: $ I bought all the ingredients for this and it gave me two batches and I only spent $10 total. Love that!
My daughter helped mix it up, and she loved making little mini S'mores as we dug our way through this one. Big huge hit with the kids!
"Peanut Butter Brownie Puppy Chow"
Ingredients:
6 C. rice Chex cereal
1 C. milk chocolate melts or chips - I used 3/4 C. milk chocolate chips and 1/4 C. Peanut butter chips. YUM!
1/2 C. peanut butter, creamy
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 C. brownie mix, from the box
Optional: Peanut Butter Brownies, Reese's Pieces, or Peanut butter cups (chopped) - I used Reeses pieces because I liked the way it added color!
You do have a few extra steps, but because Puppy Chow is so worth it, it doesn't matter. :) Melt peanut butter and chips together with vanilla extract, dump over cereal and mix, throw into a bag with brownie batter mix, shake like you mean it. Violà - done!
It's the whole puppy chow addiction again. Peanut butter is one of my all time favorite things. Put it together with chocolate and I'm in heaven! Put it together with puppy chow? Best. Thing. Ever! Might be my new favorite snack! Kids loved it. Hubby loved it. And it was easy for them to help. Love that too!
Cost: $ Chocolate chips, cereal, Reeses, peanut butter ... it's only going to run you about $10-$12. Definitely do-able and it makes a huge gallon bag (throw in a couple of cups more of cereal or some brownies chopped up and you can even stretch this one a little!)
½ cup twizzlers strawberry or cherry twists cut into 1½ in. strips
1 cup mini square graham crackers (I used Golden Graham cereal instead because when I've made other mixes w/ graham crackers, they always get stale)
1 cup blue m&m's or a package of almond joy pieces which have blue in them (use Almond Joy pieces... the likelihood of getting blue pieces is higher :) )
1 cup cashews or other nuts (optional) - I didn't do it because I used Almond Joys
This was super easy. Cutting the mellows was hardest since they get so sticky. Dipping them in powdered sugar or cornstarch is definitely a good idea, just don't go too overboard, like I did or you'll end up with powdered sugar mess all over your entire trail mix! This is such a cute idea to throw together (literally took me five minutes!) for a good 4th of July party!
Cost: $ Not too expensive. I bought the cereal in stead of the grahams, and that probably cost me a few dollars more. All in all it was between $10 and $12.
Ingredients:
Chocolate Part5 c. Rice Chex
1 1/2 c. semisweet or milk chocolate chips
12 Thin Mint cookies, finely crushed
1/4 c. powdered sugar
Put the Rice Chex into a big bowl (use the biggest bowl you have). Melt the chocolate chips for about 90 seconds in the micro, stopping halfway to stir (otherwise the chocolate could burn). While the chocolate is melting, put the thin mints into a baggie and use a rolling pin to crush them (perfect for kids to help with!) Once the chocolate is melted, pour it over the Chex and mix genlty until all of them are coated. Pour the crushed up Thin Mints and powdered sugar into a gallon size baggie and add the chocolate-coated cereal. Close the bag and shake the dickens out of it (kids are GREAT at this!) Lay the cereal out on wax paper to let it cool awhile.
Green Part
5 c. Rice Chex
1 1/2 c. white chocolate melts or white chocolate chips, you can use green melts if you want **
Green GEL food coloring (optional, but make sure it's gel) **
1/4 c. powdered sugar
Repeat all of the above minus the thin mints part (you don't use them for this batch). The amounts are all the same, except you use white choc chips or white choc melts instead of chocolate chips and you dye them green, if desired (but if you dye the white chocolate, make sure to read my side note below **).
** Heads up: When I melted the white choc chips, they were nice and smooth and ready to spread on to the Chex. Then I added the food coloring. It was a clumpy, green disaster. I tried adding milk... don't do this. It makes it worse. It was impossible to spread the chocolate out onto the cereal. Since I live in SmallTown, Wyoming, we don't have mint or green melting chips (enter: Amazon). I didn't want to wait two days for Amazon to ship them so I tried the food coloring in the white chips. I had to redo it. The second time I did it, I used white chocolate Almond Bark instead, which is specifically for melting and molding. Right on the package it said "If it gets too thick, add vegetable oil. Do not try to thin with water, milk, or butter". Good to know... I did thin it a bit with veg oil and it worked like a charm. Green Puppy Chow. Brilliant.
Thin Mints are both my husband and my daughter's favorite GS cookie. Girl Scout cookies and Puppy Chow combined into one treat... Who whouldn't love that? Aside from the one road block (had to redo the "green" part), it was pretty easy and sinfully good! If you're addicted to Girl Scout cookies, definitely give this a try!
Cost: $$ If the Chex are not on sale, this will also run you about $15. It cost me $20 because I had to buy a second box of Chex. Just the Chex and cookies are about $9 together... over half of your cost! It's worth it!
"Hershey's S'more Trail Mix"
Ingredients:
1 bag Hershey's melts (8 oz). - I couldn't find them in Small Town so I used two packages of mini Hershey's candy bars broken apart. Same taste.
1 c. Mini Graham crackers - couldn't find these (curse you Small Town!) so I bought Despicable Me minion graham cracker bites. They were fun.
1 can roasted/salted pecan halves - I left them out because my kids don't like nuts so this can easily be altered for nut allergies.
1 c. mini marshmallows
Cost: $ I bought all the ingredients for this and it gave me two batches and I only spent $10 total. Love that!
My daughter helped mix it up, and she loved making little mini S'mores as we dug our way through this one. Big huge hit with the kids!
"Peanut Butter Brownie Puppy Chow"
Ingredients:
6 C. rice Chex cereal
1 C. milk chocolate melts or chips - I used 3/4 C. milk chocolate chips and 1/4 C. Peanut butter chips. YUM!
1/2 C. peanut butter, creamy
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 C. brownie mix, from the box
Optional: Peanut Butter Brownies, Reese's Pieces, or Peanut butter cups (chopped) - I used Reeses pieces because I liked the way it added color!
You do have a few extra steps, but because Puppy Chow is so worth it, it doesn't matter. :) Melt peanut butter and chips together with vanilla extract, dump over cereal and mix, throw into a bag with brownie batter mix, shake like you mean it. Violà - done!
It's the whole puppy chow addiction again. Peanut butter is one of my all time favorite things. Put it together with chocolate and I'm in heaven! Put it together with puppy chow? Best. Thing. Ever! Might be my new favorite snack! Kids loved it. Hubby loved it. And it was easy for them to help. Love that too!
Cost: $ Chocolate chips, cereal, Reeses, peanut butter ... it's only going to run you about $10-$12. Definitely do-able and it makes a huge gallon bag (throw in a couple of cups more of cereal or some brownies chopped up and you can even stretch this one a little!)
"Patriotic Trail Mix"
Ingredients:
½ cup flat marshmallows (like Kraft Jet puffed Stacker Mallows) cut into 1½ in. strips and dipped into powdered sugar or corn starch to prevent sticking (don't do too crazy on the sugar... I put too much and it made powdered sugar be all over everything! - see my picture below!)½ cup twizzlers strawberry or cherry twists cut into 1½ in. strips
1 cup mini square graham crackers (I used Golden Graham cereal instead because when I've made other mixes w/ graham crackers, they always get stale)
1 cup blue m&m's or a package of almond joy pieces which have blue in them (use Almond Joy pieces... the likelihood of getting blue pieces is higher :) )
1 cup cashews or other nuts (optional) - I didn't do it because I used Almond Joys
This was super easy. Cutting the mellows was hardest since they get so sticky. Dipping them in powdered sugar or cornstarch is definitely a good idea, just don't go too overboard, like I did or you'll end up with powdered sugar mess all over your entire trail mix! This is such a cute idea to throw together (literally took me five minutes!) for a good 4th of July party!
Cost: $ Not too expensive. I bought the cereal in stead of the grahams, and that probably cost me a few dollars more. All in all it was between $10 and $12.
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