Sweet and Salty Trail Mix

I absolutely love trail mix. But I have a confession... I don't like the trail mix with dried fruit and all the "health" stuff.  I know, weird, right?  Well, that's me.  So when I saw a sweet and salty trail mix on Inside BruCrew Life I knew I wanted to make something similar.  It looked amazing!  I absolutely love Jocelyn's blog!

You can make this with whatever you like.  This is what we chose.

Sweet and Salty Trail Mix

* 1 cup M&Ms

* 1 cup mini Reeses peanut butter cups

*  1 cup pretzels

* 1 cup Teddy Grahams

* 1/2 salted peanuts

* 1/2 salted cashews

I wish I had raisins because I would have added those.  I love raisins in trail mix.

My kids loved this!  I thought it would be perfect to take camping with us.  I know my daughter will pick out all the pretzels and my son will pick out all the M&Ms.  But that still leaves me with lots of goodies!

  

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Soft Pretzel Bites

My kids LOVE soft pretzels dipped in cinnamon and sugar.  When we go to the factory outlet mall, that's our treat.  We don't go very often though.  And they ask for them... often!  So I googled soft pretzel bites and found this recipe on Two Peas and Their Pod.  It looked reasonable.  (Not super easy but kind of easy. Does that make sense.)  And I figured we'd give it a try.  I've never made pretzels before!

I am so glad we did.  The only thing I would do differently next time?  Double the recipe!  My kids gobbled them up so quickly!

We made some covered in cinnamon and sugar (for the kids.)  And some with sea salt on them (for me.)  WOW!  Delicious!!!

Ingredients

* 1 1/2 cups warm water

* 2 Tbsp. light brown sugar

* 1 package active dry yeast

* 3 ounces unsalted butter, melted

* 2 1/2 tsp. Kosher salt

* 4 1/2 cups flour

* vegetable oil

* 3 quarts water

* 3/4 cup baking soda

* 1 egg beaten with 1 Tbls. cold water

* Coarse sea salt

Combine water, yeast, brown sugar and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix until combined.  Let stand for 5 minutes for the yeast to proof.

Add the salt and flour and mix on low speed until combined.  Mix on medium speed for about 5 minutes until the dough is smooth pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  About 3 - 4 minutes.  Remove the dough from the bowl and kneed into a ball.

Helpers are always a good thing =o)

Oil a bowl with vegetable oil.  Add the dough and turn to coat.  Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let sit until double in size.  About an hour.

Preheat the over to 425 degrees.

Remove the dough and place on a flat surface.  Divide it into 8 equal pieces.  Roll each piece into a snake about 22 inches long.  We had a hard time doing this for some reason.  It wouldn't stretch necessarily and it was supper slippery on the rolling mat.  Heck, we're amateurs.  So we just tried to roll it out but them ripped off small pieces and rolled them into a ball (or cut them with scissors into pieces.) 

 

In a large pot, bring water to a boil.  Add baking soda.

Boil the pretzel pieces in the boiling water mixture for about 30 seconds.

Place on a cookie sheet (sprayed with cooking spray.)  Brush with egg mixture and sprinkle with salt.

If you are going to make cinnamon and sugar covered pretzel bites (and of course we did!) then don't add the salt.

The directions said to bake them for 15 minutes but that was way too long for our bites.  We ended up cooking them for about 9 - 10 minutes only.

Remove onto a cooling rack and let cool a little before eating.  They are amazing warm!!!

For cinnamon and sugar pretzel bites, dip each pretzel bite in melted butter and then roll in cinnamon and sugar.  And then try to not eat them all!  =o)

If you like to dip your pretzels in sauce (and who doesn't) here's a great cheese dip recipe!

* 1/2 Tbsp. unsalted butter

* 1/2 Tbsp. flour

* 1/2 cup milk

* 8 ounces shredded cheddar cheese, grated

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Add the flour and cook for 1 minute.  Whisk in the milk and cook until slightly thickened.  Remove from heat and stir in the cheddar cheese until all the cheese is smooth and melted.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

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Spider Web Snacks

I love that I found these over on Mom Endeavors. I knew immediately that this was a Halloween snack we had to make.

Super easy which means little helpers can do this one all on their own!

What you'll need:

* stick pretzels

* white melting chocolate

* raisins 

* milk chocolate melting chocolate

Arrange the pretzels like this

Squirt some white chocolate in the middle to secure the pieces and then make 3 circles around the pretzels.

Add 2 raisins to look like a spider.

Cover the raisins in milk chocolate (if you want.)

Make sure there's a lot of giggles and laughter while you're doing this =o)

Let them set!

And then eat up!

I think my helpers had fun.

These were my daughters spider webs.  Hmmmmm.....  But she had fun.  That's all that counts!

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Scooter Snacks

I'm always on the search for fun foods to make for me... I mean my kids. Ah heck, who am I foolin'. I'd make these adorable scooter snacks even if I didn't have kids. They are so cute. And all the ingredients that I love!

Adorable, right? I found this in the August 2010 edition of Taste Of Home Fun Food Magazine. (Of course I had to buy it with a name like that!)

And they are really easy to make.

Ingredients:
* pretzel sticks
* cucumber slices or zucchini
* string cheese
* cream cheese for the "glue"

That's it. Who doesn't love all of those ingredients? My kids loved them!





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A Fun, Healthy Snack

I have a little thing about vampires. I was about to write "I'm embarrassed to say" but I'm not. What the heck. I'm obsessed. I said it. Seriously, I am. It all started with the Twilight books and has gone a little out of control since. =o) If you need to know a good book series to read - I'm your gal. Maybe I should narrow that down a little - a good, vampire book series =o)

So I thought these snacks were totally cute. And my kids giggled when they saw them. They know I love vampire books. When they see a picture of a vampire in a magazine or on TV they say "hey Mom, look, a vampire!" Of course then they giggle. I should be embarrassed by that shouldn't I? Hmm. I'm not. So they loved these snacks too.

They are super simple to make. I used my crinkle cut cutter to cut the apples.
Then I smeared peanut butter on both sides and put a little dab to hold on the raisins for the eyes. The fangs are just little pieces of apple. I could have used slivered almonds but my kids don't eat slivered almonds. I would much rather not go buy something my kids wouldn't eat and use what I have. Right?

A healthy treat the kids will love. (And Mom loves them too!)
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Cheryl's Stinky Cheese Ball

Yep, you read that right - Cheryl's Stinky Cheese Ball. I got the recipe from Cheryl and she calls this her Stinky Cheese Ball. I work with Cheryl. She is a hoot! She is dry and sarcastic and the right amount of crude. I just love her. Twice a year she brings this to work and I can't get enough of it. So about 6 years ago I told her I had to have the recipe. So now I make it every Christmas/New Years and gobble the whole batch up. (Well, I wrestle my son for it but I mostly win.) =o)

It's simple and tastes so delicious!!! Plus the name is great, don't you think???

Ingredients:

* 2 packs of cream cheese (sure, you can use light cream cheese if you want to, but why? Seriously. Cream cheese rocks.)

* 1 can of tuna or salmon (thus the Stinky part of the name)

* 3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese

* 2 stalks of chopped celery (I didn't put any in because all the celery at the grocery store was wiggly and it grossed me out.)

* 1/4 cup finely chopped onion (I used a Walla Walla sweet onion. YUM.)

* 1 carrot, grated

* 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

* 2 Tbsp. soy sauce

* 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

* 1/4 tsp. seasoning salt

* Mix all the ingredients together and shape into a ball.

* Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

* Roll in grated nuts if desired. (I didn't desire, because I'm not a huge nut person.)

* Serve with crackers. Ritz are my favorite with this. Man oh man. I'm telling you that you will love this cheese ball.

Looks pretty tasty doesn't it? I ate it until my stomach hurt. Yep, I have that much self control =o)

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An Old Snack With A New Twist

Christmas is over. I can hardly believe it. All the preparation and anticipation and it's done so quickly. We had a great Christmas. It wasn't super eventful but that's how we like it. We played games and hung out with family. My kids said it was their best Christmas ever. That was all I needed. Everything else is just icing on the cake =o)

I about fell over last night when my daughter was in the bath and she started singing Christmas songs. She is so darn cute. She sang all of her favorites but then she started singing a new song that she must have heard on the radio. It went something like this... "Oh bring me some boogie pudding, oh bring me some boogie pudding". Oh my heck! I cracked up. I told her it was figgie pudding and she replied with "well that doesn't make any sense. What's a figgie?" Oh, the mind of a 5 year old.

One of my favorite snacks to munch on during the holidays is Chex mix. I just love it. I can munch on it all day and not feel like I'm eating something too unhealthy. (Because it's either that or fudge and I already downed a pan of fudge this Christmas.) But I like to "jazz" up our Chex mix a little to add some more flavor. It's delish!

Ingredients:

* Rice Chex

* Corn Chex

* Cashews

* Pretzels

* Cheese It's

* Cheetos

* 1 stick butter

* 2 Tbls. Worcestershire sauce

* 1 1/2 tsp. Seasoning Salt

* 3/4 tsp. garlic powder

* 1/2 tsp. onion powder

I don't do the microwave version. For some reason that sounds strange to me. How do things get crunchy in the microwave? I can't picture it so I don't even bother =o)

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

The directions are on the boxes of cereal but I do it a little different. It says to melt the butter in the pan and then add all the seasoning. If you do it this way all the seasoning is on the bottom of the pan and it makes it more difficult to stir everything. So I melt the butter in the microwave and then add the seasonings to it and stir.

In a large pan add the cereal. (I don't like the wheat chex so I don't use those.) I use about 8 cups of cereal total.

Add the cashews (about a cup but add more if you like) and Cheese It's (about a cup) and Cheetos (about a cup) and pretzels (about a cup.)

Pour the seasoned butter over the top and stir.

Bake for 60 minutes stirring every 15 minutes.

Let cool and enjoy!

I know it's not original, but it's mighty tasty!