Trash Treats

Ingredients:

3 tbsp. butter

1 (16) oz. bag marshmallows

2 tbsp. peanut butter

4 c. potato chips, crushed

2 c. Pretzels, crushed

1/4 c. M&M's

1/2 c. chocolate chips, melted

Grease a 9" x 9" pan with cooking spray.

In a large pot over low heat, melt butter. Add marshmallows and stir until smooth. Add peanut butter and stir to combine. Turn off the heat and quickly stir in crushed chips and pretzels.

Using a spatula or wax paper, press mixture into pan. Sprinkle with M&M's. Drizzle with melted chocolate. Let chocolate cool and harden before serving, about 30 minutes.

These bars were a perfect combination of sweet and salty. The only thing I would change is to mix the M&Ms in to the mixture before pressing in the pan.  They tend to fall off the top after you cut them.  I also had a small amount of Reeses Pieces in the kitchen so I added those too.  Yum! 

Cheesy Ranch Snack Mix

Ingredients:

6 oz. package pretzels

6 oz. package Bugles (plain or cheese flavored)

1/2 box miniature club crackers

6 oz. package goldfish crackers (cheese flavored)

1 can mixed nuts

1 envelope dry ranch mix

8 oz. butter flavored popcorn oil 

Mix crackers, pretzels, nuts in bowl.  In separate bowl mix ranch and popcorn oil.  Pour ranch and popcorn oil over crackers, pretzels and nuts.  Shake so everything is covered well.  Spread on two cookie sheets.  Bake 250 for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.  Cool completely before storing.  Makes a large batch!

This snack mix is totally addicting! How can you go wrong with cheese, ranch and salty goodness? Great for parties or to take along on a road trip.  

Chubby Hubby Clusters

Recipe from Six Sisters Stuff

Ingredients:

1½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup peanut butter chips

½ cup butter, cut into pieces

¼ cup peanut butter

2 cups pretzel sticks, roughly chopped

1 cup salted peanuts

In a large bowl, mix together chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, butter, and peanut butter.  Microwave on high for 45 seconds, stir, and microwave again for 30 seconds. Stir until smooth (if it isn't completely melted, return to the microwave for 20 second intervals, stirring after each time).

Add pretzels and peanuts to the melted chocolate mixture and stir until they are completely coated in

chocolate.  Drop by tablespoonfuls onto wax paper and refrigerate for about 30 minutes or until firm.

Optional: drizzle with melted peanut butter.  If you don't eat them all in one sitting, store leftovers in an airtight container.

This treat was easy to make (no bake) and combines some of my favorite flavors.  Chocolate, peanut butter and salt…how can we go wrong with that? Thanks, Six Sisters for a great recipe to add to the Christmas goodie platter! 

Spicy Pretzels

Review by Lyndee:

1 bag skinny pretzels sticks or knots

1/4 cup vegetable or popcorn oil

1 package hidden valley ranch dressing mix

1 teaspoon garlic salt (I used garlic powder instead)

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions:

Mix oil, ranch mix, garlic and cayenne together in a gallon size Ziploc bag.  Once mixed, add pretzels.  Shake well so that pretzels are completely coated.  Place in roasting pan a roasting pan or cookie sheet.  Bake at 200* for 1 1/2- 2 hours.  Stir every 20-30 minutes.

Super easy to make and a great snack for a party. 

Popcorn cake

Review by Lyndee:

2 bags butter flavor microwave popcorn

2 cups M&M’s

½ cup broken pretzel sticks

1 stick butter

16 oz bag mini marshmallows

½ cup creamy peanut butter

Prepare a large bundt  or 9 x 13 pan by spraying evenly with cooking spray.

Pop 2 bags of buttered microwave popcorn as directed on the package and dump into a large bowl. I used a butter flavored.  Pick out the kernels that didn’t pop.  Mix in M&M’s and pretzel sticks.  Melt butter over low in a large saucepan. Once melted add mini marshmallows and peanut butter. Stir until melted and smooth.

Remove from heat.  Let sit a minute or two so it doesn’t melt your M&M’s. Pour over your popcorn mix. Stir until all the ingredients are combined and then press into the prepared pan. Cover with foil and let your cake set for at least an hour to cool.

When you are ready to serve the cake loosen sides of your cake from the pan by running a butter knife around the edges. Flip your pan over onto your serving platter. I used a 9x13 pyrex pan that had a lid instead of bundt. I used butter to coat the pan instead of cooking spray. 

This was so yummy! It’s like a cross between a rice krispy treat and a popcorn ball.  It was a big hit at my nephews birthday party. 

Strawberry Butterfly Cupcakes

My little Emma turned five this month, and the highlight of the day is to bring a treat to pass out to her fellow Rockets at pre-school.  Her and I scoured the internet for a cool cupcake to make for her and her fellow classmates, and we found this cute little butterfly cupcake idea via Martha Stewart's website. 

The exact recipe that Martha suggests can be found  on her website via: http://www.marthastewart.com/266904/butterfly-cupcakes

We made a few revisions to the recipe that included the difficult task of purchasing a box of cake mix and a tub of pink frosting from the local Hy-Vee grocery store.  This mom doesn't have time (nor do I want to) whip up my own frosting and batter.  Thank the good Lord for Ms. Betty Crocker and Mr. Pillsbury dough boy.  So, here's what we did...

1. Bake up your cupcakes.  Emma chose a Strawberry cake mix.  
2. Lick batter spoon clean.  (CHECK, CHECK, CHECKITY, CHECK, CHECK!!) 

3. When cool, frost your cupcakes with your choice of frosting.  Again, Emma chose Strawberry.

4.  Then, begin to create your butterfly.  We chose to make the body of the butterfly out of Valentine M&M's to match the pink theme Emma had going.  

5.  We lined about four m&m's to make the body of our butterfly.  

6. After your m&m's have been placed, you insert the pretzels for the wings.  ***TT123 TIP*** In reading the reviews on Martha's recipe, I found that a lot of people said that the pretzel wing would go stale if left setting out too long (i.e. more than a day).  They suggested coating the pretzels with chocolate or almond bark.  I thought I could make this even easier and effective by purchasing the already made ones (via Dollar General at $1 per bag).  Or, you could use those Flipz pretzels that you can find in any grocery store's candy aisle.  These worked perfectly for Emma's cupcakes because they were already pre-sprinkled with pink sprinkles.

To make the butterflies look like Martha's cupcakes you need to use a lot of frosting to hold the wings just right.  But, we wanted all the pre-schoolers to take naps that afternoon and not drive their teachers crazy, so we didn't use that much frosting.  So, we had to just slightly press the pretzel into the cupcake as well.

7.  Once your wings have been inserted, you're supposed to take black licorice strings and make antennas (see Martha's butterflies).  I thought that was what I bought, but I mistakenly bought the regular licorice, which would be a little too thick for our butterfly antennas. 

 So, we chose to let Jackie eat the licorice instead.  

8.  Emma reported that her Strawberry Butterfly cupcakes were a hit with her Rocket classmates...even if they had no antennas!  And, the very best part, the kids felt pretty good about themselves because this project they accomplished was easy enough for them to help, and they had fun doing it!