Hot Chocolate Muddy Buddies

So addicting! Muddy Buddies are fool-proof and great to make quickly – and to be ready to gift! Sweet chex-mix with 2 flavors is the best. I made mint & chocolate for Saint Patrick’s Day and I made raspberry white chocolate muddy buddies for Valentine’s Day.

Read through before making – I have you make one kind, then the other since the chocolate shouldn’t cool/harden before you’re ready to mix it all up. These are delightfully wintry – not holiday-ish so make whenever!

The Three Bite Rule - Hot Chocolate Muddy Buddies

Hot Chocolate Muddy Buddies:
Ingredients:

1 cup white chocolate chips
6 cups rice chex cereal (that’s 2/3 of a box)
2/3 cup hot chocolate mix
1 cup chocolate chips
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup mini dehydrated marshmallows

Directions:
Melt white chocolate chips – stirring every 20-seconds in the microwave for ~1 minute OR over a double boiler.
Then gently stir into half the chex, carefully to not break the cereal. Then transfer into a zip-top bag and pour in the hot chocolate mix.

The Three Bite Rule - Hot Chocolate Muddy Buddies

Shake shake shake to cover evenly.
Then pour onto wax paper and spread out evenly to “dry” (hot tip: place on baking sheets to be able to move them.) Let it sit for ~30 minutes – an hour.

The Three Bite Rule - Hot Chocolate Muddy Buddies

Melt the chocolate chips – stirring every 20-seconds in the microwave for ~1 minute OR over a double boiler.
Then gently stir into half the chex, carefully to not break the cereal. Then transfer into a zip-top bag (use the same one!) and pour in the powdered sugar.
Shake shake shake to cover evenly.
Then pour onto wax paper and spread out evenly to “dry” (hot tip: place on baking sheets to be able to move them. Sound familiar?) Sprinkle the dehydrated marshmallows so some will stick to the chex clusters. Let it sit for ~30 minutes – an hour.

The Three Bite Rule - Hot Chocolate Muddy Buddies

Enjoy!

The dehydrated marshmallows are so so fun and a big bag was half the price than the little tub by ice cream toppings or by hot chocolate in the stores. I’ll totally put on top of ice cream, on yogurt, add to trail mix, drop into hot chocolate, and into hot chocolate bombs and I definitely want to try in ebilskiver pancakes!

Chocolate Mint Energy Bites

The ideal snack! All my past energy bites were peanut butter based so I tried something new. We definitely eat our fair share of pb around here! I love these pb/coconut/choc chip ones and these pb & “jelly” flavored ones too. Snacks can reset us mid-morning between zooms or virtual kindergarten screen-breaks, or post-nap. I like the powerful, useful, snacks and that these can carry us to the next meal.

Chocolate Mint Energy Bites
Ingredients:

1 cup Old Fashioned Oats
5 dates, chopped
1 tablespoon/scoop chocolate protein powder
2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
1/2 cup tahini
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1-2 tablespoons Nutella
1/4 teaspoon mint extract

Directions:
Mix together the oats, flaxseed, dates, and protein powder.

The Three Bite Rule - Chocolate Mint Energy Bites

Add in the tahini, chocolate chips, nutella, and mint. Mix well, breaking up chunks to ensure mint is well incorporated.
Form into balls or disks. Enjoy!

The Three Bite Rule - Chocolate Mint Energy Bites

I like these shaped as disks just for easier space storage. We all snack on these and they provide that great flavor with some good protein, fiber, and a little chocolate sweet boost.

The nutella was an afterthought – these tasted a bit too much like protein powder so I added that to sweeten it a bit. Mini chips are ideal so these don’t crumble apart. Careful of that mint- wowza. That can easily be wayyy too much.

My 2.5 yr old sous-chef looooved the dates so those will be a snack too for her now too.

The Three Bite Rule - Chocolate Mint Energy Bites

Valentine’s Day Raspberry Muddy Buddies

I’m fully embracing Valentine’s Day this year because, well, we definitely need things to look forward to. I had decor up before Feb 1 hit and planned to make muddy buddies. We made some mint ones at Christmas and it was so fun. This muddy buddy batch has half white, half pink raspberry with some M&Ms in there too!

The Three Bite Rule - Raspberry Muddy Buddy

I like that these require so few ingredients. With so many Chex varieties I totally could have done half as raspberry and half vanilla chex, which would lighten up the sugar too.

Raspberry White Chocolate Muddy Buddy
Ingredients:

~1 box Rice Chex cereal (I used one box minus 2 kid bfast servings)
3 cups white chocolate
1 teaspoon raspberry jelly (optional)
1 cup freeze dried raspberries, pulverized into powder
1 cup powdered sugar
1 bag Valentine’s M&Ms or small valentine candies or pink sprinkles

The Three Bite Rule - Raspberry Muddy Buddy

Directions:
Melt half the white chocolate in a microwave safe bowl, stirring every 30 seconds.
Mix half the cereal in, stirring carefully to not break the cereal. Pour into a zip-top bag and pour in half the powdered sugar (don’t push the air out before closing the bag, keep it balloon-like). Shake, shake, shake until well covered. Empty onto a sheet of wax paper to cool/dry.
Melt the other half of the white chocolate in a microwave safe bowl, stirring every 30 seconds.
Mix the remaining half the cereal in and jelly, stirring carefully to not break the cereal. Pour into the same zip-top bag and pour in remaining half of the powdered sugar and the raspberry powder (don’t push the air out before closing the bag-keep it balloon-like). Shake, shake, shake until well covered. Empty onto a sheet of wax paper to cool/dry.
Let it cool/dry for 15 minutes and then pour both batches into a large air-tight container with the M&Ms or sprinkles.
Enjoy!

The Three Bite Rule - Raspberry Muddy Buddy

Using the bag was much easier than stirring in a bowl. I’ve now mastered how not to dirty 2 of everything! We had freeze dried raspberries that nobody liked for snacks so I ground them up for PB&J inspired energy bites and the rest for these! The kids like freeze dried mango, strawberries, apples, etc so I’m not sure why they weren’t a hit, but ohh well! They bring great flavor and color.

A lighter option to lessen the sugar would be to half the white chocolate, half the powdered sugar and to make the raspberry batch and mix in a few cups of vanilla chex or honey nut chex.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Energy Bites

I crowdsourced what to do with freeze dried raspberries nobody was into. The kiddos like freeze dried strawberries & mango & blueberries but the raspberries were a no-go. I put some into ebelskivers but it didn’t use too many. Now I put them into energy bites, which was a genius idea from Jess www.jessfuel.com!

The Three Bite Rule - PBJ Energy Bites

PB&J Energy Bites

Ingredients: (for about 12 golf ball sized bites)

1/2 cup ground flax
1 cup freeze dried raspberries
4 dates
1 cup old fashioned oats
1/3 cup peanuts
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon raspberry jelly
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
sprinkle of salt

Directions:

Grind the flax seeds, if whole, and the freeze dried raspberries in a food processor or spice grinder or coffee grinder. Chop the dates and the peanuts.
Add everything to a bowl & marvel at that great red raspberry powder!
The Three Bite Rule - PBJ Energy Bites
Stir well. Add in more jelly if needed to keep it together.
Form into balls.
Refrigerate and enjoy!

The Three Bite Rule - PBJ Energy Bites

These are delightful! I love peanut butter and jelly flavors – hello, the only smoothie I seem to ever make is this healthier peanut butter and jelly smoothie! These have good chew and sweetness from the raspberry powder. The dates make it sticky and sweet without a separate flavor. A wise Registered Dietician told me to always grind the flaxseeds and that our bodies don’t do much with them whole.

Here’s hoping the little gal likes these. We’re trying to get some dense nutritional foods into her. She hasn’t grown a whole lot so I thought these might be good snacks- for any of us!

They last about a week in the refrigerator or can be frozen too. I used some ratios from these energy bites I made forever ago.

What I Ate: Sugared Lime Watermelon

What I Ate’ is a series of posts for so-easy-this-doesn’t-need-a-recipe but I’m sharing with you for the idea or inspiration.

Summer produce is in prime and I was wanting to make this snack but a fourth of a seedless watermelon seems like a lot when it isn’t anyone’s fav fruit at home. We gravitate to berries, cantaloupe and nectarines. It seemed like a good choice to bring to a BBQ to feed others though!
The Three Bite Rule - Sugared Lime Watermelon

Sugared Lime Watermelon

Ingredients:

1/4 seedless watermelon, sliced
zest of 1 lime
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions:

Slice the watermelon.
Zest the lime and mix in the sugar and salt.
The Three Bite Rule - Sugared Lime Watermelon
Sprinkle generously over each side of the sliced watermelon, serve, and enjoy!
The Three Bite Rule - Sugared Lime Watermelon
Not rocket science, but ohh-so-good. I love the lime and the salt with the watermelon. It was perfect for a warm day to eat outside – or any setting appropriate for watermelon juice to run down your arms!

I brought it ready to go, but next time I might sprinkle the sugar/salt/lime zest mix just before serving. It’d be cute cut onto skewers for a mobile snack!

 

Sour Cream & Onion Deviled Eggs

My MIL is the queen of stuffed eggs so I channeled her and put a twist on the traditional deviled egg. Work was having a 3-way baby shower for 3 mommas-to-be. They seemed ideal for a snack that didn’t need to be reheated, and was easy to bring, open, and serve without any assembly.

The Three Bite Rule - Sour Cream & Onion Deviled Eggs
Ingredients:
dozen eggs
1/4 cup plain greek yogurt
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
1 teaspoon Nutritional Yeast Flakes (optional)
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon mayo (optional)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives + some for topping garnish

Directions:
Hard boil the eggs then let cool for at least 3 hours before pealing.
Slice in halves, pop the yolks out and into a bowl. Add in the yogurt, mustard, salt, pepper, nutritional yeast flakes, onion powder, and mayo.
The Three Bite Rule - Sour Cream & Onion Deviled Eggs
Mix well and add in the chives.
The Three Bite Rule - Sour Cream & Onion Deviled Eggs
Spoon into a ziplock bag, push to the bottom corner, and snip of the corner with scissors.
Pipe into the egg halves and sprinkle the remaining chives on top.
The Three Bite Rule - Sour Cream & Onion Deviled Eggs
Enjoy!

I liked these! The flavors were a bit subtle, but still there. The yogurt gave a little tang and I added the mayo for some creaminess. I added the nutritional yeast flakes because it kind of mimics cheese and I thought it’d help the sour cream & onion touch without dip mix or anything. I have a few more flavor options in my head. Stay tuned!