Caramel Apple Chex Mix

Chewy caramel pairs nicely with crunchy apples for this sweet treat. It is the easiest way to eat these beloved flavors.

Caramel Apple Chex Mix
Ingredients:

8 cups of rice chex cereal
11 oz package salted caramel chips (or butterscotch)
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
8 oz caramel bits
1 teaspoon apple pie spice or pumpkin pie spice
1 cup salted & roasted peanuts
1 cup freeze dried apples

Directions:
Melt chips over a double boiler, or in the microwave in 20 second intervals.
Pour over half of the chex and stir well. Pour into a zip-top bag and add half the powdered sugar and cinnamon. Shake to coat well.
Melt caramel over a double boiler, or in the microwave in 20 second intervals.
Pour over half of the chex and stir well. Pour into a zip-top bag and add half the powdered sugar and pie spice. Shake to coat well.
Add in the apples and peanuts.

Stir well. Enjoy!

The caramel makes it it chewy and the salted caramel “chocolate” mix was so sweet. The nuts provide needed balance. Pretzels would be nice in here for some salt. I wondered what the fam would think and we stood around eating about 1/2 of it.

Loaded Snack Mix

I loved this not-your-average-chex-mix. I’m a fan of the traditional but this one was such a great combination. There are lots of ways to customize this and the chips are great at the end – or popcorn would be too!

Loaded Snack Mix
Ingredients: (for ~10 servings)

3 cups chex cereal
1 cup white cheddar Cheez It
1 cup Goldfish
1 cup peanuts
1 cup corn nuts
1 cup corn chips
1/2 cup butter
1 packet ranch seasoning (~3 tablespoons powder mix)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon garlic powder

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.
Mix together the cereal, cheez its, goldfish, peanuts and corn nuts – do not add the corn chips yet.

Melt the butter and mix in the ranch powder, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic powder.
Mix into the snack mix and stir well to coat.
Spread onto a baking sheet (line with parchment for easy clean up!).

Bake for 45 minutes, stirring regularly.
Add in the chips and stir.
Let cool and enjoy!

This is very addicting and was just the right quantity. Ranch gives this a flavorful punch but not so specifically ranch flavored. We snacked on it at our family party and had some the following days but it wasn’t the hugest amount that we got too tired of it. Swap the crunchy items with any you love (and are OK with having leftover) – lots of mixes have pretzels but my fam seems to pick around those. Any ratios work totaling 8 cups, or double it.

Snickerdoodle Muddy Buddy

This has one special ingredient that makes it so so special. Butter extract gives cookie vibes or you could skip it and just call this churro muddy buddies! These go nicely with some dessert wine, or an afternoon pick-me-up, as anytime treats.

The Three Bite Rule - Snickerdoodle Muddy Buddy

I didn’t do my greatest job mixing, so don’t be like me. The kids happily pick out the melted chocolate chunks so they’re OK with it, but I like it more even. Next time!

Snickerdoodle Muddy Buddy
Ingredients:

6 cups rice chex
12 oz bag white chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon butter extract
2/3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

The Three Bite Rule - Snickerdoodle Muddy Buddy

Directions:
Melt the chocolate (microwaved at 20 second intervals and stirred, and returned to the micro, or, over a double boiler). Add in the butter extract and stir well.
Add the chex to a zip-top bag, pour the chocolate into it and shake/stir and quickly add in the sugars and cinnamon.

The Three Bite Rule - Snickerdoodle Muddy Buddy

Spread it out onto a tray to cool/dry.

The Three Bite Rule - Snickerdoodle Muddy Buddy

Enjoy!

I plan to use some butter extract for a coffee syrup. It is a warm flavor that feels like it could easily sub for vanilla in many dishes too.

Nutella Popcorn

I have some strong desire to make any flavor into a popcorn. I’ve made a few popcorns and I’m all about it right now. I like how easy of a treat it is and I love the crunch. I’ve yet to figure out how coating it doesn’t make it sogged/disintegrated but science was never my thing.

One day I had this miraculous idea that I HAD TO MAKE NUTELLA POPCORN. Had to. Right away. Good thing it takes about .5 seconds to get going.

Ingredients:

3 cups popped popcorn
2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
3 tbs nutella
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper
Over medium heat stir the butter, brown sugar, and honey until butter melts. Bring to boiling over medium heat. Boil at a moderate, steady rate for a couple of minutes.
The Three Bite Rule - Neutella Popcorn
Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and baking soda (mixture will foam up).
Stir in nutella until well incorporated and salt.
The Three Bite Rule - Neutella Popcorn
Mix popcorn and nutella caramel together and spread onto a pan.
The Three Bite Rule - Neutella Popcorn
Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes.
The Three Bite Rule - Neutella Popcorn

This was a good one, but I needed a bit more popcorn. It was a bit stick to your teeth caramelly. I made it with 2 cups (above I recommend 3 cups). I also had visions of half nutella popcorn and half coffee-ish popcorn but my ratios were off when I randomly decided to split the caramel up between pots and when I hastily dumped too much coffee into one. Man, it was crazy for a minute.

How do you pop your popcorn? Are you a bag popcorn-er? In college my wise roomie Ms. A discovered how dirt cheap popcorn kernels are. It is astounding. I saw a 4 pound bag of kernels for $3.99 (that is 52 servings of popcorn, or about 7-cents per serving). It also doesn’t go bad. It is a whole grain. It has about 30-60 calories per serving. It has a lot of fiber. Need I go on? All of this is only referring to air popped white popcorn. Not the case when you coat it in caramel and neutella, but my point is air popping. My whole fam is all about these air poppers. It gives you a lot more control over what is going on it, how much butter, oil, salt etc. You dump kernels in and put it in the micro. Easy peasy.
The Three Bite Rule - Neutella Popcorn
I brought some into the office and warned the ladies it was a bit sticker than some caramel corn. It was all gone by the end of the day so I’ll consider it successful.

Cookies and Cream Popcorn

I love making funky popcorns. I have actually made one since this bacon caramel corn
popcorn_bowl_590_390
and this Cranberry Pecan Caramel Corn
caramelcorn_cooling_590_390
but it wasn’t quite up to snuff so I didn’t blog it. It was birthday popcorn and it needs a bit of tweaking. I thought of cookies n’ cream popcorn for Ms. L’s bday. It was super easy (and turned out super sweet).

Ingredients:

2 cups air popped popcorn
1 cup white chocolate chips
12 oreos
2 tbs butter

Directions:

Pop the popcorn and crush the oreos (they don’t have to be uniformly crushed)
oreo popcorn
In a double boiler, melt the chips and butter. Stirring regularly.
oreo_popcorn_wet_590_390
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Mix popcorn and crushed oreos together.
oreo popcorn
Add melted white chocolate mixture together with the popcorn and oreos.
oreo popcorn close up
Spread onto parchment paper or silicone lined baking sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes.
oreo popcorn baked

It was super sweet. Maybe too sweet? I’m not a white chocolate person so that could have something to do with it as well. Next up is some-sort of savory popcorn. Hmmm. I’ll have to get on that one 😉