Chex Mix

A standard if kind of meh snack food that I never really got excited about, until my friend/coworker/crowd controller/fellow prison guard (depending on the day) AKA Grace, brought some homemade Chex Mix to work.....

.....Can you say UH-mazing! 

It all to quickly ran out and her Mom only makes it at Christmas, sad day freinds, sad day! 

And so we'd been rendered tasty-salty-slightly sweet-crunchy snack free, at least until I decided to stop being lazy and made some myself!

I found the base recipe on, where else, Pinterest and changed it up a bit, because where's the fun in following the recipe? ;-)

Chex Mix

1 stick butter

1/4 C worcestershire sauce

1 tsp spicy salt

1 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

3 C Wheat Chex

3 C Rice Chex 

3 C Apple Cinnamon Chex or Corn Chex

1 C pretzels

1 cup roasted salted peanuts

Preheat oven to 250.

Melt butter, add next 5 ingredients, set aside.

Mix rest of ingredients in a LARGE bowl and pour butter mix over it, toss to coat. Pour into an 11x15 pan, with sides, and cook for one hour, stirring every 15 mins.

Let cool, then store in an airtight container!

  

A few notes on the above recipe.....

You can of course substitute any mix of cereals you want, I added three cups of the wheat Chex, instead of just the one cup it called for and just added less of the others. The wheat are my fav, and since I'm making it I can be prejudiced that way, so there! =P

The original recipe also called for Bugles, which I wanted to add, but they didn't have them where I was buying everything else, so those will have to wait for the next batch!

The apple cinnamon Chex are amazing, so even if they seem weird, I promise the sweetness pairs really well with the savory butter mixture. Grace's Mom put apple cinnamon cheerios in her mix, so I can't claim the taste sensation as my own!

What's Cookin'?

I'd made these very simple muffins before, changing up the recipe (of course, us Pillsbury's can never make a recipe with changing at least a few things! So, if you are prone to doubling spices in recipes like I am, be warned, in the recipe below they are already doubled!) and they were a big hit!

Then I saw a picture on Pinterest (where else?) of what looked like these muffins with Nutella in the middle.....seriously.....um.....yeah.....how could I not try them? I used the recipe I already had and just added the Nutella to the middle.

These already stellar muffins, are now out of this world (ha, two astronomy type words, did you catch that? I'm a star today (Look at me, I did it again!!)

Cinnamon-Sugar Doughnut Muffins with Nutella

Ingredients

For the muffins:

1 3/4 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 t ground cloves

1 vanilla beans seeds (optional)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup oil

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

3/4 cup milk

For the Cinnamon Sugar Topping:

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 Tbsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. In a separate, large bowl, combine oil, sugar, egg, milk, and both kinds of vanilla.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir only to combine.

Coat your muffin pan well with nonstick cooking spray (or line with cupcake papers, easier to clean up after) and divide the batter evenly among the cups. Plop a rounded teaspoon of Nutella into the center of each muffin. It will sink as it bakes, so end up in the middle of the baked muffin.

Bake at 350 F for 15 to 20 minutes. Brush tops of hot muffins with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Enjoy!!!! =)

What's Cookin'?

Welcome to the first installment of What's Cookin'! A (hopefully) regular feature on this blog where I will show you tasty and super easy recipes, hopefully you'll get some good recipes and maybe I will finally learn how to spell the word recipes.....nope, spelled it wrong all three times! *sigh*

Salsa Chicken

3 thawed boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 1/2 cups of your favorite salsa

1 package sliced Munster cheese (you really just need one piece of cheese for each piece of chicken!)

4 TB melted butter

3/4 cup bread crumbs

1: Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

2: Cut chicken breasts in half and place in un-greased glass baking dish

3: Pour salsa evenly over chicken

4: Place cheese on top of salsa covered chicken (except for the piece you eat of course.....)

Make sure to remove any paper from between slices, I left one  on the first time I made it, luckily I got that piece of chicken!

 5: Mix bread crumbs and melted butter, sprinkle over chicken.

6: Place in preheated oven and bake for 45 minutes.....

~Meanwhile~

Totally optional activities to accomplish while you wait for chicken to cook.....

Take those pictures of manicure you've been meaning too.....

 Had it since Sunday and still no chips!!!

.....Read a rather snarky fashion book (lot's of language just to warn you!) while eating a double stuffed Oreo, because you have just fought with a shall remain nameless *coughporactivecough* company over an over due bill when they are the ones that owe you money and this girl needed some chocolate!

....Make salad, set table, heat up some tortillas and before you know it.....

Ta Da!! Crunchy, cheesy, salsa covered goodness! I like to wrap my piece up in a tortilla, with lots of extra salsa and cheese form the bottom of the pan. But, most of the family just eats it straight. However you eat it. it's super good and super easy!