Tuesday's Snack O' the Day...

I have been having a lot of fun lately with snacks for the kids! I have always been *fun* when it comes to creative food. I even worked some of my crazy recipes into a picture book that's still in my files called, Macy-Sue La Rue, Please Try Something New. It's a sweet story about a picky eater and all of my recipes are included. Anyone have a hankerin' for some Turtle Toenail Quesadillas?

Today's recipe doesn't have any animal body parts in it (neither does Macy-Sue's, the toenails are just grains of wild rice). The ingredients are ones you probably can find in your house anyway and you can always substitute with other yummies you find in your pantry.

Gather the ingredients:

Wheat chex, rice chex, tropical dried fruit, dried cranberries, chocolate chips, peanut butter/chocolate chips, mini pretzels, un-salted almonds, multigrain cheerios and powdered sugar. (cheerios and almonds were a last minute addition and not in photo...that's my style) Melt one bag of chocolate chips.

Assemble Parts:

While the chips are melting place 1/2 bag of mini pretzels, small bag of cranberries and 2 cups of cheerios in a gallon ziploc bag. Stir melted chocolate and dump into gallon bag with other ingredients and shake. Once chocolate has reached all the goodies, dump in 2/3 c of powdered sugar. This will aid in your crunchies not globbing together. Ya like that technical, foodie lingo? Yeah, that's how I roll. Lay the bag aside and grab one of those mongo ziplocs (JUMBO 2.5 gallons).

Dump:

Add 4 c of each wheat and corn checks, bag of chocolate/peanut butter chips, 2 c of un-salted almonds and bags of dried fruits. Finally throw in the chocolate crunchies, zip bag closed DON'T FORGET TO ZIP IT!! and let the kiddies SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE! VOILA!! This is one of those snacks that is good to divide up into little bags so the kiddos don't eat the whole dang thing before the next snack time. There is nothing more frustrating (well, yeah there is...but that's just how the saying goes) than reaching for something to pack in their lunches and finding only a few crumbs.

Oh, and we have a rule about our SNACK MIX....you eat everything in the individual bags...not just the chocolate pieces. That way Mommy can sneak in some good for you stuff like fiber cereal and dried fruit and she looks cool because there's chocolate at snack time.

Have fun!