COVID quarantine has me craving all the snacks! I’m not the only one, right?! I’ve realized that when I’m working from my office, there are multiple factors that keep me from thinking about food all day. As an audiologist, I’m obviously not going to be snacking while seeing a patient. Can you imagine your doctor doing something like that? No way! The second biggest reason I don’t snack at work is that I simply don’t have access to snacks. We don’t even have a vending machine at our office, let alone a cafeteria. Sure, I could keep a box of snacks in the break room but if that doesn’t exist, I don’t even think twice. Working from home is strange in general but my biggest struggle has proven to be full kitchen access just 20′ from my desk.
I love snack mix! Yes, it satisfies my snacking urges but it is also so versatile! You can change up the flavor based on your cravings – sweet vs salty, etc. But you can also change it up based on what you already happen to have in your pantry. Currently, my daughter has been on a kick of mixing Cheerios and Crispix into one bowl for breakfast. Since that’s what we have on hand right now, both of those went into this new recipe. I happen to keep pecans on hand for baking so I tossed those in as well. You see what I’m getting at here? My general process for snack mix includes two cereal varieties, a cracker, some sort of nut and something salty. On occasion, I also add something sweet. To help get you inspired to create your own mix, I’ve created a list of possible ingredients for you.
Snack Mix Ingredient Ideas:
- Rice, corn, wheat or oat based cereals that have a crunch
- Peanuts, cashews, walnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans
- Sunflower seeds, pumpkins seeds
- Pretzels, bagel chips, rye chips, oyster crackers, cheese based cracker such as cheez-its or goldfish
- Candy coated chocolates such as m&m’s, chocolate chips, dried cranberries, banana chips, dried mango – note, these sweet ingredients are best added after the rest of the mix has baked and cooled completely.
SEET VANILLA SNACK MIX
Ingredients
- 3 cups Crispix cereal
- 2 cups cheerios (plain)
- 2 cups pretzel sticks
- 1 cup oyster crackers
- 1 cup pecan halves
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup candy coated chocolates (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 250°F.
- In a large bowl, mix together Crispix, Cheerios, oyster crackers, pretzels and pecans.
- In a medium, microwave safe bowl, melt butter in the microwave. Then, with butter still hot, whisk in brown sugar, vanilla and salt.
- Pour butter mixture over cereal mix and stir until cereal mix is evenly coated.
- Transfer mix onto a parchment lined baking sheet and and bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
- Let snack mix cool completely before stirring in candy coated chocolates.