Chex Holiday Recipes & giveaway!

I love Chex cereals. I ate chex when I was a kid, and more recently since both chex and I have become gluten free. I used to love the corn chex when I was younger. I could eat bowls of it.

I'm currently on a cinnamon chex kick. Seriously, that stuff is my motivation to get out of bed for work at 4am. I'll crawl out of my cocoon for good cereal.

I snack on dry honey nut chex when I'm out and about. I've used the chocolate chex as a replacement for rice krispies when I make rice krispy treats.

When I make Chex Mix (using only corn and rice chex, and Glutino pretzels), it hardly ever lasts more than a few days. It's so delicious and not at all hard to make.

Same goes for the classic Muddy Buddies. I have never met anybody who doesn't like puppy chow, and it makes a great little gift wrapped up in a pretty bag or tin.

They even make a pretty sweet gingerbread house roof.

I eat a lot of Chex!

Which is why I was super excited to receive the Chex Holiday Recipes gift pack from Chex and Kroger via My Blog Spark.

I'm also excited to offer a giveaway! It includes 2 samples of Chex cereal and a $25 gift card to Kroger. In addition, Kroger is putting Chex cereal on sale from December 2-25th so I can stock up on my cinnamon chex. Er, I mean, so we can entertain and create tasty, gluten free snacks and/or gifts for not a lot of money!

So what did I do with my samples?
I made some muddy buddies for the holiday snacking-age.

My dad really loves this stuff, and he's not much into sweets.

This time I also tried something different- I wanted to make a crispy coating on chicken nuggets. My camera is malfunctioning, so I'll borrow the picture from the web site. They were very yummy and easy.

There's a whole page of chex recipes on the web site, some gluten free and some that can be easily converted to gluten free.

So much chex! So little time!

To enter for the giveaway (provided by the awesomeness of Chex and Kroger via My Blog Spark), leave a comment sharing your favorite Chex recipe, or which one you'd like to try with your samples!

"puppy chow"

Everyone loves puppy chow, aka: the Chex Muddy Buddies. Seriously, I've never had anyone turn it down.

It's fast and easy. The hard part is not eating the entire batch all at once. Around the holidays, package some up real cute and it makes a great little gift or party favor.

The link above is to the recipe, and you can find it on the box of Rice Chex, but I'll re-post it here:

Chex Muddy Buddies

9 c. rice chex
1 c. semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 c. peanut butter
1/4 c. butter
1 t. vanilla
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar

	Into large bowl, measure cereal; set aside.
	In 1-quart microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter uncovered on High 1 minute; stir. Microwave about 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag.
	Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper to cool. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

That's all it takes!

evil lurking

You know how I'm big on listening to what your body is trying to tell you.

Well today my stomach was feeling fine- really great actually, then I ate a small bowl of mashed potatoes and gravy.

Bam, just like that, a few minutes later I got stomach pains. Was it the potatoes? The dairy? Cross contamination? I have been light on dairy for a while. I can usually do cheese without much trouble, but milk is no bueno. I have happily not touched the stuff in over a month. It's not like I ever liked it to begin with.

I have started eating my cereal dry, because I can't quite get used to the alternative "milks" in my cereal. My new favorite is the Cinnamon Chex. Tastes like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, which I always liked dry better than with milk too.

Anyway, there was milk in both the potatoes and the gravy, so I betcha that's what it was.

This has been another episode of playing food detective.

Chex-ness

For breakfast this morning, I had Chocolate Chex. We've been keeping our eyes peeled for the new gluten free Chex, and they're slowly trickling their way into stores. Still waiting on the corn chex, though! That was always my favorite.

I love how the front of each box proudly proclaims "gluten free" and there's even a little blurb on the back. Some of the boxes also display the Celiac Disease Foundation logo.

I wonder what prompted this change? You think someone influential within the company was diagnosed, or maybe one of their family members? Or maybe it was just good business.

Either way, General Mills: you rock.