FCG: Chex Mixes 11/15/06

Greetings gang!Today’s offering is a list of “Chex Mix” type stuff. Five recipes in one blow! I came across the “Whole Grain Party Mix” recipe in a work newsletter, and then suddenly similar recipes seemed to show up everywhere I turned, so I’m sharing them with you. Does anyone know why it is that you can purchase generic rice and corn chex but there is no generic wheat chex? It’s one of those itchy things in my brain that bugs me. My idiosyncrasies notwithstanding, as always, Enjoy! – Devon

Whole Grain Party Mix

1/3 cup olive oil
2 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
3 to 4 TBSP salt-free garlic and herb seasoning
5 cups whole-grain waffle-style cereal (this would be some kind of chex, whatever you prefer. Me, I prefer generic.)
2 cups whole-grain “O” cereal (this would be cheerios I presume, generic of course)
1 cup unsalted, dry-roasted soy nuts
1 cup mini pretzels (whole wheat is best)

Heat oven to 250. Pour oil, sauce, and seasoning into 13x9x2 pan and mix well. Add cereals, nuts, and pretzels and mix well. Bake for an hour, stirring about every 15 minutes. Let cool and store in airtight container.

Orient Express Mix

3 TBSP Butter or Margarine (you could probably use Olive Oil again—lower fat)
1 TBSP Peanut Butter
2 TBSP Soy Sauce
1 tsp packed brown sugar (and won’t that be fun to pack!)
1 / 2 tsp garlic powder
1 / 2 tsp dry mustard
1 / 2 tsp ground ginger
5 cups rice and/or corn chex
1 cup chow mein noodles
1 to 2 TBSP sliced almonds

Microwave: Melt butter or margarine with peanut butter on high. Stir in soy sauce, sugar, garlic, mustard, and ginger. Add cereal(s), noodles and almonds and stir until evenly coated. Microwave on High 3 ½ to 4 minutes, stirring thoroughly with rubber spatula every minute and scraping sides and bottom of bowl. Spread on absorbent paper to cool.
Conventional Oven: Preheat oven to 250. Melt butter or margarine with peanut butter. Stir in soy sauce, sugar, garlic, mustard, and ginger. Add in cereal(s), noodles, and almonds and stir to coat all pieces. Bake 25 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Cool on absorbent paper and store in airtight container.

South of the Border Mix

6 TBSP margarine or butter (or olive oil)
1 package (1.25 oz) taco seasoning mix (dry)
1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp hot pepper sauce (Tabasco?)
8 cups Corn and/or Rice (and/or Wheat or any combo) chex
1 cup peanuts
1 cup pretzels (these do not have to be whole wheat)
1 cup bite-sized cheese crackers (Cheez-its?)
2 TBSP American cheese food powder, optional (I would guess this is like Macaroni & Cheese powder)

Microwave: Melt margarine and stir in taco seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, and pepper sauce. Add in cereals, peanuts, pretzels, and cheese crackers and stir to coat. Microwave on High 5 to 6 minutes, stirring every two minutes (that would be six minutes then, wouldn’t it? Two does not go evenly into five). Spread on absorbent paper to cool and sprinkle with powdered cheese (if desired). Store in . . . you guessed it, an airtight container.
Conventional: Same story as above with the mixing order. Bake 1 hour at 250, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool on absorbent paper and sprinkle with cheese if you feel like it. Store. . .

Cinnamon Snack Mix

2 cups bite size rice cereal squares (this would be chex I guess)
2 cups hexagon shaped corn cereal (I don’t know what difference the shape makes, but if you prefer hexagons to squares, go for it!)
2 cups hexagon shaped rice cereal (I don’t know what would happen if you just used 4 cups of chex, but if you’re feeling brave, go ahead and risk it.)
2 cups pretzel sticks
1 / 2 cup raisins
1 / 2 cup chopped dried apricots
2 TBSP butter
1 tsp cinnamon
1 / 2 tsp ginger

In large bowl, combine everything except butter, cinnamon, and ginger. Put those ingredients in a pan and melt them together. The recipe also says to stir in brown sugar, but you may have noticed that that ingredient is not listed above. If you want brown sugar, stir some in I guess. I imagine that without it this might not be particularly sweet since the apricots and raisins can only do so much with the pretzels. Someone try this and let us know how much to add. Anyhow, once your butter-sugar-cinnamon-ginger stuff is all melted up, pour it on top of the cereals and pretzels and fruits and toss it all to coat. Stir in airtight container. (Apparently you don’t have to bake this one.)

Mudy Buddies

9 cups your-choice-of-chex (might want to avoid Wheat, though)
1 16-oz package chocolate chips
1 / 2 cup peanut butter
1 / 4 cup margarine
1 tsp vanilla
1 1 / 2 cups powdered sugar.

Microwave your chocolate chips, peanut butter, and margarine until melted. Stir in the vanilla and then mix it up with the cereal. Put the powdered sugar in a zip-top bag and then shake handfuls of the cereal up in it. Air dry and store in air-tight container.