HONEY GLAZE SNACK

This recipe is rather plain in and of itself, but if you mix it up a bit, you've got a snack that's sure to get eaten fast. It's great to bring to a get together or to keep around the house for an afternoon snack. So yummy and so simple!

HONEY GLAZE SNACK

4 cups corn Chex (I like to do a mix of cereals such as Cheerios, Wheat Chex, and Crispix)
1 1/2 cups miniature pretzels (I've used pretzel sticks because it's cheaper)
1 cup pecans (I like to use a mix of dried nuts and dried fruits such as pecans and cranberries)
1/3 cup butter
optional - 1/4 tsp. cinnamon (I never really measure it, but just dump it in until it looks good, so I'm not positive 1/4 tsp. is the right amount.)

Combine cereal, pretzels, and pecans in bowl. Melt butter in pan, stir in honey and cinnamon and blend well. Pour over cereal mixture to coat it and mix well. Spread on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes, or until lightly glazed and lightly browned. Stir halfway through baking. When cool, store in container.

The more you mix up the recipe as far as the add-ins go, the better this tastes! It's kind of like a sweet and salty Chex mix, but way better and very addictive! I like to make a triple batch of this and bring it to church potlucks or when I visit with friends. It's a winner!

Homemade Tortilla Chips

These are really easy to make and in no way compare to store-bought tortilla chips. They are so much better and so much cheaper and you can season them however you like. One of these days I'll learn how to make the corn tortillas from scratch but for now, store-bought will do.

Tortilla Chips

corn tortillas cut into 4 or 6 pieces (Kitchen shears make this easy and I cut at least 4 tortillas at a time to make this faster)
peanut oil preferably
salt and pepper
or cinnamon sugar
or other spices
(I prefer House Seasoning which I have a recipe for in this blog under "Seasonings")

Heat oil in a deep fryer to approximately 375 degrees. Add several tortilla pieces at a time but make sure there's enough room for them to get cooked. Cook until slightly browned (may take a few minutes), then turn over with tongs. Cook a few more minutes or until browned. I find that if they're not dark enough and are very lightly browned, the chips tend to be chewy instead of crunchy, but just be careful not to burn them. The browner ones taste better.

Dump the chips onto a cooling rack on top of a cookie sheet. I find this makes the least amount of mess and lets the excess oil drip through the cooling rack onto the cookie sheet and away from the chips. I like to let most of the oil drip back into the fryer anyways before I dump them onto the cooling rack so you don't waste as much oil. While the chips are still oily, sprinkle on seasonings. Enjoy with your favorite salsa or nothing at all. These make great nachos melted with cheddar cheese in the microwave, then topped with salsa and sour cream. Yumm!

Peanut Butter And Jelly Popsicles And Variations

Try swirling the jelly a little more than I did for better results.

What's better than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Why, peanut butter and jelly popsicles of course. These didn't sound really good to me at first, but I gave it a try because it was different and used ingredients I always have on hand. These are so yummy. My kids are always asking for one for a snack and I love them too! Plus, they have lots of good-for-you protein too.

Peanut Butter And Jelly Popsicles

1 cup smooth peanut butter
2 cups plain low-fat yogurt (I used vanilla. It tastes better I think.)
2 cups milk
4 tbs. honey
4 tsp. vanilla extract
jelly of choice

1) Combine peanut butter, yogurt, milk, honey, and vanilla in a food processor or blender until smooth.

2) Pour mixture into popsicle molds, leaving 1/4 inch or so room on top for jelly. This depends on what size mold you have.



3) Microwave jelly, just until a little liquidy. (I didn't do this, but I bet it would help you mix it much better. I've done this with other recipes and it worked great.) Spoon 1 teaspoon jelly, (Use more, if you have a larger mold than I used.) on top of peanut butter mixture.



4) Use popsicle stick to swirl jelly into peanut butter mixture, then stand stick upright. (This didn't work so well for me because my jelly was too thick. This is why you should microwave it slightly.)



5) Freeze until solid, preferably overnight. Enjoy!!

This made 24 popsicles the size you see in the pictures.

Variations:

Add chopped up bananas instead of, or in addition to jelly, for a healthier treat.

Just have a plain ol' peanut butter popsicle. My husband likes them a lot this way. My favorite is with the jelly in it.

Try mixing in other ingredients and see what kind of flavor creations you can make.



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Sticky or Crunchy Caramel Corn

This is one of my favorite recipes. I try not to make it very often only because I have a hard time controlling myself. It is so addictive I want to eat the whole thing in one sitting! I usually put the leftovers in a ziploc bag in the freezer to make it last longer, but I find myself snacking on it from the freezer as well and it usually only lasts tops a few days in our house. It's that good! Save yourself some money and don't buy that Crunch N' Munch stuff. Make it yourself. It makes a lot for a fraction of the price and you can't beat the taste. My favorite version is the sticky caramel corn. It's messy, but it's so yummy and chewy!

Sticky Caramel Corn

1 stick butter (yes, a whole stick!)
3/4 cup corn syrup
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 gallon freshly popped and salted popcorn (To save time I usally pop 2 regular-size bags of microwave popcorn and it seems to be enough for the recipe.)
chopped nuts if desired (I like to add pecans or peanuts to make it like the boxed stuff, only better)

Put popcorn in extra large bowl. Remove unpopped kernels. Melt butter in sauce pan on med-high heat. Add brown sugar and corn syrup. Heat to a bubbly boil. Remove from heat. Add vanilla. Stir. Add nuts or other add-ins if desired. Pour mixture over popcorn and stir until well coated. Serve.

Crunchy Caramel Corn

Make as directed above. Preheat oven to 275 deg. F. Place popcorn mixture on greased baking sheets. Stir every 15 minutes for an hour. May take longer to bake if you want it more crisp and crunchy. This will be like the Crunch N' Munch boxed stuff, but better.

Popcorn Balls

Make as directed above, but when cooled slightly, butter hands if necessary and form into balls. You could add food coloring and flavorings before mixing it with the popcorn to have around the holidays. You could have red or pink popcorn balls for Valentine's Day or Christmas, etc. I've also seen people add candy corn to popcorn balls around Thanksgiving/Halloween, but I haven't personally made it that way yet. You could also add M&M's, but wait until it's cooled a little so you don't melt it all. If you're using brown sugar, I'm not sure how well the colors will show up. You might want to use white sugar instead, but like I said I haven't tried it yet, but then it wouldn't technically be caramel corn anymore. Let me know if it works out.



Here is a picture of a strawberry flavored popcorn ball.



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Popsicles - Cheap summer treat

As a kid our family didn't always have a lot of money and my mom used to make some really good cheap food. One of my favorite things was Kool-Aid popsicles. They were always so good and refreshing when we lived in Florida because it always got so hot. What's better than a cold popsicle on a hot summer's day? I just recently began making them for my kids and us and they are definitely better than those expensive brands at the store and you can make an endless variety of flavors. It cost me 20 cents or less I think to make maybe 18 popsicles I think. Of course it depends on the size of your popsicle mold and the brand of soft drink mix you buy. Here's the recipe. Hope you like it!

Kool-Aid Popsicles

1 unsweetened Koolaid or other brand soft drink packet (.14 oz.)
1 cup of sugar
1 quart of water, or more if it's too sweet for you

Mix all ingredients well in a pourable pitcher. Pour into molds, insert popsicle sticks, and freeze thoroughly. Run mold under warm water and twist and pull until popsicle comes out of mold. Enjoy! To save time, unmold all your popsicles at once and keep in large ziploc freezer bag so they're ready to go.

Try mixing and matching flavors and see what kind of popsicles your kids like best.

Pudding Popsicles

You can also make cheap, delicious pudding pops that are better than store-bought and very cheap to make. Just make up a box of instant pudding and pour into the popsicle molds and freeze. You can also mix in chocolate chips, shredded coconut, or nuts. You can also do two different flavors and layer them and make a vanilla-chocolate pudding pop for example.

Fruit Popsicles

A great way to make delicious fruit popsicles that are very similar and in my opinion better than Edy's Whole Fruit popsicles for example is to make them from frozen fruit at home. You could take slightly thawed (so it can be easily blended in a blender) frozen mixed berries, sugar to taste (if at all) and enough water to blend it. Blend in blender until thoroughly blended. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze and voila, delicious fruit popsicles at a fraction of the cost.

Yogurt Popsicles

A healthier alternative is to take yogurt and freeze them into pops too. A really yummy popsicle is to fill your popsicle mold 3/4 of the way with yogurt and top the rest with the fruit puree from the fruit popsicle recipe. Swirl it with your popsicle stick and freeze. So yummy!! You can also make a yogurt pop topped or swirled with granola and chopped bananas for a yummy breakfast treat. The options are endless!

When I make yogurt pops, I use a 32 oz. container of strawberry yogurt and 2 chopped up bananas. This makes 16 popsicles, the size you see above.

Here's a website that sells popsicle molds similar to what I had as a kid. You can do a search on google for "popsicle mold" and find lots of others too. This site sells them cheaper than what I paid for mine. http://www.crafthobbywholesale.com/default.aspx/General/FreezeItems/


Cheap popsicle molds can be hard to find. There are fancier molds but they can be rather pricey. These have those flimsy plastic popsicle sticks like mine did. I had to throw my sticks out because they just snapped too easily. When I was a kid we bought wooden craft sticks (popsicle sticks). I bought a box of 1000 for like $3.50 at Walmart about a month ago. It's cheap and you don't have to worry about them breaking or having to wash them. Plus you can make a ton of crafts out of them too. I used to make houses and all sorts of stuff out of popsicle sticks when I was younger. Let me know how you like them.


Popsicle/Craft sticks



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