Carrot Cake Muddy Buddies

So many people loved when I made the birthday cake muddy buddies. I have been finding all sorts of different versions of the muddy buddies that I have been wanting to try. I saw this recipe for Carrot Cake muddy buddies and I thought it would be a fun snack to bring in to work after Easter. It has just taken me a little longer to make it. The recipe calls to use white chocolate as the binder but I decided to use the vanilla almond bark that I used for the birthday cake version. I don't know if these taste as much like carrot cake as the birthday cake version tasted like birthday cake. But they are still really good. The below recipe is for a single batch.

Carrot Cake Muddy Buddies

Adapted from Whats Cooking Love

5 cups rice Chex cereal
5 squares vanilla almond bark
1 1/2 cups carrot cake mix
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Mix the powdered sugar with the carrot cake mix in a plastic bag.

Put the Chex cereal in a large bowl.

Melt the almond bark according to the package directions. Pour melted almond bark over Chex cereal and combine well.

Pour cake mix over cereal and mix well.

Pretzel M&M Hugs

I know Christmas already has passed and these look like Christmas treats, but lets pretend I like the colors red and green. Truth is, I have a ton of red and green M&M's left over from the candy bar that I did for our holiday party. I have seen these pretzel M&M hugs all over Pinterest utilizing the appropriate color M&M's for different holidays. Phil and I went over to a New Year's party at our neighbors house and I wanted to bring a little snack so I thought these would be a nice little treat. Let me tell you it takes time to unwrap all those hugs. I kinda felt like I was searching for a golden ticket or something. I do however think that these treats look super cute and festive. I will definitely be making them again.

Pretzel M&M Hugs
Recipe from Cooking Classy

70 squares pretzels
70 Hershey's Hugs
70 M&M's

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Place pretzels on cookie sheet. Top each pretzel with a Hershey Hug.

Bake for 4-5 minutes until chocolate is shiny and soft but not melted.

Remove from oven and place one M&M on each pretzel and press down to spread chocolate.

Place in refrigerator for about 20 minutes to set.

Store in an airtight container.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

I really like roasted pumpkin seeds so I figured why not try to make my own. So I saved all the seeds from pumpkin carving on Sunday. What a pain and a mess that was! Pumpkin is super slimy. It is hard to get all the pulp off the seeds as well. I quit doing it after I had about a cup and a half. Then my friend Katie, who was also saving seeds, got in the groove and ended up filling up a whole zip lock bag for me.

I didn't know anything about roasting pumpkin seeds. I was told to dump all the seeds in a bowl full of water and get as much pulp out as possible. Then to spread them out on baking sheets and let them dry for 24 hours. I saw a couple different ways of baking them. One way was to simmer the seeds in salty water for 15 minutes then to bake. To me then drying the seeds for 24 hours seems counterproductive if you are just going to soak them again in water and then they have to dry again. So I liked the second way which was to skip the simmering salty water and to mix them with melted butter and salt and then roast.

They came out pretty good. I can see why you may want to soak them so they are saltier. But they still have a really good flavor to them. You could easily put any type of popcorn seasoning on them too to flavor them differently.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Allrecipes.com

3 cups dried whole pumpkin seeds

2 tablespoons melted butter

Salt

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. 

Mix seeds with salted butter and salt. 

Spread out on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

Roast for 45 minutes.

This recipe is linked on:What's Cooking Wednesday, Cast Party Wednesday, Whimsy Wednesday,  Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Trick or Treat Tuesday, Totally Tasty Tuesdays, Tasty Tuesday Party, Talent Show Tuesdays

Cake Batter Muddy Buddies

Phil and I had one of our friends son's 1st birthday party to go to today and I was asked to bring an appetizer or a munchie. So I decided to bring Cake Batter Muddy Buddies, a recipe that I saw on non other than Pinterest! This recipe fit the bill perfectly because it tasted just like birthday cake. They were soooo good. I quadrupled the recipe and when I left there was maybe a cup left. Everyone kept eating and saying "oh my gosh, who made this, its awesome!" One of our friend's Dave even went and poured milk over it and ate it like a cereal. Then everyone was trying some of it and saying it was really good that way too. It is such a good feeling when you bring something to a party and everyone really likes it.

I know this is going to be quite a shock for most people, but I have never tried puppy chow before. I do not like peanut butter. I know you say wait a minute Stephanie, your last post had a peanut butter sauce! I am only a fan of nuts if they are in a savory dish, like as a sauce, in pesto, on my Chinese food, or used in a breadcrumb mixture. I don't like nuts in desserts...or as "butters" as in peanut butter. I know I'm weird, what can I say! This recipe is made the same way as making puppy chow. It was so easy, I will definitely keep it in my files for another time. You can even switch out the type of cake mix you use to get different flavors. This one gets a thumbs up!

Cake Batter Muddy Buddies
Adapted from So Very Blessed

5 cups Chex Rice cereal
10 oz (5 squares) vanilla covered Almond Bark
1 1/2 cups yellow cake mix
1/2 cup powdered sugar
Sprinkles

Pour 5 cups Chex cereal in a large bowl.

In a large Ziploc bag mix cake mix and powered sugar.

In a medium bowl melt Almond Bark according to package directions.

Once Almond Bark is melted, pour over cereal and mix well. Add sprinkles and mix.

Pour the Almond Bark covered cereal in Ziploc bag. Zip bag and shake to coat until all cereal is covered.

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