Chex Mix has been a part of my holidays for a few years now. Throughout the year, my food allergic son requests the traditional recipe for a snack. So we’ll whip up a batch to munch on for a few days. But a few years ago, I was introduced to my best friend’s mother-in-law’s holiday recipe. Life changing. Her peanut filled version is treated like a mistress where I must sneak around and seek out a handful here and there to ensure my son doesn’t, well, you know, die. The effort is worth it. I don’t know what other ingredients she puts in there. And my multiple requests for the recipe have been ignored. But I always know the holidays have begun when I get the first call of, “The eagle has landed. The Chex Mix is here.” This year her mother in law is fresh out of back surgery and is not up to making it. I had been seeing ads for the Chex Holiday Mix-change in magazines and decided to explore what they had to offer since I had to take my Chex Mix intake in to my own hands.
The premise is the same as a cookie exchange but the coolest part is that they offer a ton of recipes that take only 15 minutes to make in the microwave. So in this season of too much of everything and too little time, this is a great way to still gather your friends and really enjoy each other’s company. And some delicious treats too. I decided to try out two recipes to see if they really were just that quick, easy and delicious.
The first recipe I decided to try was the Ginger Honey Crunch (seriously go look at all the recipes they have – sweet, salty, gluten free! So many!). Well, it was a modified version as I didn’t have all the ingredients/ and again, wanted to make it food allergy friendly and I really wanted to make it without going to the store. Again. With children. The honey provided a really nice sweetness and the ginger and cardamom (I used a mixture of both) added a really nice zing. I think adding the almonds and dried cranberries would make it even tastier but you can keep the dried bananas they suggest. Bananas are grody. 
The next recipe I tried was the Tin Roof Crunch which uses the never disgusting pairing of chocolate and peanut butter (we used sunbutter). Also delicious. What I noticed about making it in the microwave is that the texture is less consistent than when done in the oven. If I had the time, I think I would prefer to do it in the oven. But would not hesitate to make this again in the microwave again for a quick treat. Also, I only made a half batch of the first kind because I wanted to stretch the cereal and try various recipes. This also may have made cooking times wonky as I sometimes lack kitchen common sense to catch things like that. 
As I got started with my first two recipes, my 5 year old son asked if he could create one. Please see his recipe above. I will now help translate: 1. Rice Chex, backwards 2. cinnamon marshmallows, S. Salteens, 4. salt, 5. honey, 6. corn syrup. And although he didn’t write it, it had to also contain chocolate chips. I added some margarine and brown sugar to his ingredients to help make the “glaze” part and we decided to try the salteens in a future batch. We melted most of the marshmallows in with the glaze and then added some at the end for good measure. His was quite delicious! The marshmallows helped give it a sort of hardish-candy crunch. He LOVED it! So I sent it to school with him for snack for the next week (take that other kid’s apples!).
As is usually the case when I want him to take a picture, he revolts. But I bribed him with his Chex Mix and could get these shots. The ingredients do get rather hot in the microwave but he was able to help me mix some of it near the beginning making it a fun baking activity to get the kids involved in.
Pressed for time this holiday season but still want to host a Chex Mix-change? Chex makes it super easy by providing fill in invitations, recipes, party tips and even packaging ideas! Go check it all out on their site. Wouldn’t this be so fun to do along with a craft night or gift wrapping party? 
Promotional consideration (is that even what it is? I just always like it when I hear it on game shows) was provided in the form of this bag by Chex. The bag is huge. As evidenced by my son fitting in it with room to spare. All opinions are mine!
Sharon
all photos are mine.
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