Sweet Snacks

This past Sunday was the the Super Bowl, and I hope you all had a blast! In Texas, we don’t take our football lightly. Our neighborhood was filled with barbecue, food, and a lot of fun.

This Sunday also gave me an excuse to make some fun treats. I showed our team spirit with muddy buddies and some no-bake peanut butter rice krispies cookies.

With the left over muddy buddies, I got a little creative for Valentine’s Day too! I simply put different colors of M&Ms in the jar instead of Bronco colors. You can easily turn the rice krispies cookies into pink heart-shaped cookies too!

Below are the ingredients for the muddy buddies and the no-bake peanut butter rice krispies cookies:

Muddy Buddies (recipe from the back of the Chex cereal box):

9 cups Chex cereal. Any flavor will work. I used Rice Chex for mine.
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Put the measured cereal in a large bowl and set aside. In a one-quart microwaveable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter uncovered on high for one minute. Stir. Microwave about 30 seconds longer, or until the mixture can be stirred smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over ceral, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into a two-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag. Add powdered sugar. Seal bag and shake until well coated. (one tip from me – I usually put some powdered sugar at the bottom of the plastic bag to make the coating a faster process). Once coated, spread onto waxed paper to cool. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

*Don’t forget to add your desired colored candies to go with your theme. I used plain M&Ms.

No-Bake Peanut Butter Rice Krispies Cookies (recipe from Martha Stewart’s website here: No-Bake Peanut Butter Rice Krispies Cookies):

1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups salted peanut butter
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 cups Rice Krispies

Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with wax paper or baking parchment. Place the corn syrup and sugars in a large saucepan over medium heat and stir to combine. Bring to a boil. Remove from the heat. Stir in the peanut butter and mix well to combine (this is where I added the food coloring as well). Quickly stir in the vanilla and Rice Krispies. Spread into the lined baking pan. Cool and slice into squares.

*Note: I did not spread the Rice Krispies into a pan. Instead, I shaped the design with my hand and put them on wax paper. If you are doing heart shapes for Valentine’s Day, you could let them cool and then use a cookie cutter or shape them in the cookie cutter while they are still warm.

For the icing, I simply mixed powdered sugar, water, and food coloring until the consistency was right for me. I put the icing in a plastic storage bag and cut the corner with scissors as an icing bag. I’m not a professional, so they aren’t perfect. But that never bothers me because I alwayas have a blast making them.