{Guest Post} Epic Muddy Buddy Creation!

KEB is here to do a guest post!!  How exciting!  We did some scheming this weekend . . . and traded blogs!  I'll let her take it away!

Hello all!!!

I'm Curlyblonde from over at Curlyblonde's Kitchen! You guys over here at A Pinch of Thyme know me as KEB, and today I'm guest posting for LBMS about the epic Puppy Chow adventure that we had together! 

So first I should explain for those of you that don't know; Puppy Chow (alternately known as Muddy Buddies) is a really tasty sugar-coated snack made from cereal, chocolate and peanut butter. (Heh, seriously, doesn't that already sound awesome??) It is something I was introduced to by my husband JB and his mom, and I've been making it every so often since. 

But then Pinterest decided that we needed to kick things up a notch, because while peanut butter and chocolate is a tough combination to beat, Pinterest has somewhere in the region of fifty different Puppy Chow flavors including Carrot Cake, Cookie Dough and Chocolate Covered Strawberry. Well, now, of course I needed to do something with that! And so when it came time to plan for our monthly(ish) get-together with just the girls, I thought it would be a fun group activity! We could all pick out a recipe or two and spend an afternoon melting chocolate and running around on sugar highs. :)

Well, aside from Girl's Day turning a little co-ed, it worked out pretty much exactly like that! Between three girls (Myself, LBMS and KES) (and JB!) we made five different flavors! It was a good thing we had a couple more people to share with! 

The Original Peanut Butter had to be made, it's just required, because it's the one that started everything! And it's so good!! And it's so easy! Melt peanut butter, butter and chocolate chips together, dump them over some cereal, and then coat that cereal in powdered sugar. I usually use Crispix, because they stay the crunchiest, but there is a case to be made for using Chex, because they're stronger. 

The Hazelnut essentially replaces peanut butter with Nutella, so it is just as easy as the original, but makes a new flavor that is (arguably maybe) just as tasty as the first! mmm Nutella. 

Mint was even easier than those! (Yes, that's possible.) Instead of measuring out three different ingredients to melt together, you just have to unwrap two boxes worth of Andes Mints and melt that! (I tried this once with peppermint patties, but trust me, Andes mints work so much better!) These ones smelled amazing, and were very strongly minty. So if you like mint, they're pretty much perfect. 

LBMS found a really cool Cupcake one that has sprinkles on it! It's made with white chocolate and cream (we discovered later that the cream is probably to help the white chocolate melt nice and smooth). I think the original recipe calls for Almond and Butter Extracts, which is supposed to combine to make the cupcake flavor. The recipe author is a little intense about requiring those two things, but she wasn't there, so she can't boss us! LBMS used Vanilla Extract, and the result was a very sweet Vanilla version (with sprinkles to make it soo cute!)

The only one that gave us a little trouble was one of mine. The Oreo version is kind of cool, because it splits everything in half, so that half of the pieces are white and the other half are dark. Half is made with white chocolate over cereal, and the other half with milk chocolate over cereal, and then they get mixed together at the end. The trouble was that apparently different microwaves run on different default powers. Who knew, right? So I tried melting white chocolate and I kind of scorched it a little. It refused to spread onto my cereal! Luckily I had enough white chocolate and cereal to try again, and was a bit more careful the second time. In the end it worked out, and I had a pretty Oreo flavor!

We had soo much of it! But that is totally OK because having all the flavors is really fun! (And we can always find someone willing to eat leftovers!)

Original Puppy Chow: 

Ingredients: 

• 9 cups Crispix (or Chex if you prefer)
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Directions: 

1. Measure cereal into a large bowl
2. In a separate microwave safe bowl, melt peanut butter, chocolate and butter at thirty second intervals until melted. Stir in vanilla
3. Pour chocolate mixture over cereal and stir until evenly coated (this might take some patience, but it'll get there!)
4. Pour cereal and powdered sugar into a large plastic bag and shake until well coated
5. Pour into a bowl and enjoy now, or save it in the freezer to enjoy later!

Andes Mint Puppy Chow:

We took this one from a blog called What's Cooking Love 

Ingredients: 

• 5 cups Crispix (or Chex)
• 2 boxes Andes Mints
• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar (I might actually drop this to 1 cup)

Directions: 

1. Measure cereal into a large bowl
2. In a separate microwave safe bowl, melt the mints at thirty second intervals until melted.
3. Pour chocolate mixture over cereal and stir until evenly coated (this might take some patience, but it'll get there!)
4. Pour cereal and powdered sugar into a large plastic bag and shake until well coated
5. Sit back and enjoy your minty creation!

Nutella Puppy Chow:

Recipe from Little Leopard Book 

Ingredients: 

• 4 1/2 cups Crispix (or Chex)
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips




1/2 cup Nutella
1/4 cup butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Directions: 

1. Measure cereal into a large bowl
2. In a separate microwave safe bowl, melt nutella, chocolate and butter at thirty second intervals until melted. Stir in vanilla
3. Pour chocolate mixture over cereal and stir until evenly coated (this might take some patience, but it'll get there!)
4. Pour cereal and powdered sugar into a large plastic bag and shake until well coated
5. Pour into a bowl and enjoy!

Cupcake Puppy Chow:
From Sally's Baking Addiction 
Ingredients: 

• 4 1/2 cups Chex (she is serious about it being Chex)
• 1/4 cup butter
• 3 tbsp heavy cream
• 10 oz white chocolate
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp butter extract
• 2 oz sprinkles
• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Directions: 

1. Measure cereal into a large bowl
2. In a separate microwave safe bowl, melt butter, chocolate and cream on half power at thirty second intervals until melted. Stir in vanilla and butter extracts
3. Pour chocolate mixture over cereal and stir until evenly coated, then add sprinkles!
4. Pour cereal and powdered sugar into a large plastic bag and shake until well coated
5. Pour into a bowl or into airtight storage containers

Cookies and Cream Muddy Buddies:

From Mandy's Recipe Box 

Ingredients: 

• 5 cups Crispix (or Chex if you prefer)
• 5oz milk chocolate chips
• 5 oz white chocolate chips
• 2 tsp butter
• 8 crushed Oreos, plus a few extra for pieces
• 1 cup powdered sugar

Directions: 

1. Divide cereal evenly between two large bowls
2. In two separate microwave safe bowls, melt milk chocolate with 1 tsp butter, and white chocolate with 1 tsp butter on half power at thirty second intervals until melted.
3. Pour chocolate mixtures over cereal and stir until evenly coated 
4. Pour cereal, powdered sugar and crushed Oreos into two large plastic bags and shake until well coated
5. Mix into one large bowl with Oreo pieces. 

That's all for today! Thanks for reading! I will now return you to your usual host! :)