The Super Bowl of Snacks {Recipe: Ranch Snack Mix}

Whether you are a football fan or not there is one game that unites us all. Of course I am talking about the Super Bowl. It's a great excuse to have a party, and if you are not a football fan, the half-time show and commercials are always entertaining. It is also a great reason to make your favorite snack foods!

Over the holidays I made this Ranch Snack Mix and the family loved it. The recipe is a Pinterest find, but I modified it to suit our family's tastes. The original can be found @TheCommonPlate.com. When I came across the football shaped pretzels by UTZ at Walmart, I knew I had to make these for our Super Bowl get-together!

Ranch Snack Mix

The hardest thing about this recipe is keeping everyone from eating the crackers and pretzels before the mix is made! My family likes to snack on all of these on their own. 

Preheat oven to 250°F. Line two baking sheets with Silpat baking mats or spray lightly with cooking spray; set aside. 

Place in a large mixing bowl:

8-9 ounces of oyster crackers*
1 11.5 box of Reduced Fat Cheese-It Baked Snack Crackers
8 ounces football or waffle shaped pretzels

Toss until coated with:

Scant 1/2 cup vegetable oil

(Its easiest to use your hand to toss this mixture, but a large spoon works just as well.) 

In a small bowl, mix together:

3 tablespoons ranch dressing mix*
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon dill

Toss the seasoning mixture into the cracker mixture 1/3 at a time to make sure the crackers get evenly coated. Divide the snack mix between the two cookie sheets. Spread the shack mix evenly in the pans. Bake at 250°F for 30 minutes, after 15 minutes, give the mix a stir and return to oven. This mix can be stored for a week in an airtight container.

*Note: I like the Trader Joe's Oyster Crackers which come in a 8-ounce box, the bagged oyster crackers come in a 9-ounce bag. Also, I buy ranch dressing mix from Costco in bulk which indicates that a packet of mix is 3 tablespoons, but apparently a packet only has 2 tablespoons. Using one packet of dressing mix will work fine for this recipe. 

NYE 2020 Update:

For New Years Eve 2020 I decided to add a 7.5 ounce Bugles Corn Snacks, Original Flavor to the mix, the family agrees that this was a good decision! For this addition make sure to use an entire 1/2 cup of vegetable oil (I use a bit less in the original recipe) and add about 2 teaspoons more of ranch mix, 1/4 tsp more of garlic and onion powder, and a pinch more of dill. Also, I substituted Premium Mini Saltine Crackers for oyster crackers-they worked great, but Trader Joe's Oyster Crackers are still the favorite. 

Happy Snacking!

Happy National Popcorn Day! {Recipe: Lemon Thyme Popcorn}

Our entire family loves, loves, loves popcorn! So it is a must that we make a post about popcorn on National Popcorn Day. We like popcorn prepared just about any way you can. This is our most recent favorite: Lemon Thyme Popcorn.

Lemon Thyme Popcorn

This is a recipe adapted from a recipe found on FoodandWine.com. While their recipe is very good, we found that it had a bit too much lemon juice. 

1/2 cup popcorn kernels
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
1 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt or coarse sea salt
Fresh ground pepper

Use your favorite method for preparing popcorn. I like air popped best. Here is another method I use: start with a heavy bottomed stockpot with lid, pour 3 tablespoons of olive oil and swirl to cover the bottom of the pot, pour the popcorn to cover the bottom, then cover. Cook the popcorn over medium-medium high heat, depending on how hot your stove gets. Once the popcorn starts to pop, shake the covered stockpot over the heat until the popcorn kernels slow down to popping one every second or two. This method is a little tricky and the popcorn can burn easily, so be careful! Pour the popcorn from the stockpot immediately into a large bowl. It can burn if left in the hot stockpot. Set aside the bowl of popcorn. In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Once the butter is melted, add the lemon zest, lemon juice and thyme. Give it a good stir, remove from heat and pour 1/2 of the butter mixture over the popcorn, give it a good stir, then pour in the rest. Sprinkle the salt over the popcorn, then toss. Finish the popcorn with a few grinds of fresh pepper. 

Happy National Popcorn Day, enjoy!

Resistance is Futile {Recipe: Salted Peanut Chews)

I discovered these cookie bars when I was a teenager and I have only made them a few times since. In fact, I don't think I have made them since I've been married until this year when I made them for my teenage son and his friends. The reason I don't make them: I can't stay away from them! Just about every other cookie I can resist if I have to, but these I cannot.

To be fair, another reason I don't make them often is because of the cake mix. I try not to use cake mixes, ever. There are recipes for these that don't use cake mix, I find they don't taste quite the same. So once every few years can't hurt, can it?

Salted Peanut Chews

I believe this recipe comes from a Pillsbury Bake-Off pamphlet, but I am not sure. I wrote it in the back of my Betty Crocker Cookbook years ago. 

Base:
1 package yellow cake mix
1/3 cup butter
1 egg
2 cups miniature marshmallows

Topping:
2/3 cup corn syrup
1/4 cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla 
10 ounce bag of Reese's Peanut Butter Chips
2 cups crisp rice cereal
2 cups salted peanuts

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, combine all the base ingredients, except marshmallows, using a mixer on low speed until crumbly. (Note: some mixes get more crumbly than others. So far every cake mix I have used works fine, even if dough doesn't get crumbly.) Press the base mixture, without the marshmallows, into the bottom of a ungreased 13x9"pan. Bake at 350°F for 12-18 minutes or until light golden brown. Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle with marshmallows. Return to oven for 1-2 minutes or until marshmallows just begin to puff. Cool while preparing topping. In a large saucepan, heat corn syrup, butter, vanilla, and peanut butter chips, stirring constantly, until smooth. Remove from heat; stir in cereal and peanuts. Immediately spoon warm topping over marshmallows; spread to cover. Chill; cut into bars. 

Makes 36 bars

Enjoy!