Traveling snacks

Having recently embarked on a looooong journey via automobile, I thought I'd share a couple of our favorite traveling snacks today.  Honestly, the children would not survive if there were no snacks in the vehicle.

I love to make my own snack mix, and it's one of our favorite road-trip snacks.  Not only is it less expensive to make it myself, but I can put whatever I want in there. 

I start with a gorp mix that I purchase in the bulk section of my favorite grocery store...heaven help us if they ever stop selling it!  The mix contains peanuts, cashews, almonds, golden raisins, dried cranberries, and chocolate, white chocolate, and butterscotch chips.  Probably some other stuff, too, but that's what I'm remembering right now.  It's really good all on its own, but then I add stuff.  I always add m&ms, either milk chocolate or peanut butter, and I always add some kind of dry cereal.  Our favorites are honey nut cheerios, kix, quaker oats squares, or cinnamon toast crunch.  Then I look around the house and add whatever else looks good.  In the past, I have added goldfish crackers, teddy grahams, mini-pretzels, wheat thins sticks, and cheez-its.  It's totally customizable! 

This is one of the things I package in individual portions, like I mentioned earlier this week, because if I don't it'll be gone in one snacking session.  The individual portions make this a perfect snack for the car, and it's got some high quality protein and good fats, as well as being something that everyone likes.

My kids think Puppy Chow (aka Chex Muddy Buddies) is a terrific traveling snack.  I'm not so sure, since it seems a little on the messy side to me, but it does seem to make them happy, and they're pretty good about cleaning up licking off their messy fingers when they're done.  Added bonus: it's easy enough to make that your older children can do it themselves (be sure to supervise them if they use the stove, otherwise, the microwave works great).

Melt together:

• 1/2 c. oleo (yes, this recipe is from my mom in law, who uses oleo in recipes.  Just in case you can't get that where you live, use margarine)
• 1/2 c. peanut butter (we used chunky last time)
• 1 c. chocolate chips

Pour chocolate mixture over 7 cups of Rice Chex (or we use Crispix) and toss to coat.
Add 2 1/2 c powdered sugar and toss to coat again (we usually use our storage container (a gallon ice cream bucket) to mix.  Just add the ingredients and shake).

That's it!  Easy peasy.

But, just in case you don't want to make it yourself, or don't have time before your next road trip, great news!  Chex Mix® Muddy Buddies is now available year-round.  You can print a coupon for $0.75 off 1 Chex Mix Muddy Buddies from General Mills Pssst...