everyday food made simple

After a few months after it came out in theaters, yesterday I finally rented Monsters University on DVD. Has anyone else seen it? The first one was perhaps my favorite Pixar movie ever, so naturally I’ve been itching to watch the prequel to it ever since it came out. I absolutely loved it and thought little Mike Wozowski was the cutest thing ever. I swear I’m just a 12 year old kid in a 27-year-old body….

After lounging around in my PJs all day yesterday, I finally mustered enough energy to go to Kowalski’s to return it last night. You know you’re in the medical field when you say “let me go upstairs and change into something ‘normal’ real quick” before going to store, means changing into a pair of scrub pants. Not yoga pants, not jeans… scrubs. Apparently it’s what I now consider “normal” attire.

I didn’t even notice it until Brian laughed and pointed that out to me at the store. In my defense, I’ve been wearing scrubs 5-6 days a week for the past 8 weeks. I go to work, I wear scrubs. I go to class, I wear scrubs. I go run errands and grocery shop after work, I’m in scrubs. I don’t really go anywhere else so I don’t get to wear a whole lot of “normal people” clothes anymore. On my day off, I don’t really go places so I stay in my PJs.

[sigh]

Since it’s December and December marks the official start of the Christmas season, it’s only right for:

1. Hanging up Christmas decorations around the house…. (Bentley – @boxerbentley on Instagram – helped hang Christmas lights)

photo

and

2. The first post of December to be something that involved mint and chocolate.

News flash: I’m obsessed with anything that involved mint and chocolate. Every year when stores stock their shelves up with anything mint chocolate, I go crazy and start hoarding all things mint chocolate, enough to last me for the next 11 months. Candy cane coffee, mint M&Ms, peppermint M&Ms, candy cane Oreos, peppermint bark, Andes peppermint candies, all kinds of mint chocolate baking chips, Dove mint chocolates… you name it, I probably have it in my cupboard.

IMG_2379 copy

#mintchocolate4life

This recipe is made in the similar manner I made my pumpkin spice puppy chow back in November – seasonal Hershey’s Kisses mint truffles melted down, poured over gluten free chocolate Chex, coated with powdered sugar. It’s sweet, minty, and really addicting! They’re so addicting that I’m bringing some to work today to share so I don’t eat 5738293 grams of sugar in two days….

IMG_2388 copy

IMG_2390 copy

mint chocolate puppy chow
Print
Ingredients
  1. 1.5 bags of 10-oz Hershey's mint truffle Kisses, unwrapped
  2. One 14.25-oz box of chocolate Chex cereal
  3. 3 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
  1. Pour the Chex cereal into a large bowl and set aside.
  2. Using a double boiler, melt the unwrapped Hershey's Kisses until smooth, stirring occasionally. Pour chocolate mixture over the Chex cereal. Stir to make sure all the cereal is coated with chocolate.
  3. Pour the powdered sugar into the large bowl of cereal mixture. Toss and stir thoroughly to make sure everything is evenly coated with the powdered sugar.
  4. Store in an airtight container for up to 7 days.
  5. Makes about 8 cups
Simple Everyday Food https://www.simpleeverydayfood.com/
Along with being delicious, this recipe is also super easy to make. It only requires 3 ingredients! Three! And there are only about 3 steps to the whole thing as well. From start to finish, it took me less than 30 minutes to make. No baking, no cooling, and not a whole lot of measuring.

IMG_2394 copy

IMG_2385 copy

Yep, you’re welcome :)

If you’ve been following my blog since the beginning of time, you’ll know that I’m a fan of puppy chow… here are a few other versions for you to try!

pumpkin spice puppy chow

IMG_2075 copy

apple pie spice puppy chow

IMG_1768 copy

orange creamsicle puppy chow

IMG_1600

© Simple Everyday Food. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use any of my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or kindly link back to this post for the recipe.

Sharing is caring! Email this to someonePrint this pagePin on PinterestShare on YummlyShare on FacebookShare on Google+Tweet about this on Twitter

I am no longer allowed to go shopping at Target by myself. This latest time when I shopped there myself, these came out of my kitchen:

IMG_2084 copy

IMG_2075 copy

I have proven that I have no self control when it comes to that store. It also doesn’t help that there’s a Super Target literally right across the street from our house, which also happens to be on the way home from school.

When Brian and I go, he’s always my voice of reason. “You don’t need that”, “don’t you already have something like that?”, “when would you ever use that?”. He probably saves us a good chunk of money every month by going to Target with me.

When I go by myself, it’s a totally different story. Yes, I make a list of things I need.. and I do try my hardest to stick to only things on that list. But somehow 30 minutes later, I always come out of there spending at least $30 more than what I would’ve spent if I stuck to my list. It’s just so easy to grab a basket, stroll through the aisles, look through the clearance racks, and find things that you absolutely “need” or are too good of a deal to pass up.

Please tell me I’m not the only one that has this problem. Next time I really shouldn’t even grab a basket. Once my hands are full, it’s time to head to the checkout lanes… oh but that’s easier said than done.

Anyway… the other day when I went to Target, I saw these out of the corner of my eye and just had to get them.

photo

Dang you Target, for putting Fall/Halloween candy in the 50% off clearance aisle!

I had the perfect idea – pumpkin spice puppy chow. I know what you’re thinking – it’s already November and pumpkin spice needs to make way for peppermint desserts. It’s true, but I can’t let these Kisses sit on the shelves all by themselves, can I? Someone needs to rescue them…….

I still had some leftover pumpkin pie spice from last month, so it just sounded like a no-brainer. Cinnamon Chex cereal coated with white chocolate pumpkin Hershey Kisses, dusted with powdered sugar with hints of pumpkin spice. Mmm mmm mmm.

IMG_2072 copy

Initially I dreaded unwrapping two bags of Hershey Kisses by hand. I thought I would find it tedious and time-consuming. Once I got a system down though, the process went by faster than I imagined. And somehow the melting process also seemed to go a lot smoother than my other puppy chow recipes..

pumpkin spice puppy chow
Print
Ingredients
  1. 9 cups Cinnamon Chex cereal
  2. 1.5 10oz bags of Hershey's pumpkin spice Kissees, unwrapped
  3. 2 cups powdered sugar
  4. 2 heaping teaspoons pumpkin spice
Instructions
  1. Place Chex cereal in a large bowl, set aside. Then in a medium bowl, add the powdered sugar and pumpkin spice. Stir to combine and set aside.
  2. Using a double boiler, melt the pumpkin Kisses. Pour the melted chocolate over the Chex mix, stir until all the Chex is covered with chocolate. Then gradually sprinkle the powdered sugar mixture onto the cereal. Stir until everything is covered evenly with powdered sugar.
  3. Makes ~9 cups
Simple Everyday Food https://www.simpleeverydayfood.com/
IMG_2076 copy

IMG_2080 copy

Although the pumpkin spice Kisses taste a little artificial if you eat them by themselves, these puppy chow don’t taste artificial at all! This is probably because most of my puppy chow recipes already utilize vanilla almond bark or white chocolate, so the white chocolate center of these Kisses were a perfect fit for this recipe! The cinnamon-y, pumpkin-spiced powdered sugar coating is the perfect combination with the subtle hints of pumpkin spice flavoring in these chocolates… It was a hit with all my pumpkin-loving friends!

Now that pumpkin season is unofficially over, it’s now time to move on to one of my top favorite flavor combos – chocolate + mint.

Here are a few more recipes came out of my kitchen this pumpkin season:

Pumpkin n’ spice cream cheese truffles

IMG_1827 copy

Ooey gooey pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

IMG_1785 copy

Glazed pumpkin coffee cake

IMG_1881 copy

Pumpkin peanut butter dog biscuits

IMG_1959 copy

© Simple Everyday Food. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use any of my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or kindly link back to this post for the recipe.

Sharing is caring! Email this to someonePrint this pagePin on PinterestShare on YummlyShare on FacebookShare on Google+Tweet about this on Twitter