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A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

“A lifestyle blog with a focus on my food adventures”

June 3, 2021 Chex Mix: A Traditionally Salty Snack Takes a Turn For the Sweet

Chex Mix is one of my go to road trip staples. I never really thought about making it at home. During the winter and holidays, I went on a big Chex Mix at home kick. My friend brought me her version, made with Crispex, Corn Chex, Utz holiday pretzels and m&m’s. That is how this all got started….

Leah’s recipe calls for:

  • 1c butter
  • 1 1/2c brown sugar
  • 1/2c light corn syrup
  • 1 (14oz) box of Rice Chex
  • 1tsp baking soda
  • 1tsp vanilla
  • 1c m&ms

In a small saucepan, heat butter, brown sugar and corn syrup to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla.

In a brown paper bag, add caramel mixture over cereal and shake. Place in microwave for 2 minutes and shake again. Repeat. Pour mix onto wax paper to cool and add in m&ms.


I like using Corn Chex in mine, rather than the Rice Chex – they are just a little sturdier. My version has Cadbury mini eggs, mini pretzels and honey roasted almond slivers. I picked up these almond slivers at Trader Joes, and they are literally one of my favorite things I’ve found there.

If you want to go ever sweeter than that, Half Baked Harvest has a recipe for these delicious Snickerdoodle, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chex Mix Bars. Peanut butter plus chocolate and salt, winner, winner chicken dinner. Check out their recipe here.

I do love these sweet options, but can’t help wondering if the mix from the Fire Crackers in my earlier post would take savory Chex Mix up to a whole new level. Check out the recipe here.

June 1, 2021 The Savory Cracker You Won’t Be Able to Put Down

Savory crackers aren’t really my thing. At snack time I am more likely to go for the sweet than the salty (or savory), but here we are.

Have you ever tasted something that you just can’t stop eating? Like, I meant to eat one or two but looked down and the whole sleeve of Girl Scouts Cookies were gone…nope, that’s never happened to me before either.

I found this great recipe from How Sweet Eats and have made it at least a dozen times. Every batch comes out better than the last. First you start out with Saltine crackers. But then, you dress them up with butter and brown sugar and all sorts of delicious spices. You end up with these smoky, delicious, buttery crackers that go with just about anything but taste amazing on their own.

These would be a great addition to any cheese plate, a nice garnish in your soup or even crushed up as a Mac and cheese topping. I can’t wait to try making these with the mini saltines!

Check out the recipe on How Sweet Eats here. Try the recipe out and let me know what you think!

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June 1, 2021 Jake and The Neverland Pirates: Treasure Hunt and Crafts

My kids love a good treasure hunt. What they don’t realize is that what takes them 15 minutes to complete, took me a week to plan! I have talked before about how we went from zero screen time before the pandemic to a few shows a day. One of our shows we like to watch is Jake and the Neverland Pirates. It’s a cute show, not super annoying, and it teaches kids about friendship, kindness and problem solving.

On school vacation break, I put together a fun Jake and the Neverland Pirates theme day for them. We ended the day with an epic treasure hunt, but lets look at some other fun stuff I put together.

I picked up these jumbo Jake and the Neverland Pirates coloring books for $1 at Party City. You can find boxes of crayons for $1 at Five Below. Next, I saw these cute treasure chests at Michaels and used a 20% off coupon to buy them. I filled the treasure boxes with gold coins and Hershey’s Nuggets. The treasure boxes were the prize at the end of the treasure hunt!

For the treasure hunt, I printed out old maps and wrote rhyming clues on them. The kids all worked together to solve the riddles and finish the treasure hunt. Afterwards, they decorated their treasure boxes with markers and stickers.

I made these fun hooks out of red solo cups. I made a slit in the top and pushed in the “hook” which I had traced on cardboard and covered with tin foil. In addition, I printed out skull and crossbones and taped them to the end of the cup that you drink out of. I attached a long paper towel roll to the bottom of the solo cup and they used them as telescopes. Finally, we made these “sea globes”.

First step, find an empty bottle of your choice. I used Voss water bottles because I like the shape. Use a funnel to add in some sand to the bottom. You can buy sand on Amazon or any craft store.

We are a strictly no glitter household, but I made this one exception. Second step, we poured gold glitter into the bottle on top of the sand to make it look like “treasure”.

Thirdly, we threw in some sea shells. You can buy them at a craft store or you can use ones that you have found yourself. I picked these up at Lakeshore Learning.

Next, fill the bottle up with water and add in a few drops of food coloring. While some chose a blue or a green, one went with red just because it looked pretty!

Finally, use a hot glue gun to seal the lid onto the bottle so there are no spills. Viola!

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May 27, 2021 TikTok Tortilla Trend: Is It The Best or a Bust?

Everyone is doing the TikTok Tortilla and I just had to see for myself: is it was one of the best ideas ever or is it going to be a total bust.

I decided to make a Rachel with mine. A Reuben is made with corned beef and sauerkraut, and a Rachel is made with either turkey or pastrami and coleslaw. I love extra cheese on everything, so that’s what I did here. I whipped up some home made Russian dressing, added on some pineapple coleslaw and of course, pastrami. First, take a knife and cut halfway through the wrap. Next, fold the cheese (on the right of the cut) up to the pastrami. Fold the pastrami to the dressing and coleslaw and then finish it off with a fold to the cheese, all in a counter clockwise motion. Throw it into a skillet for two to three minutes on each side to get it melty on the inside and crisp on the outside.

Verdict? I loved it. First, because it was so simple and easy to make. Second, it’s a great way to use up any leftovers you may have in your fridge. There are endless combinations that you could make! For example, I’m thinking scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon and cheese would be a great choice. Perhaps one with refried black beans, your taco meat of choice, cheese and some yellow rice. What about Nutella, marshmallow fluff, strawberries and bananas?

Have you tried the TikTok tortilla wrap trend? What’s your favorite flavor combinations?

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May 25, 2021 Making Home Made Gifts: Decoupage with Kids

My favorite way to decoupage is to use this product called Mod Podge. You can pick it up at Michael’s or even Target. It’s like glue, it goes on white and dries clear. I love the glossy but they also sell a matte finish.

One of our favorite things to use is paper mache shapes – you can buy boxes like the one shown above or get letters, there are lots of possibilities. Cover the shape with a generous amount of Mod Podge. We used tissue paper in Valentine’s themed colors for this box. After you have placed all of your paper, cover entire project with Mod Podge. You could use tissue paper like we did, or cut up strips of magazines or wrapping paper….the possibilities are endless. We gave these to friends this year as gifts, along with some paper mache heart ornaments, and they were such a big hit!

Oddly enough, when I think of decoupage, I used to think of those creepy ransom letters you see in the movies or on TV, where they cut out magazine letters and paste them all together. But totally not what decoupage is! While searching for images of decoupage on the internet, I found some pretty cool looking projects people have made.

Side note to this: I was first introduced to Mod Podge when I was a kid at summer camp. We made these cool wreaths. First we covered flat foam wreaths in tape and then we mixed up different colored dried beans with Mod Podge. We piled the beans onto the taped wreath form and let it dry. I gave one to my grandmother and always loved seeing it hanging up in her house every time we went over. I amy try to replicate one with my kids…

To find Mod Podge at Target, click here.

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May 20, 2021 Pretzel Kisses – Easy Ways to Use Up 30 Minutes

I have no idea what these are actually called, but we call them pretzel kisses in our house. Sometimes, you just need something to keep your kids occupied with while you do the dishes or get dinner ready, whatever. The most time consuming part about this is little hands unwrapping 40 Hershey Kisses, or however many you decide to make.

We like to use all different kinds of Kisses, and even Hugs too! If you want to get especially tricky, have your kids make them into patterns or sort them into piles according to design. My favorite pretzel kisses are made either with Hugs or the original Hershey Kisses. We tried the sugar cookie Kisses and let me tell you, they weren’t horrible! You can also make these with Rolos, which we also love. Line your baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper. Line up your square pretzels and put your Hugs or Kisses on top. Place in oven at 200 degrees for about 4-6 minutes. Remove from the oven and add an m&m on top of the hug (or Kiss) and squish it down. Place in fridge for 5-10 minutes to let the chocolate set.

There’s something so simple and nostalgic about these, we make them frequently and even add them to our holiday cookie boxes that we give to our friends.

Have you ever made these? If so, what do you call them?

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May 18, 2021 Are You Team Candy Corn? Yea or Nay?

I feel like you either love candy corn or you hate it. There is no in between… For me, I am totally NOT on team candy corn. But they are fun once in a while to use to make crafts. For these cupcakes, it was more about decorating them than what they tasted like. For these kinds of crafts or baking projects, I just use cake mix from a box and if I’m feeling very lazy, I use store bought frosting – although most times I make my own buttercream frosting, it’s so simple!

Sometimes you want to be present for the activity that you are doing with your kids – and taking shortcuts Is totally ok. They’re never going to remember that you used store bought frosting! My piping skills are not top notch, but you can see that the candy corn and candy eyes cover up most of the frosting, so this cupcake decoration is very forgiving.

Even my youngest likes to get in on the fun, and while they don’t exactly look like turkeys, all the kids had a blast making them!

My brother gave me FOUR bags of candy corn this year. I have no idea why. He was probably regifting them to me. While I could have just dropped them in his mailbox (and we would have passed them back and forth until next Halloween), we decided to make a wreath with them. That way, he would have to take them back! I found these particle board wreaths at the dollar spot at Target and we used Mod Podge to glue the candy corn to the wreath. We used the spray Mod Podge to coat the candy corn and give it a shiny finish. I think they turned out pretty cute!

Are you team candy corn?

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May 13, 2021 What’s in the Muffin Tray Today?

Picking up from where my last post left off, my muffin tins have been getting quite the work out during this pandemic. I loved these carrot cake cupcakes – I mean, that’s basically eating a vegetable, right?! I really think I I just love the cream cheese frosting and the carrot cake is just a vehicle to get the frosting into my mouth. Here’s a link to the recipe.

A dinner favorite, and well, a breakfast favorite at our house are egg muffins. Make them ahead of time and then just warm the up in the morning for a quick grab and go breakfast. I use a dozen eggs for a regular muffin tin that makes 12 muffins. Whisk eggs and add a little dairy if you like. Coat the muffin tin with non stick cooking spray. Fill muffin tin with the toppings of your choice – we like ham and cheese or broccoli and cheese the best – but you could literally put anything in yours. Fill the rest of the tray with your eggs and put in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.

I use muffin tins for all kinds of craft projects – to hold beads or paint, even sprinkles when we are decorating sugar cookies. My kids loved popping popcorn and then adding all kinds of treats to them – everyone had their own customized snack for movie night!

Sheet pan pancakes are probably the smartest thing I have ever made in my house. Not only does everyone get what they want as toppings, but I don’t have to stand over the stove making mutiple batches that I can’t keep warm. Because you know who is going to be the one eating cold pancakes… Meanwhile, muffin tin pancakes are a close second favorite to the sheet pan pancakes. For sheet pan pancakes, make your regular batter. Spray a cooking sheet with non stick spray. Pour batter (and toppings) onto the cooking sheet and cook at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes. Muffin pancakes are the same thing. Make your favorite batter, add in toppings, cooking time will vary on muffin size – we love both the regular size and the mini muffin pan (because everything mini tastes delicious, doesn’t it?)

And finally, the grazing board muffin tin. I did a sweet one, but we do this for lunch time as well with turkey and cheese roll ups, veggies, hummus, grapes or other berries – the possibilities are endless.

What is your favorite thing to make in muffin tins?

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May 11, 2021 Snack Attack: Grazing Boards For All Occassions

While we may not be entertaining, I still like to make grazing boards. They’re fun to put together, they’re pretty to look at, and my kids love them. Here are some boards that I put together over the course of the quarantine. I love the leaf tortilla chips from Trader Joe’s, which is also where I picked up the maple sandwich cookies, the chocolate turkeys and the dried orange slices.

Here’s another fall themed board, but this time, I added yogurt covered pumpkin cookies from Trader Joe’s, Halloween themed Oreos, marshmallow pumpkins from Williams Sonoma, Reese’s ghosts and pumpkins and a fun little s’mores dish. You can make the s’mores dish by buying the individual Keebler graham pie crusts. Cut up some chocolate to go on the bottom and top with mini marshmallows. Put them in the toaster and broil them for a minute or two. Add on two candy eyes and viola!

Fall continues with a cranberry and cashew nut mix from Trader Joe’s, dried apricots, raspberry star thumbprint cookies, chocolate pumpkins from Vermont Nut Free Company and gingerbread sandwich cookies from Trader Joe’s. Are we seeing a Trader Joe’s theme here?

Moving into Halloween, I used Utz pumpkin shaped pretzels, frosted animal crackers, Halloween themed pirates booty, bat shaped gummy treats and how cute are those ghost veggie chips?

Moving from fall and Halloween into the holidays, this fun grazing board uses gingerbread sandwich cookies from Trader Joes, peppermint chocolate covered Oreos, iced gingerbread cookies, gummy candy canes, Reeese’s nutcrackers, tree shaped marshmallows, Lindt peppermint truffles, Pepperidge Farms hoilday sugar cookies and cute little candy cane tic tags in the corner!

Valentine’s Day I decided to do a muffin tin snack board – my kids love their snacks this way – a little bit of everything to choose from. Heart shaped shortbread cookies with chocolate on the bottom, XO pretzels from Utz, Kisses, sweet tart hears, heart shaped veggie chips, Reese’s hearts, and some cute gummy hearts.

What does your favorite grazing board have on it?

To find a Trader Joe’s location near you, click here.

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May 6, 2021 How Much Screen Time Are Your Kids Getting?

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Cake

Before the pandemic, we didn’t have any screen time. I’m not saying that to brag. When the kids were at home when the pandemic started, we quickly went from no screen time to a few shows a day. That’s in addition to the time they spent on the computer for classes. At 2, my youngest was watching television with the “big kids”, because how do you say some can watch but others can’t. I would NEVER have let my oldest watch television at 2. Funny the differences with a first child and any other children that come after :).

So when I needed time to make dinner, what happened? Television. I needed to clean the kitchen after a meal, yup, television. Judge all you want. Desperate times called for desperate measures. Tell me you’ve been there…

When I pictured myself as a mom, I never pictured myself as having television show themed birthday parties, but here we are, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. In the grand scheme of things, it isn’t a bad show. I remember it from when my niece was a kid. Friendly for all ages and has multiple seasons – which is key when you are in a pandemic. There is nothing worse than a show with annoying voices that get stuck in your head, or a show that only has one season and a) your kids are upset when there aren’t any more new shows, and b) you have to watch the same six shows OVER AND OVER AGAIN (because I can definitely recite some shows basically word for word). Don’t even get me started on humming the theme songs even when my kids aren’t around!

My kids LOVED this cake by the way. Tell me your favorite shows for younger aged kids and how your screen time has changed during the pandemic.

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