Best Ever Puppy Chow

This really is the Best Ever Puppy Chow Recipe!

I've sampled a lot of different puppy chow recipes and this is the only one I can't stop eating! That's probably not a good thing. I would recommend measuring out how much you should eat, put it in a cute little dish and find a cozy spot to sit and savor each bite. I too often stand at the countertop and mindlessly eat until the guilt sets in. I don't recommend that method.

I've tried using various rice square cereals and each one creates a slightly different end result. My favorite has been Kellogg's® Crispix® cereal.

Best Ever Puppy Chow
10 cups rice square cereal
1/2 cup melted butter
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 3/4 cups (16 ounces) smooth peanut butter
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Place cereal in a large bowl. In a medium saucepan, melt chocolate chips over low heat. It's very important that it's low heat so the chocolate doesn't burn. Add peanut butter and butter, stirring until smooth. Once everything is melted and mixed together, remove from heat and pour over cereal. I usually stop pouring and mix it up a little to start coating the cereal. Better yet, if you have helping hands, one person can toss the cereal in the bowl while another slowly pours the mixture over the cereal.
Once all the chocolate mixture is in the cereal bowl, continue to toss to coat all the pieces.

Now I get a clean paper grocery bag and pour some powdered sugar in the bottom. Then I pour some of the coated cereal into the bag, add more powdered sugar over the cereal in the bag and repeat until all the cereal is in the bag and the powdered sugar is in the bag. I don't ever actually measure the powdered sugar. I just keep pouring more in until I think it's enough!

Fold the bag closed and gently flip the bag upside down and upright again repeatedly to get the cereal coated with the powdered sugar.

Lay out a long piece of waxed paper and slowly pour out the puppy chow onto the waxed paper to cool. I like to separate the big chunks into individual pieces and I then dunk the pieces into extra powdered sugar so each piece is covered in powdered sugar. This isn't always necessary if you use enough powdered sugar in the bag. 

Once cooled, about an hour, store in an airtight container.
Yield: about 13 cups of snack mix

Pomegranate Seeds

I love eating pomegranate seeds. I have also passed this love onto my daughter and recently to my husband. This brings back wonderful memories of watching my mom seed a pomegranate and waiting to enjoy the sweet juice with each bite. The only problem is that they can be very messy to open. It is time consuming to extricate the seeds but definitely worth the effort.

I have learned a few tips to make the job a little less messy but probably not easier. I think my mom may have just taken a knife and cut the fruit in half and then began taking out the seeds. I don't like this method because it results in many seeds cut open. They're just prettier whole.

The first thing I do is peel the fruit with a paring knife. This has to be done carefully if you don't want to cut open seeds and squirt everything nearby. Oh! Don't forget to wear an apron! (I've made that mistake). Once it is peeled, I wriggle the tip of the knife into the top a little bit and then hold the fruit in two hands under water and gently break it in half. Continue to break it in pieces and remove the seeds from the white membrane.

Not only are pomegranate seeds delicious but they are very good for you. Besides the antioxidant properties, they provide numerous other health benefits. Read about it here.
Apparently, some people only eat the juice of the seed and then spit out the seed itself. You may eat the seed and if you eat about a tablespoon of seeds at a time, it is best. Eating one seed at a time is not as tasty or as much fun! The season is short and almost over, so hurry out a buy a pomegranate today! Enjoy!

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

I love roasting pumpkin seeds this time of year. I experimented with acorn squash seeds last year and they were just as good. My problem is that each year I forget how long I baked the seeds and at what temperature. I've tried searching the internet only to find differences of opinion in temperatures and baking time. So this year, I've decided I would pay attention to what worked and document it here so I only have to search my own blog for the answer!

I did something different this year. I let the seeds dry out overnight before baking them. I've never done this before but it really made sense. I absolutely do not like chewy pumpkin seeds.


I measured out 2 cups of pumpkin seeds in a bowl and added 1 teaspoon olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt. I stirred it up to make sure all the seeds were coated well and then spread them out on a jelly roll pan and baked them at 350 for 15 minutes. If you use too much oil, they can't get crispy.

I probably could have baked them a little longer as I like them quite crunchy. The danger is that they can burn quite quickly at that point so you really have to pay attention if you want to cook them any longer.

This years roasted seeds were my best ever!