Sweet, Salty and Spicy Honey Comb Snack Mix

What to do with a bunch of half eaten boxes of cereal, bags of pretzels and dried fruit/nuts that no one is eating??? Easy solution for me....make a snack mix.... 

Ingredients:

1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup salted butter
1/4 cup light corn syrup or agave
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 T. Soy Sauce
2 T. Worcestershire Sauce
1 T. Saracha
1 T. Garlic Powder
1/2 T. Dried Rosemary
1/2 T. Black Pepper
1 tsp. Cayenne pepper
4 C. Honeycomb Cereal
3 C. Cheerios Cereal
3 C. Pretzels (slightly broken)
1 C. Mixed Nuts
1 C. Dried Cranberries
1 C. Banana Chips

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Place the oil, butter, corn syrup, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, Saracha, and sugar in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium-low heat until the butter melts and sugar dissolves. In small dish combine garlic powder, dried rosemary, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.
3. Pour the cereals, pretzels, nuts cranberries and banana chips in large mixing bowl. Drizzle 1/2 of the syrup over the cereal mix and mix well. Sprinkle 1/2 of the spice mix over the mix. Continue adding syrup and spice mix and mixing until all ingredients have been added and the cereal mix is evenly coated.
4. Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Let cool. Transfer into an air tight container.

Classic Macaroni Salad

 

Ingredients:

1 cup mayonnaise
1 1/2 tablespoons vinegar ( I used apple cider vinegar)
1 tablespoon mustard (you can use, yellow, brown or Dijon)
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 lb macaroni, cooked, drained and cooled
1/2 cup sliced celery
1/2 cup chopped red/yellow or orange pepper
1/2 cup chopped tomato

Prepsaration:

Whisk together 1st 6 ingredients in a small bowl to make dressing.  In a large bowl combine cooled macaroni, celery, red pepper and tomato.  Pour dressing over the top and mix to combine well.  Cover and chill.

Applesauce Cinnamon Mini Muffins with Cracker Crumb Topping

I'm always trying to think of different ways to use staples that I always have in my house to create recipes.  the classic salty and sweet combination is always a winner so why not use salty, buttery crackers as an ingredient in a crumb topping?  I had to actually change many things in this receipe to suit the ingredients I had on hand.  I made these muffins over a year ago but never got around to posting it so I decided to make it again and take new pictures.  The original recipe called for butter, yogurt and graham crackers so naturally I subbed in oil, sour cream and Club crackers.  I added more sugar to the crumb topping to cut the savory aspect of the crackers a bit and these little muffins were soooooo delicious.  Much better than the original recipe.  They were literally gone in minutes.  I guess I need to double the recipe next time :)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2  cup applesauce
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla

Topping:
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 1/2 cups crackers, crushed into find crumbs. 
(You can use any delicate salted crackers such as Club or Ritz crackers)
1/4 cup brown sugar


Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a large bowl beat together sugar, eggs and oil.   Add applesauce, sour cream and vanilla to the egg mixture and combine well.  In a separate bowl mix together flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon.  Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients a little at a time until fully combined.

For the crumb topping.  Add crushed crackers, brown sugar and melted butter to a bowl and combine until all the crackers are moist and the mixture resembles a crumb topping.  

Spoon muffin batter by a heaping tablespoonful into a greased mini muffin tin and then top with a generous teaspoon full of cracker crumbs.  Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes.  Cool before removing from muffin tins.