I love to bake for the holidays – there are few things better than giving a homemade gift, to me it really shows you care, plus – it’s delicious! I have made Snickerdoodle Pinwheels, Cutouts, Peanut Butter Balls, and plenty of other recipes for Christmas gifting. In fact, I am so serious about my Christmas baking, I usually take a whole day off so I can have time to focus and get it done since the holidays can be such a crazy time!
This year, I decided to change it up a bit. Still giving homemade gifts, but going the “treat” route instead of the traditional “cookie” route. Nothing against the cookie of course – I love it in ALL its forms, but I just wanted to try something different this year. So I have decided that the following items are on this year’s gifting “menu”:
–Crock Pot “Crack”
–Saltine Toffee
–Rolo Pretzel Treats
-Chex Mix – the Original Version
Of course, I had to test out the Chex Mix before giving it out as gifts, and I am happy to report it went well!
Chex Mix
Ingredients
3 cups Corn Chex cereal
3 cups Rice Chex cereal
3 cups Wheat Chex cereal
1 cup mixed nuts
1 cup bite-size pretzels
1 cup garlic-flavor bite-size bagel chips or regular-size bagel chips, broken into 1-inch pieces
6 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons seasoned salt
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
Directions
-In large bowl, mix cereals, nuts, pretzels and bagel chips; set aside.
-In small microwavable bowl, microwave butter uncovered on High about 40 seconds or until melted. Stir in seasonings. Pour over cereal mixture; stir until evenly coated.
-Spread mixture out onto two cookie trays lined with silicone pads or parchment paper
-Bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes
-Spread on paper towels to cool. Store in airtight container.

Ingredients are assembled and ready for action!

Looks good enough to eat as is, doesn’t it?

Butter and spices – smelling amazing

Waiting for it to cool – patience wearing thin…

Close up of the goods
So – this was easy to throw together and toss in the oven, and it made the house smell AMAZING while it baked
Once it cooled, we all deemed it worthy of gifting, so I will be making more batches in the coming weeks. The good thing about it was all the stuff I bought for the first batch will make at least 1 more batch (the cereal, nuts, etc), so it’s basically like getting two for the price of one!
Now – the official Chex website directs you to make this in the microwave, but I was not into that idea, so I looked around online and saw some recipes with the baking directions, and did that instead. I am all about shortcuts, but for this I really wanted the crispness that comes with using the oven. Besides, when the first Chex Mix recipe was introduced back in 1952, the instructions stated to bake it in the oven – and I say, if it was good enough in the 50’s, it’s good enough for now!