One of my favorite snacks growing up was puppy chow, or muddy buddies! I love a good peanut butter and chocolate combo, and this treat is easy to make for a group of sweet fiends! Since my godson Joshua was joining us for our weekend getaway to Tahoe, I knew I had to make it for him.

With just 5 simple ingredients (most of which you probably already have in your pantry) you can have this ready to eat in just a few minutes! Although Chex’s traditional recipe calls for the addition of vanilla, I instead like to add more chocolate and use Justin’s PB, since it already comes with additional flavors! In this recipe, I used Justin’s honey peanut butter, although Justin’s vanilla almond butter is definitely one of my favorite substitutes. If you’re a chocolate lover, you can also sub in Justin’s chocolate hazelnut and almond butter for even more chocolatey flavor. PSA: This is a sweet, non-diet compliant snack! It is indulgent and not something to eat everyday, so ENJOY until it’s gone! 🙂

You’ll need:
1 Box of Rice Chex Mix
1 1/2 cups of semi sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup of Justin’s honey peanut butter (I kind of just eyeball this, using a spoon and scooping out 3 whopping spoonfuls)
1/4 cup butter (half a stick)
1-2 cups of powdered sugar (I eyeball this too, sprinkling and mixing until I get the right level of powdered coating!)

Directions:

1. In a double boiler, melt the chocolate, butter, and peanut butter and mix all together. I like using a double boiler, because then I’m sure that I won’t accidentally burn my chocolate. If you’re feeling lazy (no judgment here), you can microwave these 3 ingredients in a microwave safe bowl at 30 second increments, mixing in between. You want this mixture to be smooth!

2. Place 4 cups of cereal in a large bowl. Mix in about half of your chocolate mixture with a spatula, making sure that all of the cereal is evenly coated.

3. Add the rest of your to the bowl, one cup at a time. Mix after each cup is added.

4. Add the rest of your chocolate mixture. Mix well, again making sure that all of the cereal is evenly coated. There might be pools of the chocolate mixture at the bottom of the bowl – just keep scooping that up and mixing with your spatula. If you hear some crunching and smoosh some of your cereal in the mixing, don’t worry! It’ll stick to little clusters of puppy chow in the process!

5. From here, you have 2 options!

a. Sprinkle powdered sugar, a 1/2 cup at a time and mix with a spatula until all of the chocolate coated cereal is covered in a white powder. I usually end up using about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of sugar.
OR
b. Put your chocolate coated cereal in a large ziploc bag. (I like to separate this into two different bags!) Add the powdered sugar, 1/3 cup to each bag at a time, until you reach your desired powdery coat level. Seal the bags and SHAKE! The cereal should come out evenly coated.