Meet the Buddies

For some reason I refer to my children as My Buddies.

'Where's the Buddy?' 

'James do you have Buddy #1, I'll take Buddy #2'

This is Riley. My 4 year old Buddy!

Ri on his first day of school (he's not sad, just has the sun in his face)

Big Brother Riley

Feeding Colin - he begged to do this

Ri and Daddy watching MONSTER TRUCKS!!!!!

This is Colin. My almost 7 month old Buddy!

Welcome to the world, Buddy!

LOVED this bouncy seat

look at those cheeks...just want to eat 'em up

Me and the Buddies on one of our numerous play dates this summer

More like Monster Snot

I try really hard to be that mom who creates those special memories with her kids by doing special treats. Yeah I totally need to remember that Ri is pumped for steps 1 -3 but by step 4 wants to go play and once the treat is finished doesn't want to eat it. Maybe Colin will want to help and eat the treats once he gets older. 

I scanned Pinterest for snack mixes and came across this image:

green and colorful

Very Cool! Halloweenie looking snack mix, WINNER! 

The image took me to this blog: Gourmet Mom on the Go

I read the recipe and thought to myself, 'I can do this, no problem and it will be cheap to make'. 

I was wise enough to know that, 'yeah......I'm so not taking the time to make the Frankensteins.'

Since I was omitting the Frankensteins, I decided to call it Monster Mix. I picked Ri up from school and got him all pumped up about the Monster Mix we were going to make after lunch.

Below is the true story of how Monster Mix became Monster Snot:

Ingredients:
1 cup Granulated Sugar

1/2 cup Light corn syrup
1/3 cup Butter or Margarine

1 package Lemon-Lime drink mix (unsweetened, we used Kool-Aid)  

1 package of Lime Jello since Kroger did not have Lime Kool-Aid (*side note - WHO doesn't have lime kool-aid?!?) and I could not wrap my mind around another flavor or color we ended up with Lime Jello (I have a feeling this is where the "snot" part of the recipe came from)

1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
4 C. Corn Chex Cereal

Non-Stick cooking spray

Mix-ins (this is what we used but totally do what makes you happy):

2 C. Cherrios
3 C. Fruit Loops
3 C. Pretzel Weaves
1 bag Rainbow Goldfish Crackers
1 C. M & M's Candies (what til you see the awesomeness we found today at Kroger)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 225 degrees and spray a cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray.
   
2. Heat the sugar, syrup and margarine in a medium saucepan over medium heat until boiling, stirring occasionally.
   
3.  Boil for 3 minutes (do not stir).
   
4. Remove from heat and stir in Baking Soda and Jello. I started with about 1 1/2 tsp. of the jello and then just kinda shook some more in but it wasn't turning that monsters green so I add 18 drops of neon green food coloring because once again in my mind it has to be this bright neon green.
   
5. Pour over 4 cups Chex Cereal and stir gently. This is when things go down hill! Stir gently, I wish it would have stirred....ended up having to reheat the monster goo when I relieze stirring the chex in a bowl with the goo was not going to happen.
   
6. Spread onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 225 F for 30 minutes. At this point, a small amount of the chex had goo on it, so about mid-way through being in the oven I hand stirred the chex and the goo to try and spread it out some more. Seemed to work but the goo started looking like snot on the chex.
   
7. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
   
8. In a large bowl, mix together the mix-ins and green chex.

"Hey Ri, the Monster Mix is complete would you like some?"
Ri - "Ummm, no thank you."

Oh well, it was another adventure for me in my new normal.

Pictures:

Looks like grits

Ri needed something to do while the hot sugar mix boiled so I set him to  dip pretzels into melted chocolate

Looks like Monster Snot to me

Stir gently......'yeah, okay that worked soooooo well!

Our Mix-ins

HOLY COW THESE EXIST!!!!!!! Really tasty and different

Hi Colin! Thanks for napping through the hard part.