Twins Take On Food: Ryan's Chex Mix

There are a lot of situations where the store bought version of something is just as good as homemade, but I firmly believe Chex Mix is not one of them.  I know, I know.  You are thinking to yourself, "You're insane!  Chex mix in a bag is great!  It's one of the best road trip snacks of all time!"  I agree with you, Readers, I really do.  It is great...it's just that homemade is, well, SUPER great.

Over the years, I've played around with the recipe on the box (which is fine on its own), taken some suggestions from friends, and tweaked the recipe to what I think is basically perfection.  Although this stuff is perfect at ANY time of year, it's a family tradition during March Madness. 

Without further ado, I give you, Ryan's Chex Mix!  

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.  Mix the following together in a large roasting pan*:

• 3 cups each of Corn, wheat, and rice Chex 
• 1 cup of your favorite kind of small pretzel (I usually go stix but smaller traditional pretzels or even pretzel goldfish work great)
• 1 cup bagel chips, broken into pieces
• 1 cup Cheese Its
• 1 cup Bugles (I'm guessing it's been a while since you had Bugles.  Yes, they are just as good as you remembered.)
• 1 1/2 cups dry roasted peanuts or mixed nuts 

* Pro tip:  I use a disposable aluminum roasting pan that you can find the baking aisle of your grocery store (because less time washing dishes means more time eating Chex Mix, obviously). 

Seasoning:

• 1 stick of butter
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons seasoned salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder 
• 1 teaspoon onion powder 

Melt the butter and olive oil in a small sauce pan over medium high heat.  Add in the rest of the ingredients until it begins to boil and get foamy.  Remove from heat and spoon the sauce over the Chex mix in the roasting pan.  (Pro tip: stir the seasoning in between spooning it over the mix because the ingredients will settle on the bottom of the sauce pan).  Bake for a total of 1 hour, stirring the mixture at 15 minute intervals.  Once the hour is up, spread the mix on paper towels to cool for about 15 minutes, or as long as you can contain your excitement.  Assuming you are a normal person (unlike myself who can inhale all of this stuff in one sitting), it keeps well in an airtight container or freezer bag for a few days.

Feel free to play around with the recipe by adding in your favorite snacks. I've had this stuff with popcorn, fritos, pita chips, goldfish...you name it.  Mix some up this week and let us know what you like best!