My baby boy, Zephan, turns five on Saturday and I wanted to make a fun snack for his preschool class. Zeph has celiac disease, so all of his snacks need to be gluten free. So far his class hasn’t seemed thrilled with the other g/f treats I’ve made :(. This time around I decided to make Chocolate Chex Caramel Mix. Who doesn’t like Chex Mix? Don’t tell me if you hate it. I’m really hoping the kids eat this snack! I saw this adorable idea for creating turkey cone paper treats on Fiskars via Just a Girl and knew it would make the perfect vessel for the chex mix!
To make the turkey, you will need a large styrofoam sphere and a small sphere for the head. I had no idea that styrofoam cost a fortune when I decided to do this craft. Yikes! You might be able to find some at the dollar store, but I had no such luck. Even with my 40% off coupon at Michaels it still cost about $13. Be forewarned.
Next, I painted the styrofoam brown using a foam brush and some tempura paint.
While waiting for my paint to dry, I made the paper cones using this paper cone template. Just trace, cut out, and hot glue together. I freehanded a beak, gobble, and feet and found some goggly eyes in my craft stash.
To attach the cones to the styrofoam, I placed a Dum Dum sucker in the bottom of each cone and stuck it into the sphere.
Oh, aren’t they lovely? I already had the pretty double-sided scrapbook paper on hand so that part didn’t cost me anything. Wahoo!
With the turkey complete it was time to make the snack!
Chocolate Chex Caramel Mix Recipe
Ingredients:
- 8 cups Gluten Free Chocolate Chex cereal
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 6 tablespoons butter or margarine
- 3 tablespoons light corn syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 cup white vanilla baking chips
- 1/4 cup chocolate chips
Step 1: Into large microwavable bowl, measure cereal; set aside. Line cookie sheet with waxed paper.
Step 2: In 2-cup microwavable measuring cup, microwave brown sugar, butter and corn syrup uncovered on High 1 to 2 minutes, stirring after 1 minute, until melted and smooth.
Step 3: Stir in baking soda until dissolved. See the difference the baking soda makes in texture and color? Don’t skip this step!
Step 4: Pour over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Microwave on High 3 minutes, stirring every minute.
Step 5: Spread on lined cookie sheet. Cool 10 minutes. (I stuck mine in the fridge to make them nice and cold in preparation for the chocolate drizzles. The chocolate adheres and hardens immediately when the chex mix is cold.)
Step 6: In small microwavable bowl, microwave vanilla baking chips uncovered on High about 1 minute 30 seconds or until chips can be stirred smooth (bowl will be hot). Tip: I like to place a sandwich baggie inside a tall glass and pour my melted chocolate inside. Twist baggie and snip a corner to create the perfect chocolate drizzle.
Step 7: Drizzle over snack. Repeat process with melted chocolate chips.
This is what your mix should look like when you are done drizzling. Yum!
Step 8: Return the trays to your refrigerator for about 10 minutes to set the chocolate.
Step 9: Break into pieces and place in cones.
When Zephan arrived home from school and saw his turkey he exclaimed, “It’s so cute I can hardly stand it, Mommy!” Mission accomplished ;).
And I have to agree with him! This craft took me longer than I anticipate and cost more than I would have liked but his delight makes it all worth it!
So cute! I love this idea – I bet the kids will totally love it. 🙂
VERY cute!! Chex Mix is the BEST & I’m sure this was a hit 🙂 GREAT idea in incorporating it with the turkey…TOO CUTE!! Happy Birthday to Zephan!!
That is SUPER adorable and worth every penny spent to make your little boy happy! His friends are going to love it, bravo! 🙂
Zephan! Mom did a great job on your Turkey! Too cute! The chex mix look yummy too! Happy Birthday Zeph Man!! Auntie Kim can’t wait to see you next week!~ Love you!
What is not to like about this snack? It looks so yummy! And adorable in those cones. Great idea.
Beth, I love that! How cute! And yes styrofoam is expensive! I’ll be picking some up myself tomorrow. Happy Birthday to your little Z-man. 🙂
Very cute idea! I’m sure the chex will be a hit 🙂 My daughter has Celiac too, she’s 13 now, but was diagnosed at 7.
Adorable project! I feel you with the gluten-free thing. Finding gf snacks that all kids will like is a tough one. I think Bob’s makes a pretty good chocolate cake mix for cupcakes if you don’t want to monkey with your own flour mix and Glutino’s chocolate covered pretzels are always a big hit. You can’t go wrong with apple slices and caramel dip during the fall either. Your chex mix looks delish! Thanks for sharing.
I haven’t tried Bob’s or the pretzels so thanks for the tips! The last snack I brought was apple slices and chocolate pb and it was a flop. Then the gf pumpkin rice krispie treats flopped with most of them coming back home. I’m so hoping this one doesn’t flop too!
This is awesome! You are obviously a very giving and loving mom; your boys are blessed indeed!
Made me smile real big!
Wish I could get a sample of the chex mix through the computer! It looks good!
Adorable! I love your mix of double-sided paper most of all. Isn’t it wonderful when our littles appreciate what we do for them? So sweet…
adorable. And yeah, what is up with styrofoam? is it made with gold? This looks great, but what I really noticed was your fridge; do you really have 3 shelves of space in your refrigerator? That. is. amazing.
LOL! Yes. I have a top shelf for milk, two shelves for eggs/leftovers, then a small drawer for lunch meat, another shelf and then two large drawers at the bottom for fruit and veggies.
Oh. My. Lord. Are you kidding me? This is absolutely adorable! I have quite the love affair with puppy chow, so you couldn’t have filled it with anything more perfect. 🙂 Great job!
So cute and love that it holds snacks!
These are adorable & you should get best treat mom award tomorrow for this one! I bet they will LOVE it! 🙂