Peanut-Free Puppy Chow

Would you believe I have never made puppy chow before? To be completely honest, before this year, I didn't even know what it was. And I only know this year because I finally googled it.  

Puppy chow, muddy buddies, monkey munch... whatever you call it, it looked delicious. But seeing as one of the primary ingredients in it is peanut butter, I filed it in the no-go category for our house.

But I couldn't forget about it.  And I wondered... I can't be the only person with a peanut allergy kid who wants to try this deliciousness... I bet...

Yup! Another quick google search later, and this beautiful recipe told me that you can easily substitute sunbutter for the peanut butter!  So today I went for it.

Chex cereal is what is usually used, but I used Life, since I have a huge, gigantic double-bag box of it.  The recipe called for four cups, but when I scooped out the four cups into my big bowl, I didn't think it looked like enough... so I increased everything in the recipe by 50% and used six cups. 

Cereal measured, it was time to make the coating - chocolate chips, butter and sunbutter. The recipe said to microwave the ingredients until they are all melty, but I chose to just melt everything in a medium saucepan over medium heat. It was just easier for me.

Once everything was all melted and all incorporated, just pour and mix!

And then make it snow. I mean, sprinkle liberally with powdered sugar.

Another round of mixing, and it's done!

All that's left to do is try to keep everyone's hands out of it.

Little man loved it. So did little miss when she came home from school. So did little miss's friend when she stopped over to play. This stuff is super addictive. I am glad I made the extra large batch... I can tell I'll be making this again!

Peanut-Free Puppy Chow

(from jellytoast, proportions increased from original)

6 cups of crunchy cereal (such as Life, Chex or Crispix)

3/4 cup of chocolate chips (whichever kind you like)

6 tablespoons of butter or margarine

6 tablespoons Sun Butter or other sunflower seed butter (or peanut butter if you don't have an allergy)

1 cup of powdered sugar

Place chocolate chips, butter and sunflower butter in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring regularly, until everything melts. Mixture should be nice and melty and well incorporated.

Pour cereal into a large bowl. Spoon melted chocolate mixture over cereal and toss to coat. This will take a few minutes to cover thoroughly. It works well to spoon the chocolate mixture on in batches and stir as you go. Once the cereal is well coated in the chocolate, sprinkle half of the powdered sugar over cereal mixture and toss gently. Sprinkle remaining sugar over mixture and toss to coat. Allow to cool. Store in an air tight container.

Enjoy!