This past weekend I was volunteered to host a movie night. By that I mean my friend planned it and then told me we were doing it at my house. Don't get me wrong, I love movie nights, but a little heads up would have been nice. My roommate and I had no treats! So I decided that we should make Puppy Chow or as it is more commonly known, Muddy Buddies. (I'm not really sure why it's called puppy chow, maybe it looks like dog food? Luckily it doesn't taste like dog food!) I have had this yummy treat in the past but I've never made it. I've told you all before that cooking/baking isn't really my forte, but this recipe is so easy it's really hard to mess up. Don't believe me? Well I'll tell you what I did and how it turned out and then if you want to give it a try you can use the original recipe below! Puppy Chow really is a quick, yummy treat that is sure to please!

First let's go over what you'll need!

•   9 Cups of Chex cereal. For my version I used 5 cups of regular or rice Chex and then 4 cups of wheat Chex. In hindsight, I think I would have replaced the wheat cereal with rice cereal or chocolate Chex. It tasted good but the wheat Chex are a little crunchier than the rice Chex.
•   1 cup of chocolate chips. The recipe calls for semisweet chocolate chips, but I'm sure any sort of chocolate would taste great! You could probably get away with adding a little more or leaving a little of the chocolate out.
•   1/2 cup peanut butter. The recipe doesn't specify which type of peanut butter, crunchy or creamy, to use. I picked crunchy for two reasons. 1) I like the crunchy kind better, and I wanted to add a little crunch to the mix and 2) it was the only kind of peanut butter I had.
•   1/4 cup butter or margarine, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar. I would stick to what the recipe says for these ingredients!
•   Some bowls, Tupperware, 2-gallon baggies, and wax paper.

Here's how to make it! So easy and fast, it takes about 15 minutes to do everything.

  First measure out the cereal and put it in some kind of container large enough to stir in.

  Then melt the chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter in the microwave until it can be easily stirred. Start with a minute and then add 30 seconds if more time is needed. One word of caution: if using chunky peanut butter, don't mistake the chunks of peanut butter for un-melted chocolate. I may have done this...

  Once you've melted everything together, remove from the microwave and add the vanilla. Stir and then pour the chocolaty mixture over your cereal. It might look like you have too much cereal and not enough chocolate, trust me you have enough! I suggest using two wooden spoons to mix everything together.

  After you've coated all of the cereal pretty evenly, place it into a 2-gallon baggie, or if you're like me and don't have those, a big Tupperware with a lid. Add the powdered sugar, close the lid, and shake to coat the cereal. If you want to save a little time, try mixing the cereal and the chocolate in a bowl with a lid, so then you can just add the powdered sugar and shake.

  Once you've mixed everything pour the Puppy Chow onto some waxed paper to cool. I didn't have any wax paper, so I covered a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and let it cool there. (My roommate and I had some while it was warm and it tasted great!) The aluminum foil made for an easy clean up. Once the Puppy Chow had cooled I just lifted the corners of the foil and transferred into a bowl for serving. If you aren't serving right away place in an airtight container and store in the fridge. It's an easy cleanup!

  Enjoy! This is such a great treat to make for a bunch of hungry people at an impromptu movie night, or parties, showers, or as an after school snack!

There you go! My take on how to make this yummy dish! One added bonus of Puppy Chow is that it can easily be made as a gluten-free treat as well. Most Chex cereal is gluten-free and you can find the rest of ingredients in gluten-free form too.

There are so many ways to get creative with your Puppy chow! My friend likes to add sliced almonds, coconut, and M&M's to her recipe. It tastes great! I think you could add basically anything you like and it would turn out amazing. If you want some inspiration, I'm sure you could use Cook'n to find a Puppy Chow recipe to your liking!

Like I said this was my first time making this treat, and although it might not look as good as the recipe below, it was a big hit. The next time I need something quick I'll be making this!

Okay here's the original recipe (below)! If you have any yummy variations you think I should try next time, leave a comment!