Puppy Chow

There are certain foods that with just the mere mention of their name causes my husband to drool. Hot dogs, wings, baked French toast, German chocolate cake, etc. Puppy Chow is definitely one of the top 5 drool-worthy snacks in my husband's book. When Crispix was on sale a few weeks ago, I decided to buy a couple boxes so I could make a large batch of Puppy Chow to give out with some Christmas gifts and to also take to our parents' houses for munchies.

Puppy Chow, the sweet, distant cousin of Chex Mix, is typically some combination of Crispix, chocolate, peanut butter, butter and powdered sugar. I used this recipe from allrecipes. Now I made the full fat, not good for your hips version. But as I was making it, I was thinking to myself. If I were going to make this healthier, what could I do? I came up with a few options for you to try.

• Use solely wheat Chex, instead of Crispix, for higher fiber content.

• Use half as much butter, or try none at all. It might take a little experimentation as you still want it to be able to coat the cereal.

• Try natural peanut butter or almond butter instead of regular old creamy Jif.

• Add in dried cherries or raisins for fiber, vitamins and minerals.

• Use half as much chocolate or try with dark chocolate chips for antioxidants.

• If worse comes to worse - portion out small portions of this delicious treat into snack size ziplock bags to prevent possibly inevitable over-eating.

Merry Christmas!