Pecan Carmel Popcorn Mix

Pecan Caramel Popcorn Mix

I made this for a Christmas snack and it was delicious. It would be equally as good for Super Bowl! I can’t remember where I found the recipe. I had printed it off and unfortunately the print out didn’t have an identifying website. Veggie Hubby loved it as well, in fact I mixed this popcorn mix in with the other goodies in my cookies boxes and Veggie Hubby picked it all out.

You do need to set aside a time where you will be at home for a little while because it takes an hour in the oven to make this. Its well worth the time 🙂

Pecan Caramel Popcorn Mix

Ingredients

• 12 cups popped popcorn
• 3 cups pecan halves
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/3 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

1. Heat oven to 200F.
2. Place popcorn and pecans in large roasting pan (I covered mine in nonstick aluminum foil)
3. Heat brown sugar, butter, corn syrup and salt in a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally until bubbly around edges.
4. Continue cooking 5 minutes over medium heat without stirring; remove from heat.
5. Stir in baking soda until foamy
6. Pour sugar mixture over popcorn, toss until evenly coated.
7. Bake 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
8. Spread on a large sheet of wax paper or parchment paper. Cool completely, at least 30 minutes
9. Store in airtight container.

Do you have any snack mixes you like? What is your favorite?

What food should I make for the Super Bowl?

Seattle Seahawks vs New England Patriots

With the Super Bowl next Sunday, you are probably asking yourself the question “What food should I make for my Super Bowl Party?”  And if you have people coming over you probably have some that are vegetarian or gluten free or just plain picky (I fall in that category :)).  So I thought I would create a list of the recipes I have already shared on my blog that may come in handy for the big game.

First off no Super Bowl is complete without some really good chili, especially if you are in a cold climate like we are.  So here are my recipes for chili.  One is vegetarian and one is full of beef. Both are delicious and easy to make and of course gluten free. Make the day before and the flavor will be awesome!

• Award winning Beef Chili
• Award winning Vegetarian Chili (Veggie Hubby approved)

Of course you need some finger food heres some good choices to make everyone happy.  And for the salad if you put in fake bacon the meat eaters won’t even know.

Great vegetarian snacks.

• Vegetarian Pinwheels 
• Almond & Mandarin Orange Salad
• Gluten Free Pizza (Paleo)
• Black Bean Quesadilla  
• Grilled Veggie Shish Kabobs 

And finally you need some sweets stuff to go with the chips.  Here’s some of my favorites.  No big surprise that most of them have chocolate as an ingredient!

Great sweet snacks for the party.

• Gluten Free Chocolate No Bake Oatmeal Cookies (one of my favorites)
• Gluten Free Chocolate Macaroons
• Gluten Free Baked Goods from Mixes
• Gluten Free Homemade Almond Joys
• Caramelized Pecans

What are your favorite Super Bowl treats?  Please share in the comments below.

Gluten Free Baked Goods or Snack Mixes

Glutino Brownies with Chocolove Chocolate Chips

All but two of the gluten free goodies I made for Christmas were homemade.  The two that were not from scratch, sugar cookies and brownies were both from the brand Glutino.  These mixes were both very easy to make and turned out to be very delicious.

For the brownies I followed the directions and took their suggestion and added chocolate chips.  My favorite chocolate chips are from Chocolove, which I’ve posted on this blog before in other recipes. Veggie Hubby really liked the brownies.  In fact he picked all of them out of the cookie boxes I made but didn’t give away.

For the sugar cookies I also followed the directions. I made half of them plain and the other half I rolled the balls in cinnamon sugar.  Veggie Hubby liked the cinnamon sugar ones the best, so next time I will be making all of the cookies by rolling the balls in cinnamon sugar.

Glutino Sugar Cookies half plain; half rolled in cinnamon sugar before being baked

I’ve tried many mixes over the last two years and the two I like the best are Glutino and Lillibee.  I buy both at Whole Foods.  I like the Lillabee brownies, but we liked the Glutino ones better.  Lillabee has a very good mix for muffins!

Have you tried either of these mixes?  Do you have any gluten free mixes you like?  Which ones?  Please list in the comments below.  I’m always looking for good snacks to make at home.

Glutino Brownies

Glutino Sugar Cookies

Gluten Free Christmas Goodies aka Cookie Day!

Holiday Cookies – Gluten Free

Yesterday was one of my favorite days of the year, Cookie Day! I love to bake and there are so many really good Gluten Free recipes. I spent the day baking all kinds of fun treats. In the picture you can see from top to bottom, left to right – Girl Scout Samoa’s, brownies, Chocolate macaroons, peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, homemade almond joys, chocolate sugar cookies, sugar cookies (some with cinnamon sugar), ginger shortbread cookies, chocolate oatmeal no bake cookies, mounds cookies.

Some of these cookies I made last year and if you click on the link you can see the recipes from the blog posts from last year.  I will post the other recipes in upcoming blog posts.

I also made caramelized pecans and a new recipe for me for Pecan Carmel Pop Corn Mix.  So far everything has been yummy.  Still mine and Veggie Hubby’s favorite are the homemade almond joys. This year I did make them smaller than last year and ended up with 25 total.

Holiday Cookies – Gluten Free

This picture is the gifts I made up for friends and family so I could share all the yummy treats. Please let me know if something peaks your interest and I will share that recipe sooner than later.

Some of the recipes use no refined sugar and I actually used cane sugar for those that called for refined white sugar.

The chocolate macaroons was a new recipe.  The link for the recipe I used last year is broken, so I will share the new recipe here in my next post.

Please share in the comments some of your favorite holiday treats!

Pecan Carmel Pop Corn Mix

Caramelized Pecans

An old favorite – Kind Bars

Kind Bars

We discovered Kind Bars a couple of years back when we were looking for snacks with lower sugar. I also like them because they travel well (i.e. don’t melt or become crumbs!).  We like several flavors.  My all time favorite is Almond & Coconut.  Its like an Almond Joy without the chocolate.  I also like Blueberry Pecan and Apple Cinnamon & Pecan.

We recently discovered the Maple Glazed Pecan & Sea Salt.  Its especially good because it has a lower sugar count.

Veggie Hubby likes Mango Macadamia, Blueberry Pecan and Apple Cinnamon & Pecan.  He doesn’t eat as many of these now because he isn’t suppose to have almonds and most of the flavors have almonds.

We will definitely have a few of these in our bag for our upcoming hike of the Grand Canyon.

Have you tried Kind Bars?  if so, what is your favorite flavor?