Pokemon Go Sweet & Salty Snack Mix - with Pikachu and Mini Pokeballs

Are you into the Pokemon craze like we are? The kids and I have such a fun time playing it.  What's not to love - super cute Pokemon characters, augmented reality, gamification and exercise!

We walk around catching Pokemon, hitting Pokestops, and battling in gyms - and bonus - we talk to each other about neat topics while doing all this.  It's actually a great way to do something fun with the kids (and something they like just as much).  

If you have kiddos all into Pokemon Go, then this cereal snack mix will be a hit.  It's sweet and salty and seriously addicting.

The Pokeballs are made from yogurt covered pretzel balls.  

Dip half into melted red candy wafers 

Add the rest of the detail with melted black candy wafers and use a round white sprinkle as the center

The tiny Pikachu heads are made with Corn Pops cereal, red and black sprinkles.  Yellow melted candy wafer was used to attach everything together and black edible marker for ear, nose, and mouth.

And because regular Pokeballs were not enough - I also made Great Pokeballs. 

You know just in case you have a really tough Pokemon to catch!

You can throw it all into a bowl and let everyone dive in....

OR serve in individual cups!

This sweet and salty cereal mix would make a great addition to any Pokemon party or if you need to restore your energy after a long afternoon of pokemoning!

PS In case you are wondering I'm currently Level 15 - 105410 XP and Team Mystic!

Pokemon Go Cereal Snack Mix

by Michelle Clausen August-14-2016

Ingredients

• 5 cups of Crispix cereal
• 1 cup of Corn Pops cereal
• 2 cups of pretzels
• 1 cup of raisins and/or dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup agave syrup
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• For pokeballs: yogurt coated pretzel balls, red, blue, and black candy wafers, round pearl sprinkles
• For pikachu: Corn pop cereal, red and black round sprinkles, yellow candy wafers, black edible writing marker

Instructions:

1. Combine 1st 4 ingredients in large bowl.
2. Combine butter, syrup, brown sugar, salt in bowl and microwave 1 minute until melted.  
3. Add baking soda and vanilla and microwave another 30 seconds.
4. Add to bowl with cereal and mix well.  Spread onto backing sheet to dry.
5. For Pokeballs: Melt some red or blue candy melts in small bowl in microwave in 20 second intervals until candy is just melted.  Insert toothpick into bottom of pretzel ball and dip 1/2 into candy.  Let harden 10 minutes. Melt black candy melt in microwave and add to a freezer bag.  Snip one small corner and pipe the black detail onto ball (use picture of pokeball as guide).  While black candy is still wet attach white ball sprinkle to center.  Do the same for blue great balls except use blue melted candy wafers and add 2 red lines on top of ball with melted red candy wafers.
6. For Pikachu: Find the right sized Corn pop cereral for the head.  Cut 2 small ears out of the cereal for each head.  Melt yellow candy melt in microwave and add to a freezer bag. Snip one small corner and use it to attach the ears to the head. Let harden.  Use more melted yellow candy to attach red and black sprinkles.  Add mouth, nose, and ear detail with black edible writing marker.
7. Add pokeballs and pikachus to snack mix before serving.  Store in airtight container.

Prep time: 60 mins Assemble time: 10 mins Total time: 70 mins Yield: 8 cups of cereal mix

Mini Fudge Retro Atari Joysticks

Did you know September 13 is National Video Game Day?? Actually it seems like everyday is video game day around our place - that's the activity of choice these days for my kiddos.  It's always a battle with screen time as my 11 year old could stay on all day if I let him.

I mean we had video games too, I grew up in the 80s, but nothing like what the gamers have today.  I even dug up our old Atari game system - wood paneling and all! Remember those old joysticks? They broke all the time and gave you hand cramps but they were all we had.  They also had 1 button.  I repeat ONE BUTTON.  There were not 10 different buttons that you could push in different combos to get the game to do different things - one button and the joystick was all we had.  Maybe life was simpler back then.  OK now I sound old!

Well I recreated those old joysticks in fudge form - to show my kiddos how good they have it now! They agreed eating them is way better than using them for games!

For the details on how to make 'em, head over to sheknows here!

Thanks for stopping by and have an AWESOME week!

mahjong cupcakes...!

...all i know about the game is you yell out out a random....2 bam!....or 4 crack!.....or that's what it sounds like....no idea how to play but thought these came out really cute....

.....so had a request this week from our tenant...aka mother in law....who hosts a mahjong get together with the "ladies" every so often......thought the designs on the tiles could be tough....but gave it a try anyway.....started with these.....

.....which is just tinted red, green, and vanilla cake batter...layered and swirled with the colors......kinda christmas-y too....right....?

....the tiles are fondant....not my fav to work with.....but had some leftover and it really worked out for making the tiles.....(btw-don't know how people dye their own fondant...because that must take for days to do to get a really deep color...not fun)....anyway....added a smidge of kelly green food gel to get the nice light green color...it actually matched the color of the tiles really well.....

....the designs were piped with royal icing....thick enough to pipe to keep the design without running...it was a little too thick though and it was hard to pipe through my smallest diameter tip....so it was a little thicker design than i wanted....think it was a wilton #2....


...the fondant tiles with the red, white, and green cupcakes looked really neat.....so even tho you may be a little skeptical of a "project" working out....it may work out better than you think....!

.....anyone play mahjong...?....according to wikipedia....aka the all knowing.....confucious came up with the game...is that true.....?!!...if so that's pretty awesome.....

p.s. i can only take my pics at nite and the shadows are killing me...any suggestions would be appreciated for lighting that makes it look like natural light....! (will be googling that soon....but if anyone has any ideas or websites that would help.....please let me know :) THANKS.