Sweet Orange Fox

Happy almost-Halloween, everyone! We are enjoying some spooky storms on this Halloween Eve, and I am counting the minutes until tonight when we are FINALLY carving our pumpkins. Better late than never, I suppose. It has been a crazy several days since Trent's party..full of cleaning, recovering, working and trying to figure out what in the world is up with our baby boy. When he woke up from his nap with a big smile today, it finally hit me...because there was a big, shiny MOLAR staring right back at me! He must have been working on it these past few days, and it has finally popped through! Don't get too excited, though. We checked the other side, and there is another just scraping the surface. Yikes. Looks like we are in for a long week.

That being said...my Wednesday wish list this week is simple:

1. A maid
2. A nanny
3. Sleep
4. Another maid

At least the clocks go back this weekend, so I will get an hour of extra sleep! Maybe. As for the rest of the list, I think I'll just have to keep on wishing!

I also wanted to share the monster munch recipe for everyone that asked. It is just a super simple Chex/popcorn mix that is floating around everywhere online lately in slightly varied recipes, and for good reason! It is so yummy and can be changed to fit any theme or holiday. I have made at least six batches this Halloween, and I am already planning a Thanksgiving and Christmas version (maybe with some peppermint swirled in there...ooohhh). Here is what you need to start:

-A cookie sheet/pan with sides
- Foil
- Rice Chex
- Pretzel sticks
- White chocolate or vanilla flavored melting chocolate
- WHITE POPCORN (super important...find just plain old white popcorn..NO butter. This was about the only kind I could find..and brace yourself...they do NOT carry it at Target. I know. My letter is in the complaint box)
- Candy corn
- M&Ms
- Sprinkles


I wish I had done step-by-step photos, but it is honestly so super easy you could do it with your eyes closed. I will take pictures on the next batch.

1. Line your pan with foil. This keeps it from sticking and makes clean-up a breeze.

2. Pop a bag of popcorn.

3. Spread a layer of Rice Chex, a layer of popcorn and a layer of pretzel sticks in your pan. Don't fill the pan too high, or you won't have room to 'toss' the mix with the chocolate. Just eyeball the quantities. Usually I am not a huge fan of the pretzels in these kinds of mixes, but don't skimp on them here! They are possibly the best part. If anything, I would go heavier on pretzels and Chex and a tiny bit lighter on the popcorn.

4. Melt the chocolate. I found that about one full package pictured above was enough for one pan of monster munch.

5. Pour the chocolate evenly over the mix, and toss with a large spoon to coat everything well. Don't toss too long, because the chocolate will harden FAST!

6. Quickly sprinkle your sprinkles, M&Ms and candy corn over the entire mix while the chocolate is still wet/sticky. DO NOT TOSS again after this, or you will coat all the fun colors in white chocolate!

7. Let the chocolate fully harden and cool about 10 minutes. Scoop out the mix and break apart very gently. I found that a large plastic spatula worked best for this step.

8. ENJOY! And make sure you made like five batches at once, because it disappears faster than you can imagine.

We have a jar out that I am constantly refilling and gave little bags of it as favors for Trent's party. We also dropped some off to some friends, family, neighbors, Trent's doctors and some other special people. We tied on some plastic vampire teeth to fit the "monster munch" theme, but those all got snagged first! 


Hope you enjoy! It is so fun, so easy, so quick and so yummy. And the Christmas/peppermint bark version will be the perfect companion to some hot chocolate. I can NOT even wait. 

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