This is one of my favorite snacks!  It’s really my mom’s genius recipe… she has been making it for as long as I can remember.  Movie nights as a kid, long car trip snacks, game night treats, party treats, or just because treats!  I always loved them and have many great memories eating them!  Later I began making them for my roommates at college and even later for my own family.

It’s easy to make and is seriously so good!  Perfect game time snack!  I couldn’t resist making it with Easter m&m’s!

Chewy M&M Chex Mix
1/2 box Golden Grahams cereal
1/2 box Honey Nut Chex cereal
2 cups shredded coconut
1 cup slivered almonds
1 bag m&m’s (any kind you like)
1 stick butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup Karo syrup

***Mix cereal, coconut, and almonds in the largest mixing bowl you can.  Melt butter, karo syrup,and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat.  Bring to a boil stirring constantly.  Let it boil for at least two minutes, but keep stirring.  Poor over cereal mixture and mix using a strong spoon.  After a minute, dump in m&m’s and keep mixing.  I always add the m&m’s a minute later so that they don’t melt.  My mom would tell you to keep stirring until the mixture cools, but I cheat!  Once it is all combined well I spread it out on the counter on top of some parchment paper or tinfoil to cool.  These keeps it from getting all stuck together in one giant ball.

**Update**

I just made the Christmas version of this recipe!  Check out the colors!

You guys are going to love this!  In preparation for a movie night, I started making some chewy caramel popcorn from a recipe I have used a few times before.  It’s a simple recipe, but I was multi-tasking as mom’s tend to always be doing.  I mean really, since I have had kids have I ever been able to just do one task without simultaneously doing or thinking about several other things at once?!?!?!

Anyway, as I was making this yummy caramel to pour over the popcorn I didn’t quite have my head in the game.  I poured the sauce over the popcorn and started mixing, turned around and saw my key ingredient sitting on the counter unopened.  Dang!  It was too late to add it since it was supposed to be cooked in the saucepan before being poured over the popcorn. I am very happy to report that the popcorn was awesome anyway!  It was way different than the original recipe, but I loved it.  The caramel sauce didn’t quite cover all the popcorn leaving the salty butter portion exposed while still having the sweet caramel on some of it.   I am telling you, it is the perfect combination of sweet and salty!  So dang good that it didn’t last 10 minutes at my house between me and the kids.

I definitely plan to keep this recipe in the popcorn rotation!  It is too good not to!  Here is what I did…

Sweet and Salty Caramel Popcorn
Accidentally adapted from the-girl-who-ate-everything.com located here. 
1 bag of extra butter microwave popcorn
2.5 Tb of Butter
1/3 cup of light brown sugar
1/3 cup of light corn syrup

***Pop popcorn as usual.  Put the popcorn in a bowl, but make sure you remove all the unpopped kernels first.  Melt the butter in a small saucepan with the sugar and corn syrup.  Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook for a 2 to 3 more minutes. Stir with a spatula constantly.  The longer you cook the caramel, the harder it becomes.  I like mine semi-crunchy without being too hard so 3 minutes was perfect for me.  Pour the caramel over the popcorn and mix well.  Delicious!