Magic on Main Street: Chex Mix

I've been meaning to talk about this recipe ever since The Games of Enemies and Allies came out, but it required a field trip to the grocery store so I kept forgetting about it!

In the United States there is a specific type of breakfast cereal called "x Chex" where x is the type or flavor of Chex cereal. There are quite a few flavors to pick from at most grocery stores (see the photo below) but the classic three that matter for this recipe are Rice Chex, Corn Chex, and Wheat Chex. The poor Wheat Chex type has lost a lot of popularity with the need for gluten free products which I think is probably why in the photo below there are generic cereal versions for only Rice Chex and Corn Chex.

The original recipe that was created using this cereal is called "Chex Party Mix" (because it's using the "Chex" part from the name of the cereal). The Chex cereal box always has the official recipe printed on it - that's how popular it is!

As a side note in my experience I have heard people call this recipe a variety of names so I polled both Instagram and Facebook to ask what they called it, and the resounding answer was the slightly shortened "Chex Mix" although a surprisingly number of people called it "Trash" in their families!

This variety of names for the same recipe is also why I had Jade call it "Party Mix" in the book but her neighbor called it "Chex Mix". There is a completely different packaged snack mix in the United States called "Party Mix" so this can get pretty confusing!

But what is Chex Mix?

If you've never eaten this snack before I realize it can be hard to just look at a photo and imagine what it tastes like. The original recipe is savory in taste and the texture is mostly crunchy - here's the original recipe from the cereal brand's website.

The photo below is from @thewellreadpotato from my Street Team and the version of the recipe is her photo looks pretty close to the classic version, although there appears to be more butter being used than the "official" recipe. By the way, Chex Mix uses Worcestershire sauce which is why everything gets a brown coating on it. In the photo below those dark brown chunks in the middle of the pretzels are from the melted butter + Worcestershire sauce + spices that was poured onto the cereal and pretzels and then dried. Those dark brown chunk parts are the best and I remember fighting to get those pieces when I was a kid.

But the awesome thing about this recipe is there are a lot of options to customize it. It's very common for families to have their own customized version of this recipe that is an ongoing tradition.

For example, some people change the flavor a bit by by adding M and M candies to make it sweet, or adding flavored chips to give it a different savory taste. Other families just tweak the existing ingredients (my family uses a LOT more butter compared to the official recipe which would mean all the cereal and other ingredients get more of a buttery coating on them). There is even a completely different recipe that still uses Chex cereal with powder sugar, chocolate, and peanut butter called Muddy Buddies.

The end result is Chex Mix is a very well know snack in the United States even though most people don't eat it very often, but it also typically generates a nostalgia feeling for most people (and their custom family version) so it was a perfect recipe for Jade to attempt!

Magic on Main Street Smoothies!

Everyone loved the blog post with Greyson's Hot Chocolate Recipe from the Pack of Dawn and Destiny series, so I wanted to do something similar for smoothies since those are Jade's beverage of choice in the Magic on Main street series.

I don't have a specific recipe to share but instead I'm going to share some of my top tips with you! If you weren't aware, I've had a lot of teeth procedures from 2021-2024 and all of them required me to go on a liquid/very soft foods only diet afterwards. Because of this I explored a lot of different smoothie options and the smoothies Jade makes in the Magic on Main Street series are based on my own personal testing. (It's also why Jade has a lot of veggie/fruit smoothies instead of dessert smoothies. I ate copious amounts of ice cream and popsicles during my liquid diets, so for my smoothies I focused on trying to get fruits, veggies, and protein. I used a lot of yogurt and peanut butter.) Tip # 1: Make sure you have the right equipment. You need a really good blender if you are going to make smoothies - make sure your blender is capable of crushing ice even if you aren't going to use ice cubes (see next tip). I eventually upgraded to a Ninja Fit Blender which I don't love enough to say I'm a "super fan" but it does do a better job of crushing up the frozen stuff compared to the regular blender I was using before. A wooden spoon with a long handle is also great if you need to dig around in the blender (the spinach is the biggest culprit of this). Tip # 2: Use frozen cucumbers or carrots instead of ice cubes. I don't like watery smoothies, so instead of using ice cubes I cut cucumbers into slices and put them side by side in a baggie (like cookie dough on a baking sheet) and froze them. The reason why you have to put them flat and side by side is so they don't stick together - otherwise you will end up with a giant blob of frozen cucumbers and you would need an industrial blender to break up. I used cucumbers as my based because they don't have a super strong flavor on their own. Special note: You can also freeze carrots and use them instead of cucumbers! To save time, buy shredded carrots and toss them in the freezer, but make sure you blend them well in the smoothie  as the first step, or you'll have gritty bits like Jade occasionally had. Neither cucumbers or carrots will give your smoothie a very strong flavor, which is why I usually chose to make a base with one of these two veggies. Though if you use a lot of these for your base, and a lot of spinach, it will feel like you're eating an iced salad, sooooo keep that in mind. Tip # 3: Use whatever other frozen ingredients you can instead of fresh ingredients. Similar to tip # 2, to avoid having to use ice I would use frozen fruit whenever possible instead of fresh fruit because it meant I didn't have to use ice, and most frozen items shatter so they pulverize better than fresh items (fresh items tend to mush). You don't have to buy them frozen either, I cut up so many bananas and froze them flat just like the cucumber slices so they would blend up well. Special note: The amount of fruit you use directly impacts how delicious your smoothie is! The more fruit you use, the sweeter and more delicious your smoothie will be! Tip # 4: Spinach doesn't change the flavor much but it will probably change the color to green (which turns an unappetizing gray when frozen).  I love spinach and I added a LOT of spinach to my smoothies but yeah, just a word of warning that combining spinach with most fruits is going to make your smoothie grey or brown-grey if you freeze it after making it, and even if you don't freeze it, it will turn bright green. This situation happens to Jade in the Magic on Main Street series since like me she was trying to pack spinach into her smoothies. Tip # 5: Frozen pineapple + sweetened condensed milk = a Dole Whip dupe! When I was sick of my veggie packed smoothies and I didn't want ice cream, I'd treat myself to a homemade version of the famous Disney Land/Disney World treat, a dole whip! The internet has hundreds of recipes that you can use for reference, but after a lot of experimenting I found the magic ingredients are FROZEN pineapple (it must be frozen!!) and sweetened condensed milk, so watch for recipes that contain those two specific ingredients!

Kitty's basic smoothie process:

1. Start with the frozen cucumbers or carrots and pulverize/blend--it becomes powdery, like veggie snow.

2. Add fruit as desired and blend (some ideas of what I've used: bananas, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, and avocados (but not all at the same time!))

3. Add some milk so you can mix the ingredients--since I didn't ever use ice which waters the smoothie down, my smoothies would be THICK, which some blenders might not be able to handle, so you might need to add milk throughout the process.

4. Add spinach

5. Add other desired ingredients (examples: peanut butter, maple syrup/sugar, chocolate chips, or Greek yogurt)

6. Blend and add additional milk to make it less thick if needed.

7. If sad, make a Dole Whip Dupe. ;) There you go, Champions! This has been, "Kitty's Guide to Not Starve While on a Liquid Diet If You're Sick of Soup." If you have a smoothie recipe and you'd like to share it, post it in the comments down below! Until next week, thanks for reading!

Greyson’s Hot Chocolate Recipe

Since Hazel was a tea drinker and Leila was a coffee drinker, I knew for Pip I wanted something different, which is why I chose to give her an obsession for hot chocolate!

Greyson is an excellent mate, and in Fated he admits that he learned how to make homemade hot chocolate specifically for her. I went through a lot of recipes in figuring out what ingredients he needed and I tried a few recipes myself, but I was more than a little surprised at all the requests I got for Greyson’s recipe, so here it is!

Ingredients:

• Approximately 1 cup milk of your choice (Whole or 2% cow milk will make for a creamier, richer taste, but if you REALLY want a rich flavor, add some cream or half and half)

• Sugar (I use a large tbsp but you might want 2 tbsp depending on if you choose to add toppings and how sweet you like your drinks)

• Baking Cocoa Powder (A heaping tbsp, but again you can add more to adjust for your taste and based on the cocoa powder you use)

• Large pinch of Cinnamon

• Large pinch of Nutmeg

• Splash of Vanilla extract (I’m very generous with my vanilla–it smells soooo good–so I usually add two splashes.)

IMPORTANT NOTE: To get your hot chocolate to taste the best, you really want to focus on the kind of cocoa powder you use. Most recipes I came across recommend Dutch Cocoa–I bought mine at Penzey’s Spice–but I also used the Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa powder for baking, and that turned out fabulous as well. (I also made some with store brand baking cocoa powder. It was tasty, but the Ghirardelli and Dutch cocoa was definitely a big step up. If you don’t want to buy the fancy baking cocoa powder, I’d suggest you cheat and add in a few semi sweet chocolate chips to melt in the milk!)

Second note: Adjust the cinnamon and nutmeg to your taste–the less sugar you use the less spices you’ll want to use, or the nutmeg can make the chocolate taste slightly bitter. In general I’d say use more cinnamon than nutmeg–nutmeg is a very flavorful spice!

Heat the milk in a saucepan on the stovetop–don’t let it boil or it will get this gross skin on it–and stir near constantly. Once it warms to a drinking temperature you want, stir in all of the above ingredients.

I personally think it tastes best when topped with whipped cream and/or marshmallows! (Especially whipped cream because then you can add sprinkles or chocolate or caramel drizzle if you’re feeling fancy!) But Greyson is not going to stretch his cooking skills, so he typically gives it to Pip without anything extra. (Unless he needs to apologize for something. Then out come the sprinkles!)

Does anybody have homemade hot chocolate recipes they’d like to share in the comments? I was astounded by the huge varieties in recipes I found when I was doing my research, but as I experimented I realized it mostly comes down to personal taste! If you are curious about the other recipes I found I linked to most of them on this Pinterest board.