Veganized Puppy Chow

      PUPPY CHOW!!!!! Who doesn't love it? When I was younger, my mom and I made batches and batches of puppy chow for all of my aunts and uncles for Christmas.  Admittedly, I hadn't made puppy chow for YEARS, and all of a sudden, -BAM!- I had a hankering for the chocolatey, peanut-buttery Crispix-y goodness. 

   So, off to the grocery store I went. Since overcoming and recovering from Susac Syndrome almost three years ago, I have tried to go vegan in my diet as much as possible, but it's hard being vegan in Montana, where there's really no specialty stores anywhere near me. (There is one in Miles City, about an hour and fifteen minutes away, but who has the time?) Luckily, there are food items in your own hometown grocery store that are vegan; they just don't advertise as such. 

   So instead of making the old-school Puppy Chow recipe, I did what I usually do with all recipes: I veganized it. 


   With Puppy Chow, really the only non-vegan ingredient were the chocolate chips, which don't count as vegan because the recipe calls for "milk-chocolate" chocolate chips. But the grocery store in town, Albertsons, carries Bakers brand chocolate. 

   I love Bakers brand, because they are the only non-vegan brand of chocolate that doesn't use milk or eggs in their products, which is something I learned years ago from a friend of mine whose daughters had food allergies like you wouldn't believe. She swore by Bakers. 

   Other than that, all the ingredients were the same. Here's the recipe, (although I didn't measure anything) 

      1 1/2 C. all-natural, organic peanut butter
      2 boxes (16 squares) Bakers brand semi-sweet chocolate
      1 bag of Powdered Sugar (I used Albertson's brand)
      1 box Crispix cereal


      Empty the box of Crispix into a large bowl (We didn't have a big enugh bowl so I used a roasting pan). 
Using a double broiler, melt the chocolate squares until the chocolate squares become smooth, creamy chocolate goodness. 
      While you're waiting for the chocolate to melt down, (which won't take long, I promise), melt the peanut butter in the microwave.  (For the love of God, please microwave for 20 seconds, then stir, then microwave for 20 seconds, and so on. My husband didn't know to do that and burned the peanut butter while he was helping make this). 
      When both the cocolate and peanut butter are melted,  stir the two together, and then pour over the top of the Crispix cereal.  Stir until the cereal is fully coated.
      With the cereal fully coated in the chocolate/peanut butter mix, pour into a paper (or double plastic) bag. Pour bag of powdered sugar into the bag on top of the cereal. 
      Make sure the bag is sealed tightly shut, and shake it until all the chocolate pieces are covered with powdered sugar. Lay out on the counter or a flat surface to cool, then store in a bowl or plastic bag, depending on when the puppy chow will be eaten.

 

     

       When I was younger making puppy chow for Christmas with my mom, we put all the puppy chow into individual Ziploc baggies to distribute to relatives. Now, I put my puppy chow in a serving bowl because I know that it needs no storage. It didn't last long in the bowl, either--my boys ate it all in 45 minutes.   Since it was veganized, I didn't even mind! :-)