Monthly contributor post from Jen at The Purposeful Mom:

Kettle corn is one of my favorite things to eat–I love the sweet and salty taste combined! Today I have a recipe for you that you can easily prepare with your kids that gives you that same taste combination! Sweet and Salty Fall Snack Mix is a perfect treat for eating at home, sending to school for snack time or giving as a simple gift.

This recipe is versatile. You can add different foods to suit your taste,use more or less of the syrup mixture and substitute chocolate covered pretzels or another ingredient for the candy corn to make it a Christmas treat or DIY gift!

Have your kids help you, but of course, use care when the oven is involved! 🙂

Sweet & Salty Fall Snack Mix

Ingredients:

• 9 cups corn cereal squares
• 4 cup popped popcorn
• 1 1/2 cups dry-roasted peanuts
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup or honey
• 1 tsp. vanilla (optional)
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. coarse salt (optional)
• 1 1/2 cups fall colored M&Ms
• 3/4 package of Brach’s Autumn Mix (candy corn, harvest corn, puffed pumpkins)

Instructions

Heat oven to 250F and spray or grease a large roasting pan or jelly roll pans.

Mix together popped popcorn, cereal and peanuts in a bowl. Pour into prepared pan.

Combine the brown sugar, butter and corn syrup or honey in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, constantly stirring. Once it comes to a boil, allow it to boil for about 5 minutes without stirring.

Remove from the stove and stir in the vanilla, salt (see note) and baking soda. Pour this over the cereal mixture and stir.

Bake for about 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes or so. As it cools, stir the mixture to break it apart. After it is completely cool, mix in the M&Ms and Autumn Mix. Stays fresh for about a week!

**Just as a note, I’ve had this with and without the added salt. Try the mix completely finished without the salt first, it may be salty enough anyway depending on what ingredients you use.

Optional mix-ins: Switch things up by using chocolate chips or red and green baking morsels instead of M&Ms, or bugles instead of corn cereal squares. Really anything  you want can be used to make this delicious snack. Enjoy!

Jenn is a daughter of the King, happily married to her college sweetheart and mom to four wonderfully spunky children. She spends her time taking care of her home and family, coaching a speech team, blogging and dreaming up more ideas than there are hours in the day. She shares her thoughts on staying debt free, raising children of character and living a life of intentional faith one day at a time at The Purposeful Mom.

Jenn is also the author of God’s Word in My Heart: A Scripture Learning Guide with Memory Verses.