Valentine's Puppy Chow - Sweets For Your Sweetie

If you want to make something sweet for your sweetie this Valentine's Day, try this great puppy chow recipe! Delicious Valentine's Puppy Chow puppy chow chex, also called muddy buddy, has amazing flavor and takes just nine simple ingredients. I’ll walk you through how to make puppy chow snack mix and you’ll wonder why you didn’t make it sooner!

When it comes to simple Valentine's Day desserts, you can't go wrong with this easy muddy buddy recipe. I mean, take a look at it—how can you deny this puppy chow mix recipe? Who wouldn't love this puppy chow recipe with M&Ms and Chex mix cereal combined? It's literally one of my favorite treats to eat.

And even though I might be a little biased because it's my puppy chow recipe, I can assure you that it's a delicious dessert that takes minimal time and effort.

No matter if you're wanting to keep this muddy buddy for yourself or share it with family and friends, you're going to totally love eating handful after handful of this amazing Valentine's Day dessert.

Valentine's Puppy Chow

One thing is for certain, there is more than one way to enjoy eating cereal. And while this puppy chow recipe might not be for breakfast, if you're an adult you can literally choose when you want to enjoy eating puppy chow chex. I've decided that one of the perks of being an adult means that you can enjoy your treats and sweets whenever you want!

Just know that this easy puppy chow recipe that isn't going to disappoint. Just combine the puppy chow ingredients, mix, and eat.

Is there another Valentines' Day treat out there that is easier than that?

Puppy Chow Mix Recipe

Once you’ve made this puppy chow chex dessert once, there's going to be no stopping you from making it all the time. And I love how this puppy chow recipe chex is so easy to change to other holidays and seasons throughout the year!

All you have to do is change the color of the M&Ms and sprinkles to easily make this dessert for Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, birthday celebrations, and more!

Holiday Color Guide

Here are just a few of the ways you can customize your puppy chow mix recipe to represent your favorite holidays!

Valentine’s Colors

Theming your puppy chow snack mix for Valentine’s Day is so easy! Simply choose red and pink M&Ms and sprinkles and you’re all set for romance.

Springtime

Once those long winter days are behind us we can’t wait to theme our dishes and desserts for spring and Easter! To accomplish this choose pastel colors to reflect the colors that surround us in nature during spring.

St. Patrick’s Day Muddy Buddy

There’s a special day each year where we commemorate the death date of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. How do we do this? By making sure we wear green and that all our food is green!

American Patriotic Celebrations

Use red, white and blue colors for American occasions such as Independence Day, Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Live in a different country? Just swap the red, white and blue out for your country’s colors.

Autumn Festivals

Between October and November use orange and black to really bring that festive feel. This works for Halloween, Thanksgiving and fall in general!

Christmas Puppy Chow

The classic Christmas colors are red and green, so you can’t go wrong by picking up a package of Christmas M&Ms and red and green sprinkles to make this popular festive treat.

Hanukkah Muddy Buddy

Choose blue and white colors if you’re theming your muddy buddy on Israel or Hanukkah celebrations.

Kwanzaa Colors

If you want to theme your puppy chow chex for Kwanzaa make sure to use black, red and green. Black for the people, red for their struggle and green for the future.

What is puppy chow?

If you’re not from the Midwest I know you’re wondering what it is!

No, it isn’t dog food. It’s a wonderful snack made by coating cereal in chocolate, peanut butter, vanilla, butter and dusted with powdered sugar.

Why is muddy buddy called puppy chow?

Well, the truth is, it gets its name from how it looks. See how it "kind of" resembles dog food being piled up high in a bowl? But trust me on this one, it does not TASTE like dog food. Push that thought right out of your mind because there is no dog food in the world that is going to be as awesome as this. And besides, you know it's not real dog food because dogs can't have chocolate!

What is the difference between puppy chow and muddy buddies?

For the most part, there really isn't any different between the two. Although depending on who is making it, you might find that they use a few different ingredients. You can swap out Chex for Crispix to make Crispix puppy chow, or you can swap out peanut butter for any type of seed or nut butter. But don't worry, that just gives you an excuse to try and discover every possible variation.

One important note, which should also give you deeper insight into this fun dessert’s namesake, is the same company created the cereal and the dog food, and now they even sell a pre-made version, Chex Mix Muddy Buddies!

Are the pieces starting to fall into place now?

Try these other great Chex Mix recipes

Chocolate Cake Chex Mix

Easy Chocolate Chex Mix

What is another name for puppy chow chex?

This sweet treat goes by so many names! Here are a few more names this recipe goes by.

• Muddy buddy
• Reindeer chow
• Monkey munch
• Muddy munch

How do you store muddy buddy once made?

All of the puppy chow ingredients are best when fresh, and it should have a crunch to it when you eat it. The only way to maintain that crunch is to store it in an airtight container. As long as you do that, you should be able to keep your chex mix puppy chow as fresh as possible for as long as possible.

But, let’s be honest, it's probably not going to last that long! When I make this recipe, there are NEVER leftovers

Puppy Chow Ingredients

As I mentioned earlier, this easy puppy chow recipe uses nine simple ingredients.

• Chex cereal
• Peanut butter or Nutella
• Butter
• Milk chocolate chips
• White chocolate chips
• Vanilla
• Powdered sugar
• Valentine M&Ms
• Valentine sprinkles

Puppy Chow Recipe Variations

If you’re wondering what other ways you can change up this puppy chow recipe, I’m here for it. I'm a fan of altering recipes and adding in things as my tastebuds tell me.

For starters, you can add in extra chocolate chips or peanut butter or even add some crushed up pretzel bites or spices.

One note of caution. When you start adding in other ingredients, it's going to change the flavor. So until you’re confident in your flavor palette, stay as true to the recipe as possible and slowly make recipe variations.

Here are a few more ideas for fun puppy chow recipe variations.

Snickerdoodle—add 4 teaspoon ground cinnamon to channel that great snickerdoodle taste.

Marshmallow—add 1 cup marshmallow fluff and plenty of rainbow sprinkles to create a fun variation.

Funfetti—add 1 ½ cups of funfetti or vanilla cake and sprinkles to make this arguably the best puppy chow.

Butterscotch—substitute your milk chocolate chips for butterscotch chips for this surprising treat that will cure your butterscotch craving.

Cinnamon Roll—substitute regular Chex cereal for cinnamon Chex, and add one packet of cinnamon roll frosting for a really fun flavor combination.

Puppy Chow Recipe Without Peanut Butter

The classic puppy chow chex uses melted peanut butter, which is poured over the cereal and tossed in powdered sugar. But if you want to try a puppy chow recipe without peanut butter, substitute vanilla instant pudding mix, Nutella or sunbutter for the peanut butter. Alternatively, you can simply skip the peanut butter and still have a super tasty treat.

Vegan Puppy Chow

To create a vegan version of the traditional puppy chow recipe, substitute these muddy buddy ingredients:

• Vegan butter
• Vegan chocolate chips
• And vegan rice or wheat square cereal

You can use regular peanut butter, vanilla extract and powdered sugar.

Christmas Puppy Chow

You can make delicious Christmas muddy buddy by following this easy puppy chow recipe and making two substitutions. Swap out the Valentine M&Ms for Christmas M&Ms (red and pink for red and green) and Valentine sprinkles for Christmas sprinkles (red and pink for red and green).

To make this sweet puppy chow recipe chex a bit healthier, here are two puppy chow recipe variations. They still taste great!

Trail mix

• 3 cups nuts
• ½ cup peanut butter
• ½ cup unsweetened chocolate
• 1 tablespoon butter or coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup sweetener
• 3 cups coconut flakes

Healthier recipe without peanut butter

• 3 cups Chex cereal
• ¼ cup nut butter
• ½ cup chocolate protein powder
• 2 tablespoon chia seeds
• 2 tablespoon hemp seeds
• 1 cup nuts
• 4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ⅓ cup powdered sugar

Fun Ways To Share This Valentine's Treat With Others

Giving a homemade gift for Valentine's Day is always a good idea. And whoever is going to receive this gift is going to love you more than ever before!

One batch of this puppy chow recipe will actually be a good gift for several people! Just get some really cute gift bags and scoop in a cup or two! Tie it with a tie and deliver. They'll love it!

You can also get a really adorable gift box and fill it with Valentine’s puppy chow.

Can you freeze homemade Chex mix?

You can freeze most things so if you have a batch of muddy buddy left over, just pop it in a freezer proof airtight container or baggie and put it in the freezer. It should last for about four to six months.

When you're ready to eat your puppy chow chex, just unthaw and enjoy! Some people actually like to eat it when it's frozen so you might want to try a nibble or two that way as well!

As you can tell, this recipe is going to be really popular for a number of different reasons. It's easy, it's delicious, it's fast, and it stays fresh for a really long time.

Bonus: it's also festive, fun and great to share with family and friends. This is the best puppy chow and it’s literally one of the best Valentine's Day treats, ever.

More Sweet Treats

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• BEST Chocolate Fudge Brownie Bundt Cake
• Instant Pot Gingerbread Cake with Maple Bourbon Frosting
• White Chocolate Brownie Cookies
• Apple or Blueberry Hand Pies

Easy Puppy Chow Video