# Nuts and Bolts



## Alix

OK Dina...here it is.

Fill a roaster with, chex, crispix, shreddies, pretzels, nuts of any type you like, cheerios, bugles...whatever turns your crank.

1/4 cup oil
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce (BIG tbsp!)

Melt these together, being careful not to over heat!

1 tbsp each:

seasoning salt
garlic powder
onion powder
celery salt

Pour oil mixture over your nuts and bolts, stirring with your hands. When all are well coated sprinkle sesoning mixture over all. Keep stirring! Bake at 250 for 2 hours or so. Stir every 15 minutes.


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## Dina

You're the best, Alix.  Thanks again, my friend.  I can't wait to try these too.  Seems like most of my home meals lately are from "Alix's recipes"....LOL.  I'm serious!  I made that amazing tangy chicken too many times now and your shrimp bisque was absolutely awsome!  Not to mention your brownies for Justin....heeheehee....he loves you already for that.  

Dina


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## Alix

Goes both ways Dina. Your wine chicken is a fan favourite here as are your wonderful buttermilk biscuits!


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## tancowgirl2000

Alix that Nuts 'N Bolts sounds just like my mommies....she used to make a really mean batch but then she switched recipes...took her forever to switch back...thanks for posting


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## Zhizara

I made this last year, and am ready to make it again.  The spices and quantities that Alix used worked perfectly for me.  

This year, in addition to multi grain Chex type cereal mix and mini pretzels, I'm adding honey roasted peanuts, raisins, and craisins.

Thanks again, Alix for a great recipe!  I found it a great evening snack that I don't need to feel guilty about.


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## Alix

Glad to help out. I found some Bugles this year and I'm going to add them in to my regular batch of stuff. I love those things!


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## pacanis

I've always wanted to try making my own.
Do they need to be spread in a single layer, Alix?


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## Alix

Not at all. I do mine in my turkey roaster. I fill it right up. I use a box of Crispix, Chex, Cheerios, a can of peanuts, a bunch of hazelnuts, pretzels, and sometimes mini shredded wheat and bugles. Mmmmmm! Can't wait to get going on these. 

PS, sorry it took me so long to answer, I got booted off the work computer and have only just now logged on to my own.


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## pacanis

Cool. If they don't need to be a single layer I should be able to make these in my CI DO. I don't have a roaster. I love these trail mix type of snacks.


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## CWS4322

Alix said:


> OK Dina...here it is.
> 
> Fill a roaster with, chex, crispix, shreddies, pretzels, nuts of any type you like, cheerios, bugles...whatever turns your crank.
> 
> 1/4 cup oil
> 1 tbsp butter
> 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce (BIG tbsp!)
> 
> Melt these together, being careful not to over heat!
> 
> 1 tbsp each:
> 
> seasoning salt
> garlic powder
> onion powder
> celery salt
> 
> Pour oil mixture over your nuts and bolts, stirring with your hands. When all are well coated sprinkle sesoning mixture over all. Keep stirring! Bake at 250 for 2 hours or so. Stir every 15 minutes.


 My mom always added  popcorn and used dry ranch dressing. This was in a big glass jar on top of the fridge...


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## Alix

pacanis said:


> Cool. If they don't need to be a single layer I should be able to make these in my CI DO. I don't have a roaster. I love these trail mix type of snacks.



If your CI DO is the same size as mine, you will get 1 1/2 batches out of that seasoning mix.


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## Alix

Mine are in the oven right now. I modified a bit:

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup oil
2-3 tbsp worcestershire

Seasoning mix was the same.

I did:
cheerios (half box)
spanish peanuts (2 cups)
regular peanuts (3 cups)
almonds (3 cups)
rice chex (half box)
crispix (whole box)
bugles (half bag)
pretzels (2 cups or so)

Its baking now and smells delicious. I suspect this batch won't make it out of the house.


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## pacanis

My batch is still on the shelves of Walmart 
From what I've seen (I don't buy much bagged snack food), their prices are a _lot_ better that the regular grocery stores. Throwback or something they call it? And I know their cereal prices are. Next trip to Walmart people will think I'm a snacking fool   Maybe I'll buy some variety packs for the snack's part so I don't have a bunch of half bags laying around.


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## Alix

You could do the whole bag, I just wanted to save some for the next batch. I make at LEAST two batches of this stuff every year. I KNOW I don't put crack in it, but the stuff is as addictive as any street drug I swear!


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## pacanis

I could do the whole bag? So it has a pretty good shelf life? Longer than the original products?
And I know I could probably blow through 3 lbs of this stuff in a week, I just don't want to, lol.


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## Alix

It has a longer shelf life. I put it in tins and hide it at the back of the cupboard. Lost one til summer once! It was a great treat. Here's mine just coming out of the oven.


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## pacanis

Super! I love a long shelf life.
Along with all the snack foods I better pick up some more tupperware ;^)

Looks like a good mixture there for sure.


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## Zhizara

pacanis said:


> Super! I love a long shelf life.
> Along with all the snack foods I better pick up some more tupperware ;^)
> 
> Looks like a good mixture there for sure.



I just pour into gallon zip baggies.  It keeps perfectly.

Alix.  I commend you for not changing the seasoning.  It's just perfect the way it is.


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## Alix

Thanks Zhizara, I agree. I felt like I needed more stuff for the seasoning to stick to though. I didn't add great bunches, but it helped to make everything even. I've had clumps of very salty bits from time to time, and this year everything is pretty even so far. Batch #2 is on the stove waiting for me to go get more onion powder. *forehead slap*


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## CWS4322

Because I'm such an idiot, I didn't have the seasonings. I added corn chips and pop corn. I used Planters Party mix peanuts and cashews. My seasonings are chilpolte chili, cumin, parsley,onion powder, dried Meyer lemon peel (ground to a powder) and a few dashes of hot sauce. Everything is in the roaster...we'll see.


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## bakechef

my mom always made her chex mix in her turkey roaster, she would make a couple batches every christmas.  Last year I bought all the stuff for her to make it when she came to visit, she had a couple glasses of wine first and ended up using the TABLESPOON measure instead of the teaspoon, and kept shoveling in the season salt,   That was some salty stuff!

I think I'll try your recipe this year.


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## CWS4322

CWS4322 said:


> Because I'm such an idiot, I didn't have the seasonings. I added corn chips and pop corn. I used Planters Party mix peanuts and cashews. My seasonings are chilpolte chili, cumin, parsley,onion powder, dried Meyer lemon peel (ground to a powder) and a few dashes of hot sauce. Everything is in the roaster...we'll see.



This is what it looked like when I was done. I have to stop eating it so I can send some to my folks with the cookies. My mom also used to do seasoned oyster crackers....


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## pacanis

Alix said:


> OK Dina...here it is.
> 
> *Fill a roaster *with, chex, crispix, shreddies, pretzels, nuts of any type you like, cheerios, bugles...whatever turns your crank.
> 
> 1/4 cup oil
> 1 tbsp butter
> 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce (BIG tbsp!)
> 
> Melt these together, being careful not to over heat!
> 
> 1 tbsp each:
> 
> seasoning salt
> garlic powder
> onion powder
> celery salt
> 
> Pour oil mixture over your nuts and bolts, stirring with your hands. When all are well coated sprinkle sesoning mixture over all. Keep stirring! Bake at 250 for 2 hours or so. Stir every 15 minutes.


 


Alix said:


> *If your CI DO is the same size as mine*, you will get 1 1/2 batches out of that seasoning mix.


 
So how big _is_ your roaster? You fill it to the top? (probably not or they would spill out when you stir them)
I just went out to the kitchen to make these and realized you don't have a quantity. How much "nuts and bolts" can I expect your recipe to coat, so I'm not saturating too little a quantity or don't run short on too big a quantity?


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## Alix

Um...do you know I've never measured my roaster? Its the one I do turkeys in. It holds a 15lb bird nicely, a 20lber is squished into it. Does that help? It holds two full boxes of cereal, several cups of nuts and several handfuls of pretzels. Sorry pacanis, I'm not very specific.


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## pacanis

Nooo, that doesn't help. I've never roasted or boughten a turkey and I don't own a roaster! 


How many gallon bags do you think you could fill up? 
Should the mixture look wet with the oil/butter/wooster sauce?
If it's still wet after a couple hours roasting, can I roast it longer to dry it out or will it burn?

Maybe I can find a recipe online that tells me how much of the dry ingredients to put in. Hopefully in cups, since cereal comes in different size boxes.


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## Dawgluver

pacanis said:
			
		

> Nooo, that doesn't help. I've never roasted or boughten a turkey and I don't own a roaster!
> 
> 
> How many gallon bags do you think you could fill up?
> Should the mixture look wet with the oil/butter/wooster sauce?
> If it's still wet after a couple hours roasting, can I roast it longer to dry it out or will it burn?
> 
> Maybe I can find a recipe online that tells me how much of the dry ingredients to put in. Hopefully in cups, since cereal comes in different size boxes.



Would a big rectangular cake pan work?  Maybe 2?

When I've done chex mix, it's not wet.  Oh, Pac, Chex has a lot of great recipes, as does Crispix.  Check out their websites.


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## pacanis

When I go to make it, Dawg, (too late now) I will check out some recipes and try to correlate them to Alix's liquids. Once I've made it once I'll know what to look for in the dry/wet ratio, but for the first time I don't want to screw it up. 
Now I wish I had bought a bag while I was standing at Walmart's checkout, but I thought I'd be making some today.


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## Dawgluver

pacanis said:
			
		

> When I go to make it, Dawg, (too late now) I will check out some recipes and try to correlate them to Alix's liquids. Once I've made it once I'll know what to look for in the dry/wet ratio, but for the first time I don't want to screw it up.
> Now I wish I had bought a bag while I was standing at Walmart's checkout, but I thought I'd be making some today.



When you finish with nuts 'n bolts, you need to try Puppy Chow.  Chocolate chips, peanut butter and oil, nuke, shake in a ziplock with powdered sugar.  I think it's on the Crispex site, or maybe Chex.  Google "puppy chow."


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## pacanis

Wow. That's got everything good in it!


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## Dawgluver

pacanis said:
			
		

> Wow. That's got everything good in it!



What's nice is you can do it in small batches.  Any cereal will work, and if I can do it, it's basically idiot proof!


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## CWS4322

According to the box, the "recipe" consists of 9 cups of cereal, 1 c nuts, 1 c pretzels, 1 c other (bugels,) so a total of 12 cups. You can nuke for 5 - 6 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes.


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## pacanis

Thanks CW. That sounds about right.
I was reading through some of their recipes on their website.
I need to make another trip to the store, too. I remembered I like those little melba toast things in my part mix.


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## Dawgluver

The melba toast things are my favorite part!


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## bakechef

I love wheat chex in mine, they soak up the butter/spice mixture and are soooo good!


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## pacanis

bakechef said:


> I love wheat chex in mine, they soak up the butter/spice mixture and are soooo good!


 
Are those the dark ones? I love the dark chex.

In order not to have a bunch of cereal laying around, besides the Cheerios, I bought a Chex mix. One box, two or three different kinds in it.


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## bakechef

pacanis said:
			
		

> Are those the dark ones? I love the dark chex.
> 
> In order not to have a bunch of cereal laying around, besides the Cheerios, I bought a Chex mix. One box, two or three different kinds in it.


Yup,  those are the dark ones.  I usually buy one box of those and one box of crispix, I like how the original chex mix wants you to buy a box of each cereal, that's pretty great marketing!


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## CWS4322

Okay, I made another batch of Nuts and Bolts--traditional seasoning except I used Fritos instead of bugles or melba toast bits, didn't have any Cheerios. I also didn't have seasoned salt, so I used Mrs. Dash, added smoked paprika. Oh, I also added 1/2 c pumpkin seeds. When it was done, I drizzled with some sesame oil and sprinkled with "4-cheese blend" dry cheese. A friend is giving me homemade curry powder next week--thinking rice chex, pretzels, peanuts, cashews, puffed rice, and the curry powder for seasonings would be the start of a nice mix...


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## Efrain

I have never heard of Nuts & Bolts, but this sounds like it would make a tasty alternative to my typical granola for when I go hiking.  Being new to DC myself it is great to see how friendly the community seems.  I cannot wait to read more of the amazing recipes and topics you all discuss!


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## Addie

Efrain said:


> I have never heard of Nuts & Bolts, but this sounds like it would make a tasty alternative to my typical granola for when I go hiking.  Being new to DC myself it is great to see how friendly the community seems.  I cannot wait to read more of the amazing recipes and topics you all discuss!



Were  happy to have you stick around. Lots and lots of great recipes here for you to try. And all of the folks are very friendly and helpful. This is a perfect example of how all forums should be.


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## Cooking Goddess

Dawgluver said:


> When you finish with nuts 'n bolts, you need to try Puppy Chow.  Chocolate chips, peanut butter and oil, nuke, shake in a ziplock with powdered sugar.  I think it's on the Crispex site, or maybe Chex.  Google "puppy chow."


They're also called Muddy Buddies, and a friend of mine would always bring them to any of our group gatherings. I'm not much of a snacker, but I definitely could do some serious calorie damage whenever these were around. And now I have a taste for them...

Chex® Muddy Buddies® recipe from Betty Crocker


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## Addie

All these goodies, Muddy Buddies, Chex Mix, Nuts and Bolts, etc. And I have had my candy bar for the year. Life is just not fair!


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