A Quick and Easy Sweet Treat to Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day
It’s not quite March 1st yet … which apparently is a good thing, because Easton informed me today that nowadays, the leprechaun starts coming on March 1 and brings mischief daily (a la Elf on the Shelf).
I’m pretty sure he 100% made that up on the spot, which I grudgingly give him credit for. But while I debate if I’m going to take his bait and set elaborate leprechaun traps for the next 3 weeks, I made a batch of leprechaun bait snack mix to munch on.
This trail mix is kid-friendly with every St. Patrick’s Day motif represented: green M&Ms, gold coins and gold cereal, rainbow candy, and mini marshmallow “clouds.”
It’s sweet to the extreme, and I caught Sawyer picking out every single green M&M. But with a base of cereal (though sugary cereal) and pretzels, it makes for a festive snack that’s at least better than feeding the kids radioactively green frosted cupcakes all St. Paddy’s weekend long.
And if you’re a really cool mom, let them have this for breakfast on St. Patrick’s Day. You know about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? Candy for breakfast is more like the jackpot from a kid’s perspective.
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Leprechaun Bait Trail Mix
Sweet and salty dessert snack mix to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day
Ingredients
- 2 cups Golden Grahams cereal
- 2 cups Lucky Charms cereal
- 1.5 cups kettle corn (Boom Chicka Pop or microwave)
- 1 cup mini pretzels
- 1/2 cup mini marshmallws
- 1/2 cup mini Nilla Wafers (sprayed gold)
- 1/2 cup mini Oreos (sprayed gold)
- 1/2 cup green M&Ms
- 1 Tbsp yellow M&Ms
- 4 Airheads Xtremes Rainbow Berry strips (cut into mini strips)
Instructions
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In an extra-large bowl, mix two cereals, pretzels, and kettle corn popcorn.
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Stir gently to combine dry ingredients.
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Add mini marshmallows and stir or shake gently to combine.
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Separate 1/2 cup of green M&Ms and approximately 1 Tbsp yellow M&Ms.
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Cut Airhead strips into mini strips.
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Use edible gold food spray to transform mini Nilla Wafers and mini Oreos into “leprechaun gold.” Allow to dry. (See Notes for link to full how-to tutorial.)
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Add gold-sprayed cookies, M&Ms and rainbow candy bits to top of trail mix. Swirl gently to combine. Do not stir or shake too much, as M&Ms will fall to bottom of the mix instead of integrating throughout.
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Store in airtight container for up to 5 days (mini marshmallows will start to get hard, but personally I like them that way.)
Recipe Notes
- Kettle corn gives the best balance of subtly sweet with subtly salty. I used Angie’s BOOMCHICKAPOP Kettle Corn. Or opt for a microwave kettle corn version instead.
- For maximum effect, transform your 1/2 cup mini Nilla Wafers and 1/2 cup mini Oreos into leprechaun gold coins with Wilton Color Mist edible spray in metallic gold.
- If you don’t want to create gold coins, just use 1 cup of mini Nilla Wafers instead; they looks enough like gold coins to begin with.
- As always, trail mix is so customizable. Throw in whatever sweet bite-size ingredients you have in the house. You really can’t go wrong with a mixture that starts with a foundation of Golden Grahams and M&Ms.
- When serving your mix, accent with gold foil-wrapped Rolos for effect.
- Serve from a plastic leprechaun hat or black pot o’ gold.
This recipe makes about 8 cups of snack mix, which we promptly devoured in one weekend. There’s nothing left to bait our leprechauns with!
If you’re looking for other ways to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, start your morning with a healthy mint Shamrock Shake smoothie. Or throw together a batch of Lucky Shamrock Chocolate Pretzel cookies.
Share your leprechaun bait with #NeverDoneWithFun on social media and follow along on Instagram and Pinterest for daily ideas and inspiration! And I promise I still have a few more tricks o’ the Irish in my own pot of gold before the St. Paddy’s Day festivities officially start.
