Since Mardi Gras is a holiday that’s all about pure, innocent fun, especially for everyone heading to New Orleans for the carnival celebration, we thought we’d celebrate here at Totally the Bomb with something equally fun and exciting: Mardi Gras Muddy Buddies. Traveling to good ol’ NOLA may be out of the question, but at least we can get into the spirit of the season in our own way…and not regret it the next morning. Probably.

What You’ll Need to Make Mardi Gras Muddy Buddies:

Basic Muddy Buddies

9 cups Rice Chex cereal
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Mardi Gras Muddy Buddies

5 cups Basic Muddy Buddies
4 cups Chocolate Rice Chex
1/2 cup purple and green M&Ms
16 pretzel squares
8 Wilton purple chocolate melts
8 Wilton lime green chocolate melts
Chocolate sunflower seeds – purple, green, and yellow
Mini breadsticks

How to Make Mardi Gras Muddy Buddies:

Basic Muddy Buddies

You can use this basic recipe for just about anything you’d want to put Muddy Buddies in. Or you can just eat them as is…but where’s the fun in that? First, in a medium bowl, you’ll want to microwave the chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter for 1 minute. Give that mixture a stir and then microwave for another 30 seconds until it’s smooth before adding the vanilla.

In a larger bowl, combine the Rice Chex cereal with the chocolate mixture. Make sure all of the cereal pieces are covered in chocolate-y, peanut butter-y goodness, because that’s how life should be. Put the coated cereal in a large Ziploc bag and add the powdered sugar. Seal the bag – this is an important step that you really shouldn’t skip – and then gently shake the bag to evenly coat the cereal. Spread the cereal mixture out on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet to cool before using in the Mardi Gras recipe.

Mardi Gras Muddy Buddies

And now, the fun part. Put 8 of the pretzel squares on a microwave safe plate and warm them in the microwave for 20 seconds. Place the purple chocolate melts in the middle of the pretzels and microwave again for 20-30 seconds until the chocolate melt is soft. Let them cool for at least 5 minutes before using. You can probably see where this is going: you’re going to want to repeat this process with the green chocolate melts. Then, in a large mixing bowl, add the Chocolate Chex cereal, the basic Muddy Buddies, the chocolate-melt pretzels, and the mini breadsticks. Toss this all together – be careful not to toss it so hard that most of the mixture goes flying across your kitchen. That happened to…a friend of mine. Sprinkle the M&Ms and sunflower seeds on top of the whole thing, and enjoy!