The Mall of America on Black Friday + Sugar Cookie Chex Mix Recipe

The Mall of America is one of my favorite places. Since I'm originally from Minnesota, I know that the Mall of America is the best place to go for an amazing shopping experience. Even more exciting than that is the occasional invitation to a fun and unique event at the mall!

A few weeks ago I received an email with the subject line: ‘Tis the Season to Mix it Up!

The body of the email had this message:

Chex has developed five new delicious Chex Party Mix holiday cookie-inspired recipes (sugar cookie, gingerbread) that take just 15 minutes to make in the microwave (no baking required)!

Join us for an event on Black Friday at the Mall of America where you can make the new recipes with Chex experts, and participate in a ‘Mix-Change’ (like a cookie exchange, but with a modern twist)!

I thoroughly enjoy going to the Mall of America on any given day, but I had my hesitations about going to the Mall of America on Black Friday. I told my husband about the event. He thought I was crazy. I told him the Chex Mix event planners said our little ones were more than welcome to join me for the event. He thought that was even crazier than going by myself! The event organizers convinced me to participate. My husband convinced me to find childcare for the kiddos and I headed to the one of the biggest malls in North America on Black Friday.

Thankfully, the mall wasn't insanely busy when I arrived, so I was able to meet up with the Chex crew, introduce myself to some Minnesota mom bloggers and learn more about holiday cookie-inspired Chex Mix recipes!

The most exciting thing I learned? There are tons of Chex Mix recipes, even the Original Chex Party Mix, that can be made in the microwave in under 15 minutes and they all taste just as good as when you spend over an hour roasting them in the oven!

After that, a bunch of insanely nice people showed us exactly how easy it is to make a wide variety of Chex Mix recipes, all in under 15 minutes! We sampled Chocolate Mint Chex Mix and Caramel Cookie Crunch Chex Mix, but my hands-down favorite was the Sugar Cookie Chex Mix.

Ingredients

• 6 cups Rice Chex cereal
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons corn syrup
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 ounce white baking chocolate or 1/4 cup vanilla milk chips
• 1 to 2 teaspoons colored edible glitter or sugar sprinkles

Instructions

1. Pour cereal into a large microwaveable bowl.
2. Line a cookie sheet with waxed paper or foil.
3. Microwave butter uncovered on High for 30 seconds or until melted.
4. Add sugar and corn syrup, to butter and microwave uncovered on High for 30 seconds and repeat until mixture is heated and can be stirred smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour over cereal, stirring until evenly coated.
5. Microwave uncovered on High 2 minutes, stirring after 1 minute. Sprinkle with powdered sugar; mix well.
6. Spread on waxed paper or foil. Microwave white chocolate on High 30 seconds or until it can be stirred smooth; drizzle over top; sprinkle with edible glitter or colored candies.

{This recipe is so good I went home after the event and made up a double batch to share with my family!}

I love baking up gifts and treats to give away, especially during the holidays, but crafty, creative stuff isn't my forte, and I always struggle with simply making things cute. Since Chex came up with all these delicious, gift-worthy recipes, it was fitting that they also showed us a few different ways to box and wrap Chex Mix up into a variety of adorable packages.

This tower was full of different packages  of Chex Mix, all looking pretty enough to drop on a neighbor's doorstep or bring to work to distribute to co-workers. Plus, the ideas were so easy even I could definitely pull them off again. A few boxes and decorative cupcake wrappers from Michael's finished off with ribbon and a tag left me feeling like Martha Stewart!

You should all thank Chex for sharing their cute Chex Mix gift packaging ideas online. Trust me, you don't want me to try to demonstrate how to make something look good. Plus, their ideas are easy, fun and simple!

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I had the best time at the Mall of America on Black Friday! Chex knows how to plan events, and I plan on making a bunch of new Chex Mix recipes to share with my family and friends this holiday season! The folks at Chex Mix deserve a big thank you for this event!

Chex provided this experience and a promotional item to thank me for my participation in the event. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.