Homemade Nuts and Bolts... a DIY holiday gift to give to neighbors and friends

Every year, I make treats to share with my neighbours during the holidays. I love simple DIY gifts that are packaged in a fun way don't you? This year, I filled little jam jars with homemade bits and bites. Today, I'm sharing my recipe (and an adorable packaging idea) for this savory snack.

The best part about this recipe is that you can "change it up" based on what you like. (For example, if you really like Shreddies and don't like Cheerios, you can add more Shreddies and less Cheerios.) As long as you have the same number of "cups" of dry ingredients, you'll be good to go. As a guide, here's what I used...


Ingredients:

7 cups of Rice Chex cereal
4 cups of Shreddies
3 cups of Cheerios
4 cups of pretzels
2 boxes of cheese stick crackers

2 cups of melted salted butter
1 1/2 tbsp seasoning salt
3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp garlic powder
1/2 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp paprika


Instructions:

1) Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.
2) In a large roaster, combine the first 5 ingredients (i.e. all the cereals, pretzels and crackers).
3) In the microwave, melt the butter. Then mix in the seasoning salt, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika.
4) Bake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours... stirring gently and thoroughly every 30 minutes. You'll know you are done when the cereal is dry (i.e. all the butter mixture has been absorbed).

You can package the bits and bites in any airtight container, but I put mine in these little 250mL "jam jars". I used curling ribbon to attach gift tags to the jars. Because I used jam jars, my tags had a little play on words. My tags said, "Spreading Christmas Cheer... one jar at a time." Cute, right?

To download the tags I designed: click on the picture below, right-click, save it to your computer, and print it like a regular 4x6 photo.

Don't my little jars look adorable? The treats are delicious too!

Do you have a favorite DIY Christmas gift to give? Or have you gotten one that you absolutely loved? I'd love to hear about it!

♥
Gina Bell (aka East Coast Mommy)

You can find more simple DIY gift ideas here.