These fun, wacky snacks invented by hungry kids and teenage dorm-dwellers make us giggle. Creativity and daring know no bounds when it comes to satisfying the munchies. Feeling silly? Enjoy one of these outrageous snacks!
1. Sautéed Cereal
Life cereal is the preferred brand for this concoction which is a variation on the ever-popular sweet-salty genre. Place 1/2 to 3/4 cup of Life cereal squares in a medium frying pan in which you’ve heated a tablespoon of butter or margarine over medium heat till bubbly. Sauté for 3-5 minutes turning as needed. Remove from heat immediately when they start to turn golden and are fragrant. Drain on a paper towel. Eat while still warm; small batches is the key. Rice or Corn Chex also work well.
This snack idea was invented by an 8-year-old, but prepared by his older sister who had permission to use the stove.
2. Dill Pickles and Cherry Kool-Aid
OK, you get 71,800 results when you Google “Kool Aid dill pickles,” – aka Koolickles -- so you know this wacky snack has gone as mainstream as a wacky snack possibly could. We didn’t check every result, but the 30 or so that we did view were all basically the same, with minor variations. Here’s how you make this sweet-fruity-sour delight:
YOU’LL NEED:
1 (24 ounce) Jar dill pickle spears
1/2 cup Sugar
1 Packet Unsweetened Cherry Kool-Aid
DIRECTIONS:
Open pickles and pour the pickle juice into medium bowl. Stir in the sugar and Kool-Aid powder. Pour juice back into jar, covering the pickles until jar is full. Screw the lid on tight and give the jar a shake to make sure all the pickle spears are coated. Store in fridge for 7 days, shaking the jar once every day.
You can start with a larger or smaller size jar of pickles are adjust amounts accordingly. Though cherry is the traditional flavor for this recipe, you can also use any other flavor of Kool-Aid and get some startling flavor and visual results!
It should be known that Koolickles as described here is simply an updating of the popular 1960s kid’s gross snack of eating a dill pickle that is dipped into an open packet of cherry Kool-Aid powder before every bite.
Photo: Ben Carter Seriouseats.com
3. Potato Chips Dipped in Ketchup
This one’s not so crazy when you consider that we’ve been dipping French fries and Tater Tots in ketchup since the beginning of time. Lay’s and Pringles both make ketchup-flavored chips but they pale in comparison to the real thing. This snack satisfies the salt+vinegar craving due to the fact that most ketchup ingredients include vinegar.
4. Potato Chips with Ice Cream
Ben and Jerry’s came out with a “Limited Botch” version of this that validates its merit as a luscious treat pairing. But they use chocolate-chocolate chip ice cream (that somehow has crushed potato chips swirled in). The traditional invention calls for vanilla ice cream.
5. Ritz Crackers dipped into Sweetened Condensed Milk
This sweet-salty delight is another take on the potato chips and ice cream approach. Ritz Cracker ingredients already have this cheese powder and sugar thing going on all by themselves and their thicker crispiness is somehow a perfect foil for the caramelly, velvety condensed milk.
6. Microwaved Peeps
Nuking stuff in the microwave for fun is a favorite pastime of the bored and curious. There are plenty of videos online showing the fails or weird new concoctions as a result – a bag of Doritos, a grape, an egg, a Twinkie, Lucky Charms cereal and a Cheez Puff all come to mind. But microwaving a Peep chick is probably the most satisfying AND the most fun to eat.
INSTRUCTIONS:
Place one or two Peep chicks on a microwave-safe plate and nuke it on high for 30-60 seconds. Watch it quadruple in size before your eyes, like a sci-fi monster chicken coming to life! Stop the micro and remove the chick right as it reached its maximum size. (This may take a few tries). If you leave it in too long, it will deflate and burn.
Let it cool to the touch and then savor its sticky sweetness.
You can nuke any one of the pantheon of Peeps seasonal treats that’s available these days, but the standard yellow Peeps Easter chicks give the best show.
Photo: LancasterOnline.com
7. Cracker/Peanut Butter Tower
This one’s a no-brainer. Simply layer peanut butter and crackers to the maximum height that your mouth can accommodate and chomp down!
8. Mac & Cheese with Grape Jelly
It sounds weird, yes, but just try it. It will trick your taste buds at first, trying to figure out if it’s a main course dish or a dessert. It’s neither one. It’s just a wacky snack that’s fun and tasty. What will happen as a result is that next time you have macaroni and cheese, you’ll remember how good it tasted with the grape jelly and your life will never be the same because you’ll always go get the jelly, every time.
9. Frozen Grapes
There is a particular clique of snackers who just love eating stuff straight from the freezer, like frozen corn niblets, frozen peas, frozen French fries, frozen snicker bars and frozen raw cashews (yes!). But the BEST frozen snack items are grapes, any seedless type. Just wash them, let them dry and pop them in the freezer. You can’t stop eating them, especially in the summertime.
A particularly hedonistic variation is sugared frozen grapes. Dust the washed grapes with sugar, let the sugar dry on them, then freeze.
Photo: Grapesfromcalifornia.com
10. Grilled Cheese with Chocolate & Potato Chips
There are seemingly endless kid-invented combinations out there of potato chips/Fritos/tortilla chips being inserted into sandwiches of every bizarre description – butter & sugar, peanut butter, pb+j, mayo, relish, ketchup, devilled ham, molasses, bologna, dried onion rings, etc., etc. It’s enough to give you nightmares!
We never had a grilled cheese sandwich stuffed with chocolate pieces and potato chips as a kid, but only because we never thought of it! However, this tempting combination from Kailin Orr at Mouth.com will satisfy any youthful cravings you may still harbor for gooey cheese, sweet chocolate and crunchy potato chips – and all encased between two pieces of golden-grilled bread. MMMmmm!!!
YOU’LL NEED:
8 oz. Cheese (preferably Swiss, or something equally melty)
4 tbsp. Softened butter
1/2 Bar of chocolate
2 Slices white bread
1 Handful potato chips
DIRECTIONS:
Grate cheese.
Warm a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.
Butter 2 slices of bread on both sides. Place both slices of bread in the skillet. On one, layer grated cheese and pieces of chocolate. Then sprinkle cheese to cover the surface of the other slice.
Turn heat way down and cook low and slow in the pan until the cheese starts to melt and the underside of the bread turns a light golden-brown (about 5 minutes).
Add a handful of crumbled potato chips to either piece, then flip the second slice cheese slide down on top of the one with the cheese and chocolate. Carefully flip the sandwich with a spatula and cook until the cheese is completely melted and both sides are a full golden-brown (about another 5 minutes).
Photo: Mouth.com
11. Baked Woo-Woo
This snack pairing of Saltine crackers and marshmallow is sort of a deconstructed s’more, sans the chocolate, and with a thin salty cracker replacing the cloying graham taste and texture. Like a white pizza version of a s’more.
It’s simple to make: spread Saltine crackers on a baking sheet and top with a marshmallow half. Heat until golden brown under the broiler or in a toaster oven but watch them closely as they will brown very quickly. A dollop of Fluff marshmallow crème can also be used in place of marshmallows.
12. Ladybugs on a Log
Bacon bits are a boon to the inventive child who loves putting bacon on stuff like peanut butter but is too young to cook bacon by himself. A peanut butter and bacon bits sandwich is a cinch to make using them. Also Ladybugs on a Log: Stuff a celery stick with peanut butter and top with bacon buts – either the real kind or the imitation bacon crunchies.
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