Valentine’s Day Popcorn Mix

I love holidays that center around candy. Halloween, Easter, VALENTINE’S DAY!! To say that I have a bit of a sugar addiction would be a gross understatement. And so, when one of these holidays rolls around, it gives me just the excuse I am looking for to get my sweet tooth on.

Over Christmas, my dad sent Nick and me a package of Christmas goodies. Like most years, the package included one of my favorites: Moose Munch. To my utter dismay, Nick had never heard of Moose Munch. Normally I wouldn’t be very apt to share something like my coveted Christmas Moose Munch, but since Nick had never experienced it before, I let him have a little taste. A few hours later I regretted my generosity when I found the bag nearly empty.

Last week I was browsing through some food blogs, per usual, when I stumbled across the most adorable Valentine’s Day Moose Munch-esque treat. I knew I had to make it for Nick. I spent the weekend visiting my sister, Jaki, and her new puppy, Piper, in Daytona and it was the perfect opportunity for some sister bonding time in the kitchen!

So how did we make this gorgeous masterpiece? First, we assembled the ingredients: popcorn, honey roasted peanuts, Valentine M&Ms, Valentine nonpareils, semisweet chips, white chips, and a bit of red food coloring.

Next, we popped the popcorn. I think we used 5 bags, but exact measurements really depend on how much mix you want to end up with.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and spread out the popcorn. Sprinkle with peanuts. At first we sprinkled the M&Ms at this stage too, but on later batches realized they stuck better if you sprinkled them after the chocolate.

Melt the white and semisweet chocolates either on a double boiler or in the microwave.

Mix a few drops of food coloring into the white ones. Since the food coloring is water based, it will make the chocolate seize up if you add too much. If this happens, just add more chips and it will smooth out.

Drizzle the popcorn mix with both chocolates, then sprinkle on nonpareils (and M&Ms if you haven’t yet). After admiring the prettiness, mix it up a little bit to disperse the chocolate a little better.

Yum!!!

You might want to taste test it. You know, just to make sure you don’t need to tweak the recipe for the next batch…

Taste pretty good? Ok, keep going til you’ve used up all your goods… we made quite a bit…

Piper helped!! She really enjoyed playing vacuum when I dropped a few popcorn kernels.

All that cooking really makes you tired, though.

We packaged up the mix in cute little V-Day buckets!

So delicious, so adorable and so FUN to make!! I just may be on the hunt for green M&M’s. I’m pretty sure St. Patrick’s Day qualifies as a candy holiday…