Sweet n Spicy Mixed Nuts

Just a warning: I’m going to use the word “nuts” a lot in this post. If you laugh at my use of the word “nuts”, it’s OK, I’m laughing too. Mols is gone for a week in Arizona, leaving me home alone to enjoy the 3 inches of snow we just got so I’m resorting back to my 6th grade self who laughed every time someone innocently used a word that was also a slang for male…uh…parts. So, there is your warning. This is a family friendly blog and this post will remain G rated from here on out.

To make this snack, you’ll need some base ingredients (shown below) and you can customize it from there with your favorite spices and desired level of heat.

Since I am a Nancy when it comes to spicy food, I’ve kept my version pretty mild, using only 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper and no hot sauce. But you could easily dial-up the heat by increasing the red pepper or adding hot sauce to the butter and sugar mixture.

The base is simply melted butter with sugar. Salt is needed as well, but I used salted nuts so didn’t need to add any. If you get unsalted, add  2 tsp. salt to your spice mix.

The real reason I am making these nuts is because I snack at work. It’s a habit. In fact, I’m addicted to snacking at my desk. I don’t go out of my way to buy junk food, but there is often food floating around that I take advantage of. Thank goodness for my high metabolism and regular workouts or I would be rather overweight.

These mixed nuts will provide me with days…er…hours of snacks. I might have to ration how much I bring in a day. One tip to storing these nuts would be to use the original nut containers. I guess the picture below should tip you off to that tip, but I wanted to say “nuts” one more time.