Growing up my grandmother Jo would send us large popcorn tins full of what she called “TV Junk” or “TV Trash.” I laugh now because it really is junk food at it’s finest… carb-loaded cereal covered in butter and mixed in with candy. And OH IS IT AMAZING. 

The combination of Worcestershire sauce, seasoning salt, and butter is *chef’s kiss. It’s so addicting, I really can’t have it in my house… EVER. I will eat bowls and bowls of it. Funny how I can ignore bags of popcorn or chips but when this is in the house, I am uncontrollable. It really is the seasoning in my opinion. 

When GJ used to make it, she would send it around Halloween and mix in candy corn or those candy corn-like pumpkins. I meant to do that this year but got derailed and by the time I went searching for candy corn a week after Halloween, it was nowhere to be found. Where does it all go I wonder? I thought for sure a week later I would find some on mass discount! Alas, I didn’t. So I made it for a little gathering of girlfriends here in LA. But instead of pre-mixing in the sweet treat, I let the girls pick their own mix-ins! It was a really fun and almost effortless idea for a party. If only I wasn’t left with pounds of candy leftover… whoops!

My personal preference is M&Ms. Now I would not pick M&Ms over other candy options 95% of the time. But for this particular mix, the hard shell adds a nice crunch and the chocolate really compliments all the saltiness already going on. So I highly recommend M&Ms. Imagine how cute it would be to make this TV Trash then mix in holiday-colored M&Ms! (I may or may not have this in the works for the impending holidays…)

Anyway, in honor of Grandma Jo, please enjoy TV Trash. A recipe I will continue to make once a year (for the sake of my health) and always think of her. It was truly the best gift when she wasn’t in town to celebrate with us!

INGREDIENTS

½ box of plain Cheerios 

½ box of rice or corn Chex

½ bag of pretzels

2 cups nuts of choice (I like 1 cup peanuts, 1 cup pecans)

8 oz. butter

¼ cup worcestershire sauce

2 tbsp. hot sauce

2 tbsp. garlic powder

3 tbsp. seasoning salt 

Additional Add-Ins: candy corn, m&ms, mini peanut butter cups, sour candies, pecan pralines, extra nuts

Serving Size: 12

INSTRUCTIONS

• Preheat the oven to 300F. 
• In a very large bowl or baking sheet, gently mix together the cheerios, chex, pretzels, and nuts. 
• Melt the butter then whisk the worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, garlic powder, and seasoning salt directly into the buter. 
• Slowly and gently the butter mixture with the dry ingredients. Little pours at a time until everything is coated. 
• Bake for 60-80 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes until the mixture is lightly browned and crisped. (60 mins usually works fine but if your Cheerios are still a bit wet from the butter, continue to add 5-10 minutes until crunchy but not burned!)
• Let cool and enjoy! *Once cool, feel free to add in sweet mix-ins.