Nuts and Bolts, GF style

One of my best friends, Lyndsie, has always been a lot like me in that when Christmas time comes, she wants to bake and make lots of fun nibbles. She's also a full time working mom of one (and another on the way) and so the fact that she even made something that I could eat for her Christmas party we went to this past weekend, was a huge thing! I know how little time I have to make stuff...ok, so the time I do have I usually try to nap...but I do make plans to do stuff sometimes and sometimes I even succeed!
Anyway, long story short, when we got to her Christmas party, she started showing me the gluten free things she had MADE for me! And true to Lyndsie form, she had put some out but even more importantly, she had set aside a bunch for me to take home. Bless her!! She made me gf brownies with M&M's and this gf rice chex nuts and bolts mixture.
Here's my connection to Nuts and Bolts. Growing up, every Christmas Eve was always spent with my Dad's family at my Nana and Grampy's house and Nana ALWAYS made Nuts & Bolts which consisted of pretzels, cheerios, shreddies and peanuts. When I moved to Ontario at 16, I missed that tradition and after one disastrous time of making it myself, I called Nana and got her recipe and proceeded to make it every Christmas for my family and friends when we had them over for our annual Christmas party. Everyone loved it and I got to nibble on it too. Then, when I got Celiac, I stopped making it because I couldn't justify making something that if it didn't get all eaten, I was stuck with a ton of this awesome nuts and bolts I COULDN'T EAT. So I just didn't. Sure, I've seen recipes since then, but honestly, I just didn't want to start all over again, never knowing if it would taste good or not. But then...I had Lyndsie's mix...and I was converted to the dark side! After taking a handful and eating it (gluten free pretzels, peanuts, gf rice chex, and various seasonings) and going "OMG!", I immediately asked for the recipe. When she showed it to me, I thought about trying to write it all down and knowing I would lose it, I did the next best thing, I took a picture of it with my Blackberry so I could refer to it later. So I know now that I have the recipe and hopefully over the holidays, I can find a little time to make them myself! Yeah!! Success! Thanks again Lyndsie!!!