These dairy free Strawberry Muddy Buddies are a fun twist on regular puppy chow and are so good for Valentine’s Day, Easter, or any spring or summer occasion! This is delicious by itself or mixed with allergy friendly chocolate candies for a sweet snack mix. Our recipe is peanut free, vegan, and gluten free.
This fun muddy buddy recipe is perfect for Valentine’s Day treats or any spring or summer occasion, like Easter, Mother’s Day, birthday parties, baby showers… you name it!
We loved this snack by itself but also added some pink and white candy coated chocolates from No Whey to create an allergy friendly Valentine snack mix! You could add some dried cherries to this snack mix as well.
Our strawberry flavored version of puppy chow is based on our Pumpkin Spice Muddy Buddy recipe that also uses dairy free white chocolate, but we swapped the spice flavors for fruit flavors with a very similar base and it works so well together!
Our strawberry puppy chow recipe is:
- Peanut free
- Dairy free and vegan
- Tree nut free (excluding coconut)
- Gluten free (look for certified gluten free cereal if you have celiac)
How to make strawberry muddy buddies
Here are the steps to make our strawberry version of white chocolate muddy buddies. Please note, this is just an overview of the steps, the full recipe card is at the end of this post.
- Powder your freeze dried strawberries with a NutriBullet or mortar and pestle (unless you already have packaged strawberry powder). Set aside the strawberry powder.
- Add the Rice Chex cereal to a large bowl that has a tight fitting lid. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, add the dairy free white chocolate chips, the Sunbutter, dairy free butter, and coconut oil.
- Microwave for about 30 to 45 seconds and stir together everything until smooth. It shouldn’t take long at all for this to melt together, microwaving for 30 seconds was sufficient for me.
- Stir 2 Tablespoons of the strawberry powder into the white chocolate mixture and stir again until smooth.
- Pour the strawberry white chocolate mixture over the Rice Chex and stir to coat evenly, this may take a full minute or 2 of stirring to make sure everything is coated well. Try not to crush the cereal too much while stirring.
- Once the cereal pieces are coated pretty well, add 1 cup of powdered sugar to the bowl, secure the lid tightly, and shake the bowl to coat the cereal with the powdered sugar.
- Store in an airtight container or bag at room temperature for up to 3 or 4 days.
You might be wondering why we used both dairy free butter and coconut oil in this recipe. When we tested this recipe, using only dairy free butter resulted in a chocolate/sunbutter mixture that was too thick to coat the cereal very well because the strawberry powder thickens it a bit. And the coconut oil only version was too thin.
So we split the difference and used both dairy free butter and coconut oil for a good consistency that will coat the cereal well but isn’t too thin!
What kind of white chocolate can I use in this puppy chow recipe?
Using white chocolate in this recipe helps the strawberry flavor shine through vs using a regular semi-sweet or rice milk chocolate like normal puppy chow recipes.
If you can have regular white chocolate chips, you can definitely use those for this recipe, it should come out the same. But if you’re looking for some dairy free white chocolate to use, here are a few brands we recommend:
- Enjoy Life Foods mini white chocolate chips (our personal preference and what we used in this recipe)
- Pascha white chocolate chips
- Pascha white chocolate bars
- No Whey Foods white chocolate bars
- Azure Market Organics allergen free white chocolate chips
We used to get the Great Value allergy friendly white chocolate chips at our local Walmart, but it looks like they have discontinued this item because we can no longer buy it or order it anymore. The
Variations for our strawberry puppy chow recipe
If you don’t want to use Sunbutter and you can have tree nuts, you can swap out the Sunbutter in our recipe for a creamy cashew butter for a milder almost caramel taste that complements the strawberry powder.
We used cashew butter in our strawberry protein bites and the cashew and strawberry tastes delicious together!
If you can have peanut butter, I’d still stick with a nut or seed butter that is milder tasting to let the strawberry flavor shine through (such as the Sunbutter, cashew butter, or almond butter). However using real peanut butter in this recipe might give it a fun PB&J flavor!
Check out our roundup of allergy friendly strawberry recipes!
Dairy Free Strawberry Muddy Buddies
Ingredients
- 4 ½ cups Rice Chex cereal (or Corn Chex)
- ½ cup dairy free white chocolate chips
- ¼ cup Sunbutter
- 1 Tablespoon dairy free butter (we used the Country Crock avocado oil plant butter sticks that don't use soybean oil)
- 1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon coconut oil (solid coconut oil, not liquid coconut oil)
- 2 Tablespoons freeze dried strawberry powder
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- Allergy friendly chocolate candies (optional, if you want to make a snack mix with this recipe)
Equipment
- Mortar and pestle
Instructions
- Crush or grind your freeze dried strawberries into a fine powder using a mortar and pestle or a small blender (I use a NutriBullet).
- In a large bowl with a tight fitting lid, add the Rice Chex cereal and set aside.
- In a small microwaveable bowl, add the dairy free white chocolate chips, the Sunbutter, the dairy free butter, and the coconut oil.
- Microwave this for about 30 to 45 seconds or until the white chocolate and dairy free butter is melted. It won't take very long to melt this together, just 30 seconds worked for me. Stir everything together until smooth.
- Add the the strawberry powder to the white chocolate mixture and stir again until smooth.
- Pour the white chocolate mixture over the Chex cereal and stir until all the cereal is coated thoroughly. Make sure to try not to crush too much of the cereal as you stir.
- Add the powdered sugar to the coated cereal in the bowl and cover with the tight fitting lid, and shake it around until the cereal is evenly coated with powdered sugar.
- Store at room temperature in a an airtight container or ziploc bag for up to 3 to 4 days.
Video
Nutrition
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie. She’s a food allergy mom and healthy living blogger based in Wyoming. Sarah is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Certified Health Coach, Revolution Running certified running coach, and an ACE Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist
Is there a substitute for the sunbutter? I have a sunflower allergy.
Hi Jan! You can use almond butter, or cashew butter, or anything similar that fits your allergies.