Ranch Pretzels

Last month when Matt's nephew got married, one of his sisters hosted a small (small being relative in a family of 50 some people) get together between the wedding and reception.  We had gone straight from the wedding to Saturday evening Mass (Luke was thrilled when we woke him up from his 45 minute car nap to tell him he got to go to church...again.) and only made it to my sister-in-law's for about 15 minutes before rushing off to the reception (a decision we were very happy with the next morning when we didn't have to rush out of the house for Mass again after a late night and maybe a few beers).

In our 15 minutes at the in-between party we basically spent the time shoving as much food in our faces as fast as we could since we had barely eaten lunch before the wedding and knew supper was still a ways off at the reception.  Of course, we were shoving our faces very politely, at least those of us over the age of 3.  As my Dad reminded my sisters and I before pretty much every graduation open house we went to ever, NO GRAZING is allowed or polite.  Anyways, most of what I ate were these ranch pretzels which satisfied my rather empty stomach and tasted delicious.  I think I was searching Pinterest for a recipe in our 5 minute drive to the reception and then they got made as soon as I could make a trip to the grocery store.

And with most of this being pretty standard ingredients you may not even need a trip to the grocery store to whip these up!  They take only a few minutes of prep and 30 minutes of baking before letting them cool and devouring.  These would be great for any holiday party or long road trip, basically anytime you need a delicious but still very easy snack.  (I'd say perfect for Thanksgiving but NOBODY wants to be at the grocery store in the next 2 days, so unless you have all the ingredients on hand, probably not good for Thanksgiving.  Unless you are crazy enough to go to the grocery store in the 48 hours before Thanksgiving.)

One note: I used my homemade ranch seasoning which does help cut out some salt.  Very helpful considering you are probably adding this to pretzels that have already been salted.   For a very slightly healthier version, consider that (and the homemade ranch seasoning is also very easy to make!).

Ranch Pretzels
yield: 16 ounces of pretzels
Ingredients
-1- 16 ounce bag of pretzels
-1 envelope ranch dressing mix OR 2 TB of the homemade stuff
-½ cup canola oil
-1 tsp garlic powder

Directions
Preheat the oven to 250°.

Mix the ranch seasoning, oil, and garlic powder and then pour over the pretzels (either in the bag in roasting pan, no need for extra dishes!)

Stir/shake/coat the pretzels and pour into a roasting pan or other pan (9x13 cake pan maybe?) with sides.

Bake for 15 minutes.  Stir.  Bake another 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool.  Store sealed at room temperature.

Slightly modified from That Square Plate