The Perfect Combination of Three Stooges and Snack’rs #MoeSnackrs4UrMoney

Did you watch Three Stooges movies when you were a kid? I didn’t. I had seen one or two, here or there, but I had never really sat down and watched an entire movie. Hey, I didn’t even realize there were actually whole movies made… with a plot and everything. I thought they were kind of silly… much more suited for a boy’s taste than a girl’s.

So with all this silliness, Hollywood decided to make a movie about the Stooges. I found this billboard on the freeway the other day.

I figured that maybe it was time to revisit the Three Stooges… and introduce my kids to it. I was pretty curious to see what their impressions were. Unfortunately, I don’t have any of the old movies laying around the house so I had to go out and rent some. Wow… I had no idea how difficult it would be to rent a Three Stooges movie. Redbox didn’t have them. Blockbuster didn’t have them. Netflix didn’t have them. I took a chance and looked them up at my local library and believe it or not, THEY HAD ONE MOVIE! Bingo!

It was movie time… but what is a movie without snacks?

I headed over to my favorite Smart & Final to pick up some treats for our movie night.

Smart & Final has a line of Snack’rs that come in just about every variety of snack you can think of: potato chips, pretzels, popcorn, trail mix, dried fruit, and assorted nuts. Everything you would need for an amazing party.

They were kind of all over the place in the store. There was an end display, but the other Snack’rs were located in the snack aisle… and even some were on a rolling cart.

Snack’rs Popcorn comes in both huge bags (really huge) for parties as well as individual bags that are great for school lunches or to take to the movies (if you were so inclined to sneak in your own popcorn). They even have cotton candy in individual bags, but PLEASE do not tell my children or I’ll never hear the end of it.

If you want to try out Snack’rs yourself, you can purchase 2 participating products at your local Smart & Final, hang on to your receipt with a special code on it that can be redeemed for a free movie ticket.

So I purchased a ton of Snack’rs and got the crazy idea in my head that I wanted to create a special dessert for our movie night. I had a craving for cheesecake so I came up with this fun recipe using some of the Snack’rs Pretzels.

Individual Pretzel Cheesecake

Ingredients:
About 20 Smart & Final Snack’rs Bavarian Pretzels
1/2 cup Smart & Final Butter (melted)
2 - 8 oz. packages of Smart & Final cream cheese
3/4 cups white granulated sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 cup Smart & Final sour cream
1 tbs. vanilla extract
1/8 cup flour

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin tins - this recipe will make 24 muffin sized cheesecakes.

Take the Bavarian pretzels and crush them up in a very large bowl. You can also use a food processor which will cut your time in half (and something I should have done).

You can grind up the pretzels to a graham cracker crust consistency if you like. I chose to leave them a little chunky because I wanted to be able to really bit into the pretzels. Mix the pretzel mixture with the melted butter. Stir to coat evenly.

Layer some of the pretzel mixture in the bottom of the greased muffin tins. You can also use paper muffin cups if you want to have them more like a cupcake or if you need to store them for a while. Set aside.

Next, you will be making the cheesecake filling. My favorite part.

In a mixer, blend together the cream cheese and sugar until smooth.

Go ahead and add the remaining ingredients making sure they are all well blended until smooth. Pour into each muffin tin on top of the pretzel crust.

Time to pop them into the 350 degree oven for approximately 20 - 25 minutes.

Allow to cool completely and then run a sharp knife around the edges to get the cheesecake out of the pan. Chill before serving.

These are the perfect mini dessert. Creamy cheesecake with a pretzel crust. The pretzel crust is NOT crunchy like a regular pretzel. Because it is mixed with the butter and cooked, it comes out kind of nutty and chewy. SO SO GOOD! I love anything bite sized.

I added the mini cheesecakes to the rest of our snacks…

But what did we all think of the movie???

Despite Temera’s insistence that it was stupid… she was the one laughing the loudest. She had to admit that yes, it was really funny. Lauryn just sat glued to the TV (as she usually does) but since she didn’t move a muscle I’m guessing she was enjoying the show. Amanda was too buy playing with the dogs… and David also was glued to the TV saying stuff like, “This is funny stuff.”

Sometimes you just have to chill out with a few snacks and watch some funny stuff.

This project has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for #collectivebias #CBias #MoeSnackrs4UrMoney All opinions are my own.