Fall College Boxes – want to bless your college student, with a package from home!

Do you know someone going off to college this fall and would you like an idea to bless them? Well several kids from our church headed off to different Bible colleges this fall and my daughter and I decided to send out some Fun boxes packed with Fall Delights, to encourage their hearts while they are away from home. 

First I picked up some Small flat rate boxes from the post office.  Next we filled them with brown paper shreds. Then we added some nice red Honey crisp apples, that we shined up and pressed into the shreds, last we included a couple mini dipping cartons of caramel dip, some got peanut butter caramel dip (yum!).   Then to top it off, we sprinkled in a handful of peanut butter cups. We included a note with an encouraging verse and warm fall blessings.

Its a great way to send a fall surprise to your college kids that are away from home and let them know you’re thinking about them! 

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Something else I sometimes include in my Fall College Boxes is a small baggy of Fall Cheerio Crunch.  This caramel-y crunchy mix really ships well!  The recipe makes up a lot and is very easy.

Fall Cheerio Crunch
– 1 cup brown sugar
– ¼ cup butter
– ¼ cup honey or maple syrup
– ½ teaspoon salt
Combine the above ingredients in a pan and heat on medium heat until bubbly around the edges. Cook an additional 1 minute, and stir constantly.

Remove from heat and add:
– 1 Tablespoon real vanilla extract
– ½ teaspoon baking soda
Now Stir until foamy and light colored (only 30 seconds or less !)

Now quickly pour this hot mixture over your bowl of tossed below ingredients :
– 6 cups cheerios
– 1 cup peanuts (I like to do ½c peanuts and ½c pecans)
– 1 cup raisins – optional (leave them out if you wish, but there good in:)
Stir this until well combined.

Pour onto an 11 x 15 parchment-lined baking sheet (or just grease your pan well) and bake for just 10 minutes at 250 degrees. If you’d like to make it a tad more fun and colorful, AFTER you take it out of the oven you can sprinkle on top of the sticky mixture a couple handfuls of fall M&Ms. You can see we did! 🙂 If you do it sooner they melt and crack and don’t look as nice. So you don’t want to stir it at all once you sprinkled on your M&Ms.

Last, Loosen a bit from pan edges if any is sticking,  or lift off your parchment paper and slide it onto a cooling rack (I much prefer parchment paper for this) and let it cool completely until firm. Then break into pieces. Enjoy and good luck staying away from this deliciously crunchy mix!