If you went to elementary school in the U.S., then you probably spent some time learning about early American pioneers who wore bonnets and traveled to the West Coast in horse-drawn wagons (that also sort of looked like bonnets) with their cows, horses, children, and a bunch of diseases in tow. Well, the Pioneer Woman brand is sort of related to that.
Ree Drummond is a Food Network personality known for her show The Pioneer Woman, which I’ve only ever seen on hotel TVs, about her making food for her family out on a ranch in Oklahoma. The “pioneer” aspect seems related to her leaving her city life behind to explore a new frontier out on the ranch. Drummond also has a line of Pioneer Woman grocery store food items, including sauces, frozen main dishes, and sides, which expanded this week with the introduction of Pioneer Woman snacks. Sold exclusively at Walmart, these new salty and sweet snack mixes should satiate even the hungriest of ranch hands—or at least give them something delicious to nosh on while they clean horse poop and corral cattle (I have no idea what happens on a ranch).
So what exactly are these Pioneer Woman snacks? Beef jerky? Crackers? Whatever else people ate in the before times?
Turns out they actually look delicious—not that I think a woman with a successful cooking blog and a Food Network show would offer us anything sub-par. These Pioneer Woman Snacks include three different snack mixes: Pecan Sticky Buns (honey roasted pecans, white confectionery mini cups, and cinnamon sugar caramel-coated puffs), Knock You Naked Brownie (caramel popcorn, salted pecans, mini brownie cookies, dark chocolate mini cups, milk chocolate caramel-filled mini cups, and coconut cashews), and Spicy Cowgirl flavor (almonds, cashews, and pecans coated in a blend of cocoa powder, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper, plus dark chocolate mini cups with a mocha-flavored filling, and white confectionery mini cups).
These sound so good, y’all. What I’m hearing is: a nutty cinnamon roll, something similar to Moose Munch popcorn, and a Mexican chocolate-flavored snack mix? I’m sold. Call me a pioneer woman because I would risk getting dysentery and losing a few cows to travel west to my local Walmart to try a bag of these. Also wouldn’t it be fun to have something in your pantry called “Spicy Cowgirl” or “Knock You Naked”? Thank you Ree Drummond for this built-in conversation starter—and the tasty-looking snacks. I’ve truly never seen snack mixes like this before. I guess she really is a pioneer!
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!