St. Patrick's Day Marshmallow Pops

Have you ever gotten pinched for not wearing green on St. Patrick's day? I'm trying to remember if I have. I feel like I did when I was younger... but I realize now that every year on St. Patrick's day, I make sure to always wear green. 

I think the true fun of St. Patrick's Day is in all the little things that combine to make a unique and fun celebration. In our home, we do a (somewhat) traditional dinner for the holiday and don't go too overboard. However, we do go a bit overboard on the days leading up to this

"lucky" day and these simple, fun and adorable marshmallow pops are just one way that we 

we do that. Cheers to you and I wish you the best of luck this St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick's Day Marshmallow Pops:

Ingredients:

3 large marshmallows

Food Writers - Green, Black & Yellow "markers"

1 teaspoon melted white chocolate

Green sprinkles

Wooden Skewer or (long) lollipop stick

Instructions:

Brush the outside edge of one large marshmallow with melted chocolate and roll in green sprinkles. Place on parchment paper and allow to dry.

Using food writer markers, draw a clover on the "face" of one marshmallow and green stripes around the outside edge. Draw a pot of gold on the other marshmallow, and write "kiss me" or "lucky" or another cute, St. Patrick's day saying on the other marshmallow.

Place marshmallows on skewer and tie green ribbon around the stick.

Dr. Seuss Treats

My favorite part of my daughter being in school is being able to make cute, adorable treats for her to take and share with her class. I know this won't last forever, and there will come a time when she will be to embarrassed to bring leprechaun cake pops and Dr. Seuss cupcakes to school, so I'm going to take advantage of it while I can! Plus, by the time she's old enough to be "too cool" for those things, Corbin will be in school and I'll be able to do the same for him! This is why it's very important to have multiple children and have them significantly spaced apart.

Today, to celebrate his birthday, my daughter is having a Dr. Seuss Read-a-thon in her class and they will be spending the day reading lots of Dr. Seuss books! She also got to bring along a fluffy blanket and her pillow pet for lounging! Sounds like my kind of day! My sweet little daughter informed me after school yesterday that she told her teacher I would be bringing a special Dr. Seuss themed snack. Glad we had some time to talk about this and prepare beforehand. Not. Gotta love kids ;)

In my efforts to think of a treat that would be cute, sweet and encompass all that is Dr. Seuss, I decided to go with bright and colorful trix treats covered in blue chocolate, sprinkles and, of course, the fish from "1 fish, 2 fish..." I am very pleased with these cute and colorful little goodies and my daughter said "Don't even worry about whether my class will like these... they won't. They'll LOVE them!" So, it's safe to say that I feel pretty confident.

Zany Dr. Seuss Treats:

Ingredients:

12 cups trix cereal

5 tablespoons salted butter

10 ounce bag mini marshmallows

1 cup blue melting disks (or white melting disks dyed blue)

Rainbow sprinkles

Colorful fish gummies

Instructions:

Spray or lightly grease a 9"x13" baking dish.

In a large pot, heat butter until almost melted. Add mini marshmallows and cook, stirring frequently, until completely melted. Add trix cereal and combine well. Pour mixture into 9"x13" baking dish. Make sure mixture is packed tightly and allow it to cool. Once cool, cut into squares.

In a microwave safe bowl, melt chocolate disks in 30-second intervals until smooth. Drizzle over cooled treats, place a gummy fish on top and sprinkle with rainbow sprinkles!

Easy Valentine Caramels

So... It's no secret that I love chocolate. I mean I looooove chocolate. Hubby and I have been dieting, err, "Eating better" lately and have only had a couple of cheat days so far. On those cheat days do you know what I eat? Chocolate.  I can't live without it's sweet, delicious chocolatey goodness...

I spent my morning trying to think of something cute I could make for Valentine's Day that hadn't already been done 1,000 times. I kept looking at my bag of See's Chocolate Chips and thinking that I just wanted to dig in and that, really, if I were to simply throw them in my mouth, that would be good enough. But, after I noticed some leftover caramels sitting up in my pantry and I saw my adorable heart-shaped sprinkles, I knew what had to be done...

Chocolate + Caramel = Amazing. Every. Time.

Look how pretty it is now that it's covered in chocolate. Chocolate makes everything pretty! It's almost Too easy!

The end result is an adorable pile of Valentine Caramels that will make anyone smile! They're cute, they're tasty and they're perfect for your Valentine!

Valentine Caramels Instructions:

Ingredients:

24 caramels, unwrapped

1 cup See's Candy Chocolate Chips

1/2 teaspoon vegetable oil

Large heart-shaped sprinkles

Instructions:

In a microwave-safe bowl, place chocolate chips and oil. Microwave at 30-second intervals, stiring frequenty, until chocolate is melted.

Using a fork, dip caramels in chocolate, remove and set on wax paper. Before they dry, place large heart sprinkles on all sides (except the bottom...)

Admire their cuteness. Wrap up in cute Valentine's Day packaging and give to a loved one, friend, neighbor, or anyone you want to get in good with ;)

Peanut Butter Brownie Batter Smoothie with Peanut M&Ms

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Every day after school we pretty much have the same routine: walk home, make a snack and get ready to start homework. Most of the time our snacks just consist of fruit, crackers, cheese and other simple foods, but I had a great idea for a snack that I knew my daughter would absolutely adore... and it was going to include one of my favorite candies ever -- M&Ms.

So, while I was at my local Walmart store the other night, picking up some presents I had ordered online, I browsed through the food aisles and slowly found my way to the  candy aisle -- my favorite aisle! I needed to pick up some of my favorite candies, peanut M&Ms, to use in a smoothie I had been wanting to create! I also grabbed some brownie mix (yes... you read that right) and some vanilla greek yogurt! 

I'm just going to throw this out there right now -- I love brownies. I love brownie batter. You might even call me a brownieholic. I live for the ooey gooey centers of brownies and I can eat a whole pan in just a couple of hours. I like to think of it as kind of my hidden talent. Due to this love for brownies, I decided to incorporate a TON of brownie deliciousness into my smoothie recipe to make it an extra special treat! 

To make the smoothies I simply combined vanilla greek yogurt, peanut butter, brownie batter, milk and tossed in a bunch of peanut M&M's and peanut butter M&M brownie chunks. Easy peasy, right? 

This is now my go-to smoothie recipe whenever I want to enjoy the taste of chocolatey goodness without actually baking a pan of brownies. Genius, I tell you!

If you want more chocolatey inspiration and recipes, click here.

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Peanut Butter Brownie Batter Smoothie with Peanut M&M's:

Ingredients:

2 cups Vanilla Greek Yogurt
3/4 cup milk
1 cup brownie mix
2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup peanut M&M's 
1 package + 1 cup brownie mix (divided)
Oil & eggs (according to package directions)
8-10 ice cubes

Instructions:

Prepare (1 package) brownie batter according to package directions. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup M&M's. Bake according to package directions. Allow brownies to cool and cut into 1" cubes.

Place about 6 brownie cubes into your blender along with the remaining ingredients. Blend on low until combined.

Enjoy!

Makes about 3 8-ounce smoothies.

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