Easy Lego Pops

Little H is all about Legos right now and what better way to celebrate her birthday than with a Lego Party?!  There are ton of great ideas out there on how to throw the perfect Lego Birthday Party and I'll be sharing with you the ideas I used for games, decorations, food, etc., as well as our own creations.

First up, a tutorial for our super quick and easy

Lego Pops!

Little H mentioned wanting "Lego Pops" on her treat table, I wasn't thrilled...have you ever tried to make perfectly rectangular cake pops?  Ack.
However, I found the perfect "cheat" with Little Debbie Nutty Bars and these little goodies came together in just a few minutes.  That's my kind of treat!

You'll Need:
-Nutty Bars
-Smarties Candies
-Candy Melts
-Sucker Sticks

Here's how to do it:

Cut Nutty Bars in half then carefully poke a hole in the center of each with a sucker stick.  (I put a little mark about 1" down a sucker stick to measure how deep I wanted the holes).

Next, melt some white candy melts in a microwave-safe bowl at 30 second intervals, stirring after each, until melted.  Dip sucker sticks into candy melts and poke into the holes in the Nutty Bars.  This will give you a nice, solid pop that won't break apart.

Dip one side of Smarties candies into melted chocolate and set on top of Nutty Bar.  You'll need 6 Smarties for each Lego Pop.  When set (about 3 minutes), dip into various colors of melted Candy Melts (whatever colors you want for your par-tay!)

Tap gently a few times on the side of bowl to remove excess candy melts and set on wax paper to harden.  If you have too much chocolate on your pop and it's forming a "skirt", simply pick it up and move to a different spot on your wax paper.

For the display, I simply put some floral foam in boxes that I had on hand and filled the top with green crinkle paper.  Super cheap and easy!

We'll be sharing more Lego party games, decorations, etc., in the weeks to come as well as some St. Patty's treats!  Happy Cooking!

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ROCK Star Snacks

To wrap up Little C's Rock unit in school we're having some
ROCK Stars!We had fun making these together and they are super simple! We started with a batch of no bake energy balls (recipe here) and formed them into various rock shapes, about 1" wide each. (you could also use cake balls or any of your favorite no-bake treat recipes!)Then we melted some white candy melts along with a FEW black ones. (you could also use brown).

We dipped the treats in the candy melts then added two edible eyes and a Cheerio mouth.We finished them off by putting some green royal icing in a bag w/ a leaf tip and making crazy hair! I originally planned doing all mohawks but they started to get a life or their own... :)This one was feeling a little philosophical..."et tu, Brute?"This one wanted to rock a Lada Gaga-ish bow...

But no matter how you decorate them, they'll get gobbled up in a flash! Here's the wild crew ready for school!

Frogs on a Log

Big C was so proud of herself when she and her sister made these Frogs on a Log treats for her birthday party...

I realized that these would also be super cute for a "not-too-spooky" Halloween treat or a Letter F snack!

Frogs on a Log
Ingredients:
Hostess Ho Ho's
Gummy Frogs
Brown Candy Melts (or chocolate chips)
Wax Paper

Directions:
Unwrap Ho Hos and place on wax paper. Melt chocolate and drizzle lengthwise over Ho Ho's to give them a "wood texture". Place two gummy frogs on the top of each and let set completely, about 10 minutes.

Tips: after the girls drizzed the chocolate, I moved each Ho Ho a little bit on the wax paper so they didn't have big chocolate strings on the end. Or, you can just break them off after drying.

For the dessert stand, we simply bought a cross cut of wood at the craft store and Gourmet Dad cut a log for me. We used epoxy to glue them together and you have an instant rustic cake/dessert stand!

Edible Bling Rings

Everyone says that diamonds are a girl’s best friend. However, for little girls I’m convinced that it’s fruit snacks…

We whipped these up as a special project for Tablespoon one afternoon and had such a great time. The girls danced and pranced all over the house with rings on every finger!
These Bling Rings are extremely simple snacks to make, all you need are Gushers Fruit Snacks, yogurt covered circle pretzels and white chocolate. Since they’re so simple to put together, it would be a great edible craft project for a party or playdate!
Tip: If you have trouble finding the pretzels, check the snack aisle. They sell them in 100 calorie packs in both white and dark chocolate.
To assemble, melt chocolate in the microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring after each interval, until melted and smooth. Lay out a piece of wax paper. Dip one Gushers Fruit Snack in the chocolate and press onto a pretzel.
Let set completely, about 5 minutes.
When set, you’re ready to serve! You can also keep them in a sealed container for up to a week. Little Miss H couldn’t get enough of these and made them all afternoon! Here she is showing off some of her favorites…

Click here to get the full recipe. Have fun!

Also, if you're into aprons, head on over here to win the most adorable Mommy, Me & Dolly Apron Set! My friend Mindie made them and I can't believe she's giving them away!!

Q is for Queen Cupcakes

Little C's class needed a treat for Q day recently. I figured Kindergarteners wouldn't be too excited about my favorite Quinoa Salad, so we made up some Queen Cupcakes...

I think they came out pretty close to their Letter Friend of the week: Queenie Queen!

These look fancy but are pretty easyto assemble. You can improvise with ingredients you have on hand, but here's what we used :

-Your favorite cupcakes, baked and cooled
-White Icing
-Orange Food Coloring
-Small amount Chocolate Icing
-M & M's Candies
-Large red heart sprinkles
-Kix Cereal
-Wax Paper
-2 Quart Ziploc freezer bags
-White Candy Melts
-Yellow Candy Melts
-Edible pearls or various sprinkles (for crown)

Directions:
Lay out a sheet of wax paper. Melt white candy melts in microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring after each, until melted and smooth. Pour into ziploc freezer bag and snip off the end of one corner. Draw the outline of white "hairdos" on the wax paper, one for each cupcake. Using a spoon, fill in your outline with additional melted white candy melts and smooth with back of spoon. When set, use melted yellow candy melts to draw on "crowns". Decorate with sprinkles, etc..
Tint white icing with a small amount of orange food coloring (to make a "peach" color). Frost cupcakes and place "hair and a crown" on top of each. Draw on eyes using chocolate icing. Add two M & M's candies for earrings. Add a large heart sprinkle for lips.
Microwave a small amount of peach icing in a bowl for 15 seconds until very soft. Coat a piece of Kix Cereal in melted icing and place on face for the "nose". Here they are, just waiting for those little kids to Quickly gobble them up!

Mysterious Mustaches

Sometimes in Winter we get a little crazy...

I remember seeing an adorable Tootsie Roll Mustache video tutorial last Fall from Kellie over at Little Nummies. It's a great activity to beat those winter blues!

Little H was giggling so hard she could barely keep her mustache straight...

You can download the template I used here or the one Kellie used here...
Basically, all you do is melt Tootsie Rolls in the microwave, mash together, roll them out like dough, cut out mustaches and attach a sucker stick!
Check out Kellie's video for the whole process. I also wrapped our sucker sticks in black floral tape just for fun, it's definitely not necessary.
You can also let the kids go freestyle and make their own...check out this hairy beast! Yowza!

Doing this again, I might make them out of chocolate candy melts. It would also be super easy and they'd set up harder. But, either way you have a fun treat!

Letter K Snack

We have some really cool giveaways going on this week! Go here to check them out and enter!
We were in the middle of a busy week but needed to bring a "Letter K" snack to Little C's class. These were fun & easy (and GREAT writing practice for her!).

These little boxes are filled with Kix cereal and Kisses (in her school colors, of course!;)
I got inspired when we found these favor boxes at our local Dollar Tree (in the wedding stuff). You could do all kinds of Alphabet Snacks in these! Before we folded them up, Little C wrote upper and lowercase "K"'s on them. They looked great and she was so proud of herself!
Here they are, ready to go off to school! Do you have any fun ideas for "Alphabet Snacks" that you could put in these boxes?

Perfectly Piggy Dinner

Do you ever think your family eats like pigs?...
Well, why not make a theme night out of it?!

When my friends at Johnsonville Sausage sent me their recipe for Pig Tails and some sausage to try it out, I was inspired!
This dinner is around $1 per serving, so it's a new favorite for both the kids AND my grocery budget!

We whipped up the Pig Tails & Fries and served them in aluminum mini-bread pan "troughs"

and gobbled Pig Cupcakes for dessert! Such an easy dinner and it was a huge hit!
( yes, I did serve vegetables...not pictured...:))

Pig Tails & Fries from Johnsonville Sausage
Servings: 6, Prep: 10 min., Cook: 20-25 min.
Ingredients:
1 package (28 ounces) frozen curly French fries
1 package (13.5-16 ounces) Johnsonville® smoked sausage (Polish, New Orleans, Smoked Turkey, BOLD Beef Hot Links or Beef Franks).
Oil for deep-fat frying

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Cut sausage links in half lengthwise. Cut each half into three long strips. Spread fries in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake at 450°F for 17-20 minutes, turning once. Arrange sausage strips in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake at 450°F for 12-14 minutes or until they curl. Serve with fries.
I love how those sausages curl up like little pig tails! Too cute! You can serve them up in disposable aluminum bread pans or any other "troughs" you have on hand. :)Pig Cupcakes
Ingredients:
Your favorite cupcakes
Pink Icing (we used Pillsbury Strawberry icing)
Large pink marshmallows (1 for each cupcake)
Mini chocolate chips
Edible Eyeballs
Pink sugar sprinkles (optional)

Directions:
Frost cupcakes and dip in pink sugar (optional). Cut marshmallows in half, then in half again, as shown. This makes your "snout" and "ears".
Place two mini chocolate chips on the sticky side of the "snout" and place on cupcake. Add ears and two edible eyeballs. Oink!

Note: These Pig Cupcakes would also be a fun and easy Letter P snack!

Disclosure: I was given product and coupons from Johnsonville to try out this recipe. I was not compensated for this post and all opinions, as always, are my own.

Doughnut Seeds

I saw The Moody Fashionista's "Donut Seeds" a few weeks ago and thought they were just adorable! Plus, isn't her daughter the cutest?!

So, when the time came to make a snack for Little C's class, we knew what it should be! They're inexpensive and easy to put together for a large group. Perfect!

We added some Fruit Loops for color and made our own Doughnut Seed (or Donut...tomato, tomahto...:)) labels that you can download here. You can choose larger labels (4 per page) or smaller labels (8 per page--this is a large file because the graphics are high res, so be patient!)

Doughnut Seeds
Ingredients:
Cheerios
Fruit Loops
Ziploc Baggies
Large or Small Doughnut Seed Labels


Directions:
Put desired amount of Cheerios & Fruit loops in each bag. Print and cut out labels. Tape a label on each bag. Gobble. Here's Little H in "ready to gobble" position...
Here's our sea of donut seed bags ready to go to school! This is also a great Letter D snack!

Mini Root Beer Float Cupcakes

With so much excitement going on, I haven't created a true "Gourmet Mom-on-the-Go" treat in awhile--Let's get back to what I do best!
Today we whipped up some super easy
Mini Root Beer Float Cupcakes

I don't drink, but I LOVE shot glasses! I use them for all kinds of things! I've used them for Pomegranate Soup, Sweet Potato Sorbet, use them to serve shots of bisque as an appetizer, put veggie sticks in them & serve on an elegant platter, you name it!

Votive holders work well, too. They're cheap (lots of places have them for 25 cents) and look elegant. They were perfect for these little sweet treats!

Mini Root Beer Float Cupcakes
Makes 32
Ingredients:
1 pkg. Betty Crocker Vanilla Cake Mix
1 Tbsp. Root Beer Extract (in the spice aisle w/ the other extracts)
1 can Root Beer (you can use diet to cut the sugar)
Creme Roulee wafer cookies
Vanilla Icing (storebought or your favorite recipe)
Red Mini Gumballs (or M & M's or other red candy)
Clean votive candle holders or shot glasses
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place 1 Tbsp. root beer extract in 2 C. measuring cup (you'll have extract left over for another batch!:)). Fill cup with Root Beer until it reaches 1 1/2 C. (you'll have just a taste of root beer left in your can). Add to cake mix and stir well. No eggs, no oil, easy!!
Place shot glasses/votive holders on a baking sheet and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Fill 1/2 full with cake batter and bake at 350 degrees for 18-22 minutes until done. Remove from oven and let cool completely. Your kitchen will smell like a soda factory--the kids loved it!:)
Cut creme roulee wafers in half.
Put vanilla icing in canvas bag w/ star tip (or you can just put it in a ziploc baggie and snip off one end). Pipe a dollop of icing onto each cupcake, top with a gumball and half of a wafer cookie. Serve or refrigerate until needed.

Wouldn't these be just adorable too for a summer picnic or end-of-the-year school party?!