Bacteria Buddies

Little C's class went on a field trip this week to our city's Water Treatment Center.  Although we learned a lot of interesting things, all the kids seemed to talk about was the "Poop-Eating Bacteria" that they treat our water with.  They were fascinated! 

Soooo, for Friday snack this week we sent some "Bacteria Buddies" to school....

To make I simply took chocolate/vanilla swirled marshmallows, dipped them in melted yellow candy melts, rolled in crushed corn flakes, rolled in a variety of sprinkles with sunflower seeds (cleaning out the cupboard!) and added two edible eyeballs. 

Wilton sells candy eyeballs now if you don't want to make them!  Check your local Michael's or Hobby Lobby.

I also wrote a fun little poem to go along with them, you can click here to download/print it or on the image below.

I love how the sprinkles and sunflower seeds make them look "dirty", like they're cleaning up our water!  Gross but funny.  I'm sure they were a hit with the kids!

Peeps S'mores

Do you have a few of these around the house after Easter?

Our FAVORITE way to use leftover Peeps is to make quick s'mores using Nature Valley Granola Thins!  Check our our recipe on Tablespoon for complete instructions.

Bunny Tail Bag Toppers

For a quick Easter treat, it's always fun to put white cheddar puffs or marshmallows in baggies as a snack of "bunny tails".  In fact, we'll have a basket of them on hand at Easter dinner for the kiddos to snack on!

To make it super easy, we created this cute baggie topper for you to download/print.  Simply fill your snack bags, fold labels in half and attach to the top with double-sided tape. Enjoy!
Click Here or on image to download.

Rainbow Pots of Gold

Look what we've whipped up for Tablespoon this week...
Double your luck at the end of these rainbows...the "pots of gold" are actually Lucky Charms cereal treats!

These are super easy to make, all you need is a microwave and a few ingredients.

Click Here or on the image below for the full recipe.

One last St. Patty's Day fun tradition...I always get out dark plastic drinking cups and put a drop of green food coloring in the corner.  When the kids wake up and pour their milk, it "magically" turns green when going into their cup.  They love it (even though the older girls have figured it out)!:)

Do you have any St. Patrick's Day traditions or fun ideas?
Let's hear them!

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St. Patrick's Goodies & Giveaway

Top o' the mornin'! We've got lots of fun St. Patrick's Day ideas here (we love the Irish Potato Candy) and we'll be whipping up more fun later this week.

In the meantime, we haven't done a giveaway in awhile and our friends at McCormick offered to send TWO lucky Gourmet Mom readers a St. Patrick's Day Prize Pack with all the ingredients you'll need to make your day extra special!   

TO ENTER:
For fun, simply leave a comment telling us which green guy you'd rather kiss on St. Patrick's Day:
Kermit the Frog

OR

Jolly Green Giant

Time's up!  The winners, via random.org, are:
Comment #20 and #29!
Mandy and Caryn, congratulations!
I have sent you and email or note on your blog, please send your mailing address asap.

Did you know McCormick's website has all kinds of fabulous St. Paddy's goodies that you can whip up this week?  Here are a few of our favorites...
Luck o' the Irish Cake Pops

Emerald Mint Milkshake

Easy Green Velvet Cupcakes

Green with Envy Cheesecake Bars

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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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Printable for Secret Decoder VDay Cookies

When I saw the adorable Secret Message Decoder Cookies on the Family Fun Community page a couple years ago, I loved the idea!

We haven't made them in awhile, so we decided to whip up some for the girls' classes as an extra treat this Valentine's Day. To make things simple (and a little harder to read without the decoder cookie), I designed the secret messages on the computer and thought I'd share the printable.
You can download/print them here or click on the image below.
There are four sheets with six each that say:
"Happy Valentine's Day!"
"You are Sweet! Be Mine!"
"I spy...someone cool! Happy VDay!"
"It's no secret, you are awesome!"

If you're whipping up decoder cookies for Valentine's Day, hopefully these will help make it a snap! Enjoy!

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