Christmas Tree Brownies

These Christmas tree brownies were fun and easy to make for our 4th grade Christmas party!

I made a pan of brownies (I always make boxed brownies and they are always a hit - the trick is to not overcook them!)  Once the brownies were fully cooled, I used the technique from this PIN to cut the brownies into triangles.  Then, I broke the hook off of small candy canes and inserted the remaining straight peppermint stick into the bottom of the brownie.  I used a frosting bag with star tip to pipe on the green frosting and added sprinkles and a yellow candy star!  So cute!

Oreo Balls Teacher Gift

I made these Oreo Balls as a Valentine's gift for teachers but they can be adapted for any holiday!  They are SO yummy!

Here is the recipe:

OREO BALLS

Ingredients

1 package Oreos

8 ounces cream cheese

16 ounces white almond bark

Holiday sprinkles

Instructions

Place Oreos in 1 large ziploc bag.  Place that bag inside another ziploc bag so that the Oreos are double bagged to avoid a mess.  Use a rolling pin or the smooth side of a meat mallet to crush Oreos.  Mix crushed Oreos with cream cheese.  Use a small cookie scoop (2 teaspoons) to form Oreo balls on a cookie sheet.  Freeze balls until firm.  Melt white almond bark in microwave according to package directions.  Dip balls in melted bark and immediately pour on sprinkles.  Let set completely on a cooling rack.

Makes 40 balls

(Instead of sprinkles, I have also sprinkled on extra crushed Oreos or added a gummy lifesaver with a chocolate chip in the center to look like an eyeball for Halloween.)

To package these as teacher gifts, I simply put several balls in a treat bag, tied it up, add a gift tag, and put the treat bag in a cute metal bucket.   

Halloween Snacks

We had some yummy and adorably spooky Halloween snacks!

We had the Vomiting hummus pumpkin (see post HERE) and the Pig in a blanket mummies (see post HERE) again.  Then we also had Cheese straw witch fingers, Mummy brownies, and Monster sugar cookies!

For the Cheese straw witch fingers, I made my usual cheese straw recipe (see post HERE) and simply added sliced almonds before baking.  Yum!

For the Mummy brownies, I made my usual boxed brownie recipe (shhh!)  Once the brownies cooled, I cut them into squares and placed them on cooling racks with wax paper underneath.  I melted white chocolate in the microwave and used a knife to drizzle/shake the chocolate over the brownies.  Then, I quickly added small eyes.  Cute!

 For the Monster sugar cookies, I cooked place-and-bake sugar cookies (I'm revealing all my secrets!  But, the kids don't care I promise!  The tip to any place-and-bake cookies is to not overcook them.)  I added tinted white icing in between 2 cookies.  For the ones on the top, I added mini marshmallows in between the 2 cookies for teeth, added more icing on top, and then added a large marshmallow to the top for an eye.  I added the eyeball with a black edible marker. Adorable monsters!

Vomiting Hummus Pumpkin

I saw this on Pinterest and just had to try it for Halloween!  It's easy, fun, and my boys loved it!  Carve a small pumpkin to look like a jack-o-lantern with a pretty large mouth.  Spoon hummus coming from the mouth and out onto the platter.  I put the roasted red peppers on the top of the hummus and added pita chips.  Too funny!

8 Can Chicken Tortilla Soup

I had a couple of people I wanted to take dinner to: one for a new job & one for a new house!  However, because it's summer, I haven't been doing much cooking at all!  So, I decided to bring ingredients instead in a cute bucket with a cute tag!  Here are the things to buy:

• bucket (found at Dollar Tree)
• 15oz can black beans
• 15oz can pinto beans
• 14.5oz can diced tomatoes
• 15oz can sweet corn
• 12.5oz can chicken breast
• 10.75oz can cream of chicken soup
• 10oz can enchilada sauce
• 14oz can chicken broth
• 1oz packet taco seasoning
• bag of tortilla chips

You can download the recipe tag HERE.  You can download the "Welcome to the Neighborhood" tag HERE.

Easter Nests

I made these cute Easter Nests for a fun snack!  Here's the recipe:

Easter Nests

From: Room Mom Extraordinaire

Makes: approx. 40 nests

Ingredients:

11 ounces butterscotch chips

1 cup peanut butter

12 ounces chow mein noodles

Cadbury mini eggs

Directions:

In a  large bowl, melt butterscotch chips and peanut butter in the microwave for 1 minute and stir until melted.  Stir in chow mein noodles and stir until thoroughly coated.  Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper.  Use the back of a teaspoon to make an indentation.  Add 1-3 Cadbury mini eggs.  Cool completely until set.  Happy Easter!

Birthday Pudding

My son wanted to bring a birthday snack to school for his birthday, but the snack has to meet certain criteria to be served at school.  We were able to get Sugar Free Pudding that qualified as a healthy snack.  I added Happy Birthday labels that I printed on sticker paper and cut out with a 2" circle punch.  You can download these labels HERE (without the name).  Then, I tied a spoon to the side.  Yummy!

Halloween Donuts

These are fun to make for the kids for Halloween breakfast!  Just buy some candy eyes, icing, & donuts.  Dab a little icing on the back of the candy eyes and attach to donuts.  Let dry and they'll be ready to eat for some spooky breakfast fun!

Cheetos Carrots for Easter

I loved these cute treats for Easter!  The idea and instructions are from Life on Old Savannah.  I found the Wilton frosting bags, green cocktail napkins, & Cheetos at Walmart.  For me, a 18.5oz Party Size bag of Crunchy Cheetos made 8 carrots.  I used twist ties to close them so that it would be easy for the kids to open at school.  It was a great Easter treat!

St Patrick's Day Pudding

I whipped up a quick dessert for my kids to celebrate St Patrick's Day.  It's simply instant white chocolate pudding prepared and colored with green food coloring.  I put green sprinkles on the top and green m&m's in the shape of a 4 leaf clover.  They loved it!

Fall Snack Mix

I made this Fall Snack Mix for my kids' teachers.  The snack mix contained Wheat Chex, Rice Chex, Cashews, Candy Corn, Goldfish, Honey Roasted Peanuts, and M&M's.  I put the snack mix into small mason jars.  Then, I used my 2.5" circle punch to punch out fall-colored scrapbook paper to put on the top of the jar.  I used my 2.5" scallop punch to punch brown scrapbook paper and then mounted these cute "Happy Fall Y'all" tags on top (tags available from Make Bake Celebrate HERE).  I hole-punched the tags and attached to the jar with natural colored raffia.  It was easy and the teachers loved to have a snack during their school day!

Easter Snack

I made these cute "Bunny Tails" snacks using my Silhouette.  I used the following shapes: "2 owl valentine treat bag topper" and "bunny" and used "Cherry Cream Soda" font.  I cut the "Bunny Tails" tags in pastel colors and then cut just the tag part in pink to put behind the pastel cut out.  I put 3 powdered donuts in a snack size ziploc and then attached the topper with double sided tape.  I really wanted powdered donut holes to better resemble a bunny tail but couldn't find them.  I don't think the kids cared!

Thing 1 & Thing 2 Jello

I made these fun snacks for Dr. Seuss' birthday and Read Across American day.  I saw a picture of these on Pinterest, but unfortunately there is no source (let me know if you know who to credit).  They are sugar free jello cups with blue-tinted sugar free cool whip on top.  These actually count as a "healthy" snack according to the rules at the school, so I didn't even cheat!  These are super easy!  Print the Thing 1 & Thing 2 labels (download HERE) on sticker paper and cut out with a 2" circle punch.  Apply the stickers to the jello cups and tint the thawed cool whip with blue food coloring.  Dollop the blue cool whip on top of the red jello to form spikes.  That's it!  Enjoy!

Valentine Kabobs

I made these for my kids' Valentine's parties tomorrow.  Just large heart shaped marshmallows, strawberries, and brownies on skewers.  Easy and cute!

Bear Day

My 2nd grader's class had a Be Excited About Reading (BEAR) day!  They were allowed to wear their pajamas and bring a towel, books, and stuffed animal from home.  I sent in teddy grahams & gummy bears for their snack that day with these cute labels (you can download them HERE).  Print the labels on white cardstock, cut them out, fold them in half, and staple together with the 2 snack bags in between.  The kids had a great BEAR day!

Turkey Cheese Ball

I made this cute turkey cheese ball for a Thanksgiving appetizer.  The recipe is the same one I used for the pumpkin shaped cheese ball HERE.  However for the turkey cheese ball, I wrapped it in plastic wrap to form a ball and then rolled in pecans.  I added 6 pretzel crackers for the turkey's tail & then added a red bell pepper strip for the turkey's face.  Yummy & cute!

Halloween Food

A few Halloween food ideas:

Spider Web Dip

This recipe was adapted from Divine Dinner Party website.

Ingredients:

1 16 ounce can refried black beans

1 envelope taco seasoning

1 4 ounce can diced green chilies, drained

1 cup salsa

1 cup guacamole

1 cup shredded cheese

2 green onions, sliced

1/2 cup sour cream

Bag of tortilla chips

Directions:

Combine refried beans and taco seasoning.  Spread into the bottom of a pie plate.  Layer green chilies, salsa, & guacamole on top of beans.  Sprinkle cheese and green onions in a circle around the edges of the pie plate.  Put sour cream in a ziploc bag and snip a small hole in the corner of the bag.  Use the sour cream to make circles and lines in a spider web shape.  Insert a plastic spider ring in the center.  Serve with tortilla chips.

Halloween Cupcakes

These are just box mix and can icing, but they look really cute!  I used spider web cupcake liners, orange & green sprinkles with spiders, & plastic spider rings.  I printed the 2" Halloween tags and mounted them on black coffee stirrers.  I got the tags as a free printable HERE.

Ghost Pizza

I was in a hurry when I was doing this on Halloween night or it would have been neater, but it still tasted good!  I used the Jiffy box pizza dough mix and followed their directions.  I pressed the dough into a ghost shape and added toppings.  I had 1 cheese pizza for the kids and 1 supreme pizza for the adults.  On the supreme pizza, I layered pizza sauce, a little pizza cheese, pepperoni, sausage crumbles, mushrooms, green peppers, and lots of pizza cheese.  To both pizzas, I added 3 pepperonis for the ghost eyes and mouth!


Jack-O-Lantern Grilled Cheese

I just used a cookie cutter to make a jack-o-lantern face on one slice of bread for each grilled cheese sandwich.  The kids loved them!  For the adults, I also had a crockpot full of soup to go with the sandwiches and to warm us up after trick-or-treating!

Cheese Straw Boxes

I wanted to make a little "happy" for our elementary school's office appreciation week.  So, I made cheese straws and put them in pastel take-out boxes (from Michael's Arts & Crafts).  I attached a thank you note that my child signed.  They appreciated the snack!

Cheese Straw Recipe
from roommomextraordinaire.blogspot.com

Ingredients:
1 1/2 sticks butter
1/2 cup shortening
4 cups finely grated sharp cheddar cheese
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
paprika

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream butter and shortening in mixer until soft.  Add cheese and mix well.  Sift together flour, salt, mustard, & cayenne pepper.  Add in three additions, mixing well after each addition.  Spoon mixture into cookie press.  Use handle of wooden spoon to press down completely.

Using single star disc, press out cheese straws into long rows.  Use a knife to cut into individual straws and place on cookie sheet.

Bake 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees or just until edges start to turn golden brown.  Let cool 2 minutes on cookie sheet.

Use spatula to carefully transfer to wire cooling racks.  Sprinkle with paprika.

Makes approx. 100 cheese straws

Eggnog Pound Cake

I decided to make mini loaves of Eggnog Pound Cake for our school administration and other teachers (music, art, PE, library...) this year.  I have made other things over the years (cheese straws, oreo balls, spiced pecans...), but these loaves were definitely the easiest and least expensive gift option so far.  A great way to make a lot of gifts at once!  Here is the recipe adapted from Southern Living:

Eggnog Pound Cake

Ingredients:
1 16oz package pound cake mix
1 1/4 cups eggnog
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Beat all ingredients together at low speed with an electric mixer until blended.  Increase speed to medium, and beat 2 minutes.  Pour into 4 lightly greased mini loaf pans (pan should be about half full).  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool in pan on a wire rack.

I made this recipe 9 times to make 36 loaves and was done in about an hour (not counting cooking and cooling time).  I cooked 12 loaves at a time, so it took around 45 minutes for them to get done.  I baked the loaves in disposable aluminum pans.  Once they were completely cooled, I wrapped them in aluminum foil and froze them, so I could just take them out as needed for gifts and the cake would still be fresh.  The total cost came to $1.60 per loaf (including the aluminum pans and all ingredients) - not bad at all!  I did have an extra cake for a family taste test and YUMMY!!

The day before I wanted to give the loaves as a present, I would set out to thaw.  Then, I would put 3 bottle cap magnets on the aluminum pan (Click for MAGNET INSTRUCTIONS), put the loaf in a bag, tie with red tulle ribbon, and then attach  a tag that said "Eggnog Pound Cake for you!" (Click HERE to download the tags.)  It turned out so cute!  This was such an easy and cheap way to make mass quantities of gifts - I may have to do this every year!

To view other Christmas ideas at Design Dazzle's 100 Ideas of Christmas Wonderful: CLICK HERE

Thanksgiving Snack

I made a simple and quick Thanksgiving snack for my 1st graders' class.  I popped 4 bags of popcorn and poured it into cute plastic Thanksgiving cups.  I put the cups in clear Thanksgiving bags and tied them up.  So easy!  I think the kids will enjoy their healthy Thanksgiving snack!