Caramel/Chocolate Pretzel Rods

One of my good friends showed me how to make these caramel pretzels and my family and anyone else who has tried them has been in love ever since! They are super easy, super cute, and super yummy!!! They even make cute pretzel bags (found at Michael's or JoAnn's) to wrap them in :)

I think these are around 4 points per pretzel rod.

Ingredients:
- 1/2 lb of caramel (I bought mine at a local cake store. You just tell them how much and they cut off a huge chunk for you.)
- Long pretzel rods (sometimes I break them in 1/2 to make smaller ones.)
- 1 lb melted chocolate (my family prefers white for these)
- Sprinkles or melted chocolate to drizzle on top for decoration

Directions:
1. Take a small section of caramel and roll it between your hands to make a long snake (like you used to do with play dough)
2. Wrap it around the pretzels.
3. Take a spoon and drizzle the chocolate over the pretzel until it is covered (i do this over the saucepan that the chocolate is in)
4. Lay on wax paper.
5. Drizzle chocolate or pour on some sprinkles for decoration.
6. Let harden in fridge.

Enjoy!

Pot Pie

I love pot pie but had never attempted making my own until I saw this recipe over at SweetPea Recipes. Here is the recipe with my alterations in italics.


Although this seams like a somewhat healthy recipe I was shocked when I figured out the points. For an 1/8 of the pie it was 9 points. The crust is what kills it. So I ate 1/2 a serving or could just eat part of the crust (even though that is always the best part!)

Ingredients:
- 1 double pie crust (I used the off brand and it turned out delish)

- 2 cans Cream of Potato soup

- 1 c. frozen mixed vegetables (I used at entire small bag)

- 2-3 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed (I used 2 cups of leftover shredded turkey from Thanksgiving that had been in my freezer)

- thyme

- sage

- salt & pepper

Directions:
1. Mix the last everything together.
2. Press bottom crust into pie pan.
3. Put the filling in.
4. Top with other crust and seal the edges.
5. Cut slits into the top of the crust.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or until crust is golden brown. Cover crust edges with aluminum foil for first 20-25 minutes, then remove.

Pizza Sauce

On Valentine's Day we had a day of hearts! After seeing this over at brown paper packages I decided to make some heart pizzas for dinner that night.



I used a tube of pizza dough from the grocery store that I just rolled out and cut using heart cookie cutters. Then I topped it with pizza sauce, cheese, and baked it until the dough was done.

I had never made pizza sauce before and found out it was really quite easy and ended up being really yummy.


I searched allrecipes.com for different recipes and they all were pretty similar.

Here's what I ended up doing:

- 1 can (8oz.) of tomato sauce (next time I will also add in tomato paste to make it a thicker consistency)
- 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon of dried basil
- 1/2 teaspoon of minced garlic

Mix together and let it sit - the longer the better!

Enjoy!

Marshmellow Pops

The hubby was out of town for Valentine's Day so I got to spend a weekend with my girls and my sisters. It was lots of fun and for our special love day we made these cute little treats!

So simple and easy - I can't tell if my two year old had more fun making them or eating them (and still continues to sneak into the fridge to eat what's left of them!)

Ingredients:
- 1 bag of large marshmallows
- 1 lb melting chocolate (we used 1/2 white and 1/2 semi sweet)
- stuff to dip in (sprinkles, mini chips, coconut, etc.)
- lollipop sticks

Directions:
1. Take lollipop stick and push marshmallow onto the top of it.
2. Dip in melted chocolate.
3. Roll in toppings.

So fun and oh so cute! These would be fun treats to take to school, give as thank yous, favors for parties, etc. Top off with a small treat bag and ribbon and there are endless possibilities!

Enjoy!

Valentine's Breakfast

After seeing this post at Brown Paper Packages I decided my little kiddo would love doing some Valentine baking with the cookie cutters.


We didn't do anything too exciting just took some red and purple pancakes and made some hearts and whatnot.

Obviously they were a big hit...

Heart Suckers

After seeing these cute little suckers over here at The Idea Room we decided to make them for the kid's at our most recent church activity.

After a little trial and error my friend (from over here) and I ended up with quite a cute batch of little suckers.

Here's what to do and a little advice after attempting it:

- put two little candy canes together to make a heart
- put it on PARCHMENT paper (not wax paper)
- bake them in a 350 degree oven for about 2 minutes
- pull them out even if they look hard - they're really soft
- place the lollipop stick in between and squeeze together
- finish off with a wrapper and bow

Valentine's Heart Brownies

Justin came home today and told me they were having a treat exchange at work for Valentine's Day. I had been wanting to make these cute little heart brownies that I saw here at Little Birdie Secrets but certainly didn't want them sitting around the house for me to eat - so this was perfect! (Except there sure were a lot of scraps that made it into my belly!!!)


At the request of one of his friends from work I made this recipe from SweetPea Recipes. They turned out oh so cute and definitely yummy!

Ingredients:
Brownie mix
1/4 cup Hershey's syrup
Bag of peanut butter chips
1 can of vanilla frosting
1/4 cup peanut butter

Directions:
1. Take a brownie mix and make it according to the box - but substitute Hershey's syrup for the water - and add a bag of peanut butter chips. it as directed on the box.
2. Stir 1/4 c. peanut butter into a can of vanilla frosting and ice the brownies after they are cooled.