Tag Archives: chocolate chips

In honor of Oreo’s 100th Birthday

30 Mar

If you'd like to celebrate right along with Oreo in honor of their 100th birthday, I highly recommend these Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Can you find the Oreo Cookies in this picture?

I bet you can’t, they’re hiding INSIDE the cookies!

Last year I posted this recipe on Facebook after seeing it in a Macaroni Kids newsletter that I get in my inbox each week. From what I read, they got it from a blog too, so I have included that in the recipe information as well.

I made these several times last year, including as an End of Year gift for our kids’ teachers and for a birthday gift for my sister-inlaw.

They are SO delicious but each one is like eating THREE cookies, just so you know.

Here is the recipe for you. It’s easy and makes about 25 cookies.

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

INGREDIENTS

2 sticks softened butter

3/4 Cup packed light brown sugar

1 Cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 Tablespoon pure vanilla

3 1/2 Cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

10 oz bag chocolate chips

1 bag Oreo Cookies

DIRECTIONS

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.   In a stand or electric mixer cream butter and sugars until well combined.  Add in eggs and vanilla until well combined.

2.  In a separate bowl mix the flour, salt and baking soda.  Slowly add to wet ingredients along with chocolate chips until just combined.  Using a cookie scoop take one scoop of cookie dough and place on top of an Oreo Cookie.  Take another scoop of dough and place on bottom of Oreo Cookie.  Seal edges together by pressing and cupping in hand until Oreo Cookie is enclosed with dough.  Place onto a baking sheet and bake cookies 9-13 minutes or until cookies are baked to your liking.  Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.  Serve with a tall glass of milk, enjoy!

Makes about 2 dozen VERY LARGE Cookies

Please visit Jenny’s blog at picky-palate.com

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It was like a crepe buffet!

28 Mar

Having apple cinnamon crepes for breakfast is like having apple pie for breakfast.

Is there such a thing as a crepe buffet? If not, then I think we invented one. If so, then I think we had one at our house too.

Two Sundays ago, Don asked me the fateful question: What do you want for breakfast today?

Now had he asked me, “What are we having for breakfast today,” maybe my answer would have been different, like “Scrambled Eggs” or “French Toast” or whatever we usually have for a typical breakfast on the weekends.

What I wanted, what I was craving, was Nutella Banana Crepes.

But on that day he asked me what I *wanted* for breakfast. Well what I wanted was crepes with bananas and Nutella in them. Yup, ever since National Nutella Week, when I saw them somewhere on some yummy food blog out there, I have been craving that very item. So when he asked, that was my answer.

“I want crepes with bananas and Nutella in them.”

His answer: “WHAT????”

We went back and forth for a bit, as in, “I’m not making that,” and “Fine, I’ll make it,” to “No, fine, I’ll make it.”

The kids were having fun garnishing their plates with whatever we had on hand that day.

It was settled. We were having crepes for breakfast. I was SO excited. The kids were excited too, when they heard.

Don found a recipe on Allrecipes.com for Basic Crepes that he followed to a “t” with one exception, which I’ll note later on when I post the recipe.

I cut up some apples to saute, as we decided to make a whole bunch of different kinds of crepes: the banana Nutella as requested, some apple cinnamon, some scrambled egg with ham, and some with just egg and cheese.

It was a regular ole’ crepe buffet at our house that morning!

There’s a commercial on TV now, I don’t even know what it’s for, come to think of it, but it has couples being asked “what’s the most romantic thing he’s done for you lately?” It’s a very funny commercial, and I thought of it that morning as Don handed me a crepe on a plate, just for me: a chocolate peanut butter crepe. There was just one, and I could’ve easily polished it off myself, but I shared.

Yes, I shared my peanut butter and chocolate chip crepe with my kids!

I know, that’s big for me, sharing my food.

I cut off some pieces for each of the girls and I ate what was left.

It.Was.Delicious.

And so, that is the story of how we very possibly invented, or not, a crepes buffet at our house that day. It was so successful that our kids now want to have that for breakfast EVERY Sunday.

Ooops.

Basic Crepes Recipe from AllRecipes.com

It was crazy-busy in Don's Kitchen that morning as he prepared all kinds of crepe varieties for us!

INGREDIENTS

(we doubled this recipe)

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons butter, melted

DIRECTIONS

  1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and the eggs. Gradually add in the milk and water, stirring to combine. Add the salt and butter; beat until smooth. *This is where we changed the recipe. Mix all the wet ingredients together first and all the dry ingredients together and then combine them and whisk. The very first comment alludes to the same fact.
  2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly.
  3. Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes, until the bottom is light brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn and cook the other side. Serve hot.

    A crepe buffet...who would've thought?

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A new after school dip from Budget Gourmet Mom

22 Mar

Chocolate chip cookie dough dip...how could I resist trying this one?

I follow several different blogs and one of the ones I really love is the Budget Gourmet Mom blog. I actually wait all day long to see what is going to pop up in my inbox each afternoon. She and I seem to have the same taste, the same love of chocolate and the same frugal lifestyle when it comes to cooking.

Last week when Krista posted a recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip, I knew I just had to try it out.  Now Krista is not just a great cook, but she takes beautiful photos of her food. You have to go over and check them out. Everything always looks so pretty, right down to the wood on her table. It’s very different from when I take my photos, on top of the stove, the counter, or wherever I can find a space. She also has a way of writing while she shows her photos. I just love to read her blog, it’s thoroughly enjoyable.  And, Krista has a ton of kids, I think four of them, so I can’t say she has nothing better to do, because she’s super busy too.

I tried this out last week, and my kids enjoyed it, but they still stand by the peanut butter yogurt dip as their favorite.

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 tblsp cream cheese, softened
  • 1 heaping tblsp light brown sugar
  • 6 oz lowfat vanilla yogurt
  • 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

  1. In a medium bowl use a spoon to work the brown sugar into the cream cheese. Stir until combined.
  2. Add the yogurt and stir until creamy. You may want to use a mixer to fluff it a bit but it’s not necessary.
  3. Fold in the chocolate chips and serve with graham crackers, fruit, or pretzels.

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Breakfast or Snack: Apple Oat Muffins

14 Mar

Twice in one week for a Karen's Cookbook recipe.

Friday afternoons and evenings tend to be chock full of after school activities for us, between dance classes and Daisy meetings. Therefore, I often try to choose that day if possible, to make a pretty solid after school snack for the kids, one that will last them until 7:45 when we usually get to eat dinner on Friday nights. Last week when I pulled out Karen’s Cookbook for the Taco Bake recipe, I flipped through it and saw her Apple Oat Muffins recipe and knew that’d be a perfect-and almost healthy-snack for that Friday afternoon. I even, gasp….threw in raisins instead of adding in chocolate chips the way I normally would. They were delicious, even though Alex picked out all the raisins, wondering what on earth those foreign objects were, since they neither looked nor tasted like a chocolate chip. The recipe is simple and I know you’ll love it!

You will love these super-moist muffins!

APPLE OAT MUFFINS
INGREDIENTS

1 cup flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1/4 cup shortening (I used 1/4 cup butter after looking up a substitution for shortening on the internet.)

1 cup quick oats

1 egg

1 cup milk

1/2 cup brown sugar

2-4 apples peeled and sliced

Cinnamon sugar for the tops (I have a shaker of this mix, so I sprinkled that on top.)

(raisins or craisins or chocolate chips are all good add-ins if you’re interested)

DIRECTIONS

Mix flour, baking powder and cut in shortening til coarse crumbs form.

Stir in oats.

Combine eggs, milk, and brown sugar, beat well.

Add dry ingredients and apples.

Spoon into baking cups and top with cinnamon & sugar

Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

The kids can always tell when they get home, if I've baked them a treat, and on this particular day, my house had a delicious smell. They knew right away that something good was in store for them!

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Bakerella’s Black Bottom Cupcakes

9 Mar

Bananas, cream cheese, chocolate. Seriously, could anything be better?

Did you ever just have one of those memories of something you ate in your childhood, but never had again? First of all, I have memories of things I’ve eaten, probably every day. But, things I’ve never had again but still remember? Not as often.

When I was younger my mom used to make these fabulous black bottom cream cheese brownies. They had chocolate chips in them. They were mouth-wateringly (is that a word?) delicious. My mouth is watering right now and all I’ve got is my bagel for lunch to satisfy it.

Anyways…I follow this blog, Bakerella, and in fact, she just announced this week that one of her recipes will be featured in the April Women’s Day Magazine. One day on her blog she posted these yummy looking Black Bottom Cupcakes, and just the photos on her blog made me want to make them THAT DAY, never mind the fact that they reminded me of my mom’s black bottom brownies of my youth.

So I did. I made them that very day.

They were SO GOOD.

And healthy! Yup, they have THREE bananas in them. That makes them in the fruits food group in my opinion.

After I made them, I passed the recipe along to my mom and she said, “Those remind me of the black bottom brownies I used to make.”

ME TOO!!

And now, I have her brownie recipe as well. I’ll make them soon and post that one too. Bonus.

In the meantime, here is the recipe for Bakerella’s Black Bottom Cupcakes. One thing to note: It says it made 18, but I ended up with 12. Twelve very large muffin-like brownie cupcakes. I think my muffin tin is too big. Other than that, they were quick and easy. Delicious, definitely a keeper, according to my family.

Now, my photos aren’t as amazing looking as hers, so definitely go over and see her recipe post too, so you can see what I mean.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

Two batters, two bowls.

Cream Cheese Mixture
 8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 small banana, pureed
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

Chocolate Mixture
 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large bananas, pureed
1/3 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

For the cream cheese mixture:

  • Beat cream cheese and sugar until nice and fluffy.
  • Add banana, egg and vanilla and mix together until combined.
  • Stir in chocolate chips and set aside.

I used my Pampered Chef scoop to do the chocolate batter.

For the chocolate mixture:

  • Sift together flour, cocoa, sugar, soda and salt using a wire whisk.
  • Add bananas, oil and vanilla and mix together on low until combined.
  • Use a large scoop to fill cupcake liners with batter.
  • Repeat topping the cupcake batter with the cream cheese mixture.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until done.

Makes about 18 cupcakes.

Recipe adapted from Great American Favorite Brand Name Cookbook, 1993.

See...mine were kinda large by the end! And of course, everyone had to fight over who would get the biggest one with all the chocolate chips from the bottom left corner.

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Purim 101

7 Mar

When I heard that these cookies could be made with chocolate chips as a filling, I knew I had to try them.

What’s Purim, you ask?

Well, at least that’s what I asked when my friend Pam said that I should include a Purim recipe on my blog for the upcoming Jewish holiday.

Not being Jewish, I had not even heard of Purim and definitely not of a cookie recipe to go with it. I asked Pam for an explanation and within a day or so, she sent me one, along with the recipe. It looked pretty easy and it said that you could use chocolate chips in it, so in my mind that meant I had to at least try it out so that I could include it on my blog in time for Purim. I figured that if the recipe was a keeper, I’d celebrate Purim every year!

Well, it wasn’t *exactly* a keeper, but if you watch TLC’s “Four Weddings,” where they rate the weddings on several different benchmarks, I’d say the overall score was a 7 out of 10. It was a very simple recipe, didn’t use a ton of utensils or bakeware (always good for someone without a dishwasher,) the batter was yummy and the cookies got all thumbs up from my kids. But, they didn’t come out looking “just like the picture,” when I Googled “Purim Cookies.” They didn’t hold their shape very well. Later when I re-read the recipe it said you could freeze them prior to baking them to get them to hold their shape when baking. I should’ve read more carefully, but even still I don’t think I would have taken the time to do the extra step, at least not without trying it out first.

Here’s what Pam sent me regarding the holiday:

Jewish Year 5772: sunset March 7, 2012 – nightfall March 8, 2012
The story of Purim is told in the Biblical book of Esther. The heroes of the story are Esther, a beautiful young Jewish woman living in Persia, and her cousin Mordecai, who raised her as if she were his daughter. Esther was taken to the house of Ahasuerus, King of Persia, to become part of his harem. King Ahasuerus loved Esther more than his other women and made Esther queen, but the king did not know that Esther was a Jew, because Mordecai told her not to reveal her identity.
The villain of the story is Haman, an arrogant, egotistical advisor to the king. Haman hated Mordecai because Mordecai refused to bow down to Haman, so Haman plotted to destroy the Jewish people. In a speech that is all too familiar to Jews, Haman told the king, “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your realm. Their laws are different from those of every other people’s, and they do not observe the king’s laws; therefore it is not befitting the king to tolerate them.” Esther 3:8. The king gave the fate of the Jewish people to Haman, to do as he pleased to them. Haman planned to exterminate all of the Jews.

Strawberry filled

Mordecai persuaded Esther to speak to the king on behalf of the Jewish people. This was a dangerous thing for Esther to do, because anyone who came into the king’s presence without being summoned could be put to death, and she had not been summoned. Esther fasted for three days to prepare herself, then went into the king. He welcomed her. Later, she told him of Haman’s plot against her people. The Jewish people were saved, and Haman and his ten sons were hanged on the gallows that had been prepared for Mordecai.

And here is the recipe she sent:

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups butter or margarine, softened
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 6 tablespoons orange juice
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 (12 ounce) can poppyseed filling (people use raspberry or apricot jam, or even chocolate chips)

Refrigerate batter at least two hours.

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the orange juice and vanilla. Mix in the baking powder, then gradually stir in the flour until the dough forms a ball. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours. I like to do mine overnight.
  2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
  3. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into 3 inch circles using a cookie cutter or drinking glass. Place circles on the prepared cookie sheets. Spoon 1 teaspoon of filling onto the center of each circle. (Any more and it will ooze out) Pinch the sides of each circle to form a triangle, covering as much of the filling as possible. The cookies may be frozen on the cookie sheets if desired to help retain their shape while cooking.
  4. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until light golden brown. These are best undercooked slightly. Cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

    Chocolate chip, blackberry, strawberry and apricot filled cookies.

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Did you survive February Vacation Week? Reward yourself!

24 Feb
Vanilla pudding dessert with vanilla wafers, strawberries and bananas

A perfect treat for the end of the week!

It’s Friday!

Did you survive the week?

If so, treat yourself to a super-simple dessert that I found on Pinterest (been on there yet??) and just had to pin for future use. The future came sooner than later! If you click on the underlined words above, it’ll take you right to the blog post where I got the recipe from.

In the past, I’ve mixed vanilla wafers, vanilla pudding and bananas for a treat before, but this recipe just looked so much better because she served it in mason jars, and I just so happened to have mason jars downstairs, sitting there doing nothing.

I also happened to have both bananas and strawberries, which in my opinion go so well together, so I figured I’d throw some of those in as well.

I got my ingredients at Aldi's, including the bananas, the strawberries and the milk.

To make this, I used two small packages of instant vanilla pudding, just as I would to make pudding for my family usually, plus three bananas and almost the entire package of strawberries. I don’t have a specific number of vanilla wafers to tel you that I used, but I made six mason jars worth of dessert, so I used almost the whole package of vanilla wafers. I just threw them into a gallon-sized ziploc bag and used my rolling pin to crush them up.

You have to let the pudding chill once it’s mixed, so I mixed it first and did the other ingredients next. Once it was sufficiently solid, I started my assembly line of layering the ingredients in the jars.

mason jars

Assembly line layering worked best for creating this dessert.

The layering was easy. I simply layered the vanilla wafers first, then the pudding and the fruit. I did another layer of wafers, a little more pudding and fruit and then whipped cream on top with a couple of strawberries for a garnish. If you have any of those nice long iced tea spoons, they are the perfect utensil to use for eating this type of dessert.

This is also the kind of thing that doesn’t keep well, so once you make it, you have to eat it right away or else the vanilla wafers get soggy inside the jars and obviously you can’t refrigerate it with the cream and strawberries on top either!

I think it’s a perfect dessert for company, for summertime, or….for the last day of February Vacation!! I also saw a comment on the original post that said someone put in mini chocolate chips too! Wouldn’t *that* be yummy?! I didn’t have any, but it’s on the list for next time!

I bet your mouth is watering right now!

Enjoy!

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Vanilla Rich Chocolate Chip Cookies

17 Feb

This chocolate chip cookie recipe is definitely a keeper!

A few months ago I came across an advertisement by McCormick for their pure vanilla. It came with a recipe for Vanilla Rich Chocolate Chip Cookies. As I looked at the recipe I noted that it called for 4 tsp. of vanilla, much more than usual for vanilla, and I promptly tore it right out of the magazine for future use.

It’s funny, with all the recipes I have and all the cookbooks I have, I’ve never found a recipe for chocolate chip cookies that is “my” specific, always-go-to-recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies. This recipe might just be it. I tried it out recently because I wanted to make cookies for a friend’s 40th birthday. She’s someone who is always “there” and never asks for anything in return. I decided that I’d make her a plate of 40 chocolate chip cookies and this is the recipe I used. Even though I made 40 for her, I still had another two dozen or so left for us. This recipe made a ton.

The cookies are delicious. I like hard, crunchy chocolate chip cookies and of course I like vanilla, butter and brown sugar. This recipe had it all! I will say though, as much vanilla was in them, it wasn’t an overpowering taste and it didn’t seem like it had as much vanilla as I knew it did! Try them and see how you like them!

INGREDIENTS

3 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

1 1/3 cups butter, softened

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

2 eggs

4 tsp. McCormick Pure Vanilla Extract

1 pkg. semisweet chocolate chips

(This recipe also calls for 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, which we don’t use.)
DIRECTIONS

Mix flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl.

Beat butter and sugars in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. (I used my Kitchen Aide Mixer.)

Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well.

Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until well mixed.

Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.

Drop by rounded tablespoons about 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake in preheated 375 degree oven 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. (Mine took more like 11-12 minutes but I always set for ten minutes and then increased by one minute intervals.)

Remove to wire racks; cool completely.

Makes 5 dozen.

Cool on baking sheets one minute.

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After school snack: Homemade Granola Bars x2

16 Feb

This was the first time that I thought to use a pizza stone for them, and I wish I'd done it sooner. Made it much easier to cut them.

A few years back I came across a recipe in the newspaper for “Becky’s Homemade Granola Bars.” Through the years I’ve made them a variety of ways. My kids always love them for an after school snack, and the last time I made them Elizabeth came home and saw them and said, “Oh Mommy I was thinking about these ALL day at school, and I didn’t even know you were going to make them today!” Score one for Mom…

This recipe is one you can make a variety of ways, using whatever you have in the house really. I’ve done craisins, raisins, chocolate, and even snuck in carrots once or twice with the raisins. I actually loved those, nice and sweet.

Here's what happens when I don't take the photo quick enough...an empty plate!!

One time when I made them,  I didn’t have half the stuff on the list so I made up my own, using her original as a basis for it. They came out great, best I’d ever made. I don’t always do them the same way, either. I almost always double her original recipe to make lots.

So below are the two recipes, mine first, and then Becky’s below that. Two for the price of one.

Jen’s Chocolate Craisin Granola Bars
INGREDIENTS
2 cups Oatmeal (Quick Oats)
1/3 cup Wheat Flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 package Craisins
2/3 cup chocolate chip (I use semi sweet)

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter
1/4 cup honey

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Mix first five ingredients in a large bowl together.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, mix butter, honey and brown sugar, stir.

Pour hot ingredients from saucepan over the dry ingredients in large bowl. (This will melt the chocolate chips.) Stir until completely mixed.

Pour out onto a cookie sheet and flatten out until even all the way across the pan in both directions. There may not be enough mixture to spread right to the edge of the pan but it’ll get pretty close.

Bake 20-22 minutes, check at 20 minutes. You’ll kind of be able to see the edges crisp up. With them being chocolate colored, it’s hard, but you can still tell. Cool completely in pan and cut or break into bars.

Next….

A nice big bowl is needed to mix all the ingredients together.

Becky’s Granola Bark (my notes in parenthesis.)
INGREDIENTS
1 cup oats
1 cup sliced almonds (I’ve used pureed almonds, 1/3 cup.)
1/2 cup coconut flakes (I never used them I don’t like coconut)
1/4 cup wheat germ
2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons honey

other mix-ins could could include pumpkin puree, carrot puree, raisins. (As I mentioned above, I particularly like the raisin and carrot combo, makes it sweet.)

DIRECTIONS

Heat oven to 325 degrees.

In a bowl mix together dry ingredients. Set aside.

In small saucepan combine butter, honey and brown sugar.

Pour over oat mixture and stir to combine.

Spread on cookie sheet and bake 20 minutes.

Let cool completely in pan and cut or break into pieces.

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Valentine’s Day: Oh the pressure!

15 Feb

Gifts lined up and ready to go for our Valentine's morning

Valentine’s Day can be a lot of pressure, especially for someone who is crafty, loves to cook, bake and eat, and then write about what she crafted, cooked, baked and ate. Like Christmas, people wait (or at least they tell me they’re waiting) to see what I’ve produced for cards, for cookies, for meals. It’s a lot of pressure and I set the bar high for myself.

Valentine’s Day also comes right on the heels of Christmas. It’s not supposed to be a huge gift-giving event, but there’s pressure to make it that way. I do try very hard to make our gifts small token gifts, a treat they want. I try not to do any candy since we get a truckload, or rather, a school busload of it at 3:30 on Valentine’s Day afternoon. Being on a budget, I struggle with what to give, what to buy, what not to buy. What I want to buy is often not what is in the budget. I’d love to say, “Instead of giving gifts this year, we’re going overnight to an indoor water park for the weekend!!” But, giving token gifts is cheaper. The indoor water park is not in the budget. Maybe next year. Since having kids, Don and I haven’t exchanged gifts on holidays. We focus only on the kids, and we figure we’re showing our love for each other in little ways all year long instead. We know our time will come around again when we’ve got an empty nest and we’ll wonder then where this time went.

No matter what, they always love their gifts.

I try to make my budget as equal as I can per child without spending too much more on one than another, but so they each have the same amount of items to open in the morning. And no matter what, they always love their gifts, hopefully because I spent so much time thinking about them and choosing them.

I actually don’t make their Valentine’s Cards anymore. We’re huge Snoopy fans, we had a Snoopy nursery, Snoopy birth announcements and parties when they were babies, so I have tried the past few years to get them each a Snoopy card for Valentine’s Day, to provide balance between giving them handmade items and giving them the “popular” items they also love.

This year we celebrated Valentine’s Day as a family at 7:00 am since Don had a 7:30 am meeting. He also had an after school meeting and a night time meeting, so we thought we wouldn’t be seeing him at all. But, later that day, we were thrilled to find out his after school meeting was rescheduled and it meant he’d get to come home for dinner after all, and then go back for the night time meeting. So we were blessed. His 14 hour day was now only 12 hours and we’d get to spend dinner time together after all.

Each year I try to think of the perfect meals and snacks to make the day special. I love hearts so I have always had tons of heart shaped items from dishes to platters to bakeware.

For breakfast, I toyed with the idea of cinnamon buns with pink icing, pink pancakes or pink waffles. I looked on Pinterest and pinned a ton of things that looked great but just weren’t it. I just wasn’t feeling it, no matter what I saw.

In the end, I chose to get up early and make muffins, something I used to do for them all the time when they were younger and less of them were in school. It’s a nice treat on a school day to have a hot muffin right out of the oven. I even thought of making them last night but I don’t like them when they’re cold. A little pink food coloring in them and we were good to go. I even put pink food coloring in their milk and gave them red apples for their fresh fruit.

By 7:15 am Don was gone, the gifts were opened, and by 7:25 am one kid had already lost her bedtime by getting in trouble. I won’t say who or why, to protect her privacy. But that’s the way things go sometimes, Valentine’s Day or not.

After School Snack: Valentine's Monkey Munch!

By 8:40 am they were on the bus, I’d taken Motrin for my headache and I had the rest of the day to type my stories for this week’s papers, and to plan out my after school Valentine’s Day snack and our Valentine’s Day dinner, both of which are new recipes I’ve been wanting to try out. (Remember my Monkey Munch recipe? The snack was a  Valentine’s version of that!)

Despite all of the pressure, I try to remind myself that it’s the little things that matter and the little things they’ll remember. I remind myself that the more I make the holiday out to be, the more of a precedent I’m setting for myself for the future.

Hopefully when they think back on their Valentine’s Days growing up, they’ll think that they were absolutely perfect.

Pink muffins and pink milk for my little Valentines.

Everyone got a treat they'd really been wanting.

Valentine's earrings on, off to school!

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