Pilgrim Hat Cookies

I have a lot to do today, so I'm going to make this short and sweet. Definitely sweet! These are the little treats I took to my daughter's preschool class Thanksgiving party on Monday.  I saw them on Pinterest, originally from Woman's Day, and thought they were so cute.  They are really easy to put together.


Pilgrim Hat Cookies

Ingredients:
24 Oreo Fudge Cremes Cookies
1 tube white frosting with piping tips
24 Reese’s mini peanut butter cups

Directions:
Place cookies on work surface; squeeze a dime-size dot of frosting in center of each.  Unwrap and invert peanut butter cups on frosting, pressing down gently.  Using a small round piping tip, pipe a "hat-band" with frosting around peanut butter cup and a square "buckle." Let frosting set before storing.

Makes 24 cookies.

Aren't they cute?  I love how they are just three ingredients.  They were really easy to do except that I got the wrong kind of frosting for the piping.  I used the Betty Crocker Decorator Icing.  It comes in a tube.  It did not work well.  The first one was great, but then it started getting really hard to work with.  Instead of coming out smoothly, it clumped up really badly.  I wonder if maybe the heat of my hand changed the consistency of it.  Really gave me problems.  So some of my hats looked pretty rough, but oh well!  So don't get that kind.  If you try this and you find a kind that does work well, please let me know what you used in the comments.

The only other problem I had was that some of the Reese's cups had bald spots where you could see the peanut butter through the chocolate.  So make sure you pick up more of those than you actually need so that you can pick out the "good" ones.  My husband happily "took care" of the bald spot ones for me. :)

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving.  I'll be back next week with some very un-Thanksgiving recipes for you!

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Boo-nana Yogurt Pops

Did you miss me last week?  As I explained on my Facebook page, I decided to take the week off from this blog to get caught up on my family blog.  I was about four months behind!  It worked out well, I got nine posts published, some of them with as many as 73 pictures, and now I am only a little less than 2 months behind. Yay!

But it's good to be back here sharing fun recipes with you.  Even though I wasn't posting last week, I sure was cooking.  I think I made at least 7 recipes last week that are blog-worthy.  As promised, here is a fun Halloween-themed treat.  I was signed up to bring snacks to my daughter's preschool on Monday.  I wanted to do something with a Halloween theme, but nothing freaky or scary like severed fingers or bloody eyeballs.  I also wanted it to be somewhat healthy; nothing that was pure candy or cookies.  I did some searching around and found some adorable white chocolate-covered banana pops that look like ghosts at Gina's Skinnytaste.  While hers were dipped in white chocolate, one of the commenters mentioned making them with yogurt instead.  I thought that was genius.  Same result, but healthier. So that's how I made mine.


Boo-nana Yogurt Pops

Ingredients:
12 bananas
32 oz. carton vanilla yogurt
48 mini chocolate chips
Popsicle sticks

Directions:
Spread parchment or wax paper on two baking sheets.  Open carton of yogurt and stir it well to remove any lumps.

One at a time (so they don’t brown), cut each banana in half.  Insert the popsicle stick into the cut end.  Dip the banana half into the yogurt container.  Pull it out and let any excess yogurt drip off.  Place two mini chocolate chips on it for eyes.  Lay it on the baking sheet.  Repeat with remaining bananas.

Place baking sheets in freezer on a level surface.  Freeze for several hours or until solid.  Keep frozen until ready to eat.  Eat quickly, as they are not pretty when they melt!

Makes 24 pops.

These were a huge hit.  Lena reported that her classmates liked them and her teacher wrote on Facebook wall saying that she liked them too.  I didn't need the full 24 for the class, so Lena has been asking for the leftovers every morning for breakfast.

The other thing I changed from Gina's recipe was that she cut her bananas into fourths.  I thought they were just fine cut in half.  You can probably coat more than 24 halves with that amount of yogurt.  I did have some yogurt left over, but not much, and I'm not sure how many more I could have done.  The only problem I had with them was that some of the sticks wanted to come out as I was pulling the banana out of the yogurt.  I used a spoon to support the banana and then the stick froze in place during freezing so it wasn't that much of a problem.

Too bad these won't work to hand out to trick-or-treaters!

Update 10.18.13:
Women's Health Magazine featured these banana pops in their article "Halloween Recipes That Are Actually Healthy".

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Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

Today is National Peanut Butter Cookie Day.  I just so happened to have a peanut butter cookie recipe to share with you!  I don't make cookies very often, because, quite frankly, I find them to be a pain in the butt to make.  I usually opt for cookie-like bars, which taste like cookies but are much easier to make.  Yes, I am lazy!  But when it was my turn to take snacks to Lena's preschool last month, I decided to go with cookies.  I found a recipe for Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies on Allrecipes and tried it out.  I added one thing to it; here's my version.


Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:
½ cup shortening
½ cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
¾ cup white sugar
1 cup peanut butter
2 eggs
1½ cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup quick-cooking oats
¾ cup white chocolate chips


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.


In a large bowl, cream together shortening, butter, brown sugar, white sugar, and peanut butter until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time until well blended. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in the oats and white chocolate chips until just combined. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.


Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until just light brown. Don't over-bake. Cool and store in an airtight container.


Makes 4 dozen.

I love peanut butter cookies.  The white chocolate chips were my addition.  I made a yummy peanut butter blondie that has white chocolate chips, so I thought they'd be good in these cookies too.  

I usually like my cookies soft and chewy, but I still really liked these even though they are kind of flat.  The oatmeal gives them just a hint of chewiness, which was enough for me.  I might try adding a little bit more oats next time I make these and see what that does to them.  But they are pretty good as they are.

I hope you are able to celebrate the "holiday" by making some peanut butter cookies of your own!

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Easter Goldfish Carrots

Here's a cute Easter snack idea for you.  I made these for my daughter's preschool class last week.  I got the idea from Pinterest, originating from the blog Loralee Lewis.  She used icing decorator bags for hers.  I was going to do the same thing, but I couldn't find bags that didn't have a huge Wilton logo on them.  Does Wilton have a monopoly on decorator bags, because all I could find were Wilton!  So I wasn't sure what I was going to do, when one of my bloggy friends, Debi from Recipes for My Boys, posted a similar idea using quart sized Ziploc bags instead.  It wasn't until I read her post that I realized that the Wilton bags would be way too big anyway.  The quart sized bags would be just perfect and a lot cheaper!  They don't turn out quite as long and skinny as the decorator bags, but hey, there are short, fat carrots too!

Here's how I made them.

Get some cheap dollar store zipper bags.  Don't get Ziploc brand because they have a logo on them too.

 Lay out the bag.

 Cut the zipper off on a diagonal line.

 Fill with Goldfish crackers.  I bought the giant box (30 oz.) of Goldfish crackers and I got about 12 little bags out of it.

 Twist the top.

 Cut out 11" lengths of green ribbon.

 Tie the tops with green ribbon.

 These are really simple to make and are perfect for stuffing into Easter baskets.  It's kind of refreshing to have an Easter treat that isn't loaded with sugar!

HAPPY EASTER, EVERYONE!

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Snowman Cookies

A picture of these cookies is one of the first things I "repinned" on Pinterest when I first joined back in August. I knew they would make the perfect preschool snack this winter.  The recipe originally came from the blog My Pretty Purse.


Snowman Cookies


Ingredients:
2 (4 oz.) bars Nestle Premier White chocolate
1 tbsp shortening
12 Nutter Butter cookies
12 orange Tic Tacs, ⅓ cut off
36 mini M&Ms
Black decorator gel icing


Directions:
Break the white chocolate into small pieces and place in a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl with the shortening.  Microwave on 70% power for 45 seconds.  Stir.  Microwave an additional 45 minutes if necessary.  Stir until smooth.


Dip cookies individually in melted chocolate using two forks to roll them around.  Use the forks to lift them out and place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.


Once all the cookies have been dipped, place a cut-off Tic Tac on each one where the nose should be.  Then place 3 mini M&Ms on each one to make buttons.  Using a very light hand, draw eyes and a mouth on each cookie with the decorator icing.


Allow a couple of hours for them to set completely.  Even after setting, be careful with the eyes and mouth as the black icing may smudge.


Makes a dozen cookies.

Aren't they just the cutest things ever?  And they are incredibly easy to make.  I didn't have enough of the Nestle white chocolate to cover all the cookies I wanted to make, so I used some white melting candies for the remainder, but it didn't work as well.  It didn't coat it as smoothly, and I had trouble getting the black icing to stick to it.

I didn't change very much about the original recipe, except to specify quantities.  I used three mini M&Ms instead of two regular ones.  My snowmen only had brown, yellow, and blue buttons because I used the red and green M&Ms to make my candy covered chocolate dipped pretzel rods at Christmastime.

Apparently, there was a discussion in my daughter's class as they were eating these, whether they were cookies or candy.  Lena said, "I said they were cookies, but this other girl said they were candies."  I told her that they were both right, because they were cookies with candies on them.  She thought this was a genius answer and told me that she would be sure to relay this information to the other girl the next time she saw her.  I'm going to treasure these times she thinks my answers to her questions are genius, because I know it won't last forever!

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Groovy Gobblers

It's National Candy Day! What better way to celebrate than to give you a recipe using chocolate chips, fudge-stripe cookies, and lots and lots of candy corn?  I saw these cute little guys in Taste of Home and had to make them for preschool treats.

Groovy Gobblers

Ingredients:

1 (12 oz.) pkg semisweet chocolate chips

1 (11 oz.) pkg candy corn

52 fudge-striped cookies

¼ cup butter, cubed

4 cups miniature marshmallows

6 cups Rice Krispies

Directions:

In a microwave, melt chocolate chips; stir until smooth. For tails, use a dab of chocolate to attach five candy corns to the chocolate side of half of the cookies in a fan shape; refrigerate until set.

In a large saucepan, melt butter. Add marshmallows; stir over low heat until melted. Stir in cereal. Cool for 10 minutes. With buttered hands, form cereal mixture into 1½” balls.

Remelt chocolate if necessary. Using chocolate, attach the cereal balls to the chocolate side of the remaining cookies. Position tails perpendicular to the base cookies; attach with chocolate. Refrigerate until set.

For feet, cut off white tips from 52 candy corns; discard tips. Attach feet to base cookies with chocolate. Attach one candy corn to each cereal ball for heads. With a toothpick dipped in chocolate, 

dot each sprinkle to make pupils. Let stand until set. 

Store in an airtight container. 

Makes 26 turkeys.

Aren't they adorable?  And pretty tasty too!  I made most of them with regular candy corn, but wanted to see what they looked like with the chocolate kind.  I think I kind of like the chocolate kind better.  

The original recipe called for round white confetti sprinkles for the white part of the eyes, but I couldn't find those.  I melted some white chocolate and freehanded that part. I think in the future I would not even worry about the white part.  Since the candy corn is light colored, I think it would be fine to just put a dot of dark brown for the eyes.

 

It's kind of funny to see a whole army of little turkeys sitting on your table!

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