Chocolate Covered Valentine's Pop

Mmmmmm and fun too.  

Chocolate Covered Pops.

I have the handy dandy Zoku Pop Maker, the Zoku Tool Kit and the Zoku Chocolate Dipping Station, (thanks mom) which speeds up the freezing factor and makes a nice dip pattern with the chocolate.  These toys are fun but are not necessary to make these tasty frozen treats.

The following recipe makes 6 cold treat pops.  I discovered the recipe on the Zoku web site.

Two Thumbs Up :)

Photo from Zoku Web Site

See the little apple hearts imbedded in the pop?

Zoku Pop Maker - Makes Cold Treats in 8 Minutes

Zoku Tool Kit

Zoku Chocolate Dipping Station

INGREDIENTS

For the Strawberry Base
6 ounces strawberries
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup low fat milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon granulated white sugar

For the heart accents
Use a heart cutter to cut out desired number of hearts from a thin slice of apple.

     (I cut out about a dozen tiny apple hearts)

For the Quick Shell
2/3 (4oz) semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup (2 1/2 oz) refined coconut oil

Decorations 

Either heart shaped candies or red and white sprinkles

How Too's

MAKE THE CHOCOLATE QUICK SHELL
Melt Chocolate and coconut oil together

Let cool completely before applying to pops

Yields 3/4 cup of Quick Shell, enough for 12 pops.

I melted the chocolate and coconut oil together in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring after each 30 seconds until smooth.  A double boiler could be used, but why clean the extra dishes when the microwave works just fine.  Also, you can skip this step if you buy Magic Shell at the grocery store.

MAKE THE STRAWBERRY BASE

Blend strawberries, heavy cream, milk, vanilla, and sugar until smooth.

ASSEMBLE THE POPS

Using the Zoku Fruit Wand apply the apple hearts to the walls of the pop maker 

Insert sticks and pour the strawberry base to the fill line.

Let freeze completely, (about 8 minutes) and remove the pops with the Super Tool.

Repeat with remaining pops.

The strawberry base can be poured into any cold treat mold, including going old school, with a dixie cup and a stick.  The beauty of the Zoku Pop Maker is that the pop freezes in about 8 minutes.  No planning ahead and the kids can help start to finish without waiting all day.

ADD THE QUICK SHELL

Hold a pop flat side facing up, use a small spoon to drizzle Quick Shell onto the pops.

If desired, add festive sprinkles to the Quick Shell while it is still wet.

Wait a few seconds for the shell to harden.

Enjoy.

I was delighted how well ours came out and that both girls gave this fun looking and great tasting treat a thumbs up.

Spider Hair

This is R, my oldest and I gave her spider hair for school today.  Now R was a little worried because she attends a uniform public school and spider hair is out of uniform and she knows it.  R is a rule follower.  Now if the spiders were red, blue or white, than wa-la, back in uniform.  Her anxieties were relieved when the principal commented to her about her wonderful spooky hair.  All smiles.

A bag of spider rings cost me $1 and the bag has 30 rings so I told her not to worry if any fell off and got lost.  No big deal.  

M, my youngest did not want spider hair, until she saw big sister R.  Than, well, she had to have spider hair too.

Nutella Fudgesicles

Super Easy and Yummy :)

Only two ingredients.  

Nutella and Almond Milk

You can take this up a notch by using chocolate almond milk but I don't think it is really needed.  Why add the extra sugar when little M was sucking them down just the way they are.

1 1/2 cups almond milk

1/2 cup Nutella

Blend and pour into Zoku pop maker.  

Wait 10 minutes.

If you don't have one of these absolutely wonderful little fun gadgets, the fudgesicles can be made using a dixie cup or popsicle mold and frozen for several hours. 

Apple Sandwich

I saw this idea on Pinterest and because I am an awesome mom and I knew my oldest, R, would love this, it is now, what's in her school lunch.

It is healthy!  Lots of protein and fiber, without the highly processed, chemical filled, no nutritional value of bread.

Ingredients

Apple

Peanut Butter

Method

Cut off ends of apple

Slice into 4 slices

Use cute little cutters to punch out the core

Spread with peanut butter

Easy Pezzy, Lemon Squeezy, just the way making school lunches should be.

Happy Mom, Happy Daughter.

The two middle slices have more core.  Use the cute punch. 

The two end slices have a little core.  Use a knife to remove.

Spread peanut butter.

Here is pictured the front and back.

No peanut butter squishing out.

Ta-Da!

Ginger Bread House

Our church held a Gingerbread House building event, which I knew the girls would enjoy.  For years, I have seen the kits in the store, but have never purchased one.  It seemed like a messy craft and this Mom tends to avoid "messy" anything.  I am all about clean and tidy.

I was surprised that the craft was not messy and barely sticky, clean up was a breeze.  The girls played nice together.  No altercations about candy or placement came up.  Yay for well behaved little girls.

Our little house looked pretty good, as long as you did not compare it to our competition.  A few families went all out.  Whereas we showed up with our self contained kit and a spatula, others needed rolling carts to bring in all their house building supplies.

But unfortunately . . . . 

a big wind struck and our little house didn't make it.