Valentine Rice Crispy "Arrows"

I wish I could be one of those super-bloggers who posts something every single day. Every. Single. Day. But just the other day I was literally walking through my house, stepping over the 3rd pile of stuff on the floor with a child hanging off of each apendage. One day I will look back on this and miss it! So, alas, I may be a bust of a blogger, but I'll try anyway.

THE PIN: In a perfect world where I was a trophy wife who had all kinds of time on my hands, this would have been done BEFORE Valentine's Day. Bygones... you can use it for next year or save it for a rainy day. These were so cute I couldn't resist trying them out for my daughter's February "Special Day" and show and share at school. Although I did not end up making these for my younger daughter, our wonderful daycare provider is gluten-free, so I am always trying to find yummy snacks that she can eat along with the kiddos. These would have fit the bill rather nicely, I thought! Hearts made out of rice crispy treats with a fruit "arrow" through it. They have "LOVE" written all over them! To Judy: Good thing my son's special day is next week! :)

Photo from Pinterest.com

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

Rice Crispy Treats (I will be posting the pin for the last rice crispy recipe you'll ever need! Stay tuned!)

Heart-Shaped Cookie Cutter (do what I do and go buy them now - when they're 50% off!)

Oranges, cut into slices (make sure they're thick enough!)

Strawberries, hulled and cut in half

Skewers (do yourself a favor and soak them for a few minutes in a bit of water. I did not do this. My bad)

Even if you count the time it takes to make the rice crispy treats, these were still a pretty quick. As you'll see below, however, I did not have any "helpers" when I did these. :) That being said, if you don't cut the oranges thick enough (like I did not!) then it might be a little more time-consuming.

Sidebar: Make sure to cut the oranges thick enough. When I did the first few, the oranges were too thin so when I poked the skewer in them they just fell apart in two pieces. They were still fine if I just laid them flat, but I'm just a little bit of a perfectionist (insert sarcastic cackle here). So if your perfectionist side doesn't want the orange ends to look like they're broken off, make sure they're about 1/2 in. thick. If your perfectionist side doesn't care, more power to you!

So if you already have the crispy treats, carry on. If not, go look at my pin for the best rice crispy treats ever and make those first. (Note: For this recipe, to make it a little more Valentines-ey I used the strawberry, heart-shaped marshmallows. It made the treats have a pink tint to them and they were strawberry flavored! Who doesn't love that? Cut those puppies out using the heart-shaped cookie cutter.

After you have the crispy treats cut out, the oranges and strawberries cut and the skewers soaked, you can start assembling. (Another little tip - depending on their size, cut about 2-3 inces off the skewers.) This would have been a great part for my kids to help out with, except that I was home with a sick little one... who was peacefully sleeping. No helpers needed! I skewered all the oranges first - two on each stick. Then the heart crispy treats and finally the strawberries. I started out puttin a whole strawberry on each one, but then they were all laying weird (the perfectionist thing again...) so I cut the strawberries in half and Voila! They laid nice and flat! Honestly the hardest part of this whole process was making sure the oranges didn't fall apart. Hindsight, hindsight, hindsight. Better the second time around! Here's what I ended up with...

I wish I were a better photographer (so I wouldn't get the edge of the counter!)

The red-colored oranges made them look so pretty! 

COST: $$ If you had to buy EVERYTHING (which I did not - I already had the skewers, which was totally random, and the heart cookie cutter) then it would probably be in the $15-$20 range. I bought the crispy treat making materials (except butter - always have that on hand!), oranges and strawberries (which are conveniently out of season this time of year and not on sale). I think I spent $12 total.

DO-ABILITY: Really, really easy. Except for the hot pan (for the crispies) and the sharp knife to cut the fruit, my kids could have done these all by themselves. Perhaps when I make them again they'll be willing to lend me their oh-so-helpful hands to poke the skewers through. Definitely would want to cut the sharp tip off of the skewers first though. Especially knowing my kids, that could become a problem.

DRUMROLL PLEASE...: The kids at school devoured these. They were definitely a bit hit! Since they were fun-looking, I doubt they even noticed they were eating fruit. Albeit, the crispy treats are not the healthiest treat, but if you have any gluten-free kiddos in your child's class these would be perfect. They were also so easy I think even my dog could have done it on his own (althoguh they may not have made it to school as on one occasion my sweet pooch ate an entire box of dry hot chocolate mix along with dry onion soup mix and chocolate bars and lived to tell the tale...so much for my sister's care package that year). They were so easy and, as I said before, if you use the fail-proof crispy treat recipe, you could be the envy of all the moms in your kids' classroom! It's definitely worth the 30 minutes or so of your time!

THE GOOD: Super easy and pretty cheap. Something kids could definitely help with. And everyone will be asking for your rice crispy recipe (okay... promise it's the last time I'll say it. Maybe.) Very few ingredients - just the kind of recipe I like.

THE BAD: You kind of have to have special supplies, like the heart-shaped cookie cutters (although you could cut these by hand but that would make it take a lot longer though... better just buy the cookie cutter!) and skewers (for some reason I always have these laying around... I think we hoard them during the summer!). Also, the oranges are kind of a pain in the arse. 

THE UGLY: After cutting the hearts shapes out of the crispy treat pan, there were so many little scrap pieces left. I couldn't just let them sit there... Yes, it was ugly.

PIN OR  BUST: Totally pin it! How could you not! They will make you look like the mom of the year and you will be a hero in your kiddo's eyes. Who doesn't love that?

ONE LAST THING: You could do a lot of cute things with these. I may have missed Valentine's day, but the 4th of July hasn't happened yet! Cut the crispies into min-stars instead of hearts and alternate them with blueberries and cut up strawberries. Instant 4th of July picnic dessert! 
Go look at my post for the Best Rice Crispy Treats Ever for the rice crispy part!

Happy Pinning!

Individual 7-Layer Dips

Well..... I figured I should do some sort food item in celebration of the Superbowl. I only watch football because my husband loves it. He would watch football 24/7 if I would let him (but I won't let him). My favorite part about the Superbowl is the food and the commercials. I always look forward to the new Budweiser commercial. This year's did not disappoint! A puppy and a horse... wow. Nice move, Budweiser! So anyway, my other favorite part: the food! I think one year I tried to make all football-shaped things. Never. Again. One of my very ambitious friends even made blue deviled eggs (the eggs were bright blue!) with orange filling. She even used the pin from the Deviled Egg blog post. And it worked for her too. Success! Go check that one out too for future Superbowl (or any!) get-together. Okay, so for this post, I found these cute little gems on Pinterest...

THE PIN: These were so cute I couldn't resist. First of all, I love 7-layer taco dip. SO good! But I always want to keep dipping the same chip into the dip bowl and apparently that's frowned upon. The solution: Individual 7-Layer Taco Dips! Genius. Just... genius. I promised to make these for my next girl's night, but my girls have all been pretty busy lately, so I made them for the Superbowl instead. Don't worry, girls... the offer still stands!

Pic from http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

1 can of refried beans (the small one - 16 oz). (Confession: I hate refried beans so I always get black beans and drop them in a sauce pan on medium for like 5 minutes while I mush them up. So much better!)

1 packet of taco seasoning (make your own and use 1/4 c. - I will definitely blog about this later!)

1 cup of guacamole (I made my own but you can use the store-bought kind too)

1 tub of sour cream (the small one again - 8 oz)

1 cup of chunky salsa or pico de gallo (I couldn't decide so I mixed store-bought salsa w/ pico de gallo - WAY better!)

1 cup of cheese - whatever kind you like best

2 tomatoes, diced up

1 bunch of green onions, sliced (I left this out because I forgot to buy some at the store... Que será, será!)

1 can of sliced olives (the small one again... is there a broken record somewhere? - I think it's about 2 oz.)

8 - 9-ounce plastic tumblers

Tortilla chips - lots of them (but make sure they're the sturdy kind!)

So... before I say ANYTHING. These too For...ev...er (flashback to The Sandlot). I might be exaggerating, especially since I had a baby hanging off my hip and a kid hanging on each leg, yelling at the top of their tiny lungs. And I did my own refried beans so they weren't the gross ones that I hate (but that didn't really take that long). But normal 7-layer dip that you make in a big batch is pretty quick. I thought these would be too, but trying to shove all the stuff down into the bottom of the cups was a little more time consuming than one might think. That being said, they were pretty darn easy!

I had to buy a lot of the things at the store. I was feeling lazy, so I bought pre-shredded cheese. I did, however, make my own guac. Just call me Super Mom. If you're already at the store though, for goodness sake make sure you have chips. It would be a real crime if you made these and then had to go back to the store to buy chips. Not like I did that... (I did that).

Okay... so you mix the beans and taco seasoning. Spread that on the bottom of the cup. Don't smear it on the sides! Then you spread the guac on top of the beans. Easy peasy. Sour cream: you guessed it. Spread it on. Salsa next. 4th layer down! Cheese - sprinkle it on. Tomatoes sprinkle those too. I didn't do the onions, but those come next. Then the olives. I'm no math whiz, but I believe that actually makes eight layers, not seven. I think they counted the green onions and olives as one layer. It's clearly not! Don't sell yourself short. It is so 8 layers! Here are our 7-layer end product (remember... ours were sans green onions). Not bad!

Double dipping just became my new last name!

COST: $$ Pretty cheap. There were just so many ingredients! And one of them was avocados, which are so expensive now! If I'd had to buy everything for this (I did have some things in my pantry) I probably would have spent about $10-$12 (that's a ballpark... I really have no idea).

DO-ABILITY: (I don't like the "plus signs" so until I find a better system...) these were easy. Not REALLY easy, but easy enough for my kids to help. I say not REALLY easy, because the spreading without smearing everything all over the side of the cup was kind of tricky. You can just wipe it clean with a wet paper towel though. So there's that...

THE SKINNY: Well these were pretty flippin' great. And what I like most about them, is you could totally make them to order for individual people For example my little sis who can't have dairy... no sour cream or cheese in hers. When I had made normal 7-layer dip, she would have had to pick around the sour cream and cheese. And then there's my daughters who won't eat tomatoes (but they love pizza... anyone like to explain that one?)... so no tomatoes on the ones the small humans are eating. Another thing if you make these is make sure you buy the good, thick chips or else you'll end up with a bonus layer of broken chips.

THE GOOD: Once you cut everything up, it's SO easy for the small people to help! My 6-year old really liked spreading the first four layers on and my 4-year old was a mixing queen! And they were ACTUALLY helping (not just "helping"). Individual serving sizes so you can double dip to your hearts content... and I did! And you can tailor them to the needs of your family's high-maintenance diet (love you, sis!).

THE BAD: So many ingredients. I like things that are 5 ingredients or less. However... of things with more than 5 ingredients, these are at the top of my list! But I still mark that as a "Con". They also take a long time with all the spreading. Make sure you have sturdy chips! Mine kept breaking on the beans layer. Damn those beans... they cause so many problems!

PIN OR BUST?: I'd totally pin it! They're so customize-able, which my family always appreciates. And they're so stinking cute! I like things that are smaller versions of the normal one, so naturally I gravitated to these. Plus, you can put a chip in the top and make them look even more adorable! Ha!

This overachiever is posing on top of the sour cream... with a chip. Brown noser!

THE LAST WORD: I want to do something more with the sour cream. I feel like it was left out. Everything else got mixed with something and the sour cream layer was just... sour cream. Boooooring! I need ideas for this. I know exactly where to look. Yea...

Happy Pinning!