Pin-able Snack Mixes - Summer Edition

Our family loves snack mixes. You can change them to fit almost any season or time of year (throw in some candy corn, Valentine's hearts or peppermint candy). Our kids have their "show and share" and "special days" at daycare and at school and snack mixes are so easy to throw together and toss in a gallon-size Ziploc. I didn't want to do 87 different posts on all the kinds of snack mixes we enjoy, so I thought I'd just do a one post on some of our faves. Hunker down... this is a long one. Feel free to come back later! :)

THE PIN: Well... there are several so my normal format won't work here. I'll just list my favorites and approximate cost. For do-ability, you can consider them all extremely easy, because basically you just dump everything into a bowl. How hard is that? If there are any special steps I'll make sure to note them. :) As far as Pinning these bad boys? Consider them all good Pins (otherwise they wouldn't be worthy of this post!) A couple of things to keep in mind here... some of my favorite mixes have ingredients that are "seasonal", so as I am writing this post in the middle of the summer, some of them just might not make the list... this time. I tried to pick "summery" mixes. That doesn't make them not worthy (cue Wayne's World... "We're not worthy... we're not worthy!"). Stay tuned for more Snack Mix Compilations. We love snack mixes that much! Here goes...

"Bear Lake Trail Mix"
Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. Swedish fish
1 (18.75 oz.) bag traditional Chex mix
2 1/2 c. chocolate chip teddy grahams (*we used honey)
1 1/2 c. goldfish crackers (*we used the cheddar ones)
1 c. licorice bits (you can leave this out if you wish - good both ways!)
1 1/2 c. pretzel M&Ms (make sure you use the pretzel ones - it matters!)
2 1/2 c. Bugles

We made this for one of the kids' special days and it made such a ginormous batch that we had about half left over for ourselves. Let me just tell you, I'm so glad that it made way too much for 18 daycare kids to finish. We had no trouble polishing this off. One night as we were watching TV, I had a craving for some sort of salty/sweet combo and I remembered this sitting on top of our fridge. I only took a small bowl, but I told the hubby I probably could have eaten the whole gallon-size baggie worth. It is that good. This would be perfect for summer camping, road trips, or (as we use it) just to keep in the house for the kids (or myself... semantics). Way better than eating plain old Goldfish!
Cost: $$ If you buy all the ingredients it will put you back about $15, but it makes two gallon size baggies. Save one for your next road trip and it will STILL last you a few weeks.

"Thin Mint Puppy Chow"

I had never had "Puppy Chow" until college when my friend, Brandi, (or was it Michelle?...) introduced me to it. So, thanks to Brandi... or Michelle. I now know that "Puppy Chow" is a delicious treat for humans... not puppies. So... *Note: (It has to be said...) this is NOT for dogs... this "Puppy Chow" mix is for humans. Don't feed it to your dog! Unless you really dislike him...

This one takes a little bit of special preparation, in true Puppy Chow form. There is some melting and mixing to take into account, but nothing a beginner cook can't handle... as long as you can use a microwave and shake stuff, you're good. Also, it is made in two batches, so I separated out the ingredients below.

Ingredients:
Chocolate Part5 c. Rice Chex
1 1/2 c. semisweet or milk chocolate chips
12 Thin Mint cookies, finely crushed
1/4 c. powdered sugar

Put the Rice Chex into a big bowl (use the biggest bowl you have). Melt the chocolate chips for about 90 seconds in the micro, stopping halfway to stir (otherwise the chocolate could burn). While the chocolate is melting, put the thin mints into a baggie and use a rolling pin to crush them (perfect for kids to help with!) Once the chocolate is melted, pour it over the Chex and mix genlty until all of them are coated. Pour the crushed up Thin Mints and powdered sugar into a gallon size baggie and add the chocolate-coated cereal. Close the bag and shake the dickens out of it (kids are GREAT at this!) Lay the cereal out on wax paper to let it cool awhile.

Green Part
5 c. Rice Chex
1 1/2 c. white chocolate melts or white chocolate chips, you can use green melts if you want **
Green GEL food coloring (optional, but make sure it's gel) **
1/4 c. powdered sugar
Repeat all of the above minus the thin mints part (you don't use them for this batch). The amounts are all the same, except you use white choc chips or white choc melts instead of chocolate chips and you dye them green, if desired (but if you dye the white chocolate, make sure to read my side note below **).

** Heads up: When I melted the white choc chips, they were nice and smooth and ready to spread on to the Chex. Then I added the food coloring. It was a clumpy, green disaster. I tried adding milk... don't do this. It makes it worse. It was impossible to spread the chocolate out onto the cereal. Since I live in SmallTown, Wyoming, we don't have mint or green melting chips (enter: Amazon). I didn't want to wait two days for Amazon to ship them so I tried the food coloring in the white chips. I had to redo it. The second time I did it, I used white chocolate Almond Bark instead, which is specifically for melting and molding. Right on the package it said "If it gets too thick, add vegetable oil. Do not try to thin with water, milk, or butter". Good to know... I did thin it a bit with veg oil and it worked like a charm. Green Puppy Chow. Brilliant.

Thin Mints are both my husband and my daughter's favorite GS cookie. Girl Scout cookies and Puppy Chow combined into one treat... Who whouldn't love that? Aside from the one road block (had to redo the "green" part), it was pretty easy and sinfully good! If you're addicted to Girl Scout cookies, definitely give this a try!

Cost: $$ If the Chex are not on sale, this will also run you about $15. It cost me $20 because I had to buy a second box of Chex. Just the Chex and cookies are about $9 together... over half of your cost! It's worth it!

"Hershey's S'more Trail Mix"
Ingredients:
1 bag Hershey's melts (8 oz). - I couldn't find them in Small Town so I used two packages of mini Hershey's candy bars broken apart. Same taste.
1 c. Mini Graham crackers - couldn't find these (curse you Small Town!) so I bought Despicable Me minion graham cracker bites. They were fun.
1 can roasted/salted pecan halves - I left them out because my kids don't like nuts so this can easily be altered for nut allergies.
1 c. mini marshmallows

This one was just okay from an adult perspective. From a kid perspective (and I quote)... "BEST... DAY... EVER!" That coming from my 5-year old. So with the kids it was a big hit, and I loved it because it was super easy to throw together (and WAY less messy than the real thing!). All in all it was good for kiddos, but I'd definitely want to try to find another recipe for S'mores snack mix. Stay tuned!

Cost: $ I bought all the ingredients for this and it gave me two batches and I only spent $10 total. Love that!



My daughter helped mix it up, and she loved making little mini S'mores as we dug our way through this one. Big huge hit with the kids!






"Peanut Butter Brownie Puppy Chow"
Ingredients:
6 C. rice Chex cereal
1 C. milk chocolate melts or chips - I used 3/4 C. milk chocolate chips and 1/4 C. Peanut butter chips. YUM!
1/2 C. peanut butter, creamy
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 C. brownie mix, from the box
Optional: Peanut Butter Brownies, Reese's Pieces, or Peanut butter cups (chopped) - I used Reeses pieces because I liked the way it added color!

You do have a few extra steps, but because Puppy Chow is so worth it, it doesn't matter. :) Melt peanut butter and chips together with vanilla extract, dump over cereal and mix, throw into a bag with brownie batter mix, shake like you mean it. Violà - done!




It's the whole puppy chow addiction again. Peanut butter is one of my all time favorite things. Put it together with chocolate and I'm in heaven! Put it together with puppy chow? Best. Thing. Ever! Might be my new favorite snack! Kids loved it. Hubby loved it. And it was easy for them to help. Love that too!

Cost: $ Chocolate chips, cereal, Reeses, peanut butter ... it's only going to run you about $10-$12. Definitely do-able and it makes a huge gallon bag (throw in a couple of cups more of cereal or some brownies chopped up and you can even stretch this one a little!)

 

"Patriotic Trail Mix"

Ingredients:

½ cup flat marshmallows (like Kraft Jet puffed Stacker Mallows) cut into 1½ in. strips and dipped into powdered sugar or corn starch to prevent sticking (don't do too crazy on the sugar... I put too much and it made powdered sugar be all over everything! - see my picture below!)
½ cup twizzlers strawberry or cherry twists cut into 1½ in. strips
1 cup mini square graham crackers (I used Golden Graham cereal instead because when I've made other mixes w/ graham crackers, they always get stale)
1 cup blue m&m's or a package of almond joy pieces which have blue in them (use Almond Joy pieces... the likelihood of getting blue pieces is higher :) )
1 cup cashews or other nuts (optional) - I didn't do it because I used Almond Joys



This was super easy. Cutting the mellows was hardest since they get so sticky. Dipping them in powdered sugar or cornstarch is definitely a good idea, just don't go too overboard, like I did or you'll end up with powdered sugar mess all over your entire trail mix! This is such a cute idea to throw together (literally took me five minutes!) for a good 4th of July party!
Cost: $ Not too expensive. I bought the cereal in stead of the grahams, and that probably cost me a few dollars more. All in all it was between $10 and $12.

Homemade Bathtub Paint

I'm probably the world's words blogger! Our impending move to a new place doesn't help either... I'm so inconsistent, but now that summer is here, our house is almost packed up and my classroom is cleaned out, I will hopefully be better about posting more often. Fingers crossed...

My kids love bathtime! All three have been water babies since day 1 (except for my son... it took him a few weeks to warm up to the water, but now you can hardly keep him out!). We're always looking for fun things to have in the tub - toys, paints and bubbles. I love the Crayola Bathtub products, but when I looked at the label it looked like a whole bunch of artificial stuff. My son has extremely sensitive skin - he breaks out at the slightest irritation, so I wanted to find something that he could enjoy too. The bubbles and store-bought bathtub markers and paints are too harsh on his little body. So I went Pinterest-ing!

THE PIN: I loved the idea of this homemade bath paint! Not only did it look super easy, but I already had all the ingredients on hand! I didn't even have to go to the store to buy anything. Plus, even if I would have had to buy the ingredients, it still would have cost less than the store-bought bathtub paints. Here's the pin I found...

WHAT YOU'LL NEED: 

1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup soap or shampoo (I used the last bits from the bottles of baby shampoo I had)
3-6 drops Food coloring
1-2 tablespoons water
Some sort of little containers (I used the Glad snack containers)

The actually making of this was easy, but extremely messy! What I loved most about it was my kids were easily able to help. Plus, as an added bonus, since we already had cornstarch and water out, we made Cornstarch Monsters! (I will post on this later... so much fun on a rainy day!)

Cornstarch Monster - very hard to take a picture of!

Before I even say anything, I think my proportions may have been a tad off... I am not entirely sure my final product turned out the way it was supposed to... but here goes anyway!

We measured the cornstarch and soap into each little cup first. In hidsight this may not have been the best thing to do. Mixing the ingredients in those tiny cups was extremely difficult. Keep in mind that when you mix the cornstarch and soap it's going to foam. The scientist in me (it's a VERY small scientist) should have known what would happen, but I just didn't think about it. The moral is... maybe you want to mix it in a bigger bowl and then separate it into the cups to add the food coloring. Make your life easier! We added the food coloring next and watched it "magically" turn into blue, purple, red, green, yellow and orange (of course we had to make every single color of the rainbow...). The next step was a little confusing to me, and this may have been why my paint didn't turn out exactly the way it was supposed to. You add the water a little at a time until it is "thick enough to stick to the paintbrush without much dripping but thin enough to paint a line." I think I made it too thin. You can thicken it with cornstarch and thin it out with more water, but I just couldn't seem to get the proportions quite right. Gives me something to improve on next time... if there is a next time!

Pre-food coloring...

Add the food coloring....

Mix, mix, mix!

And here's what we ended up with

Even though I think our paint ended up a little too thin, my kids had a blast with these paints the first time we got them out in the tub!

Future Picasso painting it up in the tub

One thing I was not expecting was what happened to the paints after we put them away and stored them. The original post said to store them in a cool, dry place in an airtight container... which we did. The paints, however, separated. The soap floated to the top, the water stuck in the middle, and the heavy cornstarch sunk to the bottom. I'm getting deja vu to my 3rd grade science class. I revert to my earlier statement about my lack of scientific ability... I should have seen it coming, I guess, but, again, I just didn't think of it. Here is what happened to the bath paints after they sat for a day or two.

Separated bath paints - no fun!

The other thing was they were REALLY hard to mix back up. We shook them first (which made them all foamy again). Then we stirred them with our fingers, which made a whole new mess. Good thing we were already in the tub! Easy clean up. It would definitely be worth trying to figure out a way to prevent it from happening or to find a different recipe.

COST: $$ I actually spent next to nothing on this, because I already had a ton of the ingredients that I needed. Cornstarch... check (we always keep it on hand to make Cornstarch Monsters). Water... well, yea. Soap/shampoo... I used the leftovers from the bottom of the bottles. Food coloring... double check... we always seem to have about 6 or 7 boxes of food coloring stashed away in our cupboards... with bottles about 1/2 full! Containers... nope. I had gathered all of the ingredients and then had nothing to put them in. Enter: Safeway. I made a quick run and found the Glad snack size containers. They were the perfect size to make each color.

DO-ABILITY: This was extremely easy to do. Aside from the gargantuan mess my kids would make and the measuring, they could probably have managed it by themselves. I mean, really... who can't measure stuff and dump it into a bowl. The hardest part was that it foamed up so much we had a hard time mixing it without it ending up all over our counter. Once we finally got the soap and cornstarch mixed together, we had a whole new obstacle of getting the consistency right, which, obviously we botched up. Finally, once the first two steps were done we had to mix the food coloring in, and we had the foam issue again. A little tip if you decide to do this recipe... mix it in a bigger bowl and then use a spatch to get it into the containers post-mixing. Lear from my mistakes!

OVERALL THOUGHTS: So I didn't love this recipe, but I'm not sure there are others, but, hey... Pinterest has ideas for everything, right? After we mixed it and were ready to use it, I was expecting that my kids would be able to use their fingers to paint. To get the paint to stick to the tiles, we had to use a paintbrush (which I had to go search for...). Our paint ended up very thin and when we painted it on, it was very light (not at all like the picture of the Pin). I'm definitely going to research and try to find a better recipe to use next time we're in the mood to paint in the tub. That being said... I think the recipe could be good if the proportions were right. I will experiment with that too. Only problem? How much bathtub paint does a family need? FRIENDS... I think you know what your kids getting from our family at their next birthday party!

THE GOOD: So easy and perfect for the kids to help with. It has very few ingredients and nothing you don't already have in your cupboard. Plus you can make cornstarch monsters! In the bathtub when they are finished painting, the clean up is super easy! It didn't leave any stains on the tile (I have white tile too!) and all we had to do was spray it with the shower. Viola... clean!

THE BAD: It was super messy to make. I revert to my earlier comment about mixing it in a bigger bowl. Definitely you want to do this! Although our proportions may have been off a bit, our paint ended up so thin that we had to glob it on in order for it to make any shapes or letters on the tiles. Also, I really didn't like the way the paint separated and mixing it back together was really difficult. So, like I said, I think it is definitely worth investigating a little more.

PIN OR BUST?: I would have to say, at this point, this one might be a bust. After a little more looking into it and trying things out I might change my tune. Like I said before, I'm not necessarily giving up on this one, I might just look around, ask around and figure out how it could be better. Stay tuned for that!

THE LAST WORD: I do have another recipe for bathtub paint I'm going to try... and this one is foamy! Maybe that is the magical solution to my separation problem... we shall see.

Happy Pinning!

Best Rice Crispy Treats Ever!

I love Rice Crispy treats. Let me clarify that... I love eating Rice Crispy Treats. I hate making them more than almost anything (anything!) Which is really too bad because they are SO GOOD! And they are so easy to have the kiddos help out with. AND you can do so many things with them. Just go on Pinterest! The possibilities are endless. What's not to love about them? Unfortunately, since I love them so much I try to make them pretty often... which is usually a disaster. My crispy treats have turned out every single way you could think of that they are not supposed to. I've had too-hard crispy treats that break into crispy treat confetti when you bite into them. I've had the too-soft version that is so gooey that they melt apart into molten marshmallow-ey mess all over your hands. Even if I seem to get them just right, the next day, in a cruel twist of fate, they always end up like one of the previous two versions. I don't even think I was looking for these when I just stumbled upon them one day in the great Pinterest wonderland...

THE PIN: The Best Rice Crispy Treats Ever. The name right there got me hooked. I followed the link to this wonderful little blog (http://cookbookproposal.blogspot.com/) and found the recipe. It seemed reasonable enough. I had all the ingredients. And I had this sudden hankering for a nice, big chewy rice crispy treat...

Pic from http://cookbookproposal.blogspot.com/

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

1 stick of butter (make sure you use real butter - I think it makes all the difference!)

1- 10-ounce bag of marshmallows
1 heaping teaspoon coarse sea salt (I left this out - I just wanted to try it without the first time. Perhaps it makes it better but I wanted what I wanted)
6 cups of rice crispy cereal (It's about 1/2 of a small box or about 1/3 of a big box)
More butter or non-stick spray (make it easy on yourself and go with the non stick spray. Who cares if it's worse for you!?)

I almost always have all of these things in my pantry. Refer to my earlier comment about how much I love rice crispy treats. I get ambitious every time I go down the cereal or baking aisle and I buy all the ingredients to make them... and they usually sit in my cupboard until they get hard or stale. Until now! I don't know if these particular instructions are why these turn out for me, but I always get hard little cubes that break into a rice crispy dust cloud when you bite into them.

So here's how you do it... I would measure everything out first. I did and it made it a thousand times easier. Do yourself a favor... pre-measure! Also, get the pan ready that you're going to put these bad-boys into so that you don't do that "Oh crap!" thing once they're done and ready to be mushed in there. I put tin foil in and then spray that w/ cooking oil - easier clean-up! Do all that and you'll be a happier person later - promise!

Okay... melt the butter in a big pot (make sure it's your big one, not the medium... you'll thank yourself later). I don't know if this is the magic trick that makes them turn out, but I think the way this recipe has you cook the butter might be the trick! I usually wait until the butter is just melted and then I dump in the rest of the stuff. But this time, I followed the recipe and cooked the butter a little. I was so excited about these that right after I took this photo, I dropped my phone in the butter. Oops...

Right before the iPhone butter bath

So it will bubble a lot, and then after awhile (keep pulling it from the bottom of the pot with a rubber spatula) you'll see it start to turn brown-ish. The recipe said "it will start to smell nutty" and I was like, "Yea right..." but it actually does. Don't wait too long! As soon as you see it brown a little pull that sucker off the burner and throw in your marshmallows (I had the small people pre-measure everything before we started so it was really easy... reallly... measure stuff out first!). I used the bigger marshmallows (there was a reason... see below) and they took a little longer. The residual heat from the browned butter didn't melt them all, so I stuck the pot back on the cooling-down burner and it was enough to finish the job. When I read blogs/recipes, I always wish someone would show me a dang picture of what I'm supposed to see... Therefore... a picture timeline...

Bubbles a lot...

  Foams up...  

Turns brown and smells nutty 

Put marshmallows in (mine are the pink, strawberry-flavored, Valentine version)

Stir the crap out of it (I did it really fast, not only because it made the little ones laugh but because maybe it made the mallows melt faster... maybe). I think this is when you put in the salt too (again - I left it out). After the mellows are melted and you have a nice, thick goo then you toss in the cereal (again.... pre-measured) and stir those around some until it's all mixed in. Make sure you scrape the good bits off the bottom! Put it all into the pre-prepared pan.

Now here is where I throw in my own special trick (I'm sure I'm the first one to EVER think of this...). Once you have the marshmallow-ed crispy mixture in the pan, get another piece of tin foil and spray the tar out of it w/ cooking spray (over the sink if you don't want your kitchen to turn into a skating rink!). Then lay the tin foil, spray-side down, over the crispies. Get another pan that's about the same size or a little smaller (if you're using a 8x11 pan, you could use an 8x8 to do this), and use it to smush the crispies in. It makes the tops perfectly flat and lets you get the crispys into all the crevices and corners. When I do this, sometimes I have to take the pan off and mush some into the corners with a rubber spatch, but overall it's a pretty nifty trick! Plus, it's a perfect thing for the smallish humans to help with.

Smush 'em together! 

Let them dry for a few minutes (or not!) and dig in. I usually can't wait, so I eat one while it's still gooey and hot. The kids love picking the little gooey crispy bits out of the bottom of the pot and off the spatula. Sometimes I even let them do it before I lick the pot and spatch clean myself.

The end - Sweet bliss!!

Can't wait to dig into these bad boys (the pink tint is from the strawberry marshmallows. Trust me... you want to try this!)

COST: $ I'm not really sure since, like I said before, I usually buy the necessary ingredients while shopping for something else. I'm not sure I've ever bought just the ingredients for this. But overall, it's really pretty cheap. Butter, crispies, mallows... I'm thinking between $7-$10? That's a guess...

DO-ABILITY: Pretty darn easy. The hardest part is making sure you take the butter off after it's browned, but before it burns. You really only have about a 30-60 second window for this. God speed.

BEST CRISPY TREATS EVER?: Um... yea. You will want to make these. Tonight. They are so, so good. Exactly what I think of when I dream about rice crispy treats... which is probably about daily. I almost didn't even get any because the kids (and husband... don't deny it!) devoured them before I could even blink. We made another batch with a different kind of mallow (see "One Last Thing" below!) and they were so good! Exactly what rice crispy treats should be! I'm in love...

THE GOOD: Best. Crispy Treats. EVER! I can't say enough. You'll have to try it for yourself. I'm a converted rice crispy treat ruin-er. Never again!

THE BAD: The butter part is a little tricky, but at least it's the first step, so if you DO burn it, you can start over and not have ruined a bunch of ingredients. Unfortunately, butter has gotten so dang expensive...

THE UGLY: The clean up stinks. Do yourself a favor. When you buy the ingredients for the crispy treats, get some Dawn Five-Minute Soak. It is magical! No scrubbing required.

PIN OR  BUST: Definitely a pin! You'll want to save this one for a lot of years (and school snacks, and birthday parties, and moments of weakness) to come. Plus, there are so many fun things you can do with crispy treats! Just go look on Pinterest! The possibilities are, literally, endless.

ONE LAST THING: Use the seasonal mallows to your advantage! We used the heart-shaped strawberry flavored ones on this batch and the little hint of strawberry was SO good! One suggestion - you might want to take the extra time to cut them into smaller bits because they take a little longer to melt. I didn't want to take the time because I wanted those crispy treats, like, yesterday. Your choice.

Happy Pinning!

The "Get Along" Shirt

It has been so long since my last post. I apologize! Parent-Teacher conferences (both my own child's and those of all my students), trips and the month of March is nearly gone... my apologies!

I had had it. We were on day two of a nonstop bickering, fighting, nitpicking marathon. The hubby and I were at our wits end. Our girls would NOT stop fighting with each other! Even our son, who is only one-year old seemed to be getting in on the fun, chasing after his bickering sisters and yelling, "No!" at them over and over. There was yelling. There was cajoling. There were headaches. Yes... there was even bribery and promises of movies and sweets to try to get them to quit the constant bickering! When thant didn't work I think I even threatened to leave (which I actually did, because I needed to take a walk around the block before my head exploded. Turned out to be good because I remembered seeing a picture somewhere...). I think I had done everything that the experts and magazines tell you not to do and probably none of the things that actually work. Throw me a bone... I was tired and had a headache. It got so bad that the husband and I started in on one another. Well... when the going gets tough, the tough look on Pinterest. I think my husband and I could have really benefited from the awesome Pin I found!

The Pin: The "Get-Along" shirt. Why have I never seen this before and why have I not been using it for the last three years!? My girls are 18 months apart and, like all siblings (especially ones so close in age), they fight. A lot. I can relate to them... I am the middle of three sisters, one 18 months older and one 18 months younger. Trust me. I get the whole "her foot is on my side of the chair" complaint. I can remember when my sister also looked at my Barbie doll the wrong way without asking. I understand. But when you're on the OTHER side of these nit-picky arguments, it is such a different story. (Side note: I know my mother is laughing right now. Paybacks!). I'm sure my kids are way worse than my sisters and I were and I'm sure we NEVER fought as much as they do now. Maybe... Either way, I was done with the fighting. So I hit Pinterest and I found this wonderful little gem...

Photo from Pinterest

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

2 or more bickering children

1 XL size white t-shirt (you could use a different color too!)

Permanent Marker

Scissors

Bickering children? Check. I definitely have those! Three to be exact. 1 XL size white t-shirt. A quick check in the black hole that is my husband's closet. Check! Permanent marker... I'm sure I have one floating around somewhere that my kids haven't ruined yet by either putting it in the toilet or leaving the lid off. Check (found in the back of the junk drawer). I didn't even have to buy anything. Bonus!

So I took the extra large t-shirt and laid it out flat on the counter. I wrote on the front in big, block letters "Our Get-Along Shirt". Your message could be a slight variation of this phrase. I think something like "We WILL get along!" or "We will wear this until we stop fighting" would work too. Let your creative juices flow! The possibilites are endless. I wrote fast because I was seething mad at this point, but the message was clear. Two of my curious little angels came over to investigate what I was doing. "What is it mommy?" "What are you doing?" "Is that for us?" I gave them the mom-look. You know the one. Here's what I ended up with.

Get Along Shirt - Genius!

At first, I didn't cut the neck at all. In hindsight, I would have done this sooner. I'll explain. Keep reading... I'm sure the suspense is killing you. My kids are pretty small still (6 and almost 5) so the XL fit them fine. If your kids are bigger, you may want to go with a XXL or larger. So I called them over and had them stand shoulder to shoulder.

Girls: "What is that mommy?" (Craning necks, trying to see the new clothes I had).
Me: "You get to wear it. It's a new shirt for you. Both of you. You get to wear it together. Isn't that fun!"
Girls: "What does it say on it?"
Me: "It says 'Our Get-Along Shirt'. You get to keep it on until you stop fighting. The longer you fight, the longer you get to wear the shirt!"
Girls: "That doesn't sound fun."
My conscience: "You think this is really a good idea?"
Me: (thinking to my conscience): "Shut up conscience! I'm working..."
Girls: (now giggleing) "Okay!"

They wouldn't be giggling for long. I slipped it over both of their heads and had one of them each put an arm through a sleeve. They were so cute and naive at first! They laughed for about the first 3 1/2 minutes. Here they are in those first innocent minutes...

Awwww... they're so happy.

Still happy...

They were so happy at first! They laughed and giggled as they tried to make it around the house in their new, tandem state. Then they started bickering about which way they would go. And who was going the wrong way. And who got them into this situation in the first place. They tried to go opposite ways. This hurt their nexks (see previous comment when I said I would explain about cutting the neck...). The older one begged me to take it off. 

Daughter 1: (through tears) "Pleeeeeeeeeeeease Mom! I'm choking. Do you like hurting me?" 
Me: "Stop fighting."
Me:" I will take it off as soon as you two get along and stop fighting.
Daughter 1: (crying)

There were a lot of tears, but I held strong.

Reality sets in!

After awhile I felt bad, so I took the pair of scissors and cut the neck seam out on the sides. I would have done this sooner if I would have known it was going to "choke their necks" (their words, not mine). Pain was definitely not my goal. I'm not that mean. In their minds, I'm sure they thought they were stuck together for hours. In reality, it was only 10 minutes. As soon as they stopped bickering, the shirt came off. In the meantime, after about 7 minutes of the shirt, their attitudes turned around pretty quickly. Get-Along shirt... success!

COST: $ I'm sure almost every mom has a shirt and a marker laying around somewhere. If you did have to buy them, it would probably cost you somewhere in the $10 range. Do-able. Bonus: the bickering children are free and I KNOW all moms with 2+ children have those at some point.

DO-ABILITY: Easy. Marker. Shirt. Kids. Done. Doesn't really need a lot of extra explaining.

MAGIC SOLUTION? : Did it stop the bickering? For now! I know I will come back to this little trick for future bickering marathons. I'll just keep The Shirt in a VERY easy-to-find location.

THE GOOD: Super easy and inexpensive solution to the endless quarreling and bickering. While it might not work forever, for me it works for now! 

THE BAD: The shirt collar hurt their necks. It rubbed on them so they had little red marks. Nothing major (although the older one thought she would have to go to the emergency room). If you cut slits in the collar or cut it away from where their necks are, it shouldn't be a problem.

THE UGLY: The yelling and complaining when the shirt is first administered are sort of hard to take, but if you can hold strong until they actually stop bickering, it works like a charm!

PIN OR  BUST: I think it's defintiely worth pinning, if only to make sure that all mothers are aware of this super easy trick to end (or at least postpone) their children's fighting. In my mind, if it makes them quit their nitpicking at one another for a few minutes, it's worth it!

ONE LAST THING: I haven't had to use "The Shirt" (as we've so endearingly termed it) since this incident. I'd be interested to see if this worked for anyone else. If you've tried this before (whether it worked or not) let me know! I'd also be interested to see what other "phrases" people have come up with. Comment and tell me all about it!

Happy Pinning!

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!