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Chocolate Covered Pretzel Bunnies & Sunday’s Best Link Up # 13

Chocolate Covered Pretzel Rod Easter Bunnies

 

I took a poll on my Facebook page yesterday. I was curious about what people preferred, sweet or salty. My husband is salty & I am definitely sweet, but the truth is I love the two mixed together the best. One of my weaknesses is for chocolate covered pretzels.

With only one week left before Easter, I have a few more days of Easter inspired fun. Tonight we made some sweet & salty Easter treats in the form of our favorite Easter pal.

 

Melt white chocolate in the microwave. Put the chocolate in a microwave safe dish & heat for a minute. Check it & microwave in 30 second intervals, checking to see if it is melted before each interval. Be careful not to burn.

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When the chips are soft & shiny stir with a spoon.

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Dip pretzel dipper sized rods into the melted chocolate & lay out on wax paper. Lay two dipped pretzels side by side to form a V shape.

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With a spoon, spoon out a dollop of chocolate over the bottom in the shape of a circle. Be careful to not dribble chocolate over the top. It works best when the chocolate is smooth. Use a rubber spatula to smooth out any rough edges while chocolate is still hot.

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Melt pink chocolate or in a pinch use white chocolate with just a touch of food coloring gel. Using a toothpick draw a line for the inside of the ears & add a dot for the nose.

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Melt a small dish of milk or dark chocolate & add in eyes, mouth & whiskers. Let your chocolate cool & remove from the wax paper. If you have any imperfections, which I had a plenty, scrape the hardened chocolate with a knife to smooth out.

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Chocolate Covered Pretzel Rod Easter Bunnies

Now let’s hop on over to our main event. Welcome to week 13 of our Sunday’s Best Link-Up.

 
 
Welcome to Week 13 of  Mother 2 Mother’s Sunday’s Best Linkup This is the last week for our Spring Forward theme. We will be starting our April Showers theme next week. We will be looking for indoor activities, recipes, crafts, gardening and blogging tips for those rainy days.  
 
 
 

This week we’re celebrating the thaw across the country, so linkup Easter posts, crafts, recipes, gardening, decorating ideas, room makeovers, Easter tablescapes, spring cleaning and organizational tips. Blow the dust off your old posts and link those too. Don’t have posts that fit into the theme, link up whatever post you would like to share. We would love to have SEO, blogging, and parenting tips, DIY projects, homesteading, homeschooling, and your posts on life.  Your linkups and giveaways are welcome too. Anything goes here, as long as it’s family friendly and you may linkup as many as you would like. 

Each week your hosts will select their favorite post and it will be featured the following week. An image from your post will be used on my blog the following week with a link back to your blog. Be sure to check back to see if you’re a Sunday’s Best featured blogger. All Featured Bloggers will have their posts Pinned to the Sunday’s Best Pinterest Board.    

If you are interested in becoming a Sunday’s Best host, please contact me for details at rhonda@mother2motherblog.com  



                                             Your Sunday’s Best Hosts:


            Rhonda – Mother 2 Mother                Kim U. – Pinterested Parent         Kim M. – Life In A House of Testosterone


  

Here’s the rules, please connect with us on social media before you leave or subscribe/follow our blogs:  


Mother 2 Mother: Please like my 
Facebook Page, follow me on Twitter,  Google+, PinterestBlogLovin or subscribe/join my blog on the right before you leave.   



The Pinterested Parent: Please like Kim’s Facebook Page, follow her on Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Bloglovin before you leave.  



Life In A House of Testosterone: Please like Kim’s Facebook Page, follow her on Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Bloglovin, or Instagram before you leave. 


 

Mother 2 Mother Blog

Please help us grow by placing the Sunday’s Best button above on your sidebar or in your Link Party lists/directory. I appreciate your help in promoting the linkup with Re-tweets and shares. If you are selected as a Featured Blogger, let your readers and followers know that you were featured on Sunday’s Best.  Now lets party! 

The Sunday’s Best Posts are:

 

Kim U. selected Moss Covered Bunny from Pinterventures 


Sunday's Best Linkup, featured bloggers




I selected Pastel Deviled Eggs from Intelligent Domestications






Kim M. choose Keeping Up With the Joneses from Sequins In The South

All of the posts were great, and I appreciate each of you linking up. I would like to invite all of you back to linkup your post(s) again, it could be selected this week. While you’re here take a minute to visit these great blogs. It’s a great way to meet and connect with new bloggers. Be sure to PIN or share any posts that you like, we all appreciate a little love. 


 

Rainbow Rice Krispies Treats

Rainbow rice krispies treat

 

For those of you that have followed along with me for a while, you know our family has a soft spot for Rice Krispies Treats. Our wedding cake was even fashioned out of 3 tiers of solid Rice Krispies Treats.

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We have been eagerly anticipating spring here. It has been a week of rainbows in our home. We painted some spaghetti rainbows over the weekend.

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Then today we made some Rice Krispies Treats Rainbows. We have made these before for parties and such, but tonight the treats were just for us.

Ingredients:

5-6 cups Rice Krispies

About 40 Marshmallows

1 stick of Butter

Food coloring – red, orange ,yellow ,green ,blue & purple

 

Directions:

1. Slice a stick of butter into 6 equal parts.

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2. Line a small baking pan with wax paper. We used a 7X5X1.5. Spray the paper with cooking spray.

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3. In a small sauce pan, melt one pat of butter over low heat. Stir in 6-7 medium sized marshmallows cut up into smaller pieces. Stir until melted.

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4. Add a few drops of red food coloring until you get the achieved color. Stir in 3/4 cup of Rice Krispies until well coated.

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5. Press the mixture into the bottom of the pan, packing it well. Use fingers to press in well. Wet hands work best & keep the Krispies from sticking to fingers.

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6. Repeat steps 3-5 five more times with the remaining colors, layering each color on top of the last.

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Let cool in the refrigerator for about 10-15 minutes and then lift the treats out by the wax paper. Peel off the wax paper from the treats.

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Use a sharp knife to slice the treats in to thin strips.

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Curve your strips into arcs to form rainbows.

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Thank you as always for stopping by. Please follow us on Facebook as well.

Gingerbread Christmas Tree

Gingerbread Christmas tree - a great baking and cooking project to do with the kids for the holidays. Preschoolers and food

I realize that it is not even Thanksgiving yet.  It’s not that I have anything against Thanksgiving because I have a lot to be thankful for, but I am overjoyed for this upcoming Christmas season. I understand that most do not like how early the holidays seem to come more & more each year, but for me I can’t wait, especially after having our daughter. Christmas is magical. The Christmas carols, the twinkling lights & the smells are all divine.

I am one of those people that have gotten into the spirit a little bit early, but I don’t care. My daughter doesn’t know any different. To her it is Christmas time already. This weekend we put on some Christmas carols & filled our house with the delicious smell of gingerbread. My daughter loves baking with mommy & she loves eating it too. One of the great things about gingerbread is it has the same consistency as Play-Doh. This of course made my Play-Doh obsessed daughter happy.

Gingerbread Christmas Trees

Bake your gingerbread. Here is the recipe that we used. Gingerbread Recipe

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You will need star cookie cutters. Using different sized cookie cutters, cut out about 10 cookies. If you do not have 10 different cutters, you can improvise.
I had 5 cutters in various sizes. I cut two of each size, cutting one a little thicker than the other. I worked the thicker star out carefully using my fingers to make it a little bit larger than the first star.

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On the smallest star I added a small point for the top of the tree.

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Bake your cookies according to the recipe.

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Make your icing while the cookies bake.

Icing:

1 cup of confectioners sugar

2 Tbsp of milk

1/2 Tsp vanilla

Stir your ingredients together until smooth.

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Stack the cookies from biggest to smallest. Use the icing to hold the pieces together. Stagger the star points so that they lined up every other cookie.

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Drizzle icing over the top of the tree & add M&M minis or another candy of your choice.

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Gingerbread Christmas tree - a great baking and cooking project to do with the kids for the holidays. Preschoolers and food

As I said already the gingerbread dough has a similar consistency to Play-Doh. I let my daughter use the leftover dough to craft her own cookies.

She crafted these as birthday cakes for me & her. The birthday cakes looked a bit like a pile of something else that I don’t want to say, but otherwise they still tasted delicious. Mai iced up her cookies and they passed her taste test. The only problem was trying to wrestle away all of her cookie creations from her so that she didn’t eat them all.

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We also made these cute little trees imparting the same concept of stacking the stars as with the cookie tree.

Foam Christmas tree craft for kids

We cut out 10 different sized stars using foam sheets & cut out a hole in the middle of each big enough to fit around a toilet paper roll. Cut only a small hole in your top star & loop a pipe cleaner through it to for the peak of the tree. Attach 2 small foam stars to either end of the pipe cleaner. Paint a toilet paper roll & a Dixie cup (The Dixie cup will be used for your base. Let dry. Glue the toilet paper roll into the cup. Stack the stars from biggest to smallest over the toilet paper tube & glue the top star over the top of the toilet paper roll. Let dry & let your child decorate the tree with craft pom poms, yarn, cotton snow etc.

 

 

Cinnamon Sugar Crescent Pretzels

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Cookie monster is to cookies as my daughter is to Play-doh. She just can’t get enough of it. Her favorite of all Play-Doh creations is crafting baked goods. She makes cakes & cookies and asks mommy to join in as well. I got creative the other day and made Play-Doh pretzels. This got a giggle out of my daughter & also inspired her tummy with a pretzel craving. I thought it might be fun to make some soft pretzels with her & combine the fun of playing with dough and the deliciousness of getting to eat our creations after.

Once I suggested it though, my laziness kicked in & I looked for an easy way out. Hurray for crescent rolls. These are not exactly your classic soft pretzel, but they were a quick, easy and yummy treat.

Ingredients:

1 tube of low fat crescent rolls

1 Tbsp sugar

1/2 Tbsp cinnamon

1/2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375. Unroll your tube of crescent rolls. Pinch the perforated seams together & roll out into a rectangular sheet. With a rubber spatula spread out the oil evenly over the sheet. Stir the cinnamon & sugar in a small bowl. Sprinkle the entire mixture evenly over the crescent sheet. Mai did the sprinkling for us, so it was not entirely even. Cut a 1/2″ wide strip lengthwise. Roll the strip just enough to form a rope like strip. Fold & twist into a pretzel. Place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 8-9 minutes. Serve while warm.

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Mai loved these. I gave her one pretzel, but our sneaky little girl smuggled a few extra when I wasn’t looking.

Pancake Battered Banana Bites

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For those of you that have been following me for a while, you know that I have had a long hard battle with my daughter over eating. She has been known to be a picky one. Not only is she picky, she doesn’t like to eat. She has much more important things to be doing & she will tell you. “Mama I don’t want to eat. I am so busy.” This is coming from my 2 year old. I am not sure what it is that could have my toddler so busy, but whatever it is, it has kept her from the dinner table on many occasions.

We have come a long way over the last few months and have seen great improvements. Her appetite has increased which is wonderful, but her variety of foods remains the same. Breakfast is one of her better meals. Thank goodness. And as luck would have it, it is my favorite meal to make. I love making bite-sized foods & if it is something that she can dip, it is usually a home run.

Pancake Battered Banana Bites

Ingredients:

6 ripe bananas

1 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour

1 tbsp of brown sugar

3 tsp of baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 large egg

1 tsp honey

1 cup of milk

2 tbsp vegetable oil

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl add the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, milk & vegetable oil and stir well. In a mixing bowl, beat the egg & add to the rest of the batter. Mix in the honey. Slice bananas into 1/2″ slices. Dip the banana in the pancake batter. Place on a hot griddle or frying pan set to medium heat. (Test with water, water drops should dance across the surface when added.) Cook until the edges are cooked & firm up. Flip & cook on the other side. Cook until the batter on the sides is firm & cooked.

We served ours with a peanut honey sauce, but you can also use maple syrup or eat as is.

Peanut Sauce:

2 tbsp peanut butter

2 tbsp water

1 tbsp honey

Heat the peanut butter & water for 20 seconds in a microwave safe dish. Stir well until smooth. Add the honey & stir well. Serve warm

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These were a big hit with both my daughter & my husband. Mai loves to dip, so she had hers with peanut sauce & syrup.

 

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American Fried Rice

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It is dinnertime & I don’t have anything planned. Let’s play a little game. What is in my fridge? We have thawed out ground turkey, leftover rice, 2 aging potatoes & a half of an onion that is getting ready to be trashed. Mmm mmm, sounds great doesn’t it? Nobody likes wasting food. My husband & I positively hate it. Some of our favorite meal creations come from simply cleaning out our fridge. The hubby asked me last week if I could make a batch of fried rice, so this seemed as good of a time as any since it requires day old rice & as luck would have it… This would not be our traditional fried rice though. This is our fried rice American style.

Ingredients:

1/2 pound of ground turkey or any ground meat

2 cups of day old cooked rice

2 cups of cooked diced potatoes (2 small potatoes)

1/2 cup of chopped onion

Half a can of corn

3 eggs

2 1/2 tbsp soy sauce (as always I recommend Green Mountain or Maggi)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp garlic salt

Pepper to taste

Directions:

Brown your ground meat until no longer pink, drain & place aside. Peel & cube the potatoes, throw in the microwave for about 3-4 minutes until cooked in the center and set aside. In a large skillet set to 350 or high heat, add the oil & onion. Cook the onion until tender & toss in rice & potatoes. Add 1 1/2 tbsp of soy sauce over the top & stir until rice & potatoes are browned. Pour in half the can of corn & stir for a couple of more minutes. Add the ground meat, the seasonings & the last tbsp of soy sauce. Stir for a few minutes more & then transfer to a serving dish. Keep the skillet on. In a small bowl beat the eggs. Add to the hot skillet & toss around quickly until the egg is just barely firm & cooked . Remove from heat & throw in the the rice mixture.

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Stay tuned for more fun with leftovers.

Thank you as always for stopping by. If you like us here, please follow us on Facebook.

Mashed Potato Puffs

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A couple of weeks ago there was a sale on 10 pound bags of potatoes at the grocery store. I typically only buy half of that, but since the 10 pounder was cheaper than the 5, it was a no-brainer.

10 pounds of potatoes is a lot, even for a potato lover like me.  There are only so many days a person can eat mashed potatoes in a row. As you know, I love making recipes out of leftovers & anything that I am trying to get rid of in my fridge. Here is a delicious way to get rid of leftover mashed potatoes.

Ingredients:

1 cup of left over mashed potatoes

1 tube of crescent rolls or crescent sheet

5-6 bacon strips cooked to desired crispiness

1/4 cup sour cream

1/2 cheddar cheese

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375. Put 1 cup of mashed potatoes in a medium sized mixing bowl. Add the sour cream. If the potatoes are lumpy, mash or whip them until they are smooth. Crumble or chop your cooked bacon & add to the potato mixture. Stir in the cheese. Unroll the crescent dough. If using crescent rolls, press seam together to form a sheet & then roll out with a rolling pin. With a knife, slice crescent into 1 1/2 inch squares. (If the dough is too soft to work with refrigerate for 10-15 minutes to firm up.) Scoop a heaping spoonful of mixture & place in crescent square. Pull each corner into the center. Roll the bottom & sides with your palm to seal the seams. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

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These were a huge hit. I have admit that I was pretty proud of these. My husband even asked me to make more.

Gingerbread Haunted House

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My child has very little concept of time. It is hilarious because she knows the names of the days of the week and she will use them with no real understanding of when that day actually is. She will reminisce about a something that happened weeks ago & retell it saying that it just happened yesterday. It is no surprise then that she does not have much of a grasp on the seasons or when the holidays fall. Most of the summer Mai had been asking me to make a gingerbread house. Trying to explain to my daughter that we were in the wrong season for gingerbread is pointless. Last week she was especially insistent, so what is a mommy to do?  I promised her that we would make gingerbread houses. To keep with the theme of the season, we made haunted houses. I found this great recipe for pumpkin gingerbread online.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Pumpkin-Spice-Bread-Halloween-House/?ALLSTEPS

We doubled the recipe for our house.

I measured out the ingredients & handed them to Mai. She sang Patty Cake as she mixed & rolled out her dough. My girl loves to cook.

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We drew out templates earlier in the day, stocked up on candy & made our icing.

Royal Icing

2 eggs whites

1 box of confectioners sugar

Beat eggs until frothy & mix in the sugar until smooth. Add the icing to your piping bag.

As we were working with raw egg, I also used store bought icing for Mai to use when she decorated.

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With the leftover gingerbread I rolled out a haunted tree.

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After you have baked your gingerbread, be sure to trim and straighten edges. Cut out any windows or doors.

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Generously apply icing & assemble your house. Use items around your house to hold your pieces upright and pushed together.

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Once your house is assembled, you can start decorating. We used After 5 thin mints for our roof eaves

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Mai helped out by decorating the tree with some M & Ms.

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We added orange gum drop slices, gummy worms, candy corns, licorice whips, Hershey kisses, pumpkin Peeps, M&Ms & mini Kit Kats to our house.

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While mommy was in charge of decorating the front, Mai got to do the sides. She hid M&M’s & gummy worms in the house through the windows. We gave her a bowl of icing to dip her candy in to make it easier. She dipped the candy in the icing & then decorated her face more than the house.

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It was a lot of work, but it was a fun project for me & the munchkin. I can’t wait for Christmas now to do it again.

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Peanut Butter & Jelly Pancakes

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Breakfast is definitely my favorite meal of the day. I love eggs, french toast, hash, home fries & pancakes. I am getting hungry just thinking about it. The best thing about breakfast is our daughter also loves it. It is the one meal that I can usually count on her eating. I will admit that we have made breakfast for lunch & dinner on occasion just to ensure that the kiddo would eat.

Pancakes are one of our daughter’s favorite foods & they are one of my favorite things to make. They are delicious, easy to make & a lot of fun to experiment with. Today we made PB & J pancakes.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Pancakes

Ingredients:

1 cup of all purpose flour

3 tbsp peanut butter

3 tbsp jelly

1 tbsp of brown sugar

2 tsp of baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 large egg

1 1/4 cup of milk

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Directions:

In a small mixing bowl, beat the egg & set aside. In a medium bowl combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt & oil. Add the peanut butter & break up the clumps with a fork while mixing. Stir in the milk & stir well until smooth & peanut butter is broken up. Stir in the egg & jelly. Break up the jelly with a fork as well. It is ok if it is a little clumpy with the jelly. Pour 1/8 cup of batter per pancake onto a hot skillet set at medium-high heat. When pancake bubbles and edges start to firm flip & cook on the other side.

The pancakes were a hit. Next week we will try them Fluffernutter style.

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