Watermelon Gelatin Squares with Mini Watermelon Peeps

Ok since I just did a Healthy Fruit Rainbow Cake, I had to go next with something totally opposite and off the charts sugary.  Plus I couldn't go all summer without a couple watermelon treats.  It just wouldn't be summer without watermelon.  AND I also found some Peeps minis at a store the other day.  Peeps that are mini chicks! You know my love of all things miniature as well as all things Peeps, so this was a total win-win for me.  

 

Every time I see watermelon flavored gelatin in the store, I scoop some up because it's sometimes hard to find.  This particular brand was by Jolly Rancher which makes a bunch of unique flavs - like green apple and blue raspberry.

To make the gelatin pink peptobismol colored, I added some condensed milk.  Follow the directions on the gelatin box adding the gelatin powder to 1 cup of hot water.  Then add 1/2 cup of the sweetened condensed milk and 1/2 cup of cold water.  Mix well.  Pour the mixture into a dish and let set in the refrigerator for a couple hours (preferably over night).  To remove the gelatin, set the pan in a hot water bath for 1-2 minutes.  Turn pan with gelatin over onto a cutting board and tap until it falls out.  Then cut into squares.

Add your favorite sprinkles.  Sprinkles make everything better.

Then top with a Peeps mini! These just happen to be sour watermelon flavored.  

Then eat and wait for the sugary watermelon overload to hit you.  Now you're totally jacked up and ready for your cross fit workout.  You are very welcome.  

Have you tried Peeps minis?? What's your favorite flavor? These sour watermelon ones definitely live up to their name.

Thanks for swinging by and have a totally awesome weekend.  Enjoy the few left this summer.

Check out these other watermelon flavored treats too!

Watermelon Blondie Bars

Watermelon Pudding

Watermelon Donuts

Fresh Fruit Rainbow Cake

Is there anything prettier than a rainbow? OK - maybe there are prettier things, but I really love rainbows in all shapes and sizes.  (As if you haven't guessed that by now!) And I especially love all those rainbow treats and cakes all over the place these days - they always make me smile.   That said, I also like to experiment with getting pretty colors au natural.  Fruit works great for that in so many ways - and bonus it's way healthier than cake!   

So I made a rainbow layered "cake" from fresh fruit.  An all natural rainbow, that's pretty and tasty too.  Try it as an alternative to cake, or in addition to cake!

Check out the tutorial over at SheKnows!

PS. You can also make fruit "cupcakes"!

Cantaloupe Shaped and Flavored Cake Bites

It's melon season! Woo! And although I love love (love) watermelon aka the king of summer fruits, I also kinda feel bad for cantaloupe.  It's the work horse of the melons.  It's always in fruit salads, piles of them in food stores, and most people love it but there just doesn't seem like there are as many treats with it.

Well there some, like I made these triple cantaloupe cupcakes awhile back (cantaloupe in the cake, frosting and filling!) 

And one of the glazes in these cupcakes is cantaloupe!

But watermelon still always seems to take center stage.  So thought I'd add some cake bites to add to the cantaloupe treat mix.

See more on the how to over at SheKnows! 

Jelly Bean Bird Pretzel Snacks - Guest Post over at Hungry Happenings

Hi All, I'm guest posting over at Hungry Happenings today while Beth is enjoying a great vacation over on the other side of the pond.  Beth has inspired me so much over the years and her creativity seems never ending!

Pop over to see these more of these Little Birdie Pretzel Snacks.  They are so easy to make.  Beth hope you are having a fantastic vacay and thanks so much for having me over at your place!

Disney's Frozen Character Pretzel Snacks

Are you guys over Disney's Frozen yet? Has it jumped the shark yet?? I mean it's EVERYWHERE.  Frozen clothes, Frozen dolls and toys, Frozen bedding, Frozen books, Frozen cups, Frozen lunch boxes, Frozen bags, Frozen balloons, Frozen decals and stickers, Frozen make-up, Frozen umbrellas, Frozen wigs (WIGS!), Frozen tiaras, Frozen guitars, Frozen beach towels, and on and on and on and on.

But I can't complain.  Disney really knocked it out of the ballpark with this one.  It's a great movie and all kids love it.  I think we've seen movie or heard the soundtrack thousands of times (literally!).  

So let's FROZEN ALL THE SWEETS! 

I made these Frozen Character Cupcakes earlier this year 

But I thought some more simple treats were needed - and you guys already know about my love of sweet and salty pretzel snacks.  So here you go, Disney's Frozen - inspired pretzel snacks!

Make them for your next Frozen themed party (and there WILL be Frozen themed parties!) or just make some for your own Queen Elsa, Princess Anna, Olaf and Sven fans.  

See the full tutorial over at SheKnows!

Lucky Charms Oatmeal Cookies

Hey there! I finally have a weekend that we have absolutely nothing going on.  It seems like ever since Spring started we've been non-stop every weekend.  The kiddo's little league was a lot of fun his first year, but lots of practices, games, volunteering at snack bar etc.  Plus all of the regular end of school year stuff.  I also had a work trip to Japan in June and we had vacation to San Diego last week.  So it's been so hectic and busy that to have a weekend with no running around has been so great.  

But of course I couldn't just sit around doing nothing - well I did for a little bit and that was enough.  I also made some cookies.  Oatmeal cookies. With. Lucky Charms.  Yes, Lucky Charms the cereal! 

They made them this year in this "limited edition" box with all green clover marshmallows.  

Lucky Charms are one of my favorite junkie cereals.  I indulge every once in a blue moon (or maybe green moon in this case).  So I bought a box on sale after St. Patrick's Day and immediately forgot about it.  When I found it today, going though some bags, I thought it would be fun to make cookies with them.

I used the recipe on the Quaker Oats container for Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.  Mix up the cookie dough as per the recipe but I used 1 and 1/2 cups of the dry oats and 1 and 1/2 cups of the Lucky Charms (instead of 3 cups of oats in the recipe).  I also substituted yogurt raisins for regular raisins.  

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-9 minutes or just brown around the edges and top.

The recipe held up to its name and these cookies vanished quickly! 

Ginormous Lucky Charms Oatmeal & Yogurt Raisin Sandwich Cookie

Especially if you add a little cool whip and make a Lucky Charms Oatmeal Cookie Sandwich.  

Not that I did that, because that would make a huge oatmeal pie like cookie that would need to be taste tested immediately and after coming back from an indulgent vacation last week eating something like this would be so gluttonous (aka magically delicious)!

Anyway I hope you are enjoying your summer and have some time to relax and sit back and enjoy the days.  It will be Fall again before we know it!  Have a great week!

Flag shaped soft pretzels for 4th of July

Do you love soft pretzels as much as I do? 

And do you love all that is red, white, and blue? Well mash those loves up and make some homemade flag shaped soft pretzels this 4th of July!  Making them at home is really very easy - and shaping them into flags is like rolling play doh.  Get the kiddos to help!

See the full tutorial here at SheKnows.

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Naturally Colored red, white, and blue flag fudge

The 4th of July is right around the corner, so that means all kinds of fun red, white and blue foods start showing up everywhere.  I so love that! My contribution this year is some red, white, and blue fudge.  

Super fun because the fudge is shaped like little US flags and bonus the red and blue color comes from fruit.   I won't go as far as calling it healthy, but at least there is fruit in it!  Perfect to bring along to a 4th BBQ or party.

You can always skip the flag shape and just make red, white, and blue layered fudge too.  

See the full tutorial here at SheKnows!

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Gingerbread Men for Father's Day

Gingerbread has got to be one of my favorite flavors - ever.  All shapes and forms work for me.  I mean gingerbread is all cinnamony and spicy and so so tasty.  So I'm pretty much campaigning to make gingerbread treats to be made all year round -let's not just limit it to the holiday season and Christmas time.  Who's with me??

Dress some simple gingerbread men cookies up with some "bow ties" and you've got a cool way to wish Dad a very Happy Father's Day.  And unlike boring old father's day cards that get put in a drawer to collect dust, these Dad can just eat when he's done admiring them.  Well you *could* eat cards but they wouldn't be near as tasty.

The bow ties are made with some heart shaped jelly beans that I got on sale after Valentine's Day.  They are all variations on cherry flavors (my hubby's fav flavor).  Attach the hearts together with some melted chocolate or vanilla candy melt. Accent them with some discs of candy melt with some edible glitter on top.

Then just attach the bows to the gingerbread men cookies with more melted candy/chocolate.  Add your favorite Dad saying with more melted chocolate (or you could use royal icing too).  Once all the candy or frosting is dry, you can brush the entire cookie with some gold shimmer dust.  The shimmer dust just makes them a little extra special.  And you get some simple but fun gingerbread men for your favorite Dads.

A very special Happy Father's Day to all the "Dads" in my life. To my Dad, thanks for everything you do and are doing now for my kiddos!  And also to my other half.  He is such a tremendous Dad to our 3 kiddos.  As we are lucky to have them, they are as lucky to have you.

PS.  Do you like the new blog design?? I thought I was due for an update and wanted to do something super fun. Thanks so much to Jessica Krieger, I love it!

More decorated gingerbread men you may like!

Super Hero Gingerbread Men and Women
The Peanuts Gang Gingerbread Men
Disney Princess Gingerbread Cookies
Mini Super Hero Gingerbread Men
Star Wars Gingerbread Men

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Maleficent Movie Cupcakes

Wow it's been awhile since I made cupcakes - I think I may have gone into a little withdrawal! And what better reason to make cupcakes than the new Disney Maleficent movie that opened this past weekend.  I've not been able to see it yet but the the trailer and previews look great.  Like Lord of the Rings meets Disney Princesses.

I'm staying away from the movie reviews too.  The couple that showed up in my FB feed didn't look promising.  But I'm going to stay optimistic for the arch Disney Villain from Sleeping Beauty - The Mistress of All Evil.

For these cupcakes, I went with the look from the books - not necessarily the Angelina Jolie all black look.  The cupcakes are vanilla tinted green with some black swirls.

And her horns (or is that a hat??) are made from these, Cinnamon Churros snacks!

I was on the prowl for some Bugle snacks for the horns, but of course I could not locate them in any store within a 15 mile radius of my house.  Go figure.  So I had to make do and trimmed the churros for the horn look and then dipped them in black candy melt.  The churros are actually a much better combination with the candy melts.

The icing is very light green and purple swirled frosting.  The swirled look is done by adding each color to a piping bag, then adding those 2 bags to a third bag.  Simple and it works great!

I made some mini maleficents too.

And if you fast forward past the summer and pretend it's Halloween, they also could pass for some some crazy bat or Bride of Frankenstein cupcakes - but for today's purposes they are Maleficent!

And in the old story, Maleficent's all crazy nuts evil about not being invited to a Royal Christening.  Good thing she's not around today because she'd have to deal with all the other fairies FB photos showing all the stuff she wasn't invited to.  She would be all up in the comments "Now you shall really deal with me @PrincePhillip and all the powers of Hell!" She might actually do better in Westeros playing the Game of Thrones.  She's got the dragon and everything.  (Side bar: for GoT fans, did you see last episode "The Mountain and the Viper"?? Holy. Cow.  This show never disappoints.  Kudos HBO.)

Have an absolutely awesome week and if you saw the Maleficent movie, then let me know - thumbs up or down?!

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