Spring Snack Ideas

March 3, 2013 2 Comments

Our snow is finally starting to melt which means that Spring is on its way! I’ll admit that I do tend to hibernate a bit during the cold winter months so I always look forward to the start of warmer weather. We have a lot to look forward to this March and I can’t wait to tell you more about it in the weeks to come. With Easter & a a few special birthdays on the way, we’ve started planning our delicious spring snacks.

Spring Snacks for Travel:

This March, we’ll be taking our first family trip to Disneyland and we couldn’t be more excited about it! My little guy absolutely loves the Disney Junior channel, Cars and Toy Story so we know he’s going to be amazed when he gets to meet some of the characters in person. Traveling with a toddler can be challenging, especially when you have food allergies to worry about. We always pack our son’s travel snacks ahead of time so that we avoid any of the foods he is allergic to (peanuts and other tree nuts). Today we tried the Gone Fishing Chex Mix on General Mills Canada’s Life Made Delicious page. When I saw that some of the ingredients were fish-shaped crackers, I knew my son would enjoy this mix. As you can see from the photos below, it was a huge success! I had issues getting a photo without those tiny little fingers reaching up onto the counter for more.

Spring Snacks Chex Mix

Spring Snacks for Easter:

As you know, I love parties! Birthday parties, holiday parties, baby showers – I love them all! I’ve already started planning Easter parties to share with you here along with ideas for delicious spring snacks. One delicious and cute treat that I tried making today are Fudgy Truffle Eggs. I may have already tried one (or two) but I had to for research, right? These truffles would make the perfect addition to any Easter party table. In fact, the Life Made Delicious page is filled with delicious ideas for Easter treats like Funny Bunny Cookies, Spring Flower Brownies, Easter Chick Cupcakes and more. Simply visit their page and type “Easter” in the search field for a listing of all the delicious treats you can make with your little ones.

Spring Snacks Easter

Do you have any March Break travel plans this year? What are your best on-the-go snack ideas?

For more delicious recipes, check out our special Recipes page.

Disclosure: I am part of the Life Made Delicious Blogger program and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

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Gingerbread House Ideas

November 1, 2012 10 Comments

Gingerbread House Ideas I love making gingerbread houses. I enjoy thinking of creative ideas and eating the leftover candy decorations. Do you make a gingerbread house for the holidays? Here are some fun gingerbread house ideas along with some exciting giveaway news!

Will you be hosting a gingerbread house making party? Then you’ll want to check out Just a Little Sparkle who sells fabulous invites and party supplies like the invitation featured above (the cupcake picks too!). You can also find her designs on Etsy.

You’ll need to start with a gingerbread recipe. Here’s a delicious recipe for both the gingerbread and the icing (courtesy of the Food Network).

You’ll also need an easy to follow gingerbread house template like this one from AllRecipes.com.

Once your house is assembled and sturdy, you can start the decorating. Here are some fun gingerbread house ideas for decorating:

  • green spearmint leaves for mini trees
  • large marshmallows to make snowmen
  • pretzels for a fence (or yogurt covered pretzels for a snow covered fence)
  • small toys like deer, Santa, people skiing, ice skaters, etc. Check out cute ideas from Sweet Kaity (like the 3 pictures above in the lower left hand corner).
  • gingerbread men
  • large green gumdrop bushes
  • Frosted Mini Wheats shingles
  • pretzel sticks or licorice to frame windows or doors
  • sour apple circle gummies as a wreath on the front door
  • upside down ice cream cones with green icing as trees
  • mini M&M’s as Christmas lights on house and trees
  • graham crackers to construct a dog house
  • string licorice to line a walkway to the front door
  • chocolate pebbles for a driveway
  • Shreddies for a sidewalk
  • place a glow stick inside the house to shine through the windows
  • mini candy canes lining the walkway

Click here to enter to win products from both Just a Little Sparkle and Sweet Kaity.

What gingerbread house ideas has your family used?

Thank you so much for popping by Moms & Munchkins! I hope you’ve found some inspiring ideas for family fun! We’d love to have you join us over on Facebook to stay updated on all the fun and future giveaways!

For more fun ideas for the holidays including party ideas, free printable games, activity ideas and more – visit our special Holiday Fun page.

*Disclosure: I was not compensated for this post. 100% of the opinions expressed here are my own.

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Open a Bed and Breakfast – Kids Entertaining Houseguests

September 19, 2012 4 Comments

Are you preparing for houseguests? Do you want your children to be involved in the planning? A fun idea is to ask your kids to open a bed and breakfast!Open a Bed and Breakfast

This is a fun idea for both your family and the expected guests. While your children are planning to open a bed and breakfast, here are a few ideas you can suggest:

  • Welcome Note: Create a welcome note to leave on the bed in the guest room. This note can including wording like “Welcome to the {Family Name} Bed & Breakfast! We hope you enjoy your stay!”.
  • Chocolates on Pillow: What better way to welcome guests to the bed & breakfast than leaving chocolates on the pillows!
  • Stocking Supplies: Have your kids help with stocking the supplies for the guest. This can include towels in the bathroom, fluffing the pillows on the bed and stocking the bathroom with the necessities. When planning to open a bed and breakfast, ask your children what items would make the guest feel more at home.
  • Toiletries: At your local dollar store, have your children pick out a few toiletries to include in a basket in the bathroom. This can include small haircare products, soap, shaving cream, cotton swabs, shower cap, etc.
  • Pay Per View Movies: Have your children prepare a list of movies that are available to rent (they can sort through their collection and pick out some of their favorites). Payment could be listed as “The fee for each movie rental is 1 joke”.
  • Sightseeing Tips: Your children can help create a listing of sightseeing items within your city. This could include museums, their favorite park, their favorite restaurant – all the places they enjoy that they’d be happy to tell your guests about.
  • Tourist Attraction: Your sightseeing tips brochure could include a tourist attraction in your own home. For example, you could set out some binoculars and host a bird watching adventure in the backyard. Perhaps your child has a collection of something, they could display this in the home and invite guests for a tour of the special collection. Maybe your child loves to draw, then an at-home art museum would be a fun display to set up. When planning to open a bed and breakfast, your children are sure to be full of creative ideas.
  • Schedule of Activities: Are your guests in town for a special event or holiday? Your children could create a fun Schedule of Activities listing times of various events throughout the weekend. For example, Thanksgiving could include a time for dinner, Christmas could include a time for opening presents, etc.
  • Prepare a Special Breakfast: You can’t open a bed and breakfast and not serve a delicious breakfast, right?! Have your children help to choose some delicious breakfast recipes to try when the guests are in town. They can help grocery shop, prepare the food and set the table.
  • Newspaper Service: Your little ones can deliver the newspaper to the guests each morning. They could even highlight the articles they feel are newsworthy.
  • Room Service Menu: Your children can create a room service menu with items that can be delivered to the guest room upon special request. This could include water, soft drinks and snack items. The price of each item could be something silly like “One High Five” or “One Hug”.
  • Souvenirs: Have your kids put their creativity to use by creating souvenirs for the guests to take home. A photo of your home could be turned into a fun postcard.
  • Welcome Basket: Many of the above items could be placed in a “Welcome Basket” that is left in the guest room along with a bottle of water and a bell to ring for service.
  • Rate Your Stay: The night before checkout, the kids could slip a “Rate Your Stay” card under the guest bedroom door. This could an introduction of “On a scale from 1 to 10 (1 being Not Satisfied to 10 being Excellent), please rate your stay” along with questions like “Cleanliness of Room”, “Friendliness of Staff”, “Tourist Attractions”, etc.

What activities do you think your kids would enjoy when planning to open a bed and breakfast? How do your children get involved when you have guests?

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Cooking Dinner With Kids

May 10, 2012 Leave a Comment

Cooking dinner with kids is a fun way to spend an afternoon.  You can start planning your special meal first thing in the morning to allow time for grocery shopping and preparation.

Spend time with your kids choosing the perfect special recipes (appetizer, main course and dessert).  Kitchen Fun with My 3 Sons has plenty of fun kid-friendly recipes to choose from. Even your grocery trip can be a mini adventure where your kids help to find everything on the grocery list and perhaps even a few surprise ingredients.

You can then have a little craft time where you create special menus to print off and leave at each place setting. Your children and decorate these with drawings, glitter, stickers, etc.

When cooking dinner with kids, have your children help out in the kitchen to create your food masterpieces. You can use this time to teach about basic cooking skills, kitchen safety, food measuring, kitchen tools, etc.

Print off fun menu cards to leave at each place setting on the table. Here are some napkins folding instructions to help you create the perfect place setting. You could also teach the proper way to set a table (what side the forks go on, etc.). Your table could include bright placemats, plastic champagne glasses, and a special homemade centerpiece.

Cooking Dinner with Kids – Meal Time!

Your children can even choose similar looking outfits to wear as wait staff to serve the other members of your family. Each child could be assigned one course (one child serves the appetizers, one child serves the main dish, etc.).

Cooking dinner with kids

Have Fun & Bon Appetit!

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Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Recipes

April 26, 2012 2 Comments

Did you know that May 18th is I Love Reese’s Day?  It’s true!  A day dedicated to celebrating the awesome deliciousness of Reese’s! Not sure how to celebrate this special day?  Here are 5 yummy ideas that you may want to try. They all involve the delicious mixture of peanut butter and chocolate in these Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup recipes.

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Recipes:

1) Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies  – or as my friends call them…the OMG Cookies!  See the picture below to commence drooling. I haven’t made these for a long time because honestly…I can’t stop eating them when I have them in the house!

2) Mix vanilla ice cream with chopped or mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. There’s no better ice cream mix-in than peanut butter and chocolate!

3) Top a chocolate cake with rich chocolate frosting and chopped or mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.  Looking for a recipe for delicious caramel chocolate cake?  Click here for Chocolate Caramel Skor Cake (just replace the Skor bits with chopped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups).

4) Melt Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in the microwave (just a few seconds) and use as icing for mini cupcakes. These would taste delicious with a big glass of cold milk.

5) Bake these delicious brownie cupcakes (minus the pecans) and as soon as they come out of the oven, take an unwrapped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup and push it into the center of the cupcake (push down until the top of the peanut butter cup is level with the top of the cupcake).  Let cool and enjoy!

Do you have any Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Recipes you’d like to share? Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Recipes

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Easter Bunny Cake

March 27, 2012 6 Comments

These popcorn ball Easter Bunny Cakes are so fun & easy to make that your children will want to help out too.

Click here for the printable recipe for the popcorn balls.

You’ll need candy coated chocolate for the the eyes & nose and black licorice string for the whiskers.

After you’ve stirred the marshmallow into the popcorn, shape the mixture into popcorn balls about the size of your palm.  It’s best to let these set before continuing to work with them.  A trick is to place the popcorn balls into greased muffin tins to cool & harden a bit (the muffin tins help to hold the round shape).

Use some of the popcorn mixture to create oval pieces that will become the ears for the Easter Bunny Cakes.  Lay these on wax paper and set in the fridge to cool & set.

Once the popcorn balls and ears have had a chance to set enough to hold their shape, use a bit of melted marshmallow mixture to stick 2 popcorn balls on top of each other (one for the bunny head and one for the bunny body) and two oval pieces on the top for ears.  Stick on 2 candy coated chocolate pieces for eyes and 1 for the nose and cut small strings of black licorice for the whiskers.  A cute addition is a single marshmallow covered popcorn piece for a fluffy tail.

Place these on wax paper and let them set in the fridge for about 20 minutes.  They should then be set enough to hold their shape & candy features.

Now you’re ready to serve & enjoy your Easter Bunny Cakes!

For more Easter fun, visit our Holiday Fun page and scroll down to the Easter section for loads of free printable games, activity ideas, party ideas and more!

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Easter Bunny Cupcakes

February 20, 2012 1 Comment

Easter Bunny cupcakes that are easy to make & fun to eat! Easter Bunny Cupcakes

To make these Easter Bunny cupcakes, start with your favorite cupcake and icing recipes (or take the easy way – like me – with packaged mixes).

Top the Easter Bunny cupcakes with green icing, a marshmallow Peep bunny, a German Chocolate Cake Jet-Puffed Mallow Bite (use end of spoon to push in middle to make a basket) and fill with 3 small jelly beans (like Jelly Belly).

Easy, right?

Looking for a delicious cupcake recipe? Try this recipe for brownie cupcakes – it’s one of my favorites! Really…how can you go wrong with a brownie and a cupcake all in one?!

Print
Brownie Cupcakes
 

These are so easy to make and taste delicious!
Ingredients
  • 1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1 cup unsalted butter
  • 2 cups brown sugar (packed firmly)
  • 4 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 cup flour

Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly spray muffin tins or use paper liners (will make 18 cupcakes).
  2. Melt chocolate and butter together in microwave. Stir until mixed well.
  3. Stir in brown sugar until mixed well.
  4. Stir in eggs one at a time.
  5. Stir in vanilla.
  6. Stir in flour and mix until well combined.
  7. Pour into muffin tins and bake for 25 minutes.
  8. Cool completely before icing & decorating.

As a special surprise cupcake treat, I add one chocolate caramel cup to each cupcake when they first come out of the oven. Just push the caramel cup down into the middle of the cupcake until the top of the caramel cup is even with the top of the cupcake. Let these cool in the muffin tin before removing to cool on the rack (so that they continue to hold their shape after removing placing the caramel cup in them). The caramel cup adds to the awesome deliciousness of these Easter Bunny cupcakes!

What is your favorite Easter treat?

For more Easter fun, visit our Holiday Fun page and scroll down to the Easter section for loads of free printable games, activity ideas, party ideas and more!

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