Simple, Sanity-Saving Valentines Treats!

Time Time Time...busy lives leave little time for extras.  While we have never been huge, over-the-top valentines celebrators at our house, a little something special can be nice.  Yet, if your house is anything like ours, we've finally cleaned up from Christmas, thrown in a couple snow days, trying to get the household back on track for the 3rd quarter of school, and here comes valentines.  Part of me wants to do something fancy, creative, and nice, and part of me is just grateful my kids chose pre-packaged candy baggies to stick their names on and hand out at school!  So, how do I manage some simple fun moments to make the day a bit fun and special for us all, without driving my sanity over the edge?

Stacy and I recently got together for a work weekend, and in the process, were having this very conversation.  We started brainstorming, and searching our pinterest favorites, and this is what we came up with:

Breakfast Hearts
These super simple, make-use-of-packaged-goods, heart cinnamon rolls will delight anyone, kids to adult!  They are easy to pull out and simply require some minor arranging and a tiny bit of pre-planning. I (Stacy) had my 10 year old help with these, and we were able to get them done for breakfast on a school morning! Simply grab a package of your favorite refrigerated cinammon rolls (we used Pillsbury) and you are ready to go. Unroll the rolls, into strips (depending on the brand you buy, you may need to cut them, follow where they are scored and it's pretty easy). Then curve each of your cut ends back to the center point and you have a heart! Cook and frost according to package directions, and enjoy!


Red-Velvet Rice Krispie Treats

Ok, who doesn't love rice krispie treats?  This one can be made a day ahead, so you can "magically produce" them to the delight of others.  Or, involve the kids to help make them for a nice "together time" activity.  Rice krispie treats require some cooking, but not super extensive. Basically, these are your standard treats, with the addition of a boxed red velvet cake mix. Here is the recipe we used (yay Pinterest) with some modification.... We used regular Rice Krispies, instead of cocoa, as they weren't on the shelf at our local grocery- the cake mix provided plenty of chocolate flavoring and I couldn't taste the difference at all. At the request of my 7 year old assistant (who only needed me to help with stirring) we substituted peppermint extract for vanilla - they have a nice chocolate mint flavor and were a big hit with children and adults alike! Of note... based on our experience, I recommend letting the marshmallows begin to melt before adding the cake mix. Once you add the mix, you end up with a play-doh like consistency- that's OK, you can still fold the cereal in with a plastic spatula. And finally, as I REALLY dislike cutting Rice Krispie treats, we simply pressed the mixture into mini and regular muffin pans. They easily pop out when cooled with no pre-greasing!!


Dark Chocolate Stuffed Raspberries
It really doesn't get any easier than this!  I (Christine) saw this idea on pinterest, and for something so simple and quick, it has a lot of "Oooohhhh" "Wow" factor, and tastes great!  Buy raspberries; stuff an upside-down dark chocolate chip in it and voila!  Done!  One note, (ie-discovery) ...when I bought my raspberries, the store had these lovely, really large berries.  I figured that while they would taste and look great, a standard chocolate chip would likely be too small to fill them.  So my plan was that I would melt my dark chocolate chips, pour it into a zip-lock, cut the corner off, and then pipe the chocolate into the raspberries to fill them - which you can do if inspired.  However, when I opened the dark chocolate chips, I discovered that these dark chips were significantly larger-based than standard semi-sweet chips!  And they fit perfectly into the large berries!!  I do not know if this is consistent across brands (I may need to do a dark chocolate sampling experiment - hmmm),
however, it is something to keep in mind when choosing your berries and chocolates.  Larger berries can accommodate the larger-based chips, where smaller berries might work better with smaller-based semi-sweet chips.  This one is so simple, it even falls into the middle-of-the-day "Me" snack/treat.
Which is good, as I've already eaten all the ones I made for this post!

Edible Strawberry Roses
Ok, stay with me on this one...it looks fancy, and challenging.  It's Not!  This one really is not very hard, but definitely has that "I'm a rockin', awesome chef" look!  How To:  Take a nice, pointed strawberry.  Cut off the leaves (if you're putting them on skewers like I did, otherwise leave leaves on).  Starting at the lower half of the berry,  using a sharp knife gently slice flat sections down, (not cutting all the way through - leave the bottom part attached).  I got about 4 around the bottom.  Then move up a bit on the berry and repeat slicing sections (again about 4).  It looks a bit more realistic to off-set the petals, so on the second row, slice your sections above the gap in the lower row's petals.  At the top, I often made a criss-cross (two slices like a cross on the very top of the berry).  Then stick in skewer (or left-over chop sticks, like I used) and use the knife to gently separate and spread the "petals".  That's it!

Some berries did work better than others (pointier berries get a better shape), and it's a bit trial and error, but very doable.  If you cut too far, your petals will flop too far open, but the whole process took only a few minutes, so it's easy to do a few extra.   There is a great picture tutorial HERE I found if you need some in-action pics.


Cheers and Happy Valentines,
Christine and Stacy