Candy-Covered Chocolate-Dipped Pretzel Rods

I wasn’t planning on blogging today, as I’ve got a busy morning, but then I opened up my email and learned that it is National Pretzel Day.  And I just happened to have a pretzel recipe on my “ready to blog about” list.  I couldn’t let this opportunity pass by!  These are the food gifts I gave out to all of our family members last Christmas (hence the Christmas trees and red and green M&Ms, oh yeah, and the candy canes!).  They are really easy and really fun to make.  It’s something I found on Pinterest.  The idea and method came from The Baker Chick; I added specific ingredient quantities.

Candy-Covered Chocolate-Dipped Pretzel Rods

Ingredients:
1 (12 oz.) bag semi-sweet chocolate chips 
1 tbsp shortening
Chopped candy toppings 
15 pretzel rods
White chocolate melts

Directions:
Prepare a cookie sheet or two with covered wax or parchment paper.

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt chocolate and shortening for 60 seconds. Remove and stir, and then warm in microwave for 15 second increments until it is smooth.

Start dipping the pretzels right away. Use a spoon to bring the chocolate up to where you want.  Set rods on the cookie sheet.

Dip about 5-10 pretzels and then start placing the toppings on. You will have to do this by hand because if you try to roll or sprinkle them on it really won’t work and will end up with a sticky candy-glob mess.

Arrange the candy bits on each pretzel rod. (You have a good 5-7 minute window where the chocolate will still be soft enough to press the toppings in.)

If the melted chocolate in the bowl has started to harden, just give it 15 more seconds to get it back to its nice melty-state.

Repeat with the rest of the toppings.

Place tray in the freezer for about 5-10 minutes until chocolate has hardened.

Melt white chocolate (the same way you melted the chips) and place in a plastic baggie.  Cut off a tiny bit of one corner and drizzle over the pretzels.

Place them back into the freezer to harden and then wrap, eat, enjoy!

Makes 15 pretzels.

I didn’t get a picture of the white-chocolate drizzled ones, but they turned out well too.

I used mini M&Ms instead of regular and I thought that worked well.  The third one up there is Heath Bits.  Yum!  They were easy because you can buy bags of those already chopped up in the baking aisle.

Even though I am a total control freak in the kitchen, the holiday spirit got to me and I let my three-year-old daughter, Lena, help me make these.  As you can see, at this point she had already sampled the chocolate!

Easter Goldfish Carrots

Here’s a cute Easter snack idea for you.  I made these for my daughter’s preschool class last week.  I got the idea from Pinterest, originating from the blog Loralee Lewis.  She used icing decorator bags for hers.  I was going to do the same thing, but I couldn’t find bags that didn’t have a huge Wilton logo on them.  Does Wilton have a monopoly on decorator bags, because all I could find were Wilton!  So I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, when one of my bloggy friends, Debi from Recipes for My Boys, posted a similar idea using quart sized Ziploc bags instead.  It wasn’t until I read her post that I realized that the Wilton bags would be way too big anyway.  The quart sized bags would be just perfect and a lot cheaper!  They don’t turn out quite as long and skinny as the decorator bags, but hey, there are short, fat carrots too!

Here’s how I made them.

Get some cheap dollar store zipper bags.  Don’t get Ziploc brand because they have a logo on them too.

 Lay out the bag.

 Cut the zipper off on a diagonal line.

 Fill with Goldfish crackers.  I bought the giant box (30 oz.) of Goldfish crackers and I got about 12 little bags out of it.

 Twist the top.

 Cut out 11″ lengths of green ribbon.

 Tie the tops with green ribbon.

 These are really simple to make and are perfect for stuffing into Easter baskets.  It’s kind of refreshing to have an Easter treat that isn’t loaded with sugar!

HAPPY EASTER, EVERYONE!

Fruit and Oat Cereal Bars

Now that my daughter is in preschool, I have a new culinary responsibility: preschool snacks.  These bars are what I made for the first time I took snacks to preschool.  They are a variation of a Martha Stewart recipe I saw somewhere.  They have the same basic idea as Rice Krispy treats, except that they are made with Cheerios and contain dried fruit.  I also added sliced almonds to mine. Online cooking schools
are available for those of you who also love cooking yummy things like
these cereal bars.

Fruit and Oat Cereal Bars


Ingredients:
Nonstick cooking spray
2 tbsp butter
1 bag (10 oz.) marshmallows
Dash of salt
6 cups toasted oat cereal
1 cup dried fruit
½ cup sliced almonds


Directions:
Spray a rimmed baking sheet with waxed paper; spray paper with cooking spray, and set aside.


In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add marshmallows and salt; cook, stirring occasionally, until marshmallows have melted, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in cereal, dried fruit, and almonds.


Immediately transfer mixture to prepared baking sheet. Using a spatula (or your fingers) coated with cooking spray, press in quickly and firmly. Let cool, about 1 hour; cut into 24 bars (3 rows lengthwise by 8 rows crosswise).


Makes 24 servings.

Is it just me, or does using Cheerios instead of Rice Krispies make it healthier?  I think oat cereal is healthier than rice cereal.  Anyway, these are really good and the preschool teacher reported that the kids liked them. Yay!

The great thing about these bars is that you can use any kind of dried fruit you have on hand.  The original recipe called for dried cranberries, and while I love dried cranberries and I’m sure that would be really good,  I had some dried apricots in my pantry that I had no use for and needed to use up.  I really liked the little bits of chewiness they provided.  I added the sliced almonds for a little extra crunch.

This is a good recipe to know.  Cereal, marshmallows, and some kind of dried fruit (even raisins) are pretty standard pantry staples, so you can easily throw something together in case, at 9:00 at night, you suddenly remember that you are supposed to bring snacks the next day.  I’m sure that will happen to me at some point!

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Roasted Chickpeas

This is something I saw on a blog a while back and headed right to the kitchen to make! Super easy snack.

Roasted Chickpeas

Ingredients:

1 can chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans)

Olive oil

Salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425°.

Drain and rinse chickpeas. Spread out on a kitchen towel and pat dry. Place chickpeas on a baking sheet, drizzle with oil, and sprinkle with salt.

Bake about 40 minutes, stirring once or twice.

Makes 4 servings (as a snack).

Not much to say about it, except make sure they are really dry before drizzling the oil on them. They won’t get crispy if they aren’t completely dry.

Oh, and you can add any kind of spices to these to make them a little more interesting (although they are pretty darn tasty on their own!). I saw a recipe for roasted chickpeas with Moroccan spices that sounds pretty good. Maybe I’ll try that next time.

Apparently they sell these as street food in Mediterranean countries.

And even though I put 4 servings, Jim and I ate nearly one whole can by ourselves. 🙂

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Banana Sticks

This is another Rachael Ray recipe that I tried recently. She made it as part of a breakfast meal, but I think it makes a great afternoon snack. Kids would love it.

Peanut Butter Banana Sticks

Ingredients:

½ cup peanut butter

2 tbsp honey

1 cup granola

2 large bananas

4 popsicle sticks or chop sticks

Directions:

Place the peanut butter in a shallow dish and microwave on high for 20 seconds to loosen it, then stir honey into it. Crush granola either by using a food processor or by placing in a Ziploc bag and smashing with the back of a large spoon. Peel and cut each banana in half across the middle. Insert a popsicle or chop stick into the cut end of each half-banana. Roll each banana half in the peanut butter sauce, then in the granola. Serve immediately. Eat the bananas right off the sticks, but serve on a plate to catch the crumbs.

Makes 4 servings.

This is so simple and super yummy. The only thing I changed was the method of coating the bananas. Rachael had you spreading the peanut butter/honey mixture on with a spatula, then sprinkling with the granola. I think rolling it works much better and you get better coverage. Hers were only covered on one side.