Merry Christmas to all the wonderful teachers!

Merry Christmas to all the wonderful teachers out there who take time each day to teach and love our children. It's been pushed to the forefront of everyone's minds just how blessed we are to have wonderful teachers who love our children like we their parents do, and as a parent of a student I am very thankful for that.

 

 

Here's the Christmas Teacher gifts I made this year for my boy's teachers. It's super simple, I found some {cheap} plastic ornaments at Walmart in their craft section {Walmart is wonderful for their prices but fail in customer service! It took two sales representatives who couldn't find these clear ornaments, they then left me on my own. Luckily I happened to come across them when searching out another item on my shopping list...shiesh!} anyway, I just filled them with cocoa mix, some mini chocolate chips, some red candy pearls and mallow bits.

 

 

What you'll need:

• Clear plastic ornaments
• favorite hot cocoa mix {I'm not a coffee drinker but I LOVE Starbucks cocoa!}
• mini chocolate chips {not pictured....darn kids left the regular chocolate chips and made cookies with the minis!}
• Jet-Puffed Mallow Bits {I found these at Safeway near the marshmallows on the baking isle on the top shelf}
• red candy pearls
• funnel for getting all these goodies into your ornament

Remove the ornament hanger from the plastic ornament and wash ornament thoroughly. Set aside to dry fully.

 

Once dry, use the funnel to pour in the cocoa mix a little at a time until you have your desired amount. I filled these ornaments at least half full or more. *after each ingredient is added tap ornament on counter to get everything to settle in, you want it a little snug so things don't mix all together before you're able to give this fun gift*.

 

Still using the funnel pour in mini chocolate chips shaking ornament side to side gently to get it to spread to the edges. Repeat this step along with the pearls remembering to tap and shake as you go, then the mallow bits. I really packed the mallow bits in, tapping and shaking until not another one could be added.

 

Replace the ornament hanger {yes some bits will get crunched, that's the price that has to be paid}. Attach a label with instructions. With the cocoa I had, these were the directions I used:

 

Directions:

1) sift contents
2) mix 2 Tbsp. cocoa mix with 8 oz. warm/hot milk
3) sprinkle toppings if desired

 

Top it off with a wonderful bow and there you have it a great teacher gift!

 

Hope you enjoy making these as much as I did!

Rectangle Ornament

 

Bulb Ornament

 

Happy Crafting!

CHOCOLATE....yumm!

Woohoo for a new camera! It's nothing special just something to get us by until we can get a nice one, I'm just excited to get back to snapping some shots of the little ones.

Speaking of the little ones my youngest has a bathroom chart that he gets to put a sticker on if he uses the potty properly, if he does not then he has to remove a sticker. As a reward he gets to go out for ice cream once the chart is all filled up. E decided that instead of going out for ice cream he wanted me to buy some to share with his brothers and sister. I thought that that was kind of him to share his reward so I decided to make the experience a little bit more special. I've had a recipe for chocolate waffle iron cookies that I pull out once in a blue moon, I don't know why it's so seldom it's a super simple recipe and even the little kids can help out. Below is the recipe for these waffles along with a recipe for Chocolate Sauce that is

TO.DIE.FOR!

And again, super simple. Add some vanilla ice cream, chocolate sprinkles and a cherry on top and you've got it made! Your kids will think your the best.

Chocolaty Goodness!

Chocolate Sauce 

gather your ingredients: sugar, evaporated milk, cocoa powder, butter and vanilla extract.

•  1/4 cup butter or margarine
• 2 Tbsp. cocoa powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine butter, cocoa, sugar and milk in a saucepan and bring to a full boil for 5-6 minutes stirring continually. Remove from heat, add vanilla and serve or let cool, I don't like my chocolate sauce melting my ice cream....I know, I'm kinda weird like that.

 Yummm!

Chocolate Waffle Iron Cookies

gather your ingredients: butter, sugar, eggs, cocoa, flour and vanilla

• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tbsp. cocoa powder
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix the butter and sugar. Add eggs, cocoa, flour and vanilla. Mix well. Heat waffle iron. Using a cookie scoop drop dough onto each section, close cover and bake for 60 seconds or until waffle iron indicates it's done. Remove cookies to a cooling rack. Repeat until cookie dough is gone.

Don't they look tasty?

 Now time to put it all together! Gather the cookies, Ice cream (vanilla for me!), chocolate sauce, chocolate sprinkles (you can NEVER have too much chocolate!), and marciano cherries.

 Lay a cookie in a bowl, top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, some chocolate sauce, chocolate sprinkles and a cherry on top.

And THIS makes it all worth it!

Enjoy your super EASY, super FUN and super FAST dessert!

The Laundry Will Wait!