Christmas Popcorn Mix

I love to give handmade gifts, but often run out of time in the holiday season. Giving food gifts is a wonderful way to give inexpensive handmade gifts with much less time investment – you can easily make bulk items that you can give to many people in no more time than it takes to make one gift.

This year I made a homemade popcorn mix to give our neighbors, the mailman, the milkman, teachers at my son’s school and other friends. It is ridiculously addictive and super easy to make in a big batch.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Popcorn
Ingredients:
1-1/2 Cups Popcorn Kernels (yields about 9 cups popped)
2-16 oz packages of white chocolate chips melted
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (or bar chocolate – I used TJ’s)
Salt
Pretzels
Holiday M&Ms (I used a bag of peanut butter and a bag of pretzel)

Directions:
1. Pop your popcorn. Did you know you can make popcorn in the microwave with just a brown paper lunch bag? SO EASY! I don’t have a popper, so I used these instructions and made three batches.
2. Spread the popcorn out on baking sheets. Salt the popcorn and sprinkle the pretzels in.



3. Melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave or a double boiler.
4. Drizzle the white chocolate over the popcorn pretzel mix. Toss if needed to get even coverage.
5. Sprinkle the M&Ms over the white chocolate covered mixture.



6. Melt the peanut butter and chocolate chips together in the microwave or double boiler.
7. Drizzle melted peanut butter/chocolate mixture over the popcorn mix.



8. Let air dry and portion out into your container of choice!



Instead of just giving them in little baggies or plastic wrap, I used these cute little peppermint striped gabled boxes at Target. They are so cute and have little plastic windows to give a peek at the yummy contents. And the best part? They are from the Dollar Spot!


I tied them closed with some pre-printed ribbon I purchased from Pick Your Plum – no gift tag needed. Of course we may have taste tested a little bit too!


This made about 12-15 sandwich bags worth of goodies. If you want to give larger batches than these little boxes would fill, check out this cute bag from It Is What It Is.



Beth has this adorable subway print as a free download, which she also cut down to put on the front of a simple paper lunch sack. So cute!

Linking to:

 

Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites & a Guest Post!

You can find me (and a couple free downloads!) over at The CSI Project today posting about Cookie Exchanges! We had our cookie exchange last week and I made these delicious Nutella and Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites!

I followed the recipe from Buns in My Oven, but added my own little twist. I swirled half a cup of Nutella (because everything is better with Nutella) in with the peanut butter mixture. Then after I dunked the pretzel sandwiches in melted dark chocolate, I sprinkled a little sea salt on some of them before the chocolate dried. YUM!!

Make sure to head over to The CSI Project today!!

Cheesecake Bites

Yes, I’m back with more cheesecake ideas!  I’m not sure what my obsession is these days – apparently I have cheesecake on the brain!  These are literally bite-sized versions of the lovely dessert.  Perfect for avoiding guilt when you pop one in your mouth!

1. Chocolate Covered Cheesecake Bites from This Chick Cooks.
2. Oreo Cheesecake Bites from Mel’s Kitchen Café.

3. Chocolate Coconut Cheesecake Squares from Martha.
4. Oreo Cheesecake Pretzel Bites from Picky Palate.

What do you think of these bite-sized cuties?  I think the pretzel bites are on the top of my list - I’m a sucker for salty/sweet treats! In fact they might be yummy for a cookie exchange I have coming up next week.  Hmmmm....


If you are a cheesecake fan, check out our post on mini cheesecakes and cheesecakes in a jar!

Holiday Food Gifts

Speaking of food gifts (check out my jarred gifts here), I’m hoping to make some lovely food gifts for friends this year. They are the perfect gift for teachers, coworkers and neighbors. Why not make them in a large batch and knock out a bunch of handmade gifts at once? Here are some unique ones that I’m interested in this year!



1. Salted Caramel Sauce from Betty Crockerass.
2. Lovely Salted Caramel Sauce from Always with Butter.




3. Spiced Glazed Nuts and Pretzels from David Lebovitz.
4. Chocolate Covered Almonds from Super Healthy Kids.
5. Cinnamon Almonds from One Charming Party.
6. Candied Pecans from Baked Bree.



7. Homemade Coffee Marshmallows from Prudent Baby.
8. Candy Cane Marshmallows ala Martha.
9. Vanilla Bean Marshmallows from Baked Bree.



10. Cookie Dough Gift from Our Best Bites.
11. Christmas Cookie Dough Gift from Garnish.


Do you make food gifts for the holidays? What is your favorite?

Turkey Treats

If you think about it, the turkey is not the cutest animal out there.  It’s not even the cutest bird in my book. But these cute gobblers in today’s roundup would beg to differ! Add one of these little guys to your Thanksgiving festivities to add a fun touch!

1. Turkey Veggie Tray from Mom Endeavors.
2. Turkey Cheese Ball Appetizer from Gluesticks.
3. Gobble Gobble Turkey Cups from Sips Etc.

4. Turkey Cookies from Just Lovely.
5. Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Turkeys from gimme some oven.
6. Oreo Turkeys from Sweet Treats and Good Eats.


Can you believe Thanksgiving is tomorrow? I admit, I haven’t thought much about Turkey Day. We are traveling to be with my new nephew for a few days over the holiday, and I’m more excited about seeing him than eating my favorite meal of the year! Yet something about these cute little turkeys in today’s roundup are getting me excited about the holiday again!


Have a fantastic Thanksgiving!!!

Thanksgiving Desserts (without the Pie!)

I think I’ve mentioned before (and surprisingly you didn’t hold it against me) that I don’t like pie. Don’t get me wrong – I’m a HUGE dessert fan! Just something about pie is just, well, not worth the calories to me if I’m going to invest in dessert! That also means that I don’t have a clue how to make a decent pie, and I’m not really interested in giving it a shot. It’s hard to convince yourself to invest the time if you aren’t going to invest the calories. :)

We are headed out of town to stay with our sis and brother in law and their new baby (yay!!) so I’m planning to cook us a Thanksgiving dinner that is low key, since inevitably we’ll all be distracted by the newborn or my three year old! So I’ve been hunting down the perfect dessert recipe for Thanksgiving, and I thought I’d share some that appeal to me here, just in case you have some anti-pie folks at your Thanksgiving table too!


1. Fast and Easy Caramel Apple Trifle by Bakers Royale (you had me at fast and easy!)
2. Rustic Caramel Apple Tart from Honest to Nod (absolutely gorgeous, isn’t it?).

3. Cardamom Honey Pears from Not Without Salt (speaking of gorgeous!)
4. Pumpkin Cheesecake Truffles from Wayward Girls Crafts. (Chocolate? I’m in!)

Picky Palate has a ton of fantastic options!


1. Gooey Pumpkin Butterscotch Brownies
2. Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Cinnamon Sugar Cream Cheese Icing
3. Cream Cheese and Butterscotch Pumpkin Pies with Gingersnap Streusel Topping  (I know, I know - these are just mini-pies! To be fair, she recommends frozen pie crust and they are topped with streusel - and are cute little minis!)

So all you anti-pie people out there, rejoice! You won’t be left out when it comes to Thanksgiving dessert this year!

Pumpkin Seeds

Thanks to our unusually busy social calendar this coming weekend, I’m not going to be able to have our much loved pumpkin carving party again this year! But that won’t stop me from doing a little carving with the little guy.  And what better to serve at a pumpkin carving party (whether it is party of 3 or 10) than roasted pumpkin seeds! Here are some fun recipes!
Sweet Recipes

1. Caramelized Pumpkin Seeds from Cooking with My Kid.
2. Cinnasweet Pumpkin Seeds from With a Shot of Brandy.
3. Maple Spice Pumpkin Seeds from The Bird’s Papaya.
Spicy Recipes

4. Taco Pumpkin Seeds Recipe from Taste of Home.
5. Spicy Pumpkin Seeds from Martha.
6. Fiery Pumpkin Seeds from Taste of Home.
Savory Recipes

7. Roasted Pumpkin Seeds from The Girl Who Ate Everything.
8. Maryland Style Pumpkin Seeds from Cherry Tea Cakes.
Or if you can’t decide, serve Pumpkin Seeds Three Ways from 101 Cookbooks!
Finally, if you are having a Halloween party (or a Halloween baby shower like this one!) package up the pumpkin seeds in cute little favor bags like these from Hopscotch Studios featured at Bump Smitten!



If you need some more pumpkin seed recipes, check out this post!


So do you throw or attend a pumpkin carving party before Halloween?