Fruit Roll-Up Fortune Cookie Valentines

I've posted a few Valentine's Day gifts for him and her... but what about the kiddos?? I'm sure you would want to let your little ones know how special they are to you and what better way than to secretly include a fortune "cookie" in their lunch with a little note, just from you! I found this post on SheKnows and wanted to give you a few tips before tackling this project:

First, get your supplies together:

1. Parchment paper
2. A DARK marker (you'll see why later)
3. Fruit Roll-Ups
4. Scissors
5. A round cookie cutter or something to trace around with a knife (I used the top of my Women's One-a-Day Vitamins jar)

First, write your messages. Cut strips of parchment paper to put inside the fruit roll-ups (mine measured to be roughly 1 3/4" x 1/2"). Draw a heart and write a message - my marker was pink and barely showed up on the paper, so keep that in mind when writing your notes.

Next, the original post suggests laying four Fruit Roll-Ups on top of each other before cutting them out with your cookie cutter/tracing the circles out, but I recommend three layers (it's not as thick and bulky but I encourage experimenting!). Note that my Fruit Roll-Ups were multiple colors so I divided them into green/red and yellow/red circles.

Once your circles are ready, lay your message down and bring the top and bottom together. I found it helped to pinch all around the edges before bending the center in to make it look like a fortune cookie.

Note: if you choose to only do 1 layer of Fruit Roll-Up per fortune...

Chances are you'll be able to see right through. Also, I found it doesn't stick together very well.

Bend it in the middle and you're done! Your kid will have a fun treat at lunch and know just how much you love them without being embarrassed in front of all their friends!

TOTAL COSTS: $6 to make as many as you can!
$3.99 for Fruit Roll-Ups
$3.99 for parchment paper from Target
Scissors and marker already on hand

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: About 45 minutes
15 minutes to make the fortunes
30 minutes to cut out and form the "cookies"

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5
It helps there aren't a lot of steps to take to make these adorable treats for your little ones. Be creative and Happy Valentine's Day!

Red Velvet Cookies with White Chocolate Chips

Valentine's Day is just a week away and maybe the way into your significant other's heart is through their stomach... or maybe you're celebrating Single's Awareness Day and want to treat yourself! Either way, I highly recommend making these red velvet cookies with white chocolate chips (I just starting writing and I've already had 3... and I don't even like white chocolate!). The recipe comes to us from this post by The Recipe Critic.

Now check your cupboards because this calls for a lot of ingredients:

Not pictured: sugar and eggs

* 2 1/4 C of flour
* 2 1/2 T of cocoa powder
* 1 1/2 t of cornstarch
* 3/4 t of baking soda
* 1/2 t of salt
* 8 T of butter (or 1 stick)
* 6 T of vegetable shortening (Crisco)
* 1 1/2 C of sugar
* 1 egg and 1 egg yolk
* 1 1/2 t of white vinegar
* 1 1/2 t of vanilla extract
* 1 T of red food coloring (I used 1/2 T)
* 1 1/3 C of white chocolate chips (divided)
* Parchment paper

Whew! Ok, once you have all your ingredients, preheat your oven to 375 and mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl - the flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. The salt is going to give it a nice added flavor, you wouldn't expect it. And try to get all the clumps out of the cocoa powder... I didn't do a thorough job and some of the clumps ended up burning in the oven!

Next, in your mixer combine the butter and vegetable shortening until it's fluffy. Then add in the egg and the egg yolk until they're combined.

Finally, add in the rest of the wet ingredients - the vinegar, vanilla, and food coloring. I only had enough red food coloring for 1/2 Tablespoon and at first I was afraid I was going to end up with pink cookies. However, the color changes in the next step!

Mixer is red - the ingredients looked might pink!

Next, add your dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Once they're combined, mix in 1/2 C of white chocolate chips. Now here's where I made a mistake: I didn't think 1/2 C was enough, so I added in 1 C of chocolate chips and didn't have any extra chips. Ideally, you want to set aside some chocolate chips to put on top of the cookie dough balls before placing in the oven, but that's entirely up to you.

Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper and start to add your cookie dough balls. I've found the best method for scooping out cookie dough comes from my mother - get a glass of water, dip a big spoon into the water, then scoop out some cookie dough and place it on the sheet. Dip the spoon back in the water, and then scoop out another spoonful. By dipping the spoon in the water, you're less likely to have any clumps of dough on your spoon and you don't have to use your finger to get any off!

At this point, grab 5 chocolate chips and place them on top of each mound of cookie dough. I did this for some but not all.. I was getting hungry, what can I say? Put them in the oven for 8-9 minutes (10 minutes burned the bottom of some but again, that was partly the cocoa powder's fault), then let them cool on a rack before stuffing your face.

How pretty some might turn out:

And how realistic some might turn out:

Either way, I can assure you they're delicious and they all look the same once they're in your stomach! Enjoy!

TOTAL COSTS: Free! 

However, I had all the ingredients on hand already

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: A little over an hour to make 3 dozen cookies

40 minutes to make the dough

8-9 minutes in the oven/batch

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5

Pretty straight forward, wouldn't you say? This would be a cute activity to do with your little ones on these snow days!

DIY Toilet Tablets

I came across these DIY toilet tablets that I thought would come in handy - they're easy to make, they supposedly clean and remove odors in toilets, and no one will ever know you used one. This recipe comes courtesy of SavvySugar. The question is - do they work?

First you'll need:

*1 C of baking soda
*1/4 C of citric acid OR powdered preservative (which is what I used - it was easier to find)
*1/2 t of vinegar
*1 T of hydrogen peroxide
*Essential oil (to make it smell nice - I used peppermint)
*Parchment paper
*Cookie sheets or a hard surface out of the way
*Measuring spoons (yes, those are Mickey Mouse spoons, don't judge)
*Spray bottle (optional but recommended)

First, combine your baking soda and citric acid/powdered preservative in a bowl and mix them together with a fork, to remove any clumps.

Next, combine your vinegar and hydrogen peroxide in a glass and very VERY slowly add to the dry mixture. It doesn't have to be one drop at a time but constantly stir and slowly add the liquid until clumps start to form.

Then add your essential oils - I did about 15 drops and I think the peppermint permeated my nostrils because I can't stop smelling it!

Take your parchment paper and your cookie sheets (or hard surface) and place down enough parchment paper to hold all the tablets you'll be making. The original post says it makes 30 tablets but I made 112!

Finally, grab your 1/2 teaspoon, put some of the mixture in the spoon, and very gently tap it onto the parchment paper. You'll want to be very gentle so the mold holds and doesn't crack or crumble.

Spray equal parts vinegar and water onto the finished tablets (I used 1/3C of each and found it was way too much - had to toss most of it down the sink) and set them aside to dry.

The original post said to let them dry between 4 hours and overnight.

But since "patience" is not my middle name, I only waited 5 hours before giving them a try. They do fizz a little and they look a bit yellow in the water but they didn't smell up the toilet like I thought they would. When they're not in water, these smell freakin' amazing so keep them away from children, pets, and very hungry roommates! Please clearly label the jar you put them in and keep them out of harm's way. But in the toilet? You're definitely going to have to put in more than 1 to do any sort of damage.

TOTAL COSTS: About $15 to make at least 112
$2.99 for parchment paper from Target

$1.59 for baking soda

$1.99 for 32 fl. oz of hydrogen peroxide

$6.29 for Ball produce protector

$2.82 vinegar

Cookie sheets, measuring spoons/cups, and spray bottle on hand

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 5 hours, 41 minutes
13 minutes to combine ingredients
28 minutes to make 112
5 hours to dry (though some were still crumbling so overnight might be your best bet)

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 2 out of 5
You might have difficulty making the tablets, as they can crumble if you hit them against the parchment paper too hard but other than that, they're very easy to make. Now whether they work? That's a different story...

Tea Bag Cookies - Perfect for a Sherlock Holmes or Downton Abbey Party!

Everyone is hooked on "Sherlock Holmes" or "Downton Abbey" (we're a "Poirot" family, ourselves) so what better way to enjoy the shows than by enjoying some tea bag cookies! These would also be great for a wedding shower, a tea party, Mother's or Father's Day, etc. I found these on FrostMeBlog but incorporated the recipe from Food Network. And yes, it takes three sticks of butter! I was able to make 45 cookies but I think you could probably make 60 (I just put the remaining dough in the fridge for another time).

If you watch the video of Barefoot Contessa making these, there are three things she says to do that I didn't and they still came out great:

1. The butter doesn't have to be room temperature. I took the sticks out of the fridge and straight into the mixing bowl.

2. I didn't separately mix the flour and salt and then add that to the butter mixture. I poured the flour straight into the mixer because I didn't want to dirty another bowl!

3. You don't need 6-7 ounces of semisweet chocolate - I was able to do it with 4 ounces.

Once you've made your dough, wrap it in plastic wrap and stick in the fridge. While it's chilling for 30 minutes, that's a perfect time to make your tea bag template. I just eyeballed it, using a corner of a piece of paper for the straight edges. Cut it out and then transferred it to a piece of wax paper. You really don't have to cut out more than one because you can use it over and over again.

Take the dough out and roll it out 1/2" thick using a rolling pin. Note: put flour on the rolling pin before rolling out the dough! Otherwise, the dough will stick to the pin and make a mess. Trust me on this one...

Once it's rolled out, take the wax paper template and cut the tea bags. You can use a knife, a pizza cutter, whatever's easiest for you. As I said, you can probably make 60 cookies with how much dough you're going to make. Cut out the tea bags and place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Once all the cookies are on the parchment paper, take a frosting tip or a toothpick and cut out holes at the top of the tea bags. Make sure you do this before you put the cookies in the oven, otherwise you won't be able to string through your tea bag tags.

Put the cookies in the oven for 18-20 minutes. The recipe says for 20-25 minutes but I found that around 18 minutes, they were definitely brown on the bottom.

But while the cookies are in the oven, get your chocolate ready. As I said, I just used 1 box of Baker's Semi-Sweet Chocolate (4 oz) and had enough to cover 43 cookies. Make sure you chop up 2oz. first, put them in the microwave for 30 seconds, chop up the other 2oz., put that in the bowl, and microwave again for another 30 seconds. That way, you won't burn the chocolate.

I gave the cookies about 3 minutes to cool before dipping them in the chocolate. Once all the cookies were covered, I put them in the fridge for 15 minutes, just so the chocolate could harden faster.

If you want to add a string and teabag tag, you certainly can, but I was too hungry to make too many! Enjoy your tea bag cookies! Cheerio!

TOTAL COSTS: $2.99 for Baker's chocolate
Butter, sugar, vanilla, flour, and salt already on hand
Baker's chocolate - $2.99 at Vons

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: About 2 hours
15 minutes to make the dough
30 minutes to let the dough chill
30 minutes to cut out 40 cookies
18 minutes in the oven
3 minutes to cool
10 minutes to dip all the cookies in chocolate
15 minutes to chill chocolate in fridge

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 2 out of 5
The two things that might make things difficult for you are 1.) melting the chocolate and 2.) making sure the cookies don't burn in your oven. Keep an eye on both, though, and you should be fine!

Peppermint Trays

Today's post comes from an old friend who said she had a Pinfail after trying these... well, I love tackling difficult Pinterest posts so I was happy to give this one a try! Here's what you'll need:

* Mints
* Parchment paper
* Cake pan
* An oven

The first time I tried this, I used 30 mints and made sure the parchment paper went up on the sides of the cake pan, just like the original post by MrsHappyHomemaker. You can do this while your oven is preheating and if your oven is as slow as mine, you'll finish cutting the paper and arranging the mints just as the oven is ready!

The post says a vague "7-10 minutes" in the oven, I suppose because every oven is different. My oven's magic number was 8 minutes. Here's how it went down (sorry for my dirty oven window):

As soon as I put them in - 8 minutes left

4 minutes left - they started to melt

2 minutes left - holes are becoming smaller!

After 8 minutes, I took them out of the oven

I waited 4 minutes before grabbing the paper and taking it out of the cake pan. I waited 3 more minutes and removed the parchment paper but be warned - it's HOT!

I thought it was kinda oddly shaped... more of a hexagon than a circle because the parchment paper wasn't flush with the edges, so I tried again.

This time, I used 35 mints and I didn't have parchment touching the sides of the cake pan:

I kept a watchful eye on the pan again and this time, found it took 8 minutes, 36 seconds to be completely done.

Be careful you don't leave the mints in the oven for too long or they'll start to bubble like this. I suppose you can always flip it over and no one will be the wiser!

Here's how they turned out: the tray on the tray on the top was the first time (with 30 mints and parchment paper on sides of pan) and the bottom was the second time (with 35 mints and parchment paper just covering bottom of pan):

You know I had to make a mistake so here it is - wait until the trays are completely cooled down before putting anything on them! Otherwise, your goodies may melt...

TOTAL COSTS: About $6 to make multiple trays
$3 for 2 packs of peppermints from Vons
$2.99 for parchment paper from Target

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: About 35 minutes
7 minutes to preheat oven and arrange mints
8 minutes in oven
20 minutes to cool

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 2 out of 5
If you like to multitask, this may be problematic because you really need to keep an eye on those mints in the final 2-3 minutes, just to make sure they don't burn or bubble up. Otherwise, if you don't mind waiting, it's a piece 'o cake!