Baking Monday – Candy Bar Blondies

This isn't my first time recycling Halloween candy into baked goodies, but it is a new recipe. These bars had a mix of Baby Ruth and Butterfinger bars.

Easy to make, disappeared quickly!

(Not So) Spooky Halloween Pudding Cups

Elementary school in the fall means ... it's party time! The parent who planned this year's fall party sent out a suggestion to make these cute desserts for the second grade. 

I make little paper faces as a template. After dropping one into a cup, I stacked another cup inside to keep it straight, then traced with a Sharpie. This worked really well, especially when making them for a crowd!

While the dessert gets lots of oohs and aahs, guess what? Kids don't really like vanilla pudding (and I agree!) I tried to make it as yummy as possible by adding a top layer of chocolate pudding under the crushed Oreo cookies. But I'd say that 75% of the kids scooped off the top layer and the rest went in the trash. Which is kind of what I expected, so no worries.



Dora came up with suggestions for making faces on a chocolate version, like using stickers or googley eyes. My grade on these treats would be C for taste (unless vanilla pudding is totally your thing) but A for cuteness!

Blob Monsters!

One post-Halloween treat today! I made some eyeballs with leftover icing from the last batch of Halloween cookies. They didn't turn out great - stupid bleeding! But were perfectly creepy enough for some blob monsters. I was looking for a quick treat to bring to a pumpkin carving party and was inspired by these goodies. 

I went with my favorite mix - melting chocolate with a scoop of peanut butter, then added crushed pretzels and graham crackers. Instead of spreading into bark, I used a mini scoop to drop the blobs onto wax paper, then added eyeballs and sprinkles. Yummy!

Fall Bingo Game

If you have kids, you probably have some parties coming up next week! I made this game a few years ago and have used it many times for fall classroom parties. (Yes, there are a zillion fall bingo games out in interwebspace land, but of course I wanted to do my own thing.) It was designed to give the kids a bit of reading practice, so it's probably better suited for the older grades (2-5). 

Would you like a copy for your kid's classroom? Here you go! (Personal use only, please!)

Download fall bingo game here. 

Page one is the call markers to be trimmed, followed by 20 pages of boards. Print on card stock for extra reusability. I found it fun to give the kids a little cup of candy corn to use as markers (and to be eaten afterwards!) It also worked well to let several kids get bingo rather than clearing the board after each win. Enjoy!!

Halloween Printables!

It's been awhile since I've had something crafty to post, and I'm super excited about this one!

Grandma and I packed treat boxes for the great grandkids yesterday. We included this banner! The page was printed on card stock and trimmed. Rounding the corners is optional, I thought it looked cute. Punch holes in the top corners and string on one yard of ribbon. 

Would you like the printable? Here you go! (Personal use only, please!)

Download Halloween banner here.



We also wrapped mini Hershey bars! I love these! Print on letter stock and trim. Wrap around candy and tape the ends closed. 

Here you go, part 2! (Again, for personal use only!)

Download Halloween candy wrapper here. 

We made cards to go with the packages. Great sale at AC Moore ... a set of Halloween cling stamps and this wooden stamp were .85 total! Also found Halloween sticker books for .77 each.

Candy bars, banner, stickers and bags of candy corn were packaged in these adorable treat boxes (AC Moore - $1.99 / 5) ... could they BE any cuter? I had a lot of fun planning these and Grandma will like having something to give to the great grandkids next week. Happy Halloween!!

Halloween Craft and Bonus Bakery

Our chapter of Mothers & More has a group called Story Explorers, which is a little story, craft and snack time for the preschool set. I really enjoy planning it - we had a Halloween theme this month, so I got to read some favorites like Hallo-Wiener and The Ugly Pumpkin. I was challenged with coming up with a craft to go along with the stories, something 3-yo-friendly and that could use up the surplus of Halloween stickers that I seem to have over here. Wah-lah! Haunted house cards.



I used 1/2 sheets of orange card stock and cut roofs out of black construction paper to fit each one. Everyone got a supply of windows and doors to add to their houses and then embellish with friendly fall critters and creatures.



... and a not-so-scary greeting inside.



I also made a small batch of cinnamon pumpkin cookies. I've never made these before, and they were pretty yummy. It's this recipe with a few modifications: 1) I made pumpkins, not footballs, 2) replaced 1/2 cup white flour with whole wheat, 3) omitted the almonds and made cutouts instead, 4) swapped the icing for chocolate chip decoration, and 5) added a bit of food coloring to make them more orangey. Yum! I guess I'm having a little thing for cinnamon this week. (Move over almond, it's cinnamon's turn to shine.) The recipe came from the book Creative Cookies, which my mom bought for me forever ago, and is still one of my favorite go-to cookie books. (Hi, Mom!)