Cool kitchen fun with my munchkins!

What do you think of our Penguin Pops? :)

I LOVE it when ideas work!

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, Hannah's been choosing our Friday evening meals. (Pretty much) anything she'd like from my Simple and Delicious or Taste of Home magazines--including both main meal and dessert. For dessert this week she chose these cute little critters:

Cute, but they require circus peanut candies, Nutter Butter cookies, and green candy melts. As a general rule, we try to avoid significant amounts of food coloring, and I don't overly care for either circus peanut candies or Nutter Butters. So we compromised with Mommy's idea for Penguin Pops, which could be made entirely with ingredients I already had on hand (minus the Oreos, which I'm never loof to purchase.)

We had a lot of fun, and the project is just right for the 5-7 age range (plus or minus a few years). :) Two year olds can "help" Mommy. ;)

Step 1 Ingredients:

• Cool Mint Oreos (any round sandwich cookie would work ... I just happen to be very fond of Cool Mint Oreos.) ;)
• Vanilla almond bark (approximately 1/2 block per cookie pop)
• Lollipop sticks

1. Melt the almond bark in a large mug. (Microwave for 30 seconds, stir; repeat until smooth.)
2. Twist apart the cookie. Dip the lollipop stick in almond bark, place on cookie half, and replace cookie top. Refrigerate for about ten minutes until set.

 3. Dip cookie pops in white chocolate.

4. Place cookie pops in foam blocks and refrigerate for about an hour until firm.

Couple notes about the foam blocks:

• Punch the holes BEFORE you're trying to stick a just-dipped cookie pop into the block. It just works better that way.
• Cookie pops are top-heavy. Foam is not heavy. Secure foam prior to carrying top-heavy cookie pops to fridge. (Not that I speak from experience or anything ... eh-hem...)

Step 2 Ingredients:

• Sweet helpers! :)
• Cookie pops from step 1
• Butterscotch chips
• Chocolate chips
• Chocolate almond bark, melted (approximately 1/3 block per cookie pop)
• Small amount of remaining vanilla almond bark, remelted

5. Dip chocolate and butterscotch chips in vanilla almond bark and arrange on cookie pops to form the penguin's eyes and nose.

6. Dip the sides and back of cookie pop into chocolate almond bark to create the penguins wings. Matthew "helped" Mommy with this part ... ;)

7. Enjoy your cute creations (and your cute helpers!)