5 Easy Valentine Treats

No pun intended, but I LOVE Valentine’s Day!  It’s my absolute favorite holiday – an entire day to celebrate the people you love, why not?!  It’s not that I always had elaborate celebrations of this day growing up – in high school and college I didn’t date much, but even when single, I loved this holiday.

Now that I have children to celebrate, I enjoy it even more.  It’s so much fun to watch them celebrate their friends, create Valentine’s for people they love and, of course, make treats!  I have five very easy treats to share with you, and I do mean easy, because if there’s anything to love about children, it’s that they find magic in even the smallest things!

1. Dress up any snack in a muffin cup.  We have a handful of these and happen to still have a few laying around from last Valentine’s Day.  Drop pretty much anything into a pink, purple or heart-covered muffin cup and voila!, you’ve celebrated.  Bonus points if you give them a red or pink treat!  See how easy that was?

2. Valentine waffles.  Literally just regular waffles with whipped cream and heart sprinkles.  Strawberries are pretty much made for this holiday – you can easily slice them into hearts by cutting an indent into the top of the berry before slicing.

3. Heart-shaped rice krispie treats.  You can definitely make the regular color and cut them into hearts, but, if you want to dress them up a bit it’s more than easy.  Use the classic recipe (usually on the side of the box), then once the marshmallows are melted, add food coloring before mixing in the cereal.  Once they’ve set, use cookie cutters to make them look fancy.  I like mine plain, but you can add almond bark coating and sprinkles for a bit more sparkle.

4. Sugar cookies.  Self explanatory.  Either make your own or buy plain cookies from a bakery and let your kids dress them up with frosting and sprinkles.

5. White chocolate popcorn. This is really yummy and easy to pack up for a friend as a small gift.  Pick up some Wilton chocolate melts at Michael’s, a big bag of popcorn, sprinkles and if you’d like, some m&ms.

Because I make this with the help of my kids, I limit the amount of candies and sprinkles they have access to so things can’t get out of hand. 🙂

Let them rip into the bag and dump the chocolate into a microwave-safe bowl.  Melt the chocolate in increments of 30 seconds until you can stir it smooth.

Pour over the popcorn and fold it in until it’s evenly coated.

Add the sprinkles and candy while the popcorn is still in the bowl, then pour onto parchment paper to allow it to set.  Add more sprinkles as needed.

You can easily pack this up for your kids to bring over to a friend’s home or to a teacher as a Valentine gift.  Wrap into a plastic bag first, then decorate with ribbon or place into a burlap bag like this ($1 at the craft store).

Happy Valentine’s Day!  Yes, these are all treats full of sugar, but, at least in our home, that’s just fine for holidays and special celebrations!