Peeps Taste Test – Number 3

For this next round of Peeps taste testing, we had two of the more non-traditional flavors. Or at least one was really non-traditional (in my opinion).

First up was the vanilla one.

I like the way it looks. The sprinkles give it a bit of a funfetti look.

Now, in the last taste test, I mentioned that I was really beginning to enjoy the addition of the “dipped” element on the new Peeps. This one, however, I didn’t like very much. I thought that the dipped part had a weird taste to it. My girls, however, liked this one a lot. I think I was looking for a vanilla flavor and I didn’t really get it.

Next up, the raspberry one. I had high hopes for this one because I love all things raspberry.

This one wasn’t bad. Although, my girls and I were not in agreement on this one. I liked it, big girl liked it (I think…at least….she ate it), little girl didn’t like it so much.

The taste is a sort-of-raspberry-sort-of-berry taste. So, not full-on raspberry but still yummy.

Results: Mixed. Stay tuned for the final taste test to be posted soon……

Peeps Taste Test – Number 2

For this next Peeps taste test, we went for the new filled varieties. I will go ahead and say that I was prepared to not like these at all. A filled Peep? It just sounds kinda gross. However, I was pleasantly surprised.

Now, the girls and I are already fans of the Peeps with the chocolate coating on the bottom. And these two varieties both have that crunchy chocolate part.

The taste? Everyone, including Ryan, liked the Triple Chocolate ones. They are chocolatey but not too chocolatey. And the chocolate filling is actually kind of light.

(please excuse my nails…..I will be repainting them soon…..)

Now, the Vanilla Caramel Brownie ones we were all a little split about. I liked them. I thought that they tasted like some kind of Starbucks Frappuccino that had been solidified into a Peeps shape. Not bad. Big girl liked this one, too. Baby girl and Ryan – not so much.

I don’t really understand the “Brownie” part of the name. But, it’s definitely got a caramel taste and that’s the main taste in the filling.

The verdict? I liked them both. I’m becoming a big fan of the chocolate on the bottom of the Peeps. The crunch is a nice addition to the soft texture of the marshmallow.

Peeps Taste Test – Number 1

Spring is arriving and that means – Peeps! Peeps in every flavor!

Every possible flavor!

The girls were very excited to find Peeps that had been dipped in chocolate and Oreos that were Peeps flavored. Big girl was especially excited to see how many different flavors of Peeps there were this year. (That’s my kid alright!) So, we’ve decided to make this a year when we try to taste as many flavors as we can. I am not nearly as excited as the girls because I am a bigger fan of the regular ones, not necessarily the flavored ones. But, we shall see. I might just find one that I really like……and while we’re at it, the girls will eat a ton of sugar…..so that’ll be interesting too…..

We ate the chocolate covered ones and Peeps Oreos.

I will say, not all of my girls were that interested. Buddy only wanted to check them out for a few seconds and then was officially done with Peeps.

The verdict: Every loved the chocolate covered Peeps. This is actually one of my favorite non-plain Peeps. Mmmmm. Sugar with more sugar.

The Oreos?

They are pink. Really really pink. Really, really, really pink. There were reports that the Peeps Oreos had some, um, colorful side effects. (Thankfully, that wasn’t an issue in our house.)

They are sweet. Really, really, really sweet. As pink as they are? That’s how sweet they are. And, they don’t necessarily have a Peeps or marshmallow flavor, more like a generically sweet flavor. But, they are good. And we quickly finished off that package.

First Peeps Flavor Testing Experiment: Good stuff. 🙂

Stayed tuned for taste test #2…….

So. Much. Candy.

We are having an epidemic in our house. An epidemic of too much candy. We have Christmas candy. We have leftover Halloween candy. And soon, there will be Valentine candy. So. Much. Candy. Now, normally, I would say that that just isn’t a problem. However, there comes a point when it’s just too much and you know it won’t be eaten.

Here’s the bowl of candy. As you can see, there is an abundant amount of candy canes. Like a crazy amount of candy canes. Now, I like candy canes. They are fine. But I won’t sit down and snack on three or four of them at a time. Nope. Just not gonna happen. I will, however, sit down and snack on three or four pieces of peppermint bark…..

And that’s just what I did. Get rid of those candy canes by smashing them and them topping them with white chocolate.

Snacking…endless snacking

Oh man. I love snacks. I snack when I’m happy. I snack when I’m sad. I snack when I’m bored. I snack and snack and snack. So, it’s important (especially to get the new year off to a good start) to try to snack on good stuff. And, that’s not easy. Especially because the not-good-for-you stuff is soooooooo good.

I’ve been trying to keep chickpeas on hand simply because I love roasted chickpeas to snack on. I haven’t been able to get the girls on board with this snack yet (I think they know that  it’s actually fairly healthy…or at least it’s healthier than many other options) but I love them!

1. Open a can of chickpeas.
2. Dry the chickpeas as much as you can.
3. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
4. Toss the chickpeas in olive oil – lots of olive oil.
5. Cook for 30-45 minutes. (I like it closer to 30 minutes so some pieces are a little chewy and some are crunchy.)
6. Top with whatever seasonings you have on hand: sea salt, cayenne pepper, fresh herbs, whatever you think might taste good.
7. Eat and enjoy!
8. Repeat when you realize that you just finished off the entire batch yourself……

Yum!

Puppy Chow + Butterscotch = Yummy

So, after making that initial batch of puppy chow, and seeing how much fun big girl had with it, I decided that we would make another batch fairly quickly. Plus, puppy chow is yummy. A quick search on Pinterest brings up tons of different puppy chow recipes. I thought that this one sounded good.

I love all things butterscotch so I thought for sure that this one was going to be delicious.

I made a quick change to the recipe because I only had one cup of butterscotch chips.  I added in 1/2 cup of semi sweet chips instead. Note to self: buy more butterscotch chips. Another note to self: after you buy more butterscotch chips, do not eat them!

The recipe turned out really nicely. I like the addition of peanuts for a little different in texture.

Yum

A classic snack: puppy chow!

When faced with an abundance of Chex cereal, my mind turns to snacks that we can make with Chex. And one of my faves is puppy chow. This is the first time that big girl and I made puppy chow together. First, I had to explain that it wasn’t for puppies. Seriously, why is it called puppy chow? I’ve seen recipes on Pinterest that call this snack muddy buddies. Honestly, that name makes even less sense to me.

Anyways. I found this recipe and decided to give it a try. I did the melting and mixing. Big girl was in charge of shaking/rolling the bag to coat the powdered sugar. She was so excited to be my “helper big girl.”

At first, I was a bit concerned because there were some small lumps in the chocolate/peanut butter mixture. I used natural peanut butter. Maybe that’s why? Maybe if I had used non-natural peanut butter it would’ve been smoother? But, after the mixture had had enough time to rest and cool down, it did taste pretty good. Although it is not as sweet as the puppy chow that I remember from my childhood. I’m fairly certain that that is because I used the natural peanut butter which tends to be less sweet.

I think that my favorite part of this recipe was how excited big girl was to help and just how easy it was for her to help in a pretty big way.

Mmmmmmmm

New favorite travel hint

Traveling with a toddler is not easy. So, any time I figure out a way to make it a little bit easier I am quite pleased. We had a big road trip over spring break which was a lot of fun but little peanut is a toddler and wants to get out and run around. Sitting in a car for 8 hours is not her idea of a good time. Snacks are always a great idea and it’s an even better idea to have lots of different types of snacks.

At the hotel, she had Rice Chex for the first time and discovered that she loved them. (The person who invented “free, hot breakfast” deserves a big kiss!) So, I took a coffee cup and filled it with cereal so she could snack on them later during our drive.  The cup had a lid and since it was just filled with cereal, I was able to just toss the cup in the car and nothing spilled out.

cup filled with cereal = easy snack

When you travel, what is your go-to snack for the road?

Peeps S’Mores!

Yes.  You read that correctly.  Peeps.  S’Mores.  O. M. G.

So, this is an example of my Pinterest wandering bringing me to something ridiculous.  You know those posts of cookies stuffed with brownies?  Or the Chex mix recipes that shouldn’t really be called a Chex mix anymore because they are 95% candy bar?  I thought that this fell into the category, too.  But something about it called out to me.  Something told me that these needed to be made.  So.  I did.  One more treat to bring to Easter.

The chocolate dipping part was super easy.  The chocolate melted very well and looked great on the graham crackers with the Easter-y sprinkles.  Very cute already.  I set them out so the chocolate could harden.

graham cracker. white chocolate. sprinkles.

This is when I realized that the recipe said that you needed to leave your Peeps out so they could get a bit stale for easy cutting.  Yep.  Definitely read right over that the first time I read the recipe.  So, the finished S’mores would have to wait until the next morning – one more thing to try to get done before we left.

The next day: if you are going to do these, please, for your own sanity, let the Peeps harden up for more than one night.  Trying to cut these was just silly.  So, the finished product is not nearly as cute as I was hoping.  (Darn you, Pinterest!  One more example of something not turning out as polished and perfect as yours!)

Lined up like an army of sugar.

Also, these do not travel well.  The chocolate completely melted and stuck to the serving tray.   So, they looked a little sad.  But…..they taste really yummy!  If you happen to have some leftover Peeps from Easter, I recommend giving these a try.  Just try not to leave them by the window in the car.

In praise of the Girl Scout Cookie

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. It’s Girl Scout cookie time again.  I always love this time of year.  It’s the perfect time in between Christmas and Easter to get some delicious snacks.

This year, I discovered that there is an app that you can download that lets you find where Girl Scouts are selling their cookies.  What?! No, I’m completely serious.  Take a look! This definitely made my day when I learned about this app.  You can put in a zip code or city and it will tell you the location where you can find Girl Scouts selling cookies!  Woo-hoo!

So, I tracked down the Scouts and bought three boxes of Samoas (my absolutely favorite), one box of Tagalongs (my second all-time favorite) and one box of Do-Si-Dos (eh, they’re ok).  I wanted a box of Thin Mints but they had just sold their last box when I got to the selling point outside of the Jewel grocery store.

I loved Scouting.  It played a large part in my childhood.  I would go to Girl Scout camp every summer.  The week at Camp Widjiwagan was one of my favorite weeks during the entire summer.  Our troop would have tons of different outings throughout the year.  And since no other parent wanted to do it, my mom was our troop leader for quite a long time.  Cookie time was not as much fun when half of your house was filled to the ceiling with boxes and boxes of cookies.

As much as I love cookies, and I loooooove Girl Scout cookies, I do have some problem dealing with the fact that my all-time fave cookie has less in the box than any other type.  But, I guess that I can deal with that.  I’ve managed this long.

One of my favorite bloggers recently came up with a recipe for homemade Girl Scout cookies.  She made Tagalongs and Samoas.   These recipes do look quite tasty but I think that the most important sentence in the posts is when CakeSpy says to buy cookies from a Girl Scout and then make your own cookies.  (In the Tagalongs post.)

Because while the cookies are quite tasty, the important thing is that you might be helping some girl to go to an all-day campfire workshop where she gets to learn different ways to build campfires and what ones work best for what kind of food.

And that is a really really fun way to spend the day.

Remember when I said that I bought three boxes of Samoas? Yea. Already down to two.