I was inspired to make this trail mix-by a cereal! I had purchased some Quaker "Whole Hearts" cereal a few months ago, and ran across it right before Valentine's Day. How could I *not* want to make a trail mix with cereal shaped like hearts?!
Since it is Valentine's Day, I wasn't too interested in the trail mix being super healthy-as a matter of fact, the only thing even remotely healthy is the cereal. But it sure is cute! We used:
5 cups of Quaker "Whole Heart" cereal
2 cups of chocolate chips
1 bag of Twizzler cherry bites
2 8 oz. bags of conversation hearts (I know, disgusting, but I was going for looks!)
1 and 1/2 bags of Jet Puffed Strawberry HeartMallows
40 cellophane bags (I used 4x9 1/2 inch Wilton's bags, the exact width of the labels.)
40 Avery 5163 Shipping Labels
It will make enough trail mix for about 40 half cup servings (including marshmallows).
I love using shipping labels to close treat bags because it accomplishes two purposes: it gets the message across and it closes the bag more thoroughly than the little twist ties that usually are included. I made a super simple graphic with Word Art and made it cheerful by playing with the font colors. These are for her Awana Sparks group, so I thought the Scripture was really appropriate.
Then my "happy helper" helped assemble the ingredients. A note: if I made this again, I would leave out the marshmallows. They got a teeny bit squished, and made measuring it difficult. In the end, we pulled the marshmallows out of the mix, added four or five to each bag and then added the rest of the mix. It was much easier that way!
Josie loved stirring everything together. See how the marshmallows kind of "float" to the top? Easier to add them separately!
After it was all mixed together, we added a generous 1/4 cup of just the mix to each bag of four or five marshmallows. It ended up being a scant 1/2 cup all together. Since it is full of sugar, I figured that would be plenty!
Josie is ecstatic to share these with her friends tonight. It was an easy way to make a special homemade Valentine for 40 kids in a short amount of time. I think it will leave all the Sparks with happy hearts!:)
Love love love! Wish we went to the same Awana. We planned some cute valentines for the kids, but nothing home made and ADORABLE like that!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy!
Dang it! I keep forgetting to sign out and re-sign in! See what old age does to you?! :)
ReplyDeleteAunt Dawn is seriously cracking me up with this blog admin thing!
ReplyDeleteSuch a cute idea with the trail mix, seems to be a theme with you(mixed up snowmen). I also really love how you incorporate a verse with everything:) And that you let Josie do as much as possible herself. I am finally learning to let my kiddos do a little more instead of being such a control freak:/
Super cute!! =)
ReplyDeleteHappy Valentine's Day to you all!
~ Jen