Search Results for: blog homemade chocolate treats for easter

Halloween Treats for Kids With Food Allergies

Holidays bring challenges to parents of kids who have food allergies. You want your child to be able to participate in the fun, without having an allergic reaction to one of the “treats”. If you don’t want to make your child “opt-out” of the Halloween fun, then you need to learn ways to provide safe, allergy free, sweets. Having food allergies is no fun. Halloween is one of the holidays that is based around “food”, (or, junk food, anyway). While all the other kids are gorging themselves on way too many sugary treats, kids who have food allergies are having … Continue reading →

Easter Baskets: Getting More for Your Money

Fill your Easter Baskets this years with plenty of good stuff for a fraction of the price you paid the year before. On Easter morning, I always proudly look at the beautiful baskets laying in wait on the table. What a bounty. But then, a few days later, I am always disheartened. A lot of money was spent, and yet, there is little to show for it. The cheap toys have broken, the candy was too much and a lot of it had to be given away and the garbage can got filled with Easter grass and packaging. This year, … Continue reading →

Nontraditional Easter Dishes

Traditionally, Easter is celebrated with ham or lamb and hot cross buns. Of course, these days, people tend to put their own spin on Easter buffets and now you can find everything from Chinese noodle dishes to Cuban pork on the holiday menu. My neighbor never prepares ham or lamb on Easter; rather the family sits down to a hearty beef stew after hunting for eggs. (She puts the stew on before the hunt, it cooks while they are hunting, and lunch is served shortly thereafter.) It helps that we live in the Upper Midwest where spring temps don’t usually … Continue reading →

Berry Easy Easter Desserts

Growing up, my grandma always made sure that our family’s Easter buffet included at least two non-chocolate desserts. My mom’s traditional bunny cake didn’t include chocolate, but our Easter baskets featured huge quantities of chocolate treats. To offset a potential chocolate overload, my nutritionally-conscious grandma would show up at our home with the following fruity desserts: SIMPLE STRAWBERRY TRIFLE Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups sugar 4 tablespoons cornstarch 1 package (3 ounces) strawberry gelatin 2 cups water 2 pounds fresh strawberries, hulled, divided 1 package (8-ounce) cream cheese, softened 1 can (14-ounce) sweetened condensed milk 1 container (12-ounce) Cool Whip, thawed … Continue reading →

Cheap Easter Chicks

Nothing says Easter like a basket filled with chocolate bunnies and marshmallow chicks. However, I’ve tried making homemade Peeps and I wouldn’t recommend taking on the challenge if you have little ones trying to “help out” in the kitchen. If you are looking for more kid-friendly Easter chick crafts that won’t break the bank, then stick to the following: BABY FOOTPRINT CHICKS Materials: Yellow paint Large container with flat base Large piece of construction paper Cornmeal Glue Directions: Pour yellow paint into large container big enough for kids to dip their feet into. Have your child select a piece of … Continue reading →

Easter Sunday Sides

Easter is traditionally a time when families (immediate and extended) come together to celebrate the season and share a large meal. After all, you can’t have a family gathering without food, right? If you are planning to attend an Easter potluck or you are simply helping your Easter party hostess by preparing a couple of side dishes to supplement the holiday ham or lamb, then consider these easy crowd-pleasing casseroles that are a cinch to make and are loaded with flavor. BAKED POTATO CASSEROLE Ingredients: 1 (2-pound) bag frozen country style hash browns potatoes, thawed slightly 1 (16-ounce) container of … Continue reading →

Unique Easter Desserts

Growing up my mom would make the same dessert for Easter. Year after year after year she would bake a yellow cake in the shape of a bunny or an Easter basket, cover it with white frosting, then douse it with toasted coconut flakes. She stopped making the cake when I was in junior high, right after I was diagnosed with a coconut allergy. These days we diversify when making desserts to celebrate the Easter holiday. In addition to having at least a couple chocolate desserts (what’s Easter without chocolate, right?), we also make sure the buffet table contains a … Continue reading →

Easy Make Ahead Easter Brunch Recipes

Growing up there were three things we always did as a family on Easter Sunday: Go to Mass, have an Easter egg hunt and gorge on a huge Easter brunch. Regardless of how early he had to wake up, my dad always made sure our Easter Sunday included our favorite sweet and savory brunch dishes. Since we went to early Mass, my dad had to time his dishes just right. Most of the brunch items that he made were put together the night before or very early Sunday morning and placed in the refrigerator. Then, when we returned from church, … Continue reading →

Ideas for Easter Leftovers

Easter may be over, but you’d never know it looking in your refrigerator. If you made enough food to feed an army, then you might be dealing with a mountain of leftovers, especially if your guests filled up on Easter chocolate before sitting down to dinner. Don’t let those holiday goodies go to waste. Instead, consider using the following recipes to breathe new life into Easter leftovers, including eggs, ham and asparagus: EASY OMELET Ingredients: 1/4 cup yellow onion, caramelized 3 sausage links, cooked and diced small 3 slices bacon, cooked and chopped 2 tablespoons clarified butter 6 large eggs, … Continue reading →

Chocolate Easter Desserts

Chocolate and Easter go hand-in-hand, so instead of trying to avoid the inevitable you might as well join in the sugar rush. The following simple chocolate desserts are perfect for an Easter potluck: TRIPLE CHOCOLATE BUNDT CAKE Ingredients for Cake: 1 box devils food cake mix 1 small box instant chocolate pudding mix 2 tablespoons espresso powder 1 cup sour cream, room temperature 3/4 cup vegetable oil 1/2 cup water 4 large eggs, room temperature 12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips Ingredients for Glaze: 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate baking squares 6 ounces butter 2 tablespoons light corn syrup Directions: Preheat oven … Continue reading →