Fun and Fast Treats

I decided to piggyback on to Kellie's post about the Russian Creme with a few other easy treats I've made recently. The last week of school for me was a blur. At one point I counted 9 different events that I had to make a treat for! Insane!

I made these Cookie Dough Truffles

Veggies and Dip for an end of year school party.

Can you say NO DOUBLE DIPPING!! Hooray!

My kids teachers made out like Bandits this year. In addition to the "2 things" gift I gave them a few weeks before school got out, I gave my elementary kids teachers, choir and Piano Teachers this cute berry basket. I got the idea from eighteen25. Love that blog!

For the teacher appreciation luncheon I helped with, I made these cute cookie favors for the teachers to bring home. Here is the template from Nothing but Country if you'd like to make your own!

They also got to bring home a lemonade -

With everything happening I am SO glad that it's summer and I can finally rest!.....yeah right!

Russian Creme

My sisters and I have served Russian Creme at several of our end of school year functions, baby showers and bridal showers.  Many of you have asked for this delicious recipe...so here it is!

RUSSIAN CREAM

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups Whipping Cream

1 ½ cups sugar

1 envelope of Knox gelatin (about 1 tbsp.)

3 tsp. clear vanilla*

1 ¼ cups sour cream

DIRECTIONS:

Combine whipping cream and sugar in a pan over med. heat and stir until sugar is completely dissolved.  Boil 1 cup water.  Sprinkle in envelope of Knox gelatin and stir.  Let cool till warm (about 5 min.).  Combine cream and sugar mixture with gelatin.  Add vanilla and sour cream.  Wisk until smooth.

Pour into bowl, and then cover with saran wrap making sure wrap touches the mixture.  If filling individual serving size dishes no need to cover with saran wrap…don’t ask me why…just not needed.  Refrigerate overnight.  Just before serving add a dollop of lemon curd and favorite berries.

*Clear vanilla is important because you want your mixture to look creamy white.

On the last day of school Connie delivered the Russian Creme (packaged beautifully with a spoon) to each of her kid's teachers. 
Just a little sweet treat to say thank you. 

Jen served it at a baby shower...

Our First Guest Post!

We are very excited here at Chocolates for Breakfast to have our very first Guest Post! It is our pleasure to introduce Candice from www.theideafairy.blogspot.com . Candice is a VERY talented lady! She amazes us with her creativity constantly. If you remember the penguin baby shower Jen did, yeah- that was for her. She also was the creative mind behind our Breaking Dawn Shin Dig. so without further adieu:

Katie is a teacher and loves history, books and vintage things so I did a bit of all of those.


Since Katie and I don't care for a lot of traditional bridal shower games I had a place for people to write date ideas for the newlyweds. I feel like she gets a lot of advice but thinking of dates after you are married can sometimes be a challenge so I thought it would be great for her to be able to pull out these ideas.

We also played a matching game called famous couples in history. This was something people could just fill in while chatting and eating. The other activity was a presentation of " something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue and a six pence in her shoe". We had her sisters and mom and I each take one and present it to her. I found online the story and history being the meanings of each one and read them during the presentation. It turned out to be the best part of the party!

One of the other fun things I did for her, because of our love of historic romantic movies and novels, I printed up some of our favorite sappy quotes and put them on the chalkboard that said, " Of all the love stories, I love ours the best!"



We also had delicious brunch food and a special raspberry lemonade with mint ice cubes. We had cupcakes and I handed out these taffy "pops" as party favors. It turned out to be so much fun!

End of School Year Teacher Gift

The end of the school year is coming up fast. I wanted to do something fun for a couple of my son's High School teachers that wasn't cutesy and I thought I'd do the same for my 2 elementary school kids teachers a few weeks before school gets out.

I was inspired by this blog and since I wanted the tag to say the last 2 weeks (I have WAY too much going on the last week) instead of the last week I decided to make my own tag.

Here it is if you'd lilke to print it for yourself! Enjoy!

To download just click on image then right click and save to your computer

Semi-Homemade Brownie Bites

This week was a killer week and I expect that the next few weeks will be much the same.  So with that in mind I'm trying to simplify my craziness and come up with a few semi-homemade creations.  I was asked to bring something sweet to our final PTA meeting of the year...I had a couple of hours that I could spend in the kitchen or at my son's baseball game.  I decided on the latter and while sitting at his game it hit me...not the ball, but a great idea for something sweet!  Something I could do quickly and would even taste yummy.  
Brownie Bites with my secret-cream topping recipe and strawberries.

I dropped by Sams Club (I think Costco carries them as well) and picked up their little tub of brownie bites.  I also picked up a tub of these scrumptious cake bites...wasn't sure how they would taste but seemed to be a crowd pleaser. 

This is what the cake bite tub looked like at Sams

I bought the brownie bites home, stuck them in a brown candy cup and then whipped up my secret cream cheese topping.  Piped a little dollop of the topping on the brownie bite, fanned half of a strawberry on top and VOILA...my sweet was complete! 

I'm thinking it might be nice to help simplify your life along with mine so...here ya go!  

My secret recipe...

Brownie Bite Cream Topping

1-3oz. pkg.cream cheeses (softened)

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

3/4 cup whipping (heavy) cream

Beat cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar and the vanilla in small bowl with electric mixer on low speed until smooth.  Beat in whipping cream on medium speed until stiff peaks form.  Place (or use a pastry bag for piping) a dollop of cream on brownie bite, top with a strawberry, raspberry or other favorite fruit.  Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.  Cover and refrigerate any remaining bites.

And now...what's next!

Teacher Appreciation Week Successfully Complete!

Last week was our Teacher Appreciation Week...SHAZAM was it fun!  Teachers, students and parents all had a great time with the theme of Super Hero Teachers.

Each day of the week there was a little something that every student could do to honor and say thank you to their teacher.  

Monday morning all of our teachers came to school and were surprised with Super Hero Classroom Signs on each of their doors.  Here are just a few of the clever pieces of art!  Some of the teacher faces were even added to the super hero action figures!

Each teacher had a Super Hero Info Sheet by their classroom door that gave their students hints of favorite things.  Sure made it easy gift giving for parents like me.

A super hero lunch was served each day of TA week for all teachers and staff.  Most of the meals were catered by local businesses in the area.  They wanted to express their thanks for great teachers too.  The teacher's lounge was decked out in super hero quotes and pictures and other great fun.  The teachers also found a little surprise every day in their mail box.   

Lots of parents doing lots of great things to show their appreciation for GREAT TEACHERS!

My 4th Grader decided to honor her teacher every day of TA week with a little something...

Day One

Kate became a reporter and asked her teacher...

Kate loves her teacher and it's easy to see why after reading her answers.  Kate will often come home from school exclaiming, "I just love Miss Grant!"  

eighteen25 had this cute "picked a teacher" template.

Berry chapstick, berry scents and hand sanitizer were all found at Bath and Body Works.

Day Two

Kate decided that Miss Grant needed some new school supplies for the classroom.  Of course chocolate was an important part of the "vital tools" needed for every super hero teacher.

Day Three

Kate, along with most of the other students in class, loves to be Miss Grant's sidekick.  Kate always has stories about adventures during the day and how Miss. Grant encourages them to help each other.  We decided Miss. Grant needed an energy drink after all that hard work.

Day Four

Today was the day that the students were encouraged to bring their teacher's favorite treat to class.  Miss Grant listed her favorite treat as a Symphony Bar...and who can disagree with that yummy choice!   I believe that every student, Kate included, brought Miss Grant a Symphony Bar.  She is stocked up for the rest of the year!  She should have lots of chocolate energy for her super hero work.  


Kate's Symphony Bar was disguised in a Super Hero wrapper. 

Day Five

To conclude Teacher Appreciation Week Kate chose to say "thanks" in a canned way.  She gathered all of Miss Grant's "super powers" and canned em!

We didn't want to forget all of the other important people at school so Kate gave a little treat to the secretaries, custodian, librarian, lunch ladies and principal.  Kate had fun delivering to all her teachers at school.

We need SMORE teachers like you!

Go to livinglocurto for this free download.

I was asked to prepare a few other gifts for a teacher drawing during the week.  I decided a few things from my little business, Chocolates For Breakfast would be great teacher gifts.  

Cake Plates with Sweet Tooth Fairy Cake Bites

I absolutely love Origins products and as luck would have it my brother works for Origins in Princeton.  We love to visit his store and I just happened to have a few products I could part with for our beloved teachers.  One of my most favorite products at Origins is the Gloomaway bar.  The grapefruit bath bar scent is divine and also drives away mosquitoes!  

We wrapped up a few of our Cuddle Me Quilts and 

delivered them for the teacher drawing.  

Ahhh what a nice week we had!

We love our teachers and appreciate 
ALL they do!