Preschool Valentine's Par-tay

So, true to form, I spent yesterday getting everything ready for today's pre-school Valentine's party.  At least everything is nice and fresh ;)

Valentine's for his classmates

The little boxes came from the dollar section at Target - they were 4/$1. I love that section!

I filled each box with Valentine's Chex Mix - a nut free version (recipe below). I forgot that I did the Pumpkin Spice Chex Mix for the Thanksgiving party, but oh well.  I have a thing for mixes I guess.

Since I'm one of the party moms for this party, I made egg free sugar cookies for the kids to decorate (then eat!).  We will also have some fruit and probably cheese doodles - kids love some cheese doodles.

For this to be an egg free recipe, it had a great consistency (not too crumbly) and perfect for cut out cookies. I'm going to frost them with pink frosting, then let the kids decorate them with M&M's and sprinkles.  It's so nice that his preschool still allows home baked goods (the public schools here do not), because it allows me to make allergy friendly cookies/cupcakes, etc that my son can have along with his classmates.

Valentine's Chex Mix - adapted from Betty Crocker

9 cups Rice Chex® cereal

1 cup white vanilla baking chips

1/2 cup peanut WowButter

2/3 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup Valentine M&M's

sprinkles

heart shaped marshmallows

choice of red/pink/white candies (I used Mike & Ike cherry flavored candy)

Place cereal in a large bowl. In small microwavable bowl, microwave vanilla chips, Wowbutter (or any nut butter or peanut butter replacement) uncovered on High 1 minute to 1 minute 30 seconds, stirring every 30 seconds, until melted and smooth. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated.

Place 1/2 of the cereal mixture in gallon sized plastic bag. Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper or foil; cool about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, stir candies and sprinkles into remaining cereal mixture. Spread on waxed paper or foil; cool about 15 minutes. (you may want to leave out the M&M's b/c they get the mixture all over them and are not as pretty!)

Once cool, mix both cereals together, then add in your additional candies and marshmallows.

For the egg free Sugar Cookies, I followed this recipe from the Art of Dessert.  The only change I made is I used butter flavored Crisco sticks instead of butter. (Crisco actually has less saturated fat. Who knew?!) And I also added a little cinnamon - b/c I can never leave well enough alone ;)

Don't forget, my giveaway from Shabby Apple ends tomorrow! 

I will also have another giveaway starting :D

Now, off to be party mom....