Valentine Treats

Today is the day I take Handsome to the hospital and, since we'll be staying overnight, I had to make Princess's Valentine treats ahead of time.
For her preschool classmates, I made marshmallow pops. They were so easy to make and turned out so cute! I stuck a stick in the marshmallow, twirled the top of the marshmallow in pink candy melt and added some sprinkles...that was it! After the candy part cooled, I put them in plastic bags with cute little labels from Autumn Leah Designs on etsy. The packages look cute from the front and the back!
I also dipped some marshmallows with no sticks as part of the teacher treat bags. They look pretty cute too!
I used the same sticker labels on these--this time I used them to seal the little bags.
I also made other treats for the teachers for Valentine's Day. I was inspired by Allie at No Time for Flashcards and made Red Hot Bark--it was just as easy to make as peppermint bark! First a layer of chocolate, then a layer of white chocolate mixed with red hots (some smashed, some not.) Tastes great and not too "hot" at all!
The other treat I made for them is one that I make for lots of holidays and it always is a hit! Pretzels with Hershey Kisses and M&Ms. Mmmm, the mix of chocolate and salt is sooo good. And, the great part is that little ones can help with making these! This time around I made them by myself, but at Christmas time my 5 year old was a lot of help and made them almost entirely by herself--she did everything except the last step.
First preheat your oven--I usually do these at 250 degrees. Then lay out a cookie sheet full of pretzels--make sure you have Silpat (love my Silpat--I've been using it for years!) or foil under them so the chocolate doesn't stick to your cookie sheet.
Then you balance a Hershey Kiss on each pretzel.
Next you pop them in the oven. Mine typically take 5-6 minutes in my electric oven at 250 degrees. You can always test with an M&M to see if your Kisses are squishy enough. Don't overcook the chocolate--you can't bring it back if you over do it! Once the Kisses are glistening and easy to squish, take them out of the oven and use an M&M to squish down the top of each Kiss.
Now you just wait FOREVER for them to cool and the chocolate to harden. I suppose you could speed things up by putting them in the fridge, but I try to avoid that because sometimes it causes the chocolate to change color a bit. My favorite thing to do is to let them cool on the trays overnight--I just tent some foil over the tray and leave them out.

I packaged each treat in bags and then put them together into little Valentine care packages for the teachers. I hope they like them!