Little Critters

After the fun my son and I had while making Peanut Butter Snackies, I decided to try again and make something without eggs. While making the cookies, he had a pacifier in his mouth, but as we only use it for sleep time I wanted to make something he could snitch and I wouldn't have to worry about raw eggs! These fit and we had a great time making them. There is peanut butter in them, however you can just double the amount of chocolate chips you put in if your children do not eat peanut butter yet or have an allergy. Variation at the end for making birds nests!

Little Critters

First, you'll need 1 cup of chocolate chips (semi-sweet, milk, white chocolate or use a combination), and 1 cup peanut butter chips.

Mix them together in a bowl.

Melt in the microwave. Place in microwave for 1 minute and then stir, microwave in 30 second increments until all the chips are melted, stiring after each increment.

You'll also need some Chow Mein Noodles. Or if you prefer, use pretzels. I would use a mix of broken up pretzel twists. It will make them more interesting than just plain pretzel sticks.

You'll need 3 cups.

Place in a large bowl.

Once the chips are melted

get your child ready with a spoon (or rubber spatula.)

Pour in the melted chocolate and peanut butter chips.

Stir to coat.

Hint: you may need to help stir in order to get all the noodles/pretzels coated before the chocolate sets.

Next spoon onto parchment paper.

The less uniform the clumps look the better!

Here is my son helping to put them on the parchment paper.

"Am I doing good Mama?"

Back to focusing on the task at hand.

It's coming.

Oh, I have some!

Dropping it onto the paper,

or mostly on the paper!

I love how he is trying to get it all off the spoon.

Now for the decoration: Mini M&M Eyes.

Adding the eyes to the 'critters'.

And eating the m&m's.

The second decoration: toffee bits.

I chopped these up a bit.

Add the pieces to the back of the bugs.

Don't those bugs look great!

And the little helper licking the spoon!

I love having the different eyes.

However, it might look a bit better if the m's were facing in...

or if they were both facing out ;).

Either way, have fun while making these!

These were a great treat to make with my son because he could help me in every stage and I did not have to worry about him snitching. I did make sure the melted chocolate chips were not too warm when I added them to the chow mein noodles.

Pretzel Bird Nests:

 Use pretzels instead of chow mien noodles (I definitely suggest this for the little critters as well!)

 After placing create an indent in the center to place eggs into.

 Once they are mostly (or all the way) set place eggs into nests. I used Whopper's Mini Robin's Eggs, but Cadbury or any other type of mini egg would work great. If you place them when almost set, the eggs will remain in place after they finish setting which is a great thing if you're going to be moving them!

I also really loved the texture and coloring of white chocolate and the semi-sweet chocolate covered pretzels being mixed before forming into nests.

Enjoy!