Are your kids still on a sugar high from eating too much Easter candy?
On Sunday, I gave my second grader fair warning: whatever candy she had not consumed by Tuesday would be given away or made into public property.
Yes, mean mommy strikes again.
Listen, I am just keeping it real. Whereas I truly appreciate the generosity of family and friends, who showered my daughter with sugary seasonal treats, what I don’t need is a house full of chocolate, jelly beans and bubble gum the likes of which we haven’t seen since Halloween.
Forget about Easter being a spring Christmas, between the loot from egg hunts, visits from Peter Cottontail and overzealous grandparents, my kid’s candy haul rivals the sugar stash she collected on Halloween.
In other words she is swimming in saccharine and I’m about to pull the plug on the pool.
Unfortunately, getting rid of excess Easter candy is not as easy as pitching leftover Halloween treats. Donating extra Halloween candy is easy, especially with all of the programs that exist, from dentists swapping sweets for cash to military troops offering to send your unwanted candy overseas.
I’ve heard of some parents donating their children’s Easter candy to local homeless shelters while other moms and dads have dropped off extra sweets at local police or fire stations. My brother is a firefighter in Hawaii and didn’t seem too enthused about the latter option, as the bulk of Easter candy is chocolate, which tends to melt easily and therefore can’t be saved as long as hard candy.
I have no plans to donate my daughter’s Easter haul to firefighters; rather, tomorrow we will be recycling some of her chocolate treats in the following recipe, and then sharing the sweets with the people who graciously filled her holiday basket:
CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER BARS
Ingredients:
30 large marshmallows
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon peanut butter
6 cups Peanut Butter Cap’n Crunch
1 1/2 cups milk chocolate M and Ms
2 cups chopped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
Directions:
In a large saucepan, combine the marshmallows, butter and peanut butter.
Heat and stir over medium-low heat until melted.
Remove from the heat.
Stir in the cereal, M and Ms and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
Gently press mixture into a 13 x 9-inch pan coated with cooking spray.
Cool overnight.
Cut into bars.
Yields 24 bars.