Lunch Roundup #12

This week's lunch Whole Spelt Pretzels, cheese stick,

hard boiled egg, snap peas, pineapple, chocolate 

Daughter # 2 wanted pretzels this week, so I took it as an opportunity to try them with Whole Spelt Flour. Spelt is not gluten-free but has much lower amounts  of it. It works well in some recipes but not so well in others as the lower gluten content changes the composition. 

I used the same pretzel recipe as before and just replaced the whole wheat flour with whole spelt flour. They turned out good, but a bit breadier or puffier than the whole wheat ones - a bit closer to pretzel bread rather than pretzel. I actually made both and the family seemed to like the spelt ones better as the bag emptied first. 

Whole Spelt Pretzels

3 cups whole spelt flour (more if needed)
1 package fast rise yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cup very warm water (125 to 130 degrees F)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon honey

4 tbs baking soda

1 egg yolk, slightly beaten
coarse salt 

1. In a stand mixer or food processor combine 2 cups flour, package of yeat, and salt. Mix and set aside. 

2. In a medium bowl add warmed water, and oil. 

3. Pour liquid into the flour mixture, plus add the honey. Mix well. 

4. Add remaining flour to turn into a dough - you may need to add more if sticky.

5. On a lightly floured surface, knead dough for 5 minutes. 

6. Let sit in a large oiled bowl, covered,  for 10 minutes to rise. 

Boiling

7. In a large pot or large skillet fill with 3 inches water plus baking soda. Bring to a boil.

Rolling.

8. Punch down the dough and divide into 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a long snake (coil) about 10-12  inches long and wrap into a pretzel shape. Press the ends into the dough. 

9. Plop each pretzel into the boiling soda water for 30 seconds. Remove with a large slotted spoon and place on a well greased cookie sheet. 

10. Combine an egg white with a tbs of water and whip. 

11. Brush pretzels with egg yolk and sprinkle with salt. 

12. Bake at 400 degrees until Dark brown (like a pretzel). 

Make sure you let them cool all the way before storing. 

Lunch Roundup #10

Pretzel-dog carrots, string cheese, strawberries and watermelon. 

Lunch Roundup # 10! For people new to our blog, and especially our new Paleo followers, this blog is written by my sister Melissa and I. Melissa is the Paleo poster, and while I try to not eat to eat too many grains in a week/day, my family and I don't follow Paleo. I will often make Paleo like meals and gluten-free ones mainly because I think the American diet has too many excuses to eat breads and grains, but my school lunch roundup usually has some sort of whole grain in it. 

I had to try my hand at making real pretzels (instead of breadsticks that resemble pretzels like last time). The difference is just boiling them for 30 seconds in water and baking soda, which seemed scarier than it ended up being. For the lunches I wrapped the dough around chicken sausage to make pretzel-dogs and with the rest of the dough I experimented with different shapes and sizes of pretzels. 

There are so many recipes on the web for pretzels to choose from. I used this recipe  from cdkitchen  that uses half whole wheat flour, and a bit of honey and they turned out great. 

For the dogs I used the recipe above (because I wanted a whole wheat recipe) but followed the directions on Joy The Baker for how to wrap the sausages. I started with cutting my sausage in half and rolling a long snake of dough around the sausage making sure that the seams get pressed closed. Take a look at Joy the Baker's post to see how that is done.  Getting it water tight is important because after you put the dough on them, they will need to be boiled for 30 seconds in a bath of water and baking soda. I used a large skillet filled with water as high as it could go without spilling when boiled, and added 4 tbs baking soda. Then I put the wrapped dog in the boiling water for 30 seconds on each side since it was not fully immersed. 

After boiling them, place them on a greased cookie sheet and brush them with egg yolk and water. Sprinkle with salt. Bake at 400 until they get a nice dark pretzel color. You will be tempted to take them out early - but don't! Wait until they LOOK like a pretzel! Believe me I took way too many out too soon including the one in the photo. The ones where I forgot about them in the oven (oops) turned out the best!

The pretzel dogs have about 200 calories, 2 g fiber,3 g fat from my estimation on Livestrong.com 

We did make plain pretzels too for a snack and I will be doing them again soon with some spelt flour expeiments!

Lunch Roundup #9

Lunch #9 actually has too much food for my kiddo, so I knew some would end up coming back. This week there is cold WW spaghetti, Garden Veggie Chicken Sausage, carrots, Pea pods, mixed fruit, and faux Nutrigrain bars (Oatmeal Squares).

The reason why I started making these bento box lunches is because of my youngest. I would buy one box of "treats" from the store for her lunches which was usually boxed Little Debbies. They started to become a huge issue however. She would eat them one right after the other early in the week at home so there would be none left for her lunches. I would inevitably go buy more so she would have her one sweet thing at school like her friends. The more she ate the crankier and more bossy she would become. It became a vicious cycle. 

Since I have been making the lunches and snacks homemade, she has been much more pleasant to be around although there was a week of hell to contend with when we started. Now, she isn't eating one sugary treat after another and I only have to go midweek grocery shopping for more fruit. The recipe below is supposed an alternative to Strawberry Nutrigrain bars. My oldest preferred them with jam and my youngest without. You can actually add anything into them you want like mini chocolate chips or dried fruit. 

3/4 cup Brown Sugar

1/2 cup Granulated Splenda

2 large Egg White

2 tbsp , 1% (Average)

2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

1 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour (100% Stone Ground)

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Cinammon, Ground

1/2 tsp Salt

3 cups Oats - Rolled

1 cup Lowfat Plain Yogurt

2 tbsp Canola Oil

1. Heat oven to 350

2. In a large bowl combine: sugars, yogurt, egg whites, oil, milk, and vanilla. Mix well. 

3. in medium bowl mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add to the large bowl and mix well.

4. Add in oats and mix well. 

5. Spread into a 9 x 13" pan and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until the edges are a little brown. 

6. Remove from oven and cool completely. Cut into 24 square bars.

6. If you would like to add jam: slice each bar into 2 layers. Spread jam int he middle. 

Servings 2 suares: 218 calories, 4g fat, 4g fiber

Lunch Roundup #8 Easter!

Yes, I had to. I really did. It is the week before Easter and we haven't made pizza lunches for a while so I made bunny pizzas. I altered my past pizza dough recipe by substituting whole wheat pastry flour instead of regular whole wheat flour. It made it not rise so much and it had a crisper texture - perfect for when you don't want the dough to puff up your art! 

I was worried that my 13 year old would be embarrassed by the bunnies so I made some round ones too, but nope, she brought the bunny.  

Also shown is carrots (what do you think the bunny eats?), homemade shortbread chicks from my fave  Mary Engelbreit's Cookies  cookbook, and strawberries and watermelon flower cutout. 

-- Nicole 

1/2 Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

By Nicole Caulfield

INGREDIENTS

• 2 3/4 cups whole wheat PASTRY flour
• 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 packet Fleishmann's rapid rise yeast
• 2 cups hot water
• 1/4 cup olive oil

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Put all your flour, salt, and yeast in a heavy duty food processor with the dough blade in.
2. Warm up a cup of water in the microwave on high for a minute. Remove and mix in 1 cup hot water from the tap. Mix in the oil with the water.
3. Pour the water/oil mixture into the food processor and turn on. Let it go for a couple of minutes or until you have a well mixed dough. If you need to add water or flour go ahead
4. Let sit for 10 minutes in an oiled bowl with a towel over the top.
5. Pull off 3 inch balls of dough and form into pizza rounds. Place on a greased cookie sheet.
6. Add sauce of your choice, part-skim mozzarella and toppings. Bake on the second to bottom rack @ 375 for 15 minutes or until the cheese gets bubbly. 

If you don't have  a food processor - mix half the flour with salt & yeast & all of the water/oil mixture. Combine well and then add the remaining flour. Knead until smooth and doughy. Resume with step # 4. chicken sausage for the nose.

To make the bunny shape. Take your 3 inch ball and ull off 1/3 of it and set aside. Make a round pizza shape out of the larger ball. Break the remaining dough into 2, and roll each into coils (snakes), flatten the coil and attach to the head. Pinch the tips of the ears. I used olives for the eyes and mouth and Thin n' Trim 

Lunch Roundup #7

Whole wheat pita with grilled chicken, baby spinach and tomatoes, & fruit

To mix things up this week, I decided to try my hand at making whole wheat pitas. I found the recipe at King Arthur Flour website and it worked perfectly. If you haven't made pitas before, it is a basic flatbread recipe that when you bake it, it inflates like a balloon creating a pocket of air inside. Ihave to say Iwas really really amused when it worked - as I didn't think it actually would. 

It was starting to deflate at this point, but you can see the pillow shape

They use 1/2 whole wheat flour and half bread flour to get it to poof up like a pillow and create that telltale pocket. They also recommend using a pizza stone, which I didn't. If you don't have a pizza stone, just heat up your pan before putting your dough on it. 

One thing that wasn't apparent in King Arthur's directions was how thin to make the dough with your rolling pin. I tried them a few thickesses and it worked best when I rolled it the thinnest I could get it without breaking a sweat. If it wasn't thin enough it didn't blow up like a pillow in the oven giving you flat bread instead. 

I think the pitas were a hit for lunches this week. The kids enjoyed stuffing them with various fillings each day. Of course if Idid them every week - the novelty will wear off.... 

Lunch Roundup #6

This week's lunch has pea pods, grapes, cheese, spelt chocolate chip muffins, and pasta with chicken sausage.

I was going to include the recipe for the chocolate chip muffins in this post but they didn't turn out very good. I used the recipe on the Bob's Red Mill package for spelt muffins but altered it a bit with buttermilk and adding vanilla and chocolate chips. They turned out spongy, but edible.

For the pasta and sausage I used a gluten-free pasta which I am not the biggest fan of but I had some in the cupboard. I prefer skipping the pasta myself and giving the rest of the family whole wheat pasta. The gluten-free just doesn't have as good of texture as normal pasta. I added some butter in it for the kids and some Thin n' Trim garden vegetable chicken sausage. Their veggie was on the side - nice crunchy pea pods.

 Its a pre-cooked product but does not have any nitrates so I think it is good for every once in a while. The only ingredient that is not meat or veggies is a bit of sugar.

I cut the sausage in chunks and browned it with a little olive oil before combining with the pasta to make it more tasty. It is precooked, but browning it makes it extra special.

 I made my husband an Italian pasta salad with the hot sausage flavor, olive oil and veggies for lunch as well. 

Lunch Roundup #5

Lunch Time!

The lunch of the week I picked has a sandwich on a skewer made of my homemade spelt bread, grilled chicken breast, sliced cheese, and baby spinach. The bento box also has carrots, strawberries, and some little whole wheat cinnamon crackers. 

The sandwich is interesting isn't it? I can't take credit for its design - daughter #1 has gotten into helping me make lunches and she is much more creative with the food. Daughter #2 does not like sandwiches, but she likes all the parts of sandwiches. I know - weird - whatever - but if you give her a sandwich it comes back home untouched. Putting all the parts on a skewer just makes it a bit more fun and she can eat each part separate. If it were not a picky eater eating this there could be some other yummies on the stick like red peppers, cherry tomatoes, etc.

Now for the cute little homemade cinnamon crackers. I was getting ready to make these the other night and was whining to my sister to remind me why I am doing things like this from scratch. I put sugar on them and honey in them so its not like I am cutting down the sugar (actually I think I am). My Sis put me straight though. She said what I was trying to get the kids away from is the processed junk snacks they sell in the stores. Most have hydrogenated oils, and HFCS but even when they don't, they have a team of researchers trying to make the snacks addictive so people will buy more. If you haven't seen the 60 minutes show on the food industry tweaking foods to create food cravings you need to watch it:

Tweaking tastes and creating cravingsNovember 27, 2011 12:45 PMMeet the scientists who create flavors that make foods and beverages so tasty that critics say they're addictive. Morley Safer reports.The Flavorists: Tweaking tastes and creating cravings

& I have seen this in action. If I buy a box of Teddy Grahams, or Little Debbie's that I tell the kids are for the dessert in their lunches they are ALWAYS gone in a day or two, making me go back to the store to buy more & more & more. That doesn't mean food you make at home can't be just as addictive (hello chocolate chip cookies) but I am finding that desserts and whole grained baked goods  last a whole lot longer if I make them myself. They say they like them and they are excited about them, but they are not binge-eating on them one after another.

I took a basic recipe for whole wheat thin crackers from the LA Times and tweaked it to make it more of a sweet cracker for a dessert. I would have preferred to make graham crackers but I was making this from things in the cupboard and I don't have graham flour. That's great though because now if I need something like this in a pinch I know I can make something similar to graham crackers without going out to spend more food money.

Whole Wheat Honey Cinnamon Crackers

Ingredients

• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 cup milk (I used 1%)
• 2 tbs honey
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• egg & 1/2 cup water for egg wash
• cinnamon sugar for dusting (optional)

Instructions

1. In a large mixing bowl combine salt, flour & pumpkin pie spice.
2. In a separate bowl combine milk, canola oil, and honey and mix well.
3. Pour the liquid ingredients in the flour mixture and mix with a spatula until all the liquid is absorbed. It should not be sticky. If it is add more flour.
4. Knead on a lightly floured surface for 2 minutes.
5. Split the dough in half and wrap one half in the fridge. Take the other half and roll out with a rolling pin as thin as you can get it while still keeping it even. You want to do this between two sheets of parchment paper that you very very lightly floured.
6. If you want to make little shapes like I did, use a mini cookie cutter (1 1/2 - 2 inches) that doesn't have any points because those points will brown too fast. If you don't care about making them cute, just cut the dough into small wheat thin sized pieces using a pizza cutter.
7. You can have them very close together without touching as they do not rise. 
8. Whisk one egg and 1/2 cup water for an egg wash and brush the tops of your crackers. 
9. Dust with cinnamon sugar if you want to. 
10. Bake @ 310 on the bottom piece of parchment paper on top of a cookie sheet for 22-24 minutes. I like to let them get a little brown before I take them out and let them cool all the way. They get more crisp as they cool.

This recipe makes 115 little mini crackers. I am waiting to find out the nutritional information. I added it into Livestrong but they have a new approval process so I don't know how long that will take. I will add the nutritional information as soon as I know! 

Someone asked where I got my Bento Boxes. I bought mine at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and found the same ones at Old Navy (in colors), but I also searched the web and did find them on Amazon.com in all the pretty colors. They are BPA free too which is always good. 

Lunch Roundup #4

Lunch Round up is a bit different this week. The kids and I had off school/work  for winter break. That's like spring break but in the winter for you non east coast people. :-) I thought maybe if I went ahead and made their lunchboxes as usual they would take them out of the fridge and eat their lunch or part of it when they were ready for it. So that is what I did Monday & nope, they did not want to have anything to do with it. Even with a little (not so) gentle coaxing from me. So for the rest of the week I just precut a bunch of their favorite fruits and salad fixings and stacked them in the refrigerator. Which worked out really well because we have had friends over, the kids have gone to their friends' houses, we've gone to the mall, my youngest got to go to an indoor water park, and having plenty of fruit and veggies cut up in the fridge has helped. On top of that we have sandwich fixings in the fridge as well as leftovers. I'll have to get more creative for summer I think!

I also made my usual treat for the week. This time I had Life as a Plate's Bananacado muffins printed out and ready to go but then got cold feet because of the expense of all the avocados and a couple of jars of almond butter. Plus my youngest does not like cooked banana recipes. :-( So I decided to start with her idea and make my own recipe.

This was actually a first for me - I have never made up a baked goods recipe. I used whole spelt flour, and replaced the oils in a standard chocolate cake recipe with the healthy oils in avocados and almond butter. My first try had a great texture but not much chocolatey taste, so I upped the cocoa and added some mini chocolate chips. Adding the chocolate chips, however, added some saturated fat and extra calories.

The taste and texture ended up turning out something like those Little Debbie's Brownies with the candies on top (Cosmic Brownies), which happen to be my 9 year old's favorite thing to beg for at the grocery store. One of those little packages has 280 calories, 11 grams of fat etc, not to mention questionable ingredients. 

Mine below for one fudgey brownie bite has 86 calories and healthy fats. I know that no one ate just one, so you do have to at least double everything on the chart.

Fudgey Brownie Bites

Whole wheat spelt brownie bites with avocado and almond butter for healthy fats.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup (1 medium) smashed avocado
• 1/3 cup almond butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 3/4 whole spelt flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup cocoa
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup Ghiradelli mini chocolate chips
• 1 cup hot water

Instructions

1. Mash your avocado with a fork to get rid of as many lumps as possible.
2. In a large bowl add avocado, sugar and almond butter and beat until smooth.
3. Melt 1/2 a cup of your chocolate chips and add to mixture. 
4. Beat in eggs.
5. In a medium bowl combine flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa.
6. Add milk to the avocado mixture alternating with flour mixture until well mixed. Add vanilla.
7. Mix in hot water.
8. Stir in remaining (not melted) chocolate chips.
9. Fill two mini cupcake pans with liners. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Yield: 48-52 mini cupcakes



After a sleepover this week, my daughter and her friends had some whole wheat mini bagels, scrambled eggs and cantaloupe for breakfast but wanted some junk food. I let them walk the almost mile to the gas station to get some (& the same distance back). This has been my policy in the summer too. If you want junk food you have to go and walk and get it. What do you all think about that? Sometimes they think its not worth the walk and sometimes they do. This is for my 13 year old, btw. My 9 year old has to go with the 13 year old and there are sidewalks the whole way. Plus this week it was unseasonably warm at 50 degrees. 


- Nicole 

Lunch Roundup 3

Spelt bread turkey sandwich, raspberry mini cupcakes, strawberries, blueberries, and broccoli

Another week of bento lunches - woo-hoo! I had a request to do sandwiches this week. SO I decided to bake some spelt bread for them. I used spelt because it has much lower amounts of gluten in it compared to normal wheat. I can go on about how it is an ancient grain and yadah yadah yadah, but really I thought it would just be good to give them a variety since wheat is in so many things. Plus I am testing myself to see if eating spelt made favorites has the same effect on me as the wheat versions. Spelt is not an alternative btw for people with celiac disease, since it does contain some gluten.

Everything was Valentines theme of course too so if you are sick of hearts - sorry! Above is MY almond butter and jelly sandwich. I have not had one in FOREVER and I have to say with the spelt bread it was soooo good. We always use almond butter in the house since my daughter is allergic to peanuts. Above is store bought Barney Butter which tastes to me exactly like everyday peanut butter but with less sugar. They label it as completely peanut free which is really hard to find too.  I played around with making my own almond butter in the food processor this week - but one recipe at a time, lol.

These are the cookie cutters I use for my cheese shapes... 

you can use them on veggies, cheese, sandwiches, etc! 

The trick is they are tiny. 

Also in the lunches were a teeny tiny vanilla cupcake with raspberry frosting. I believe in a little of a bad thing is not so bad.  I put frozen raspberries in the frosting to make the pink color and flavor. My daughter gave one away to her friend at lunch who tried it and said "There was a yummy smoothie on that cupcake... it made the cupcake kind of a let down!" LOL 

Recipe for spelt bread: I made 2 loaves in my food processor. Making bread is easy, but messy and someone always asks you to give them a ride when you are waiting for it to rise to do the next step, but it is so worth it. I used half whole Spelt flour that comes packaged by Bob's Red Mill and half from the bulk section that looks more like white flour. I used one yeast packet for both loaves for a denser loaf, but you can use two for a lighter one.

Spelt Bread

Requires a LARGE food processor

Ingredients

• 2 2/3 cups warm water
• 1 envelope Active Dry Yeast
• 2/3 cup honey
• 1/2 cup sunflower oil
• 2 tsp salt
• 6-7 cups Spelt flour

Instructions

1. Add water to your food processor with the dough blade in. Sprinkle in yeast and pulse to dissolve.
2. Add 1 1/2 cups flour and pulse until smooth.
3. Remove the bowl from your base and allow it to rest in a warm draft free place with its lid on and a towel draped over it for 1- 1/2 hours or until it gets a spongey top.
4. Stir the sponge down and add honey, oil, salt and 2 cups more flour. Pulse to mix well.
5. Turn your food processor on and add remaining flour a little at a time until it turns to dough and pulls off the dough on the sides. It should be sticky. Let it process for 1-2 minutes to knead.
6. Place in a large oiled bowl and turn it to coat with oil. Place a towel over it and let sit for an hour.
7. Punch dough down and transfer to an oiled cutting board or counter. Separate in half and smoosh into two 8 x 12" rectangles. Roll one end tightly like a jelly roll and pinch ends.
8. Place in two greased loaf and and let sit with a towel over them for 1 hour.
9. Bake 375 for 30-35 minutes

Yield: 2 loaves

Lunch Update Week 2

Lunch Box #2

I've decided to post one kids' lunch from the week every week. I am sure I am going to have many repeats of lunches so I am hoping this will keep me on my toes. When I find  something that the kids like and do it over and over again they eventually get sick of it, so I need to not get stuck in a rut.

So you know I eat gluten-free but my family does not. The lunches I post will have gluten in them, but not always. I am planning on trying some recipes next week that use whole spelt flour instead of regular flour and see how that goes (spelt has minimal amounts of gluten), but for now I used my leftover pizza dough and made whole wheat heart shaped bread sticks to go with the other things in the lunch. 

I would really like a better balance in the lunchboxes - 1/2 fruit and veggies and the other half protein and a grain. That seems attainable although I am not there yet. Another goal is to "have a rainbow" of colors of fruits and veggies. That is from one of the tips posted by Primal Kitchen who makes her preschooler paleo lunchboxes every day. She is such an inspiration and knows what she is talking about! Today's box has carrots, fresh pineapple and kiwi, a hard boiled egg, slice of bacon, a whole wheat heart breadstick and cheese "hearts." I am including a little dessert every day to keep them excited about the boxes. Today is little mini chocolate cupcakes with no frosting.  

I used the leftover whole wheat  dough from my mini pizzas to make the breadsticks.

1/2 Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
By Nicole CaulfieldINGREDIENTS

• 2 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

• 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour

• 1 packet Fleishmann's rapid rise yeast

• 2 cups hot water

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 1 egg

• kosher salt 

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Put all your flour, salt, and yeast in a heavy duty food processor with the dough blade in.

1. Warm up a cup of water in the microwave on high for a minute. Remove and mix in 1 cup hot water from the tap. Mix in the oil with the water.

1. Pour the water/oil mixture into the food processor and turn on. Let it go for a couple of minutes or until you have a well mixed dough. If you need to add water or flour go ahead

1. Let sit for 10 minutes in an oiled bowl with a towel over the top.

1. Pull of 2 inch balls of dough and roll a long coil. Wrap around to make a heart and pinch the bottom to make a point. 

1. Brush with whipped egg and sprinkle with kosher salt. 

1. Bake  @ 375 until browned.  

If you don't have  a food processor - mix half the flour with salt & yeast & all of the water/oil mixture. Combine well and then add the remaining flour. Knead until smooth and doughy. Resume with step # 4. 

Like my jumbo silicone muffin cups? They make great dividers!

Dark Chocolate Kisses

For Valentines Day I made molded chocolate kisses. 

I love making molded chocolate, but I really dislike the candy melts they sell at the craft stores. They taste terrible and have loads of sugar and hydrogenated oil in them. They also have artificial flavor as the last ingredient which boggles my mind. I mean chocolate and a little vanilla is all you need.  So I make mine using melted chocolate chips and a little sunflower oil. I might not be able to get the really shiny look or fancy colors of the candy melts but the chocolate tastes good and has less sugar. You can see the difference below on Ghiradelli chocolate chips' ingredients and Wilton candy melts' ingredients. I used Ghiradelli because that's what they had at Target - but I am sure you can use any semisweet chocolate you want including organic chocolate bars broken up. Just put a tablespoon of sunflower or other oil in about 10 ounces of chocolate and melt using a double boiler or at 1/2 power in the microwave in 30 second intervals. Take the chips out of the microwave when they are still lumpy and let them melt while stirring with a spoon. Spoon into your mold and put in the plastic ring pop ring if you have them. That just makes it fun! I like to speed up the hardening process by putting them in the freezer for about 5 minutes. I am impatient! 

Ingredients Wilton candy melts - sugar, partially hydrogenated palm kernal oil, whole milk solids, cocoa powder processed with alkali, reduced mineral whey powder, cocoa powder, soy lechithin, salt, artificial flavor 

Ingredients Ghiradelli 60% cacao chocolate chips - Bittersweet Chocolate (unsweetened chocolate, sugar, cocoa butter, milk fat, soy lechithin - an emulsifier, vanilla). 

The kids will be getting these in their bento lunch boxes one day this week as a preview to Valentine's day! They would also make great school valentine gifts. 

Here's a similar candy mold at Amazon that has the space for lollipop sticks so you won't need the plastic rings: