Since we started cutting hearts in our house last month, I’ve grown to love Valentine’s Day in ways I didn’t foresee. Actually, forget Valentine’s Day — holidays in general have taken on a whole new meaning with children in the house. Everything is amplified. The mailman’s delivery foretells the arrival of potential Valentines. Cookies have to be made. Sprinkles are added to everything edible. We’ve had flowers in the house for the past two weeks. It’s really lovely, actually. So, I volunteered to host a Valentine activity at my daughter’s preschool tomorrow in order to spread some Valentine cheer to her friends and teachers. Initially I thought we’d bring cookies to frost, but I’d probably lose favor with some of the other parents. And, after a long week, I don’t have the stamina to turn my kitchen into a cookie factory. When I landed on the idea of frosting heart-shaped bread with cream cheese and sprinkles, I started breathing easy. They look like a cookies without all the extra sugar, and they are so incredibly easy to make!
For my test run, I toasted some bread, cut out heart shapes with our large heart cookie cutter, applied some cream cheese, and tossed on Valentine sprinkles. Voila! My plan for tomorrow involves setting up a toaster and inviting the children to cut their own hearts from their toast. I’ll have tubs of spreadable cream cheese (and jam for the lactose-free kids) with butter knives for easy spreading. And lots of sprinkles, of course. My daughter adores cooking with me, and I imagine her friends will enjoy the processes of toasting, cutting, spreading, and sprinkling. What do you think?
I turned my test run into today’s lunch — I added some hummus and turkey to the sprinkles and cream cheese, and we had a sandwich. Weird combo, I know, but my daughter ate it up!
Yummy and so pretty too! And a great idea for potential Christmas cookies with snowmen cutters. I love it!
The cookie cutter possibilities are endless!
Oh my, that is just a nightmare from where I sit–all those gluten crumbs. 🙂
My 2yo and I will be making (gluten-free) heart-shaped sugar cookies tomorrow in time for an after-school snack surprise for her brothers. They’ll each find one of our beach stones from last summer, with a heart Mod Podged onto it, at their breakfast place in the morning. I wove heart pockets out of paper to tuck into the boys’ lunches, with a little love note inside, and it is tradition for me to give them books on Valentine’s Day. Oh, and my daughter and I made her the CUTEST felt heart barrettes. She’s been wearing them ever since.
Amy, if you were in the class, we’d have gluten-free cookies for you 🙂 I love all of your thoughtful (and sugar-free!) ideas, and will store them away for future V-days.
Think I’ll be doing heart-shaped toast with cream cheese and strawberries for breakfast now! Mmm.
Hattie’s valentine is giant because I found a large used bulletin board for $1 and decided I should decorate it be her “card.” (Was trying to submit a pic, but not an option. Maybe an iPad issue, not sure…)
We’ve also had tons of fun with your shrinky dink idea these last couple of weeks. Thanks!
What?! You have an iPad? Do you like it? I can’t even begin the number of times I’ve created projects because they were a deal! Oversized things are so much fun in the eyes of kids. And I bet it looks even bigger to Hattie than it does to you 🙂 And I’m so happy to hear about your shrinky dink success!
Love this idea – super yummy and fun without the huge sugar crash. Thanks!
We ended up using a smaller cutter to pull about 3 hearts from each slice of bread, and it worked out even better for little hands. All the sprinkles were GONE, and it may have been one of the longest snack times ever 🙂
Forget chocolate or roses, being w/ Ruby&Anna for their first visit to Disneyland=best Valentine’s Day ever. Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!
Thanks for this awesome idea! I am nanny to 2 girls whose parents restrict their sugar intake (as well they should….better parents than I ever was!) This is perfect and Greta (4) LOVES cream cheese so all the better. I’ll sneak in some sprinkles that day. 😉 Thanks again.
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