Recipe – MinnieVanMom

Minnie Mouse Bow Strawberries

Published on January 22, 2021 by LeslieLeave a comment

Today is National Polka Dot Day, and I figured there was no better way to celebrate than by making a fun recipe inspired by my favorite polka dot wearing mouse, Minnie. These candy-covered strawberry bows will be a hit for anyone who loves Minnie Mouse as much as I do.

Minnie Mouse Bow Strawberries

You Will Need:

Strawberries

Red Candy Melts

White Chocolate Chips

Toothpicks

Wax Paper

Directions

Rinse the strawberries and pat dry. Remove the stems and leaves and then slice each strawberry in half lengthwise.

Place the halved strawberries point to point and connect them using a toothpick (they should look like a bow).

Melt red candy melts according to package directions. Carefully dip the bow shaped strawberries into the red candy melts.

Set candy covered strawberries on wax paper. Before the candy hardens, place white chocolate chip “polka dots” on strawberries. Allow candy coating to harden and enjoy!

Cheers to our girl, Minnie, and all things polka dots!

Sending love and magic.

Happy Haunt Pudding Cups

Published on October 21, 2020October 24, 2020 by Leslie1 Comment

Halloween is getting closer, and I still have so much fun to cram into these next nine days! We have gone back and forth about what we will do on Halloween but have decided that we will have a small get together at our house rather than Trick-Or-Treating. We plan to invite my family over, play games in the backyard, and eat lots of yummy food (I also plan on putting out packaged bags of Halloween Candy for trick-or-treater in case we have any). Today I wanted to share a simple, silly recipe that I plan on making for Halloween “party”, Happy Haunt Pudding Cups.

There are two steps to making this cute pudding cup, first, you will need to make your Mickey Mouse Ghosts. You can make these ghosts in advance and have them ready to go. Once the ghosts are complete, the pudding cups take just minutes to assemble.

Mickey Mouse Ghosts

happy-haunt-1 Download

White Card Stock

Flat Toothpicks

Glue Stick

Open the “happy haunt” PDF above the Mickey Mouse Ghosts and print out this PDF on white card stock. Carefully cut out each ghost. On the back of each ghost, spread some glue with a clue stick, place a flat toothpick, and a small second sheet of scrap paper. Allow the ghosts to dry for an hour.

Now that you have your cute Mickey Ghosts prepared set them aside while you make you get your pudding cups together.

Happy Haunt Pudding Cups

Food Coloring Pen

Milano Cookies

Crushed Oreos (crushed in a food processor or crush in a Ziploc bag)

Pudding Cups

Candy Pumpkins

Mickey Ghosts

Your Milano cookies will be your “tombstones.” I first planned to write on these with icing, but I found this awesome food coloring pen on Amazon and made decorating the cookies easy. You can write whatever you want on each tombstone; I just went with a simple “RIP.”

Remove the lid off of each pudding cup, and top with a scoop of crushed Oreos. Press one Milano cookie “tombstone” into the pudding cup. Add candy pumpkins and Mickey Ghosts to each pudding cup. Enjoy!

I love that you can make these pudding cups for a party, and they can sit out looking cute but won’t ruin. My husband and daughter gobbled these pudding cups up and are excited that I am remaking these cute snacks for Halloween.

Sending love and magic.

Spiderweb Mickey Pretzel Treats

Published on October 13, 2020October 14, 2020 by LeslieLeave a comment

Here is another quick and easy Halloween recipe for you! This is the perfect recipe to make with little ones and it’s delicious too.

Spiderweb Mickey Pretzel Treats

Waffle Cut Pretzels

Hershey’s Kisses

M&M’s

Mini M&M’s

White Chocolate Bar

Preheat your oven to 250°F. Cover a sheet pan in parchment paper and lay out waffle cut pretzels. Remove wrapper from each Hershey Kiss and place one Hershey Kiss on each pretzel that you have laid out. Place sheet pan in oven and bake for 3-4 minutes (or until Kisses are starting to melt).

Remove sheet pan from oven and top with 1 regular sized M&M and 2 Mini M&M’s in the shape of a Mickey Mouse. Once all pretzels have their M&M’s, place sheet tray in the freezer for 20-30 minutes. Remove pretzels from the freezer. Melt down your white chocolate in the microwave. Using a spoon, drizzle melted white chocolate over each pretzel. Enjoy!

My daughter and I had so much fun making this delicious treat together, and she had so much fun eating them up. I think we will add this to the list of snacks we will make for Halloween night.

Sending love and magic.

Mickey Halloween Chocolate Bark

Published on October 6, 2020October 6, 2020 by Leslie1 Comment

Spooky season is officially here! I don’t know about you, but I love celebrating every holiday with exciting decorations, silly meals, and fun snacks. I am finally starting to decorate and prepare my home for Halloween, and today I wanted to share a cute and easy recipe for Mickey Halloween Chocolate Bark.

Last time I was at Disney World, I grabbed some bags of their Mickey Mouse pretzels and brought them home with me. I didn’t know what to use them for, but I realized they would be perfect for this treat. If you can’t find Mickey Mouse pretzels, have no fear, you can use any type of pretzel for this recipe!

Mickey Halloween Chocolate Bark

2 Baker’s Creamy Milk Chocolate Bars

1 Ghirardelli White Chocolate Bar

Candy Corn

Halloween Sprinkles

Pretzels

Start by breaking the milk chocolate bars into pieces and placing them in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 30-second increments, stirring in between. Once the chocolate is completely melted, pour onto a cookie sheet lined with wax paper or a silicone baking dish (I used silicone, it made the chocolate removal much easier). Top with candy corn, sprinkles, and pretzels.

Set chocolate in your fridge for 30 minutes. Once the chocolate bark is set, remove from the refrigerator and cut or break into pieces. Melt white chocolate in the microwave in 30-second increments, stirring in between. Once the white chocolate is completely melted, drizzle over cut chocolate bark. Return to the fridge and cool for another 15-20 minutes. Enjoy!

This Mickey Halloween Chocolate Bark is the perfect Halloween treat for everyone! It is silly and yummy and makes me so excited for Halloween. I can’t wait to share even more spooky snacks and meals with you this month, so stay tuned.

Sending love and magic.

Disney Dinner & A Movie Night: Moana

Published on September 11, 2020September 12, 2020 by LeslieLeave a comment

Today I am sharing all of the fun details of our Moana Movie Night (and “what can I say except you’re welcome”). When Moana came out in theaters, my husband and I rushed to see it and fell in love with the story and the music. We immediately bought the soundtrack, and it has been some of our favorite Disney music. Ironically, my daughter has heard the soundtrack many times, but has never seen the movie!

Moana is such a precious movie about a Polynesian Village Chief’s daughter, who sets out on a voyage across the ocean to return the Heart of Te Fiti. Although her family is against her going on this adventure, she knows she must do it to save her village. My daughter is smart, fearless, and somewhat defiant (kind of like Moana), so I hoped she would love Moana.

When it came to our meal, I had a lot of ideas. Maybe something tropical? Or a recipe from Disney’s Polynesian Resort? In the end, I went with a simple dinner that made our tummies happy. I saw cute croissant sandwiches on Pinterest that looked like crabs, and they inspired me to make our own “Tamatoa Turkey & Swiss Sandwiches.” (If you didn’t know, Tamatoa is the crab that Moana meets along their journey to return the Heart of Te Fiti). I added some Goldfish crackers as the side.

While shopping for our meal’s ingredients at the grocery store, I found a “personal watermelon” (I didn’t even know this was a thing). I bought the little watermelon, cut it in half, scooped out the inside, and cut the inside into pieces. I added the watermelon pieces into one half of the empty watermelon and mixed in some pineapple pieces. Finally, I took a piece of paper, a red marker, and a skewer and made a sail for our “watermelon boat.” This watermelon boat was an enjoyable side dish to make (and it looked so cute).

For our dessert, I came up with this “Heart of Te Fiti” Cookie recipe I wanted to share it with you.

Heart of Te Fiti Cookies

Store Bought Sugar Cookies (or homemade if you’re feeling adventurous)

Whipped Vanilla Frosting

Green Food Coloring

Yellow Food Coloring

Green Decorating Icing

Green Sanding Sugar

Add two drops of yellow food coloring and four drops of green food coloring to the tub of whipped vanilla frosting. Mix well until frosting is a lime green color. Spread lime green frosting on top of each sugar cookie. With the green decorating icing, pipe a swirl in the middle of each cookie. Top with green sanding sugar and enjoy!

The Heart of Te Fiti cookies might not look perfect, but they were the perfect way to end up our dinner.

We loved watching this movie as a family, and my daughter loved twirling around inside (and outside) to the music from Moana in her Island Princess Dress from Little Adventures. These dresses have been the best for our Disney Movie Nights because my when daughter inevitably spills food all over them (like green frosting from cookies), I can throw the dress in the washing machine and it comes out good as new! Check out these beautiful dresses and use code “MVM15” to save 15% at checkout.

I think this was an effortless dinner night that was full of magic and fun. I am looking forward to next week already!

Sending love and magic.

Disney Dinner & A Movie Night: Inside Out

Published on September 5, 2020 by Leslie1 Comment

I know that I usually have many cute pictures of my daughter for our movie nights, but full disclosure, the terrible twos are starting in our home, and she has been acting more like Disgust and less like Joy. So with emotions running high, I thought that Inside Out would be the perfect movie to watch this week!

Inside Out is such a cute Pixar Movie about the different emotions we feel over time. It follows Riley, an 11-year-old, as she tries to navigate significant life changes. I truly forgot how much I love this movie and how funny it is. It was the perfect movie for our Disney Dinner & A Movie Night.

Of course, there was only one thing I could make for this meal, and that was broccoli pizza.

As you can imagine, my husband was not excited about the idea of broccoli pizza, but to our shock, it was delicious!

Inside Out Broccoli Pizza

White Sauce

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

2 teaspoons garlic powder

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Roasted Broccoli

1 head of broccoli

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Pizza

1 cup white sauce

1 cup roasted broccoli

1 ready made pizza crust (I used a frozen ready made pizza crust)

3 slices provolone cheese

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Prepare White Sauce: Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Once butter is melted, stir in flour and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add garlic powder. Add parmesan cheese and stir until cheese is melted. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set white sauce aside.

Prepare Broccoli: Cut head of broccoli into smaller pieces. Toss broccoli in olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. Set broccoli aside.

Prepare Pizza: Spread an even layer of white sauce on your pizza crust. Space out and place your three pieces of provolone cheese. Sprinkle half of your mozzarella cheese over the pizza. Add broccoli. Sprinkle parmesan cheese and remaining mozzarella on top. Bake pizza in a preheated 425 degree oven for 8 minutes or until cheese is bubbly. Enjoy!

We all agreed that the broccoli pizza was super yummy and had the same flavors of broccoli cheese soup. It is something I would definitely make again in the future! As a side, we had a “Mixed Emotions” Fruit Salad made of blueberries, purple grapes, green grapes, and maraschino cherries. This fruit salad was my daughter’s favorite part of the meal.

For dessert, we had “Core Memory” Cake Balls. I made these using Funfetti Cake Mix, vanilla frosting, and Candy Melts to make these cute cake balls. We gobbled them all up before the night was over.

My favorite part of the night was watching my daughter enjoy the movie so much! She has been indifferent about most Classic Disney Movies but really seems to love Pixar movies. We might have to watch another Pixar movie next week.

Sending love and magic.

Recipe: No Way Jose Sundae from Beaches & Cream

Published on July 13, 2020 by LeslieLeave a comment

Nestled between Disney’s Beach Club and Yacht Club Resorts you will find a hidden gem called Beaches & Cream Soda Shop. If you have never heard of this place it is the cutest little diner with some of the best “All-American” food and ice cream. If you have heard of this place, it’s probably because of the Kitchen Sink Ice Cream Challenge.

While The Kitchen Sink is over the top and amazing, one of my favorite sundaes you can get at Beaches & Cream is the No Way Jose. This sundae is full of hot fudge, peanut butter, and deliciousness (and calories, if we’re being honest). A few weeks ago, we remade this sundae at home and I wanted to share the recipe with you.

To make this recipe, you will need:

1 cup of peanut butter

1/2 cup of hot fudge

3 scoops chocolate ice cream

3 scoops vanilla ice cream

2 tablespoons chocolate chips

2 tablespoons peanut butter chips

whipped cream

cherry

Use microwave or double boiler to heat peanut butter. Heat hot fudge sauce. Put a couple spoonfuls of warm peanut butter and warm hot fudge in the bottom of your bowl. Add scoops of vanilla and chocolate ice cream. Top ice cream with more peanut butter and hot fudge. Add whipped cream. Don’t forget the cherry on top.

I hope you love this recipe as much as I do. If you make this sundae for yourself, leave a comment below and let me know how you liked it!

Sending love and magic.

Recipe: Mickey Mouse Munch

Published on July 9, 2020 by LeslieLeave a comment

I always try to find ways to make some Disney magic at home and today I’m sharing one of my favorite Mickey Mouse inspired recipes. If you like to have a mix of salty and sweet snacks, then you will love this easy treat!

For this recipe you will need:

1 bag of buttered popcorn

1 cup of pretzel sticks

1 cup of mini Oreo cookies

1 cup of M&Ms

To start, you will pop your buttered popcorn. When that’s ready, add your pretzel sticks and Oreos and give the mix a good stir with a spoon. Once that is mixed, sprinkle in the M&Ms.

Finally, play the Mickey Mouse March, grab a handful of Mickey Mouse Munch and enjoy! I hope you love this recipe as much as I do.

Sending love and magic.

Recipe: The Lion King Grub Brownie Bites

Published on June 29, 2020June 29, 2020 by LeslieLeave a comment

Does anyone else think that food in animated movies looks really yummy? When I was a kid, I always thought that the bugs and worms that Pumba and Timon eat in The Lion King looked really appetizing, which is funny to think about now. Here is my fun twist on making my own bugs to eat.

Grub Brownie Bites

Brownie Bites (or brownies baked and cut into small squares)

Chocolate Graham Crackers

Chocolate Frosting

Gummy Bugs (I used worms and butterflies)

First, crush your graham crackers into small crumbles. Next, spread chocolate frosting on your brownies and then top with the graham cracker crumbles. Finally, top your brownies with gummy bugs and enjoy!

I hope you love these buggy brownies as much as we do. Hakuna Matata!

Sending love and magic.