easter nests

I was looking for something fun and Easter-y to do with Kort this afternoon,
and turned to the trusty Miss Nigela Lawson.
I wasn't disappointed.
{Neither was he.}
These were so much fun to make.
All you need is this:

1. Shredded Wheat. I LOVED going to the supermarket and locating the big biscuit versions of these. The nostalgia was all but overwhelming. I was instantly 8 years old again and transported back to my grandparent's home in Marysvale, Utah. I remember Papa {my grandfather} eating them for breakfast. I also remember ME eating them for breakfast because I wanted to be grown up, and sophisticated like Papa was. Mine, however, had about 4 tablespoons of sugar sprinkled on top to make those icky biscuits palatable.

So, I guess I wasn't so distinguished after all.

Flash forward twenty-two years later and you'll find, I'm not much better! Now, instead of a few spoonfuls of table sugar, I'm saturating them in milk chocolate.

2. Milk chocolate chips. {Of course, you can go with semi-sweet or bitter if you're all grown up and such, but as for me - I like my chocolate as sweet as it can get!}

3. Cadbury's Chocolate Eggs.
{Oh be still my heart, how I love those little pastel delights.}

Okay, listen up, this is where it gets complicated...or not so much:

1. Melt the chips {via microwave or stove top, whatever floats your boat.}
2. Smush up the shredded wheat biscuits and sprinkle them into the chocolate. {I used a bag of choc. chips and three biscuits, but you can just play around until it's the consistency you prefer. Not a big fan of rules up in here.}
3. Stir.
4. Plop by the spoonful onto parchment and shape into little nests.
5. Decorate with lil' eggs {Having tried your darndest not to have eaten all of them already by this point.}

I think they are just so darn kitschy and charming.


These were so easy and rewarding, but I gotta be honest.
Chocolate? Not my fave.
So we decided to play around with some other options.

Like peanut butter. 

Mmmmmmm.

So we took these:

1. Chow mein noodles

2. Peanut butter chips

3. Cadbury eggs.

and made these:


The peanut butter melts kinda funny.
You have to just let it sit in the pot
{on low, low heat}
and NOT stir and just let it melt.

Strange.




Then I dumped in some chow mein noodles
{totally just eyeballed it}
and stirred.

These were a little more dry and crumbly,

but man are they delicious.

{Says the peanut butter lover}.

I am going to try a different peanut butter recipe that I have used for peanut butter rice crispy treats, and see if those aren't a little more gooey and mold-able. I will let you know if I try...and if they are... and such...

And finally, for my absolute favorite of the nesty test kitchen experiments,
My own personal Arc Du Triumph....



Pretzels with white chocolate and cinnamon!!!!




These make the most chunky, random nests of the bunch, but they are also the yummiest. I crushed some of the pretzels and left others whole to give it some different textures, and sprinkled a cinnamon/sugar mixture into the pot as I stirred.

These are sinful.

I ate almost all of them all by my lone.

Aren't they just so twiggy looking?
Kinda fun.



So anyway, it was fun to try some new spins on an old favorite.
Let me know if you make them with your kiddos!

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