Banana Pizza

Hey guys, it's Christina.
So by the title of this post, you are probably already thinking "EWWW BANANAS ON PIZZA?!?!?!" But this recipe isn't actually bananas on a pizza, don't worry. Here;s what you need.

1 banana (if you're serving 2 people with small bananas, do two bananas. Got yourself
a big banana? you can split this dish with someone)
Chocolate Chips (just grab the whole bag, but you won't be using all of them)
Peanut butter
A butter knife

First, peel and slice your banana, like this:

Lay them down like this:

Get your knife and spread some peanut butter over the top of the banana pieces. If you don't really love peanut butter (like me), you can just dab some on the top.

Open your bag of chocolate chips. take out a handful, and drop two onto each banana slice.

I like to cheat sometimes, and if the banana slice is thicker than the others or there's a lot of peanut butter on it, I put 3 chocolate chips! Sorry, but I have to have a little bit of hard food with the squishy stuff.

So you've put chocolate chips on every banana, and now you just stick them on a plate, and eat it with your fingers! It's soooo good!

A Little Birdie Told Me...

This recipie for bird nest snacks is from http://sunscholars.blogspot.com/2011/03/welcome-spring-bird-nest-snacks.html. I absolutely could not resist posting... but just remember, this isn't my cooking tutorial!
 - Annie
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Are you ready for spring?

I am not only ready... I'm getting impatient!

Here is a fun and simple treat you and your kids can make that I'm sure you'll all enjoy!

Adorable!  Don't you think??

These are so simple to whip up!

Ingredients:

-  2 Cups Chinese Noodles

-  1 Cup Rice Krispies Cereal

-  1 Cup Mini Marshmallows

-  1 Pkg. Butterscotch Chips

-  Peeps

-  Jellybeans or other Egg-shaped Treat

-  Wax Paper

Directions:

Step 1

Empty the butterscotch chips into a microwave safe bowl.  Follow the package directions to melt them, mixing them until smooth.

Here is mine after it's first minute in the microwave at 70% power.  I stirred, and put it in for another session.

I was melting the butterscotch chips while my son helped with this step..

Step 2.

In a separate bowl, measure out your Chinese Noodles.... 2 cups

Add 1 cup of Rice Krispies cereal.  You might need to taste them to make sure they are good.  Wesley gave his approval.

Pour the noodle and cereal mix into the melted butterscotch chips.

Add your marshmallows, and gently stir until everything is well coated with the melted butterscotch chips.

Step 3

Drop a large spoonful of the mixture onto a baking sheet lined with wax paper.  Try to mash down the middle and build up the sides to look like a nest.

Step 4

Add a little birdie (peep) and a few eggs to each nest.  It may be hard to resist them at this point.  Luckily... they just need to set for a bit so the butterscotch can harden.  Set them aside on the counter and they will be ready in a matter of minutes!

And there you have it!

SOOOO Cute!

And let me add, very yummy!

This recipe made 6 bird nests.  You could make them much smaller, getting more from a batch, and omitting the Peeps... so you'd just have little nests with a few eggs.  I just couldn't resist using the Peeps.

Pineapple Popsicle

Christina here. So I made these Pineapple Popsicles for my birthday a few years ago. Here's what you need:

Smucker's Magic Shell Chocolate
Pineapple Rings
Strawberrys with the green leaves cut off
Wooden Skewers
A freezer

First, cut the leaves off of your strawberries. Get out a pineapple ring and dip the top half of it into the Magic-Shell chocolate. It will harden into a shell quickly. Now, nestle the strawberry in the hole of the pineapple ring and stick the skewer through the whole thing. Place it on a cookie sheet. When you have dipped and skewered all the pineapples, put the cookie sheet in the freezer. I haven't made these in a REALLY long time, so I don't remember how long. Just keep checking them and when you think they're ready, take them out! You've got a chocolate-covered pineapple popsicle.

*Note: I am not sure if the cookie sheet you place the pineapple rings on is supposed to have wax paper on it, so check and make sure they won't stick to the pan.

Peanut Butter WAFFLE Time?

This is just one incredibly easy and scrumptious recipe I have come up with!
You Will Need:

• Waffles (I buy them frozen and just pop them in the toaster oven).
• Peanut butter.
• A butter-knife.
• A cold glass of orange juice... Yum.

1. Once your waffles are toasted, baked - whatever - plop them onto a plate.
2. Open your peanut butter and pull out your butter-knife. Dip the butter-knife into the peanut butter and begin to spread onto the waffle.

3. Once your peanut butter has been spread, it's time to eat! Pour your orange juice and enjoy!

Just FYI...

Here's a little info about this blog.

The Zest Factor is run by two people: Annie and Christina. We are close friends, and we have so much fun together. We created this blog to talk about cooking because, lets face it, making cute little snacks and stuff is FUN!!!! So now we blog about it. Both of us will be posting and editing this blog. Thanks for checking in and I hope you enjoy our cooking blog!!

A Rainforest Snack!

I was reading a magazine and I found this awesome recipe. It's pretty simple and it would be great for a party snack.

Tiger Tails

What you need:
Pretzel Rods
Orange-colored candy melts (found in the baking section of a craft store)
Chocolate Chips
Butter
Wax paper

Melt your orange candy melts in the microwave. Dip each pretzel rod into the melted candy, but leave room for someone to hold the pretzel. Make as many as you need, then place them on wax paper. Get out a new bowl and melt a 1/2  cup of chocolate chips and a 1/2 cup of butter together in the microwave. Use a spoon to drizzle the melted chocolate onto the orange part of the pretzel sticks to make stripes.