Holiday Party Series Part 1 (Casual)……

I am super excited right now to bring you the first post in Amanda and my three-part Holiday Party series. The author of the blog Amanda-Bella and I are partnering together to bring you the best of the fashion, and food, world. Over the next three weeks we will be posting collaborative posts each Monday guiding you through some holiday craziness. She will be giving you tips on how to dress for three different party types and I will be helping you with recipes for each type of party. This is going to be a blast, get ready for some Christmas fun!

 

 

This week we are covering the casual, family/friend, holiday party. I thought it would be fun to give a super simple recipe that everyone will love, even the kids. When you are hosting a party it is kind of fun to give everyone a little love by sending them each home with a little gift, a party favor if you will. This isn’t anything expensive, or super technical, but it is homemade, and shows how much you appreciated them joining you for your holiday festivities. Semi- sweet chocolate covered pretzels with white chocolate stripes.

Could you get a bag of Flips? Of course! But they wouldn’t taste as good, they wouldn’t look as good, and they wouldn’t show off your creativity and love. 😉

 

I thought about using little boxes, but I like gifts that are reusable, so I decided to use Christmas coffee mugs. Between the coffee mugs, the pretzels, chocolate, and the ribbon you will be spending less than $2.00 per person. The Dollar Store has so many cute Christmas mugs and ribbon that you just can’t go wrong. Each dollar bag of pretzels makes 8 ½ servings and each bag of chocolate chips will cover 3 gift servings of pretzels. You could even go all out and do a more expensive chocolate if you’d like. I did a pretty thick coating leaving the two servings of pretzels per cup at 494 calories per serving (It’s Christmas! 😉 ) and they taste sooooo good. You can tell the difference between these and store bought. If you want to thin the chocolate out a little bit, you can add a little extra coconut oil. (See, can we say that we are counteracting a little bit of the chocolate with good fat?)

The process isn’t that complicated, you could even get your kids to help if you want to. I’m not partial to double boilers when I’m melting chocolate so I use the microwave, but you can use a double boiler if you’d like. When you use the microwave you will need to pop it back in the microwave several times while you are dipping your pretzels as it cools. *I found the easiest way was to drop the pretzels into the chocolate and spoon chocolate over the top of the pretzels and using a butter knife, or skewer, to place through one of the holes in the pretzel (unless you are using pretzel sticks.) and let the pretzel drip as you use another knife to pop the chocolate “bubble” filling the other two holes and the excess around the outside. Then just lay each one on a piece of parchment paper.

 

 

For the white chocolate I just used a Ziploc bag with a tiny hole cut in the end to drizzle the white chocolate over the top after the semi-sweet was set. I know it sounds time consuming, but the more you are doing the easier and quicker it is. Because of the coconut oil you will need to keep these in a cool place. (I use our basement for large amounts of foods that need to be cooled.) If the fridge is full you could also put a tray on the deck since it is so cold out and just bring them in as people are getting ready to leave. So, whip up some chocolate covered pretzels, show your craftiness as a hostess, sit back, relax, and enjoy your party!

Please, head over to see what Amanda has designed for your casual holiday party attire….

When celebrating the holidays with friends and family, the atmosphere tends to be much more casual + laid back. You want to feel as comfortable in your clothes as you do with your company. With that said, you should still want to look + feel your best! To kill two birds with one stone, I’ve pulled together an adorable look that’s got you covered from head to toe. It’s simple, comfortable, and festive all the same. The best part? Everything is really affordable and available at Target!

 UPDATE

If you are worried about these being just a little bit to much holiday “fun”, count a serving as 12 pretzels like the prepackaged chocolate covered pretzels take away the white chocolate chips, add 1 extra teaspoon of coconut oil to the semi sweet chocolate chips, 14 extra pretzels (Equaling 36) and you’ll be able to squeak by with 270 calories per serving. 😉

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

By Angie Gouchenour

1 Gift (2 servings)

Ingredients

22 pretzels

½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips + 1 teaspoon coconut oil

2 Tablespoons white chocolate chips + ½ teaspoon coconut oil

Directions

Melt semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 teaspoon of coconut oil in the microwave in 30 second increments

Stir until smooth

Dip pretzels and place on parchment paper *see above

Melt white chocolate chips and ½ teaspoon of coconut oil in the microwave

Stir until smooth

Place melted chocolate in a Ziploc bag and clip off the bottom corner

Carefully drizzle the white chocolate over the pretzels

Allow the chocolate to set before placing in bags (I used sandwich bags and clipped the folded part so it opened)

If you are in a hurry place the pretzels in the refrigerator so they will set up quicker

Place baggie in a mug, fill with 22 pretzels, tie the top with a mini rubber band and decorate with a bow

988 calories per gift (494 calories per serving)