I really hate wasting things. I'm a packrat, saving containers, wrappings, and bits and pieces of things to use for some future craft project. It drives my husband crazy. I'm the same with food. I hate to waste food. To me, any food we throw away is like money thrown out. I take leftovers and recreate it into something new all the time.
When we had a Halloween sleepover a few days ago, the kiddos made some tasty spooktacular treats. Even after I made a sweet and salty popcorn mix, using some of the extra colored candy coatings, there was more candy left in the cups. I of course, did not want this to be thrown out (plus it's a pain to clean out of the cups). I also had more left over candy, googly eyes and sprinkles. I knew I had to use it all up somehow. I decided a batch of bark was in order.
I lined a cookie sheet with wax paper. I melted each color of candy coating and dropped it on the wax paper randomly, making sure the colors overlapped. Then I took a fork and ran it through the coating, mixing and swirling it a little but, making sure not to mix it so much the colors blending together (turning them into a yucky color). I made sure it was spread out.
Then I took the rest of the googly eyes and candy and placed it all over the bark. Next up sprinkles! I cold have let it set out to harden, but I'm too impatient. I stuck the cookie sheet in the frig, and it was hard in no time. Then I broke it up in pieces. The hubs laid claim to it and has been snacking on it for days now!
This is another one of those treats you can make your own, using colors for any party. I think this is going to be my go-to treat every time I have left over candy coating. I really hate cleaning the cups of coating out once it hardens, and I don't like to waste it.. I made sure to scape out everything I could from the cups, so I was able to put them right in the dishwasher, making clean-up a breeze, plus we got another treat out of the deal (not that we really needed it, but...). I think that's a win-win!
