Easter was always my favourite holiday. The night before I would drift off with a tingling in my tummy over the mystery of how a huge furry bunny was going to be quiet as a mouse and deposit a basket of goodies right beside my bed!

Santa made you get up an go to the tree but good ole' EB did all the work for you.

"How did I not hear him?" I would always ask.
"And thank goodness he doesn't use the chimney or else his fur would get all sooty!"

Old School Easter Basket: Servings: 1 Cost: About: $4.99 (but you'll have 18 delicious Devilish eggs for only few cents more tomorrow!)
1 Basket
2 bags Deluxe Imports Easter Grass
1 box Paas Easter Egg Colouring Kit
Citrovita white vinegar
9 white Farm Fresh eggs
1 kid (may be substituted with one still inside of you:)

I will admit that even for a die hard manipulator of 99 Cent Only Store Ingredients, I too have disasters. I racked my brain for a good St. Patty's Day gimmick and finally settled on making cookies. A little lame but at least it would be there for the holiday, or so I thought. My idea? To frost pre-made sugar cookies and then using sour apple gummie straws, form little four leaf clovers to adorn each of the treats. Unfortunately, as soon as I would get a little clover on one cookie, the previously made clover popped out of shape and I was left with a bunch of cut up green bits with their only reference to St. Patrick's Day being that they were green. Arghhh! I tried using a flame to "weld" the ends together but instead just burned my sticky fingers. I am sure that there is a way but time was of the essence.
So after cursing my failure, I gave the holiday some thought. It is my opinion that most people celebrate St. Patrick's Day with copious amounts of Ale and I began to empathize with the hundreds of hangovers that would shadow March 18th.
So here is my solution, delicious Chocolate Chunck French Toast with Virgin Irish Cream to soak up any remaining alcohol still swimming in your system. We tested it this morning and all I can say is "Yum!"
Hope you try it and like it.

Yields:
2 servings (4 slices) Cost: About $1.35 per serving
Ingredients:
French Toast
1 Forttuna Choco Chunk loaf/cake
2 Farm Fresh eggs
1/2 cup Dairy Ranch Fresh milk
1/2 teaspoon Molina Vanilla extract
1 plus tablespoon Danish Creamery butter, for cooking
C&W Powdered sugar, for garnish
Virgin Irish Coffee Cream
1/2 can Challenge Non-Dairy Dessert Topping
1 Tablespoon Via Roma instant espresso

Instructions:
1.Unwrap the mini cake and turn it on its side. Cut into 4 equal rounds.
2. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs milk and vanilla.
3. Melt about 1 tablespoon of butter in a large frying pan.
4. Thoroughly soak each cake round in the egg mixture and place in the fry pan.
5. Cook 2-3 minutes on each side, until golden brown.
6. While the toast is cooking, empty about half the can of non dairy topping into a bowl and mix in the instant espresso.
7. Place 2 pieces of the toast on 2 plates and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
8. Serve the coffee cream on the side.

Just in time for Valentines Day!
Whether you are full of expectations or hoping the day will pass unnoticed, these cupcakes look and taste amazing.
And when your are gazing at one of these little beauties there is no painful risk when you utter the words "Will you be mine?"

Yields:
12 cupcakes, 12 mini cupcakes + 2 all strawberry cupcakes. Cost: About .30 per servinig
Ingredients:
1 Box Pillsbury Moist Supreme Dark Chocolate cake mix,
1 Box Pillsbury Moist Supreme Strawberry cake mix
7 ounces Baker's semi-sweet dipping chocolate buttons
(peruse the candy and holiday aisles if there are no semi sweet morsels, 7 ounces of any chopped up chocolate will do!)
6 Farm Fresh eggs
2/3 cup Hain vegetable oil
1-14.5 can Sunny Farms strawberries in light syrup
Instructions:
1.Prepare cake batter according to box instructions.
2. Either coat the muffin tins with Pur cooking spray or line each with paper cups or parchment squares.
3. Fill each a little more than half way with the dark chocolate cake batter.
5. Divvy up the chocolate morsels. I used 2-3 for the regular cupcakes and 1-2 for the minis.
6. Top each cupcakes with the strawberry cake batter coming to top of form.
7. Place in oven and cook until 5 minutes away from done. (This is because if you don't wait until the batter is slightly cooked, your strawberry slices will sink in like quicksand! I discovered this the hard way.)
8. While the cupcakes are baking, drain strawberries and cut in half lengthwise. (They will resemble little hearts.)
9. Remove the cupcakes before they are finished and place a strawberry slice
- outside face down - in the center of each cupcake and return to oven.
10. Bake until done (i.e. -toothpick comes out clean)