A Recipe for St. Patrick's Day - with FREE Printable

While I was writing a post a few years ago about Saint Patrick's Day my husband suggested I should have added my own

 St. Patrick's Day recipe.

Really he was just thinking of his favourite

 "wee green things" 

which is his name for the

 "Peppermint Squares"

I make for him.

I have to admit they are so yummy that they are quite addictive even for me and I am not usually keen on mint.  

So I decided to put the recipe here just in case anyone else likes "wee green things".

This recipe originally came to me from Fred's Mum but the problem was my mum-in-law never measured things out accurately (you know a handful of this and a scoop of that) so I had to do that part of it myself and I think I got it perfected after a couple of years into our marriage.  (Even if it is a mixture between UK & US measurements.)

So I think it can have the 

I really should have made up a St. Patrick's Day name for them  -  maybe you can suggest one?

Don't forget to download your free printable for the recipe HERE  if you have not already subscribed to Sandra's Ark


If you have previously subscribed to Sandra's Ark then you will find the link for all my Resources in any of the emails you have received from me.


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Your Next Coffee Break - A Dose of Encouragement

Easter time two years ago.


I had 3 large Galaxy bars of chocolate which were almost out of date and I didn't know what to do with them.

Gee what a problem!!


               Eat them of course.


                                 

 But not when we were trying to lose weight & cut down on cholesterol.

       

My friend had called round the day before.


                Maybe I should have given them to her?


                                But wasn't it bad for her health too?








Maybe I should have taken them to the kids in our small Sunday School Class?


But they had already got lots of Easter Eggs from everywhere they went and should they really be eating too much chocolate?


 I know they were too young to be disciplined enough not to tuck in quickly to any chocolate they get.












Is it a sin to throw out chocolate?



                                           I don't think so.


                                                             But did I have the willpower to do it?


                                                                                       Yes, they went into the bin!


















My will power is not always this good with chocolate, is yours?



There are lots of other things in our lives that we really need to throw out but ??????????


There are things that clutter our homes.

Then there are also things that clutter our minds.

These can be very difficult to get rid of.


But as a Child of God we are not alone and when we take the first steps to decluttering our minds so that they are freer to concentrate on

the Bible Study we have been planning to start into for months,

                or the one we have started and not continued with

                                or the extra time we had planned to take to pray;



God will be ready to meet with us.

God will be ready to meet with us

Yes it is us that have the cluttered minds and are not ready.

But

My will power is not always this good, is yours?



So let me offer a little suggestion to help us get started and throw out some of this clutter from our minds.

Instead of grabbing a novel, or an ipad or even your phone when you are having your mug of coffee or tea in the middle of the morning or afternoon,

why not

Make your next coffee break time for you & God

The Real Easter Egg - You've got to try one!

Disclaimer:
I received ONE free Easter Egg to REVIEW after having purchased several others


I've had many Easter Eggs over the years but here is one that is somewhat different.

My Pastor handed me a leaflet and asked me to take a look at it and if I liked what I saw to go ahead and get some for the children in our church.

I glanced at it and left it on the kitchen worktop to read later in the week.

When I did read it I was as enthusiastic as he was and went online to order the eggs for church.


After ordering the eggs it was then agreed with the company that I would receive an egg free of charge to taste for myself and then write a review and this blog post is my honest opinion of the product.


So here are my thoughts on The Real Easter Egg.


I ordered the eggs for church online and they arrived within 2 weeks from England to Northern Ireland.

I received a rather large box showing that it is in partnership with the Charity Traidcraft (click on the picture below to find out more about this)

This is what I found on opening the box

another box was inside and it contained 6 eggs  (eggs are ordered online in groups of 6)


As you can see above each egg is 150g and these ones are milk chocolate eggs.
(on the website you can see the other types of eggs available)


The first thing I noticed was just how attractive the box was and clearly marked fairtrade which I would be glad to choose.

There is also plenty of information on the packaging as you can see below on the side, back, other side and bottom of the box.

On opening one of the eggs the top of the box revealed that there was a little more than just an egg for you to enjoy

   Included is

• A bag of Chunky Milk Chocolate Buttons.
• A Happy Easter booklet.
• A little snippet of the Easter Story from the Bible printed on the card, all before you get to your egg.

   When unwrapped I could tell the egg was quite thick and there was a textured marking over it as you can see in the picture below

    Well because I did not want to eat too much chocolate (you know folks I am trying to keep off the weight), I decided that I would share this egg with my husband Fred and son Daniel who were sitting watching a rugby match on the television.

The advantage also is that we could have 3 opinions here instead of just the 1.

     So did it pass the test?

     Not just one test we had four!

NUMBER 1

How would it break?

Firm pieces or crumble up too much?

The picture above shows not too much crumbling  -  GOOD!

NUMBER 2

The initial taste test - too sweet?  not sweet enough?  or just right?

These two intrepid tasters said "pretty good".



NUMBER 3

The silly (but can be very important) melting test - does it melt too quickly?

You can see by the picture above they proved it passed this one too.




NUMBER 4

Finally the all important - does it go well with the tea and coffee test?

And the result was?

YES

It passed all four tests.

Then I had to be quick to grab a picture as they started into the buttons (and I was warned by these two guys to tell you that they really are chunky).

Because very quickly everything was gone, but yes I did get two buttons and another bit of egg before they were leaving me an empty tray to take away.

How to get The Real Easter Egg.

If you want to buy an egg and get a surprise then do not read any further or look at any more pictures just simply go buy the egg and enjoy it - I did and my two guys really did.

You can buy the eggs at various shops within the UK
(click on the map below to find a shop near you)

Or click on the online link below to order from the website

Now for the SPOILER

If you want to know exactly what you are buying to give to someone else then read on.

Inside the box we already saw there was a Happy Easter Booklet.

A nice decoration for any child's room.


But turn it around and we have the Easter Story

followed by some information about eggs and an Easter Quiz

and finished off with a recipe for Easter Biscuits

So Here we have other activities to enjoy after the egg has been eaten.



CONCLUSION

Definitely much more than the usual Easter Eggs we buy for our children, our grandchildren, or the children of friends.

We were very happy to eat it and give them as gifts.

Each year the booklet inside the egg will be different so each year we can continue to buy these eggs and know that the recipients will have more than an egg to enjoy.

I love chocolate but I also really love the way this focuses on 

The Real Meaning of Easter 

and not just on chocolate.

If you wish to know more or to buy some of these eggs then click on over to The Real Easter Egg website via the picture below

If you wish to read the latest news about The Real Easter Egg Campaign then click on the picture below

UPDATE

The Real Easter Egg is just as good each year and of course has different story content etc. inside.

Disclaimer:

I received ONE free Easter Egg to REVIEW and I will NOT benefit in any way from any purchases any of my readers will make.