A few weeks ago, I attended the annual Stop & Shop bloggers holiday lunch at Upstairs on the Square. Stop & Shop graciously provided lunch and a gift card, and offered activity stations so we could learn how to create some fabulous gifts on a budget.
The pretzel rod station appeared to be the most popular – check out the attached with directions on how to create a reasonably priced, delicious gift.
Another holiday gift idea is dry mix jars – we had the choice of making either a soup mix, or a chocolate chip cookie mix. Guess which one I choose?
Here are the recipes for those (courtesy of Allrecipes.com – a 360PR client).
Country Soup Dry Mix
Ingredients:
1/2 cup barley
1/2 cup dried split peas
1/2 cup uncooked white rice
1/2 cup dry lentils
2 tablespoons dried minced onion
2 tablespoons dried parsley
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper
2 tablespoons beef bouillon granules
1/2 cup uncooked alphabet pasta
1 cup uncooked twist macaroni
Directions:
In a wide mouth 1 quart jar, layer in the following order:
• Half of the uncooked twist macaroni
• Barely
• Peas
• Rice
• Lentils
• Onion,
• Parsley,
• Salt,
• Lemon Pepper
• Bouillon
• Alphabet Pasta
Fill the rest of the jar with the twist macaroni. Seal tightly and decorate with ribbon. Attach gift card.
Chocolate Chip Cookies Dry Mix
Ingredients:
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup white sugar
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
Directions:
1. Combine the flour, baking soda, white sugar.
2. Place 1/2 of the mixture in a clean quart sized glass jar, and pack firmly.
3. Place the brown sugar on top, again packing firmly.
4. Place the remaining flour mixture on top and pack firmly.
5. Place the chocolate chips on top.
6. Seal tightly.
7. Decorate with ribbon, attach gift card and baking decorations.
We also created beautiful flower arrangements – they added fresh cranberries to the water, so that it added fall color through the glass vases. They looked really professional and expensive, but at a fraction of the cost.
Stop & Shop has a great holiday promotion when you shop with a Stop & Shop rewards card – you can get a % off any grocery offer the more you spend! Learn more in the store!
Disclosure: Stop & Shop provided lunch, the activity stations, and a gift card.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow the chocolate pretzels look soooooo yummy!
aaron shaw phd´s last blog ..Baby Animals of the Day! Baby Camel!
Thank you for sharing the recipe. I was looking for more gift ideas that i can make as this year i homemade all the gifts like bath frizz, bath salts, cookies and etc .This is a delicious gift that i can make to add to the rest of the gifts
Thanks again
spagiftbaskets´s last blog ..Over the Hill 40th Bouquet of Cookies