Create Family Memories with Lucky Charms Pops

May 4, 2016 Margalit Sturm Francus

As a Parent of two sons, one of which has autism, I have always been on the lookout for any sensory, fun and educational activities to create family memories and enhance bonding. I also have always kept in mind activities that would help my son’s overall fine motor coordination.

One of the biggest challenges that we faced as a family was that we traveled quite often, and our son with autism naturally joined us. We noticed that he was very enthusiastic about touching various textures and surfaces in nearly every place we’ve traveled to. We were not always in an environment where touching was possible or safe, so in an effort to give him a tactile outlet, I turned to food as a motivator. I have to say that it worked like a charm.

Our son even’ let go’ off his sensory defenses and agreed to touch all sorts of things that under normal circumstances he would refuse to. We were amazed to see that anything; even the sticky and gooey messes didn’t deter him, as long as he could enjoy the end product as something edible later.

How our tradition started.

The very first recipe that we tried in our family was actually in a self-catering Timeshare apartment in Hawaii over a decade ago. On a rainy afternoon when the kids were bored and getting antsy, I decided to try out my friend’s recipe for non-bake granola pops to see how my son would do after purchasing a family sized box at our local Walmart store.

As he is an avid fan of Lucky Charms Cereal because of the marshmallows and shapes, and peanut butter we always made sure we had an extra box and jar with us. My friend’s recipe originally called for dates, but I substituted the granola and dates for my son’s favorite cereal and peanut butter; which seemed would be perfect for my experiment.

The afternoon turned out to be a huge success because both of our kids tried their hands at it.

They loved mixing the sticky mess made by warm peanut butter and sugar, then adding the cereal in, molding the balls, dipping them in chocolate and of course eating them.
They didn’t even mind the waiting time for the pops to set in the fridge.

It was so successful in fact that this became somewhat of a family tradition with us.To this day, we still carry a Family sized Lucky Charms box with us every time we go on a road trip together or know we will stay in a timeshare.

This week El Día de Los Niños, which is The Day of the Child, is celebrated in Mexico and in honor of this special day, I’m sharing this recipe with you so in turn your family can create wonderful memories with your family. If you are looking for additional inspiration there are delicious recipes on the quericavida website and on this Día de Los Niños Pinterest Board you can try.

Recipe for Lucky Charm No-bake Pops

*You will need a working stove top and refrigerator for this recipe.

The ingredients:

1 cup light corn syrup

1 cup sugar

1 ¼ cups peanut butter

6 cups Lucky Charms cereal

1 bag (12 oz) white chocolate chips (2 cups),

1 bag (12 oz ) dark chocolate chips 2 cups

32 Lollipop sticks

Directions

In a 4- to 5-quart Dutch oven, heat corn syrup and sugar to boiling over medium-high heat, stirring constantly.
Cook until sugar is dissolved; remove from heat. Add 1 cup of the peanut butter; stir until smooth.

When it is cold to the touch, add Lucky Charm cereal; mix well. Grease a baking tray.
Break off walnut-sized portions of the Lucky Charm mixture, roll into a ball and place on the baking tray.

Have water in a saucer to prevent your hands from getting sticky while working with the mix.
Place a lollipop stick upright into the middle of each ball. Place the tray in the fridge for half an hour.

In a 2-quart saucepan over low heat, melt the white chocolate chips with remaining 1/4 cup peanut butter, stirring constantly.

Dip each Lucky Charm Pop into the mixture and return to the greased baking sheet.
Refrigerate about 30 minutes or cool completely at room temperature until chocolate is set.
Repeat steps for the dark colocate.

For this post; I made two batches of this recipe substituting dark chocolate for white in the 2^nd batch just for some variety, but you can use just one type if you want to speed up the process.
Once these are set, they should be kept cool.

I have to say that this recipe is incredibly easy and after ten years of making it, my sons still love to help roll out the pops.
It is budget-friendly with few ingredients and suitable for children of all ages. I even have to hide these from my husband who can eat several in one sitting.
Clean up is a breeze so parents need not stress over kids messing up the kitchen, and as long as there is an adult to supervise the stove-top, it is completely safe too.
This makes it a great treat to take camping or on road trips.They travel exceptionally well if kept in Ziplocs in a thermal bag with ice packs.

Do you have any unique recipes that you enjoy making with your kids? Share with us.

This is a sponsored post by General Mills Big G Cereals via Acorn Influence. All opinions are my own.