Happy Hearts Trail Mix (Valentine Fun)

If you like this post, I created a printable that you can use to top your Valentines with! Check it out here.

I was inspired to make this trail mix-by a cereal! I had purchased some Quaker "Whole Hearts" cereal a few months ago, and ran across it right before Valentine's Day.  How could I *not* want to make a trail mix with cereal shaped like hearts?!

Since it is Valentine's Day, I wasn't too interested in the trail mix being super healthy-as a matter of fact, the only thing even remotely healthy is the cereal. But it sure is cute! We used:

5 cups of Quaker "Whole Heart" cereal

2 cups of chocolate chips

1 bag of Twizzler cherry bites

2 8 oz. bags of conversation hearts (I know, disgusting, but I was going for looks!)

1 and 1/2 bags of Jet Puffed Strawberry HeartMallows

40 cellophane bags (I used 4x9 1/2 inch Wilton's bags, the exact width of the labels.)

40 Avery 5163 Shipping Labels

It will make enough trail mix for about 40 half cup servings (including marshmallows).

 

I love using shipping labels to close treat bags because it accomplishes two purposes: it gets the message across and it closes the bag more thoroughly than the little twist ties that usually are included. I made a super simple graphic with Word Art and made it cheerful by playing with the font colors. These are for her Awana Sparks group, so I thought the Scripture was really appropriate. 

 

Then my "happy helper" helped assemble the ingredients. A note: if I made this again, I would leave out the marshmallows. They got a teeny bit squished, and made measuring it difficult. In the end, we pulled the marshmallows out of the mix, added four or five to each bag and then added the rest of the mix. It was much easier that way!

 

Josie loved stirring everything together. See how the marshmallows kind of "float" to the top? Easier to add them separately!

After it was all mixed together, we added a generous 1/4 cup of just the mix to each bag of four or five marshmallows. It ended up being a scant 1/2 cup all together. Since it is full of sugar, I figured that would be plenty!

We folded the tops of the bags over and sealed them with the stickers.  Aren't they cheerful?

 

Josie is ecstatic to share these with her friends tonight. It was an easy way to make a special homemade Valentine for 40 kids in a short amount of time. I think it will leave all the Sparks with happy hearts!:)