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Food & Dessert

Quick and Easy Valentine’s Day Themed Breakfast Idea

Kyra

•5 minutes to read
Quick and Easy Valentine’s Day Themed Breakfast Idea

Last year, on Valentine’s Day morning, the girls asked about a Valentine’s Day surprise. I had planned to gift them their chocolate after school and hadn’t thought beyond that so I quickly offered to have the girls exchange their valentine’s with each other and put them on the table… and then the mom guilt hit at not having had anything planned and so I looked around the kitchen to try to figure out something special I could quickly whip up before school. This is what I came up with.

Pinterest-geared image showing my post's title, my main UR?L, and a collage of four images all shown below in the post too.

Preparations

I quickly looked through my kitchen to see what I had to work with and found some frozen homemade waffles and leftover cream cheese. I realized I could use my kitchen scissors to cut the waffles into a heart shape, dye my cream cheese pink, and let the kids decorate the heart shaped waffles themselves. With that plan in place I quickly grabbed the waffles, tried to cut them, failed, and tossed them in the toaster oven to heat up first.

At this time I had several blocks of cream cheese that needed to be used up so, earlier this week, I had opened one and put it in a leftover cleaned out Bonne Maman jam jar so the girls Ould spread it on their toast. As such I was able to grab the jar of cream cheese, remove the metal lid, and toss the bottom into the microwave to warm it up. I had chosen to warm up the cream cheese so it would be easier to mix in the dye to turn pink and, especially, for the girls to spread and ideally decorate the waffles quicker. I used just a couple drops of food dye before mixing it up and loved the final color.

Image is a closeup, taken slightly from above, of the jar of pink cream cheese with a knife sticking out of it. Beside it is a large bottle of red food dye coloring.
Once the cream cheese was softened I added a couple drops of red food dye and grabbed a knife to mix it in. Thus the cream cheese icing was ready! If the cream cheese was in a plastic container and/or I had wanted less dyed cream cheese I would’ve moved some into a small container or bowl before warming it up.
Closeup of the same jar but now you can see lighter lines where the knife had scrapped off the cream cheese. The top is red, center pink, and bottom white with marbling between the layers.
While they were eating I admired the ombre affect as the bottom hadn’t gotten mixed in properly and the top was redder. I snapped a photo before putting the lid back on and putting it back in the fridge for the kids to finish over the next several days.

While the cream cheese was warming up, before dying, and the waffles were toasting I grabbed my sprinkles and two small cups (leftover from medicine) and started pouring out some of my Valentine’s themed sprinkles so the kids could decorate the heart waffles. I ended up going with some XOs from years ago, unicorn sugar sprinkles from Ada’s last birthday, and some heart sprinkles leftover from a cookie decorating kit that very year (leftover as I had supplemented with other sprinkles). Previous years I simple sprinkled the sprinkles directly onto the edge-ish of their plate but I figured this year they had full control over where they ended up.

Image shows two measured cups with about two teaspoons of sprinkles in each composed of three types creating layers. Behind and beside them you can see the packages the sprinkles were taken out of.
I selected the most Valentine’s themed sprinkles and two small medicine cups before pouring some of each into the cups for the girls.

Once the waffles were heated, after making the cream cheese and laying out the sprinkles, I turned the square waffles into hearts by choosing a single corner to be the heart tip and trimming the remaining bits off to have the angled edges and dipped center. I then repeated this three more times making four hearts in all. In case the kids were still hungry and as I was trying to be quick I just left the leftover waffles bits on the plate so they could ice those pieces if needed too.

Image shows two white plastic plates side by side next to the kitchen sink beside the kettle. On each are two heart shaped waffles and, to the side, the cut off edging.
Since I never know which kid is hungrier than the other lately I divided up the waffles so one plate had the two medium ones while the other had the larger and smaller hearts. I then attempted to equal out the edge pieces too.

As a quick aside this is a perfect use of those not quite square waffles that come out of the waffle iron when you don’t add enough mix… since they have less to cut away.

And with that the Valentine’s Day themed breakfast was ready for the girls!

Breakfast

After selecting the sprinkles, dying the cream cheese, and shaping the waffles breakfast was ready and waiting for the girls. They absolutely loved it and couldn’t wait to decorate, sprinkle, and eat them.

Image shows the two plates from before out on the table spaced further apart. They both contain two heart waffles and the extra pieces. Beside them on the inner side sits the small container of sprinkles while between them sits the pink dyed and softened cream cheese with a knife in it for dishing.
The quickly photographed table before the kids came.
Image shows the two plates at a different vantage point so one is in the foreground and the other angled back into the background. Both have one waffle heart now pink with some sprinkles being added to it.
After grabbing their own knives and/or spoons the kids sat down to decorate their Valentine’s Day themed breakfast.
Image shows a closeup of one of the plates with two hearts coated in pink cream cheese and sprinkles. The edge pieces aren't decorated. Beside it sits the cream cheese and container of extra sprinkles while Zoey is blurred in the back waiting to eat it.
Before eating Zoey wanted a quick photo of her finished heart waffles. I didn’t realize until later how much they looked like cookies once the waffle squares were covered up.
Image shows both plates with the one in front just with edge pieces and Ada about to eat the last of it. In the back the mostly un-eaten hearts sit on Zoey's plate.
Both girls enjoyed eating the heart waffles but decided to skip the edge pieces. Looking back, if this was planned, I could see not dishing the edges and, if not needed, turning them into croutons or something for later meals.

The girls loved their breakfast feast and I’m super glad I came up with it at the last minute…. and had waffles in my freezer.

If your kids are more pancake people I could see making dyed oven pancakes, if you have time, and then using a cookie cutter to shape them. I haven’t done this for Valentine’s Day yet but years ago I premade dyed green oven pancakes and, once cooled, I used a heart shaped cookie cutter to make shamrocks. I tossed them, prepped, into a container in the fridge so the morning of I just needed to plate and microwave them for a quick and simple breakfast. I just realized I’ve only done this once and I guess could surprise the kids again… anyway if you’re interested you can check it out here.

Did you make these for Valentine’s Day? Do you prefer waffles or pancakes? If you did something else I’d love to hear about it! Maybe I could do the same in the future too. Whatever you did or plan to do I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And I hope you have a good Valentine’s Day!

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Browse Related Topic(s)

Food & Dessert Breakfast Children Food Dye Preschooler Sensory Activity Toddler Valentines Day

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