Easy Chocolate Coconut Nests!

Easy-peasy, I'm tellin' youse.

Here's all you need:

I keep toasted coconut in the freezer all the time. It's so simple, just lay a bag of coconut on a cookie sheet, spread it out, and toast in a 275° (Remember, hold down the "ALT" key and hit 0176 on the number pad to make the "°" symbol!) for about 20 minutes, give or take. I stir it around every five minutes or so. Remove from oven when most of the coconut has turned golden brown and is crisped up.

So for this easy peasy Easter treat:

Melt 2 bags of milk or dark chocolate chips over low heat. I use this method which helps prevent graying... some folks use the microwave. Whatever works for you!  Hershey's milk chocolate chips melt wonderfully with very little chance of graying as long as you melt them s-l-o-w-l-y. Which means you can get other stuff done...

Oh, RANDOM!!!! They're playing Mandisa's "Good Morning!" on K-Love right now and I used that as Lisa's favorite song in "The Lawman's Second Chance"...

 it's such a great song and I love the Toby Mac interlude!  Here's a link if you don't know what I'm talking about:  Mandisa's "Good Morning!"   But then come back here, okay???

Put the first bag of chips in the bowl over a pot of very warm water. When they get soft, toss in the other bag and stir... stir again in a few minutes.... Once they've all "smoothed" (melted) add in about 2 cups of toasted coconut.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto foil covered cookie sheet. Dip spoon in center to make nest "divet" or hollow. Mary Ruth likes helping Grammy!  :)  (Shamelessly exploiting small children for kitchen labor and to sell sweet books... And I'm okay with all of that, LOL!)

Now we add the bird eggs, aka: Jelly beans. I use smaller ones like they do at Russel Stover because they're SO STINKIN' CUTE!

Put in cool place (not like "hip" cool, or "chic" cool but temperature cool...) to firm up. No refrigeration needed.

Ah, help has arrived! They love the placing little "eggs" part the best!

And this is what they do at Russell Stovers:

You can buy one of these for $.99

We just made 23 of them in about ten minutes time (minus when I toasted the coconut and put it in a double zip-loc freezer bag...)  

For about $5.... Okay, maybe $6.  I buy chocolate chips at Sam's or when they're on sale and this week you can get two bags for $4.... so then $2 for the coconut and handful of jellybeans.

Pretty sweet deal, right?

If you have colored plastic wrap, it's cute to wrap them in it and put a smidge of tape on bottom.

And that's it.

Except....

Here's the bane to my diet:

Right here, in person:

SIGH.....

A FIVE POUND BAG OF STARBURST JELLY BEANS!!! MAYOR BLOOMBERG, DON'T TOUCH MY MEGA-HUMONGOUS-GINORMOUS BAG OF CANDY, PUH-LEASE!!!!

:)