I had the brilliant idea to skip buying the cheap, crappy paper Valentine cards this year in favor of creating our own for Stacia to take to school. This sounded like a great idea to use up the little plastic Stampin’ Up baggies I had leftover from a business and to get the way-too-tempting candy I bought during triple coupons out of the house.

She was supposed to bring a Valentine “mailbox” for collecting her classmates Valentine’s. I thought it would be great to use an oatmeal box, which required emptying the oatmeal. This, naturally, requires me to make No Bake Cookies. This all sounded like a great idea in my head before I had 4 kids (mine plus one) in the house all needing something from me at the same time.

Then there’s always option 2: dumping the box of oatmeal on the floor in an attempt to remove it from the pantry with a child on one shoulder and 3 in the next room covered in stamp ink. I did manage to stop the spillage with enough leftover for this recipe:

2 c sugar
1/2 c milk
1/2 stick margarine
1/4 c cocoa
1/2 c peanut butter
3 c oat
1 tsp vanilla

Boil first 4 ingredients for 1 full minute. Add vanilla and peanut butter until creamy. Stir in oats. Mix well then drop by spoonfuls onto wax or parchment paper.