Ever since my I left my office job to work for myself, I’ve almost forgotten how important the little breaks in the day are.
Until recently, my breaks were little more than pivoting from cooking and baking to shooting and editing.
But lately, I’m making sure to fit in more than a wipe-of-the-eyebrow as I move from task to task. I’m taking that time to carve out a happy moment with my family.
Hello, Happy Moment . . . let’s be besties.
In fact, I’m excited to share that Matt and I have partnered up with HERSHEY’S to do just that—create “Hello Happy Moments” with our kids. We’ll be sharing fun and happy ways to carve out everlasting memories around life’s everyday hustle. And this week, with “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day” on April 28th, we wanted to plan a sweet moment in the day to talk about what they discovered about our jobs.
To start things off, Matt and I created these easy build-your-own pudding parfaits to share with the kids. I made mine with HERSHEY’S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa for the Strawberry Tuxedo Pudding Parfait and Almond Crunch Pudding Parfait. While Matt made his with the traditional HERSHEY’S Cocoa for two varieties of his own: Elvis Pudding Parfait and a Chocolate Crunch Pudding Parfait (don’t forget to hit the jump here for his recipes).
And because we couldn’t leave well enough alone, we decided to pair it up with a trivia game related to our jobs for a Pudding Parfait Trivia Game. Matt and I gathered all kinds of fun and weird food facts for them. The idea is easy and straightforward—for every questions answered correctly, the kids earned some toppings. The boys loved it and they learned all kinds of things about food.
However, any trivia theme will work, so if you take your kid(s) to the office, you can definitely make the trivia questions centered around your job. Here are a few tips and pointers of how to host your trivia game for your Hello Happy Moment:
- Theme: Pick a theme, any theme.
- Rules: Decide on the rules before you start.
- Questions: Come up with good question. You want to make sure your questions are a mix of simple and obscure facts to keep it fun and interesting.
- Score Keeper: Designate how you will keep score, whether it’s tally marks or it’s with toppings if you are playing the Pudding Parfait Trivia Game like we did.
- Make it extra special: Have a lightning round in which 10 questions are answered in a limited time for a big prize at the end.
- Most important rule: Your ultimate goal is to have fun and make it memorable!
See what I meant about “Hello Happy Moments” being a great vehicle for connecting and creating moments? You don’t need much just a little creativity and you can create your own special memory anywhere.
Strawberry Tuxedo and Almond Crunch Pudding Parfaits
Ingredients
- EASY CHOCOLATE PUDDING
- ⅔ cup sugar
- ¼ cup HERSHEY’S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 ¼ cups milk
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- TOPPING
Strawberry Tuxedo
- 2 cups whipped cream
- ½ cup quartered strawberries
- ¼ cup finely chopped HERSHEY'S Cookies 'N' Crème Bar
Almond Crunch
- 2 cups whipped cream
- ¼ cup finely chopped HERSHEY’S Milk Chocolate Bar with Almonds
- ¼ cup shaved HERSHEY’S Milk Chocolate Bar
- 4-5 tablespoons sliced almonds
Instructions
To make pudding: In a medium saucepan, stir together sugar, cocoa, cornstarch and salt; gradually stir in milk. Cook mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils; boil and stir 1 minute. Remove pan from heat; stir in butter and vanilla. Pour pudding into individual dessert dishes. (To avoid a skin from forming on top, press plastic wrap directly onto surface.) Chill for at least 2 hours. Pudding will thicken as it cools. Garnish with whipped topping, if desired. 4 servings.
Assembly: Dollop on 1-2 tablespoons of whipped cream on top. Garnish with with preferred topping.
First, this pudding looks so delicious and I love the photos!
Seconds, ahh, breaks?!? Thank you for reminding me about them. I have been go, go, go all day long and not even thinking about a break, but this post has me thinking that I NEED too. Thank you! 🙂
Absolutely dying over these here! I so need t be eating one, like Now! They look amazing.
Without a doubt these pudding parfaits would create many of happy moments! Pinned
Such a cool game and without a doubt better than Monopoly, right?
What a fun idea!! This really is great for family night! Love it!
So super fun. Our kids would ADORE this!!
These look addicting!
I need this
Pass the spoon!! this looks incredible!
What a great idea Naomi! These look fabulous! The boys must love them!
These look like the perfect, decadent treat!
Kari
http://www.sweetteasweetie.com
What a fun idea! And the pudding parfaits look extremely addictive…
What a cute idea for the game. I have my daughter and her friends help me all the time in the kitchen and being in pictures on the blog. I don’t know if I could stump them at this point!
I want to eat all of these!!
How gorgeous are these parfaits, love!
Can I have all of this?!
There is never not a time that parfaits don’t sound amazing!! I’ll take one of every flavor combo!
These pudding parfaits look so fun!
This is so creative! I love the trivia game idea – totally storing that one away for when this kid is big enough for trivia. and chocolate.
Oooh, these look lovely! I’m a chocoholic, so I’m definitely going to give these a try. Plus who doesn’t love a good parfait?
This is such a fun idea! My kids would love this!!
These look so delicious! LOVE!
I need these pudding parfaits! And all the chocolate!! 😀
Great recipe loved your post . it helped me to learn how to make Such a nice pudding. Awesome stuff.. Keep Updating
Hi Naomi,
Parfait and chocolate…heaven for a chocoholic. Creative, yet easy. I love it that you shared a few variations.
Must be really fun doing this with your family.
Thank you for posting.
Renee