Lazy mom's guide to baked goods for teachers

(OK, let me correct that and say "busy mom" because I think "lazy mom" is an oxymoron. No mom can be lazy, even if she wanted to be. No matter how desperately she might want to take it easy, life is just constantly happening like a nonstop roller coaster, and I heard that you're not really done for like, the first 17 years of your newborn's life..?)

So here is what happened to me during the Valentine's Day week, when I wanted to send along 50+ goodies for my little guys (who go to two different schools) as well as baked goodies for their teachers...somehow.

Here is what I did, if you would like to know --

I ran over to Whole Foods that morning for their ever-reliable, freshly made (store-baked!) goodies that we love here in this house:

(Pictured top right: If you haven't tried Whole Foods' cranberry pistachio biscottis yet... Please do! I never even liked biscotti because they tend to be harder than I like my cookies to be, but oh boy, these are really pretty amazing. They are not that cheap but one tub comes with 22-24 giant pieces!)


Which all add up to be about $42 total (which is what I might have ended up spending anyway if I baked everything myself but needed 12 venti iced lattes to remain alive afterwards):

And carefully divide them into however many boxes of treats needed...

And I'm done!!!

The most amazing part? Even after putting together TWO boxes of goodies (each containing some 30 goodies total), I had close to half of my purchase still left over.

Of course, I wish I had planned for the week better and carved out time to bake the goodies myself but life for this work-from-home mom was not easy that week, of all weeks!

And to be really honest, these turned out to be such a great hit at both school offices that I'm thinking I might do this again. They're probably much yummier than I could ever make them! :o)