Rice Krispie Treat Pumpkins

Hi everyone! It's Monday and that really sucks. So let's look at cute things instead of being productive. Sound good?

 

So I had a Halloween party this weekend, and made these adorable little rice krispie treat pumpkins! I got the recipe from Pinterest (original recipe here) and went to work. Here's the original recipe, which I decided to double:

3 Tbsp. butter
½ tsp. vanilla extract
red and yellow food coloring or orange gel coloring
5-1/2 cups mini marshmallows
6 cups crispy rice cereal
mini tootsie rolls

1. In a large saucepan, melt and slightly brown butter on medium heat. Add vanilla extract and marshmallows. Stir until marshmallows are completely melted. Add food coloring until desired orange color is reached. Add cereal and stir until completely combined. Turn off heat and let sit for a few minutes, until cool enough to handle.
2. When mixture has cooled enough, spray your hands with cooking spray and mold cereal mix into circles. (I made nine medium sized pumpkins). Unwrap a tootsie roll and press into each pumpkin top. Add candy for the eyes and noses (we used a little frosting to adhere). Eat and enjoy!

Sounds easy enough, right? Um yeah, not really. So first of all, when I decided to double the recipe, it wasn't the brightest idea I've ever had. The mixture was huge and so hard to work with. Please consult photo below of enormous orange rice krispie treat mixture taking over my stove:

Yeah. So that happened. The original recipe said that it makes 9 pumpkins. So I figured hey, 18 pumpkins would be better. I guess the person who originally made them made them HUGE, because I kept rolling them into balls and had a TON. I ended up throwing half the mixture out which sucked. It was also tough rolling the mixture into balls to begin with - if you press too hard the cereal breaks. After I rolled them all, pushing the tootsie rolls in the top was also difficult. They wouldn't stay, and again, if you push too hard the cereal starts breaking off!

Needless to say, I don't think i'll be making these again. They looked cute, sure, but I was going for an easy, no bake recipe for a party and it was just a pain in the ass. Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!! =)

No Bake Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls

Hi dolls! Wanted to share with you this super easy and awesome no bake recipe - Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls! I made these as a back up for Valentine's day - my amazing husband cooked us a beautiful dinner and needed the oven. So my idea for a cookie cake went out the window.

We had just watched an episode of Shark Tank (love that show!) where these two chicks were trying to get an investment on their edible cookie dough in a jar. I wanted it immediately! I found the recipe for cookie dough balls on Pinterest (original post click here) and I am so glad I did. I added my own flair by using the left over chocolate chips, melting them, putting them in a ziplock bag and drawing letters and hearts on parchment paper. I refrigerated them for 30min and peeled them off the parchment paper. Cute, right? Anyway, see below for photos and step by step!

 L - could be for our last name or Love! I tried by best to make the chocolate drizzle on top of the cookie dough balls look cute - might need to work on that a little!

My first attempt at drawing with chocolate!

Ingredients
1 cup butter, room temperature
1½ cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
6 ounces mini-chocolate chips
Milk Chocolate Wilton candy melts

Instructions
1.Cream butter and sugar together
2.Add remaining ingredients and mix
3.Roll into 1-inch balls
4.Melt candy melts in microwave and use a spoon to drizzle over balls
5.Refrigerate until firm (30 minutes)
6.Let stand at room temperature for about 10 minutes before serving
7.Store leftovers in refrigerator

Sooo easy guys, and SO good. We just had 1 before breakfast ha! As an added bonus, here is a photo of the kick ass short ribs and potatoes Greg made last night. Delicious!

Hope everyone had a nice Valentine's day and is staying warm! Xoxo

Cake Batter Rice Krispie Treat Cupcakes - Round 2!

How cute are they?! With Valentine's Day quickly approaching (um, tomorrow) I wanted to make something quick and easy. This is the second time I've made these babies and they are the perfect snack! For my original post, click here. I got creative with my Wilton's Food Gel and made some bright colors using the buttercream frosting I made. Happy little desserts! Hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day xoxo