Brown rice crispy treats

Last week we made a great healthy version of the old marshmallow rice krispy treats recipe you might have eaten as  a child. (Think kelloggs).  Our version is high in protein, has no high fructose corn syrup, is marshmallow free and vegan!! 

What more could you ask for??

oh yes, it was delicious!

Here is the recipe.

Brown Rice syrup and nut butter rice Crispy Treats

Ingredients

2/3 cup of almond butter or cashew butter or peanut butter

2/3 cup of brown rice syrup

6 cups of brown rice crispy cereal or puffed rice cereal

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

optional:

( Chocolate chips or dried fruit 1/2 cup or more)

**(I used dried blueberries and shredded coconut)

Directions

Put your nut butter, rice syrup, and vanilla into a small sauce pan and heat over a low heat until the mixture becomes warm and syrup like.  ( a few minutes)

While your nut butter  and syrup are heating, spray a large bowl with a little cooking spray before adding the rice cereal.  Pour the nut butter syrup over the cereal and combine until all of the rice crispies are evenly coated .  (You can use a spatula or even your hands) 

*If you are adding dries berries or fruit, add them now.  If you are adding chocolate chips, wait until the combined rice and syrup mixture has cooled a bit so that the chips do not melt.

Transfer the mixture into a baking dish (like a Pyrex) that has been lightly coated with non-stick cooking spray or use parchment paper on a cookie sheet/tray (which is what i used).  Pat them down tightly on all sides including the top and form into a rectangle.  Cut into squares once they have cooled.

YUMMMMM!  Even better than the ol' marshmallow recipe and so good for you!.

**We added with a spatula some of that melted brown rice syrup and nut butter mixture over the top of the cooled rectangle and sprinkled shredded coconut over the top and it was fabulous!!! 

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Sweets for sweeties

Honeypie wanted to make some valentine goodies for friends and we came up with this easy project. White chocolate candy cane hearts with sprinkles.
All you need to make this, is white chocolate chips, candy canes, and sprinkles!




Arrange the candy canes into heart shapes on parchment paper or a lightly oiled surface.





Pour the melted chocolate into the inside of the hearts. Carefully spread with a spatula or spoon.







Add sprinkles before the chocolate hardens.

















Easy, fast and cute!
^_^

The marzipan pig, by Russell Hoban

Today we read a beautiful story called "The marzipan pig" by Russell Hoban and illustrated by Quentin Blake. Many of you might remember Quentin Blake's illustrations from all the Roald Dahl's books (The witches, Matilda, Charlie and the chocolate factory...) and Russell Hoban from the "Frances" books, (A bargain for Frances).
This story is about a little lonely marzipan pig that falls behind a couch and whose feelings off love reach out to a little mouse, a hibiscus flower , an owl and a bee in a series of events that occur after he was eaten.  ( Loooooveeeee!  They all say).  A symbolic story of love, its fleeting moments of happiness and sweetness.   If you do not know what marzipan is... it is a sweet made of almond paste and sugar and marzipan pigs are a symbol of good luck in Germany, often given as gifts during holidays.

We made our own Marzipan Pig too!

And just because I was curious...
Mr Quentin Blake is still alive and has a wonderful website to visit.  (here) 
and though Roald Dahl died in 1990... his legacy lives on in his super cute and funny website.  If you like bouncing farting chickens.. you must visit!!!  (here)
and "the marzipan pig" was made into a movie by HBO.  (here)

Molasses snow candy

I don't know if you are... but we are HUGE little house on the prairie fans!! One of our favorite books is "Little house on the big woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The chapter about winter days and the one about christmas always has us wishing we lived in that time with Laura and Mary, watching pa whittling wood, ma baking delicious cookies, churning butter and being there to help make molasses candy with fresh snow.
We have been wanting to make molasses candy for the last 2 years but every time we remember, the snow has already melted BUT we totally remembered this year!














If you'd like to try to make some, all you need is fresh clean snow...






1 cup of brown sugar
1 cup of molasses
And a candy thermometer .
Boil both ingredients until it reaches 250* degrees (hard ball stage)







Careful ... It is VERY HOT!!!
I poured some in a little jar for easy pouring over the snow.







Wait for it to cool and enjoy!







Molasses candy tastes like molasses... So it will be a bit dark and bitter in taste ... Not like your usual candy. A bit of an acquired taste.







We even got a chance to make pulled molasses candy like in "Farmer boy".













This process was a bit tedious ... Don't think I will do this again. Especially since daddy was the only one who enjoyed it.... As I realized I'm not a huge molasses fan.
But if you would like to try...
You need:

4 tbs of butter
1 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of molasses
And extra butter for your hands and for the pan.

You must butter the pan you pour the molasses syrup into (after it reaches 250* hard ball stage) so the molasses does not stick to the pan.








Pour liquid into pan.







When it is cool enough to handle, (about 10 minutes) butter your hands very well to handle the molasses and start the pulling and folding process . It takes a loooooong time!!!






































Fun project of today!

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Hello fall...

We had been eagerly awaiting the beginning of fall all week. We went on night walks in the park to watch the moon and we were so excited for the harvest moon on wednesday night . But on our third walk on Wednesday, It started to thunder and the moon hid in and out of clouds all night. So no big orange moon sighting on this autumn solstice. :(
Thursday we went out again at night and enjoyed a yellow bright moon and welcomed the first night of fall. We opened all windows and aired the house out. (and burned some sage to clear the air .)
We did enjoy our night walks and loved hearing the sounds of crickets and night creatures. It was experiencing our park with new ears and eyes. We even saw big bright Jupiter . A huge treat.




Honeypie painted her favorite sighting of the moon.




We read books about autumn.




(some were funny!)




We also read a book about the moon.




And honeypie requested a "harvest celebration" like dinner... Something with corn she said. So I made her vegan corn chowder and vegan corn bread in the shape of cute little acorns.




(here's the cute acorn pan.)










She also started writing a book about fall. Here are some pages...












Hello fall !

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