I love all things gingerbread men. My advent calendar (the building in the background) is a gingerbread house. I have gingerbread men spatulas, rugs, tea towels, plates, spoon rests, mugs, salt shakers, lights, etc…I love me some gingerbread men. They just make me smile. So when I stumbled across gingerbread marshmallows in the shape of gingerbread men I was sold. I quickly grabbed two bags…should have grabbed more!

I made these for the hockey boys. In what appeared to be a compliment but also an insult in my opinion over and over I heard “wow, these are actually good”. Gee thanks? I mean I get that they were a little out there and not everyone enjoys the flavor of gingerbread but I don’t usually serve them stuff that tastes like crap so I had to laugh that everyone was so surprised they were good. So good the whole bag was gone at the end of the night.

If you are a gingerbread fan, these are definitely a great treat to make. I was a little sad to watch the gingerbread men melt (luckily they don’t have eyes or I would have major guilt!) but I got over that sadness when I ate the treats.

Gingerbread Rice Krispie Treats

One 10.5 ounce bag of Gingerbread Flavored Marshmallows
3 TBSP unsalted butter
6 cups Rice Krispies cereal
25 gingersnaps, chopped up

In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.

Add cereal and cookies. Stir until well coated.

Using buttered spatula or wax paper evenly press mixture into 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan coated with cooking spray. Cool. Cut into 2-inch squares. Best if served the same day.

As many of you figured out I was gone on a little mini vacation for a couple of days. I was asked by Harry and David if I wanted to fly out and see what they do there and decided that sounded like a great idea. I won’t go into the details in this post but I will tell you it was an amazing company with really good, genuine people working there who know how to show food bloggers a good time!

What I was a little surprised about was coming home to read a comment (and a couple emails) about if my blog was going to be just me posting random pictures they never would have voted for me for the home farm contest as that was to run my blog. I’m still running my blog. Posting photos is still running the blog. I was just trying to show you what I was doing. I haven’t been on vacation other than to Arkansas last year (and no offense to Arkansas but it’s not vacation destination in my opinion) in 7 years. So sorry to those few who were put out by me getting to go away for a few days. I’m back now can be at your baking beckon call now.

I got no chance to photograph these marshmallow treats except with one camera shot, but I figured what the heck I would give you the recipe anyway. They are a spin on Key Lime Pie. Made with Golden Grahams Cereal and a little Key Lime Juice. Mmmm.

Hope everyone had a nice couple of days while I was gone.

Key Lime Pie Cereal Bars
6 TBSP unsalted butter
16 ounces mini marshmallows
1 20 ounce box Golden Grahams
2 cups Rice Krispie Treats
3 TBSP key lime juice

Butter a 9-x-13-inch baking pan. Or be lazy like me and spray it with non-stick baking spray. Set aside.

Over low heat melt butter in a large pot (I like to use my stock pot because I am a messy person).

Once butter has melted, add marshmallows and continue to cook over low heat while they melt.

It may take a little time. Don’t turn up the heat to try and make it go quicker, you could end up with burned marshmallows or your treats could end up too hard once they firm up.

When most of the marshmallows have melted and they resemble marshmallow crème with a few lumps, remove from heat and add the cereals and key lime juice.

Using a wooden spoon, stir, stir, stir some more, until all the cereal is fully coated and other parts of the pot are not hogging all the marshmallows (so evenly coated).

Pour into prepared baking pan. Take a rubber spatula and either spray it with non-stick spray or simply get some water on it (I just put mine under the faucet real quick). Using the spatula, press the cereal/marshmallow mixture down into the pan, attempting to create a flat, even surface.

Cover with foil and let sit for a few hours to firm up.

Take foil off. Place wax paper down that is a little bit longer than the baking pan. Flip the pan over onto the wax paper. Cut into squares. Some would say 2-inch. But whatever size you would like works. You can also use cookie cutters to make them fun shaped.

Wow, I had no idea it had been so long since I posted. Sorry about that. If I thought last week was crazy this one beat it with a crazy stick. But it’s all good, just all busy. So consider this a drive by post of sorts.

When I was at the Winco last I ran across some caramel and vanilla swirl marshmallows. I had no idea what I would do with them but I knew something would be done. So why not throw them into Rice Krispie Treats for the team. Add some caramel bits and some left over Golden Chocolate Oreos and Double Stuff Oreos’ and you had some happy teammates. These got very enthusiastic thumbs up.

Caramel-Vanilla Swirl Oreo Rice Krispie Treat Madness

6 TBSP unsalted butter

16 ounces marshmallows (Caramel and Vanilla Swirl variety)

20 ounces Rice Krispie Cereal

8 ounces caramel bits (or chop up caramels if you can’t find the baking ones)

15 Golden Chocolate Oreos, chopped

15 Double Stuff Oreos, chopped

Butter a 9-x-13-inch baking pan. Or be lazy like me and spray it with non-stick baking spray. Set aside.

Over low heat melt butter in a large pot (I like to use my stock pot because I am a messy person).

Once butter has melted, add marshmallows and continue to cook over low heat while they melt.

It may take a little time. Don’t turn up the heat to try and make it go quicker, you could end up with burned marshmallows or your treats could end up too hard once they firm up.

When most of the marshmallows have melted and they resemble marshmallow crème with a few lumps, remove from heat and add the cereal, caramel bits, and cookies.

Using a wooden spoon, stir, stir, stir some more, until all the cereal is fully coated and other parts of the pot are not hogging all the marshmallows (so evenly coated).

Pour into prepared baking pan. Take a rubber spatula and either spray it with non-stick spray or simply get some water on it (I just put mine under the faucet real quick). Using the spatula, press the cereal/marshmallow mixture down into the pan, attempting to create a flat, even surface.

Cover with foil and let sit for a few hours to firm up.

Take foil off. Place wax paper down that is a little bit longer than the baking pan. Flip the pan over onto the wax paper. Cut into squares. Some would say 2-inch. But whatever size you would like works. You can also use cookie cutters to make them fun shaped.

Wish I could say I am the picture of health, but I cannot. Tomorrow night starts the first night of the summer hockey season and I don’t get to play unless I wake up and feel fantastic. But considering the fact that the smell of food still makes me queasy, I am guessing no. I can’t actually drive myself anywhere which is not awesome. In fact I am going to score keep tonight (chill…you just sit there) and my goalie has to drive me there and my defensive partner is going to drive me home. So I made treats to represent my hockey family.

I must admit these little treats came with the help of my friend T. He and I work out together when I am not exploding parts of my body. When he asked if there was anything he could come over and do, I asked him to come make rice Krispie treats and frosting. He of course thought I was insane, which I probably am. He came over and did it anyway. Following my recipes and I barked orders from the couch, well not barked. He’s a smart guy he can figure out rice Krispie treats and buttercream.

The idea for these came from Cookies and Cups, the originals were done as white sheep on top of cupcakes, but to me Rice Krispie treats seemed heartier for these to stand on. When I asked T where he got so good at decorating he told me “I do a lot of arts and crafts with my nieces”. Aww, how sweet. Though he did follow up with “I’ve had a lot of girls ask me to do strange things before, but this is the strangest”.

Here’s to the Black Sheep having a great summer season!

Black Sheep Rice Krispie Treats

Mini Chocolate donuts
Mini Oreo cookies
Candy for noses
Mini chocolate chips (for eyes…I had to cut the tips off the chips)
Regular sized chocolate chips (for ears)
Pretzel sticks for feet
One batch rice Krispie treats (mold into large muffin tins…if you want the green sprinkles, you need to spray the cups first, do sprinkles, and then add the rice Krispie treats)
Craft sticks (for lollipops)
To see step by step instructions, go here.