Manic Mama Miles: Pumpkin Rice Krispie Treats

Is it weird that I am 30 years old & have never made Rice Krispie Treats before? Probably, but I haven't. I saw this recipe here on Pinterest at http://www.365ishpins.com/pumpkin-rice-krispie-treats/ & it was too cute to pass up. I mean, how cute did these turn out for our 1st annual pumpkin carving party? Directions on how to make are below or on the original link above. The only thing I really changed up is that I didn't pipe the green icing for the leaves. I bought a bag of Halloween candy that had regular tootsie rolls & it also included the lime flavored tootsie rolls. So instead of piping icing, I cut up the green tootsie rolls & then shaped them into little leafs. I am sure for people who are used to piping easy, that is just as easy, but if you are like me & not an icing aficionado...feel free to use colored tootsie rolls or something similar (I like to use Airheads on a lot of the random cupcakes I make). Anyway, here is how you make these cute little guys.

For ingredients, gather the following:
* 3 tbsp butter
* 1 bag of mini marshmallows (you will only need 5 cups...the rest are for snacking or keeping toddlers busy while cooking, haha)
* red & yellow food coloring
* box of Rice Krispies cereal (You will need 6 cups so you will have a little left over afterwards. I bought the Frosted Rice Krispies cereal kind because I am that parent that thinks my kid will probably prefer more sugar with her cereal...I know, what was I thinking?)
* 15 regular brown tootsie rolls
* 3 green lime flavored tootsie rolls

So once you have all of your ingredients, place the butter in a pot & melt it over medium/low heat. I used a large pot so that I could dump the marshmallows in & the cereal to stir it all up. After the butter has melted, add in the marshmallows & start melting them. Add in the red & yellow food coloring until you get the color of pumpkin you are looking for. I used all of the yellow & just a smidge of the red (mostly because that is what I had left).

Once the butter & marshmallows are all melted & smooth, start to stir in the cereal. Take it off of the heat & just keep stirring until everything is coated. Now here is where I wasn't sure exactly how to complete this step since I had never handled these treats before...I let the cereal cool & tried to roll into a ball. This stuff is super sticky. It was sticking to my hands like crazy. So I suggest wetting your fingers just a little & make sure that the cereal is truly cool before you start rolling. This recipe made me 15 pumpkins. It could probably make more or less depending on how big you like your pumpkins. Once you have your pumpkins all rolled up, poke a hole in the top with your finger (the original recipe said thumb but I got a pretty fat thumb, so I stuck with my pinkie). Then I stuck in a tootsie roll. I cut the green lime flavored tootsie rolls into 5ths, so I used 1/5 of the roll to mold into a little leaf to stick on the stem.

I really thought these turned out cute. Word to the wise...eat these within the first day or two. They are DELICIOUS. After the second day though, the consistency gets kinda weird. Although as yummy as these guys are, you don't really have to worry about them sticking around that long. : )