Vanilla Rice Crispy Sprinkled Eggs

Happy Easter!
Jesus has Risen! 

Okay so I learned today that I cannot cut in a straight line! 

 Warning: This may have more "religious" feel to it than most of what I write but it is the holiday for it. I have many friends who don't believe the same as me, which is fine, they know I am praying for them (wink, wink... you know who you are). I am a christian, and today is a huge celebration day for me and my family. In addition to celebrating Easter, with food and family, we have taught our 3 yr old that the Easter bunny doesn't exist. It is like Santa Clause - just a nice story. Easter is all about Jesus and not about eggs and bunnies. We eat candy and spend time together because we are celebrating like a birthday party. My son knows all about birthday parties - the example worked with him. With all that being said.... I contradicted myself by making Easter eggs out of rice crispy treats with sprinkles for the party we are going to. It was such a cute food idea - I couldn't resist.  

This may simplify things too easy but here's the idea in my head... Easter is like a mini version of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is about family, food, football, being thankful (having the right heart about others and freedom), ect. Similarly, Easter is about family, Jesus, also being thankful (having a thankful heart that Jesus came to save the world and rose again), and candy I mean food. 

I know the food part of Easter is "supposed to" be about lamb or a glazed ham... but for me it is all about the sweet stuff. I am not so concerned about the large meal as I am concentrating on an amazing dessert  for my family the night off, and fun treats for the Easter egg party for my son. 

This amazing recipe off of Ree Drummond's food blog, and all over pintrest had caught my eye. I added a bit of vanilla to make it different and fun. Next time I will try some homemade vanilla extract or some other flavor. They were a huge hit at the party. I made 20 eggs and 10 squares from the rice crispy recipe, and all but 1 egg was left. Try and add whatever flavors you want to make it your own. Enjoy!  P.S. My son did all the sprinkles and had a blast. We were all pretty sticky by the end. Good times! 

The recipe (totally easy) 

Cooking time: 3-5 minutes

Hands on time: 10 - 15 minutes 

1. Melt butter (4T) in a large pot over low heat

2. Add in the entire bag (10oz) of mini marshmellows and the vanilla extract (1/2 tsp)

3. Stir the marshmellows until they melt. 

4. Add in the rice crispy cereal (6 cups about half of a box) 

5. The important things to make these eggs are Prep, Prep, Prep. Have 2 plastic egg thingys sprayed with cooking spray before you are ready for them, and a bit on your hands doesn't hurt, and the sprinkles ready on plates or bowls. Its a time conscience activity because you wait too long the sprinkles won't stick. Do these things while your butter is melting or have your helper do these things (wink). 

6. Once the mixture looks homogeneous start adding several spoonfuls into each plastic egg. Close the egg completely once it is full. Count to 30 or 60 that's all the time you really need to get the nice egg shape.  Give the egg to your helper and fill them up again. Keep the pan on the lowest heat setting to give you some extra time to get the eggs all shaped. 

7.  Your helper should gently roll them in the yummy sprinkles or chocolate chips would be yummy too, and set them on a pretty plate to set. Eat them over the next couple hours or put plastic over them and they will last a few days. No refrigeration needed just a bit of willpower so you don't eat the entire bunch yourself. 

Easy. 

Fun. 

Messy. 

Yummy. 

Cute.

Kid-friendly.

From my Kitchen to yours

White Sugar Free Double Chocolate Pumpkin Donuts

So Easter is coming.... Do you know what you are making to celebrate? You should make these. It took 30 minutes and was easy. Most of the time was hands off as they baked in the oven or cooled down in the freezer. Rushing I bet they can be done in 20 minutes. Look at these impressive things! 

Double Chocolate Pumpkin Donuts. Yes double chocolate  Yes this is how you want your day to begin with a cup of coffee. Right? :) 

The words "double chocolate" here are key. LOL probably because I couldn't make up my mind or I just wanted to be creative. Lets go with the creative excuse reason. Not only are there two kinds of chocolate going on in this easy healthy delight, chocolate is used two ways, inside and outside the donut. My pictures don't do this treat justice - they look like they were made in a bakery, not my kitchen, with my son running through playing with his light up bouncy ball. No white sugar added at all means you can eat them all spring or fall long!

 Confession: We don't really do donuts in our house. It has to be something super special or I tend to give my hubby a hard time about it. To give you an example... the last time I bought myself a donut it was the morning I graduated from college and got my bachelors degree. Yeah really special stuff. Mostly because (this might sound lame just warning you) well fried donuts from the store or local coffee place have a ton of calories and a lot of extra sugar. I don't like the way my mood and body changes when I eat junk like that. So that being said I got a little slack from my hubby when he saw these for breakfast but that didn't stop him from eating like 6 so I think its okay. I won't tell him that there was no white sugar in the recipe and I used good ingredients like whole wheat white flour, and homemade applesauce (with no sugar).

Click  here to see the original recipe, adapted from a wonderful blog about eating whole yummy foods.  Makes a dozen medium sized donuts

Easy Guilt Free Breakfast Below:

1/2 cup + 1/3 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp cocoa powder  * will increase this next time
heaping 1/8 cup of homemade applesauce with no sugar
1/8 cup maple syrup
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup heaping canned pumpkin puree (didn't have any fresh)
1/8 cup 2 percent milk

1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips
1 Tbs 2% milk
1 Tbs half and half
1/2 of a Dark Chocolate bar 70% cocoa 4 or 6 squares


Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a mini muffin tray with non stick spray. 

2. In a medium bowl combine all the dry ingredients such as flour, salt, spices, cocoa powder and baking powder. 

3. In a small bowl combine all the wet ingredients such as egg, applesauce, pumpkin, milk, vanilla, and syrup. 

4. Combine the ingredients of the wet into the dry and stir until its smooth and homogeneous. 
(Or do it all in the same bowl like I did - didn't think it made that big of a difference) 

5.  Use a Tb to measure out one 1 Tb per muffin spot - these created large enough donuts to for several bites for each one. If you are serving a bunch of kiddos you could certainly do 1/2 a Tb for each and create more. The smaller ones would probably be easier to dip too. 

6. Bake for 10 minutes. Check with a toothpick. Bake for another minute if the toothpick doesn't come out clean. 

7. While they are baking heat a pot of water to boiling and put a glass bowl over it. In the glass bowl combine the milk, choc chips, and chocolate bar chopped into large pieces. Stir the chocolate as it melts. This takes a few minutes but results in glossy elegant chocolate dipping sauce. 

8. When the donuts are done baking roll them gently around in the chocolate sauce and set them on a cookie tray lined with parchment paper / wax paper. 

9. When all the donuts are coated in the yummy chocolate beautiful sauce.  Put them in the freezer to let them firm up for 10-15 minutes. I noticed any I left on the counter got melty on the outside which was yummy to lick off. Unlike me, avoid this problem by storing any extras in the fridge. 

Enjoy this sweet (healthy) chocolate pumpkin treat! 

(we'll just keep the healthy part a secret) 

From my kitchen to yours