Halloween is English for Sugar.

It must be approximately 20 years of eating sugar around this time of year that makes me crave treats when I can smell Halloween in the air. I have a Pavlovian response to anything chocolately & bad for me when the calendar approaches October 31st. All I want is a bag full of Reese's, but alas, my digestive system's relationship with milk is complicated.

When I first discovered all of my food sensitivities earlier this year, anytime I got discouraged or didn't know what to eat, I would bake. The Babycakes NYC and Gluten Free Essential Baking cookbooks became my best friends, and I am willing to bet that for a solid month I lived off mostly sugar and empty calories (or I guess if I was cooking from the Babycakes book, agave nectar and coconut oil, gotta love that alternative-vegan thing!) I then of course realized that my jeans were fitting a little tigheter and decided to shift my focus from treats to unprocessed foods like quinao and lots of fruits/veggies, but that wasn't before many entire pans of brownies and cookies devoured by yours truly.

Last night I felt compelled to recreate one of my favorite childhood Halloween treats with a bit of a twist. My mom used to make these peanut butter bars with chocolate topping and put those candy corn pumpkins on the top. I remember bringing those to share with my elementary school classrooms on more than one occasion, so its no surprise that I always crave this in October. The strange thing is that I remember them as being peanut butter rice krispy treats, but they weren't. I am incredibly partial to rice krispy treats (I can't tell you how many of these accompanied my lattes while studying at Starbucks in college) and I never feel terrible about eating them because they are "healthy".

Right...the cereal might be on its own, but add a little butter and sugar clouds aka marshmallows and you've got yourself a verifiable sugar bomb. That is of course improved upon by a gob of peanut butter, candy corns and melted chocolate chips, which I lovingly refer to as "the lazy man's frosting". Dump some of these little bittersweet morsels in a Pyrex bowl, microwave on high for 1-2 minutes, give it a little stir, pour it on whatever you want to frost and VOILA! A delicious chocolate topping that hardens to perfection.

Needless to say, after creating a pan of these delicious treats, I rediscovered my lack of self-control when it comes to sweets, and have subsequently devoured about a third of the pan by myself in the last 24 hours. I ate one for breakfast. Don't judge me. It's Halloween...so its justified...right??

So if you are anything like me, your mouth is watering imaging taking a bite out of one of these treats. Lucky for you, I am giving you the recipe. They are so gourmet & hard to assemble. Not. If you have 15 minutes and a stove, welcome to chocolate peanut butter nirvanna. And if your stomach is like mine, rejoice! The following recipe can be adjusted to be gluten-free and dairy-free, if you need. If you don't, enjoy the glutens from Rice Krispies. (Yes, believe it or not, Rice Krispies are NOT gluten-free, they are sweetened with barley malt. Who would have thought that rice cereal, one of the grains allowed by those of us gluten sensitive individuals, would not be GF? Kelloggs...FAIL!!!!)

Hope you enjoy :D and Happy (almost) Halloween!!


♥mb.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Rice Krispy Treats

1 bag mini-marshmallows
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup chocolate chips (I used Trader Joe's semisweet - GF & DF!)
1 box crispy rice cereal (I used EnviroKidz Koala Krisp, GF & also chocolate!)
Candy corn for garnish

1. Melt butter & PB together in a saucepan
2. Pour in marshmallows - coat them in melted butter/PB, cook until gooey & melty
3. Dump cereal in a bowl
4. Pour the melty mixture over the cereal, mix until good & gooey
5. Press into a 13x9 GREASED pan (emphasis on the greased, you will not be able to rescue your treats from the pan if you forget this step, and that would be tragic!!)
6. Let set until they are cool to the touch
7. Dump 1 cup chocolate chips in a microwave bowl & microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between, until all chips are melted
8. Smooth chocolate over the treats
9. Put as many candy corns on top as you want
10. Let cool until chocolate hardens, cut into squares (or little slivers every time you walk by the pan) and enjoy the sugar rush!!!!!!!