Rice Krispies Redux

        

        The three-ingredient recipe that turns Rice Krispies coupons into an iconic American dessert is a kitchen classic – but it can be a little blasé. Here are four easy-peasy ways to add a little sparkle to this family-friendly dessert.

1)    Nutella. Nutella is a spread made from hazelnuts and cocoa, and it’s wildly popular in Europe. It tastes chocolate-y and has a consistency similar to peanut butter. You can make Nutella Rice Krispies Treats by adding ½ cup Nutella when you’re mixing the marshmallows and butter before adding the cereal.

2)    Sprinkles. Colorful sprinkles can add visual appeal and delicious crunch to Rice Krispies treats, so just add them in when you add in the cereal. There are hundreds of kinds of sprinkles, so you can do a lot with this one!     

3)    Chocolate. If you’re a true chocoholic, use cocoa krispies to make the rice krispies treats – but also add 1 cup of frozen chocolate chips to the mix when you’re adding the cereal. The chips need to be frozen so the marshmallows don’t melt them, and the result is scrumptious.

4)    When you’re using Rice Krispies coupons, grab a couple of your favorite candy bars too. Chop them up and toss them into the rice krispies treats when you add the cereal. Most candies work well, from jelly beans to caramels to butterfingers to skittles. You name it, it’ll probably be delicious.

Do y’all have any other suggestions for simple ways to spruce up plain Rice Krispies Treats? Share your tricks in the comment section – I can’t wait to read them!

            

Crave-Worthy Candy Apples

I get really lost on the internet. I log on with the intention to check my email and print Rice Krispies coupons, but I end up watching penguins on youtube and reading about how Kate Middleton does here eye makeup. Last week, I somehow found myself perusing the web page of DeBrito Chocolate Factory, which ultimately leg to me spending fifty dollars on various varieties of caramel apples. I had buyer’s remorse almost the instant I hit “Order” but all of my guilt was washed away and replaced with total joy when my order arrived a week later.

            DeBrito has more than 36 varieties of candy apples in every flavor you can imagine, and all five of the flavors I ordered were awesome so I’ll bet the other thirty-some varieties are equally tasty. This family-run factory began with Arlene DeBrito, who began making chocolate dipped apricot candies for friends and customers of her husband’s farm implement business for Christmas but whose creations became so in-demand that Arlene decided to open up a candy factory to supply all her fans with the sweets they loved.

            Today, the factory still uses the best California fruit and premium ingredients to make all sorts of scrumptious sweets, including the decadent candy apples that are my new obsession. In an adventurous mood? Try the “Great Balls of Fire,” a caramel covered apple rolled in spicy chili-mango and chili-lemon peanuts and drizzled with milk chocolate. How about the sweet and salty “Peanut Butter Crunch” Apple, which is covered in caramel, marshmallows,  pretzels, and peanut butter drizzled with chocolate? My favorite is the “Earthquake” apple --  caramel, rice krispies, peanut butter, all dipped in chocolate.  Come to think of it, the rice krispies component of my favorite apple is probably how I got to the hunt from Rice Krispies coupons to DeBrito’s site – thank goodness for the digressive potential of the internet, or I never would have found my new favorite treat! You can get one of these yummy apples delivered direct to you from Debrito’s site. 

Rice Peepsie Treats

I recently did a bit of long-overdue spring cleaning and found some reasonably embarrassing things in my pantry – among them, some Peeps which should have met their delicious demise last month, along with their pastel-colored marshmallow brethren. Being a budget-conscious gal, I never let anything go to waste when I can help it, so I went online and found the most brilliant (and really common-sense, I can’t believe I didn’t think of it) way to turn your past-due peeps into a tasty twist on a favorite dessert. Round up your Rice Krispies coupons, your old Easter candies, and a bit of butter – that’s all you’ll need to make “Rice Peepsie Treats!”
INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
3-4 dozen peeps, or a mix of peeps and plain marshmallows equal to ten ounces
6 cups Rice Krispies Cereal

In a large saucepan, melt the butter at low heat. Add Peeps (and marshmallows, if you’re using them) and stir continuously over low heat until melted. Remove from heat and mix in Rice Krispies until well-coated. Spread into a 13x9x2” pan with a buttered spoon or spatula and let cool, then cut into two inch squares.

I like these treats because they give the traditional Rice Krispies a colorful twist, and they’re just about the easiest recipe in the world (besides peanut butter and jelly, I suppose). And don’t miss out on these Rice Krispies coupons when you make your Peepsie Treats – a coupon or two will make this recipe cheap-cheap-cheap to make (haha …peeps are chicks, chicks go ‘cheep’ … ok, I’m stretching the joke a bit….just go eat your dang dessert).

Cheerios Apple Cinnamon Crisp

My parents have a couple of apple trees in their backyard, and when the apples are ripe, we eat apple EVERYTHING. I love it at first – fresh apples, apple pie, apple cobbler, baked apples, apple chips …. after a few days, I’m appled out. This year, we’ll be using the apples from our backyard and Cheerios coupons to make this Apple Oat Crumble, courtesy of the recipe people at General Mills. Having one more recipe might stretch my apple-consumption capacity a bit.

INGREDIENTS

         4 cups sliced, unpeeled apples (3-4 medium apples)

         2 cups Cheerios cereal

         ½ cup quick cook oats

         ½ cup brown sugar, packed

         ¾ teaspoon cinnamon

         1/3 cup butter, firm and unmelted

HOW-TO:

         Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

         Arrange the apple slices evenly on the bottom of an ungreased 8 or 9 inch square pan. In a medium bowl, crush the cereal and then mix in oats, brown sugar and cinnamon. Cut in butter – small slivers work best. Sprinkle this mixture over the apples.

         Bake 30-35 minutes. Cover with foil and bake another 10 minutes.

        

         I like this recipe because it takes about ten minutes to throw together, and with ice cream, it takes about as long to disappear. With a few Cheerios coupons and the apples from my parent’s yard, this recipe is almost free to make – and it’s yummy enough that I’m actually excited for those apples to get ripe.

         

Dr Pepper Cupcakes are Delicious, Duh!

Cupcakes are all the rage right now. Dr. Pepper is delicious. Soda coupons rock. Tell me something I don’t know, right? Well, here’s a recipe that combines all three of those excellent things to create a treat greater than the sum of its parts: Dr. Pepper Cupcakes!!!!! There are more ingredients in this recipe than in the usual cupcake recipe – perhaps because there are 23 flavors in Dr Pepper? Don’t be intimidated, though – the cupcakes are yummy enough to be worth the work!

Here are the ingredients you’ll need to get cooking:
FOR THE CUPCAKES
1 cup of butter or margarine
1 cup Dr Pepper soda
½ cup buttermilk (or, ½ cup milk and 1 tablespoon orange juice)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 tablespoons cocoa
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
2 cups flour
2 cups white sugar
FOR THE ICING
¼ cup butter
3 tablespoon cocoa
¼ cup Dr Pepper soda
1 bag powdered sugar (you won’t need it all, but enough to make the frosting thick)
Here’s how ot make the cupcakes:
Heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
Heat 1 Cup of butter and Dr Pepper in medium saucepan. When butter is melted, pout into a bowl and add cocoa, cinnamon, flour and sugar.
Mix eggs, buttermilk, soda and vanilla in a bowl. Add this mixture to the butter mixture, then pout into paper-lined cupcake tins.
Bake for 30 minutes. remove cupcakes from pan, and cool while you prepare the icing.
To make the icing, heat remaining Dr. Pepper, butter, and cocoa in a saucepan and stir until well blended. Stir in the remaining ingredients, adding sugar as needed until the icing reaches a thick consistency. Ice cupcakes and serve.
These are a fun twist on traditional cupcakes, and the finished product definitely carries the flavor of the soda it’s named for. It may seem weird to eat Dr Pepper at first, but I can promise you’ve never had anything like it! If you’ll be making these cupcakes, don’t miss out on these soda coupons – just because you’re going all-out in the kitchen doesn’t mean you have to go for broke at the grocery store!

Buy one blizzard, get one free car?!

     

    Melissa Messinger owes a lot to Dairy Queen. It was where she got her first job at the age of 16 twenty-two years ago. It is also there that the met the man who would be her husband two years later.

And last month, it’s the place where she got her new car.

     No, Dairy Queen isn’t branching into the auto-sales market (but how cool would it be to be able to use Dairy Queen coupons on a new car, right?) -- Melissa won a brand-new blue Mini Cooper as part of Dairy Queen’s newest contest promotion.

     It was during a trip to the ice-cream outpost for her daughter’s 17^th birthday that Melissa decided to order a mini blizzard treat, unaware that there was a promotion running at all.

     “When he handed me the mini blizzard the guy first said, ‘Isn’t it great? But wouldn’t you like something better?’ ” Melissa said. “Then he handed me a gift card and said ‘Wouldn’t you like something even better?’ I could see a guy with a camera in the background when he handed me the remote control for a small Mini Cooper,” Messinger said. “Then he pulled out the keys to a brand new car.”

     The franchise’s owner said it must have been fate that brought the winning Blizzard treat into Melissa’s hands, considering her past connections to the restaurant.

     “It was an amazing experience,”  said store owner Tracy Hirshauer said. “I’m very happy our store was one of the locations chosen.”

     If you aren’t handed the keys to a new car the next time you order an ice-cream treat with Dairy Queen coupons, you still have a chance to win. Six more Minis will be given away via an online video contest on the social networking site facebook. But be sure to get your entry in soon – the finalists will be announced May 4. 

My Jamocha Shake Addiction

I’m a vegetarian, so there’s not much for me on the menu at most fast food joints. But I confess: I frequent the roast-beef outpost Arby’s on a regular basis. I’m not defying the vegetarian credo and sneaking beef sandwiches on the side, I’m just addicted to those Jamocha shakes. I must use an Arbys coupons or two a week – its embarrassing, but some of the people there actually know me and know my order. One medium Jamocha shake, please!

            If you haven’t had one, you’re missing out – it’s a chocolate-y, coffee-y ice cream dessert that’s a grown-up take on its plainer counterparts. It’s been a favorite on the Arby’s menu since its introduction in 1964 – which means Arby’s was pioneering spiffed-up coffee drinks long before McDonald’s even came to the scene. Can you tell I spend a lot of time thinking about these shakes?

            I decided it was time for me to break free of my Arby’s addiction by learning to make my own Jamocha shakes. After a bit of trial and error, I’ve come up with the following recipe: .

            3 cups vanilla ice cream
            1 cup cold coffee
            1 cup milk
            1 tablespoon sugar
            3 tablespoons chocolate syrup
Combine the coffee, milk, and sugar in a blender.  Add the ice cream and chocolate syrup and blend until creamy.

            The flavor of this recipe is spot-on, especially if you use a good strong coffee. I’ve found that blending too long can make the shake too watery, which is woefully un-Arbys. Part of the Jamocha magic is that those shakes are always so thick and creamy that you almost need a spoon to eat them. If you’re patient, you can wait for the ice cream to soften up a bit and then mix it all together by hand to get the right texture.  If you don’t want to bust out the blender, you can still get your Jamocha fix with these Arby’s coupons – tell them I sent you :)