Easter Crispy Treats

Happy Easter everyone!  I hope you are enjoying this Easter weekend.  I have been having fun today making cute Easter treats.  Using a Rice Krispie treat recipe as a starting point, I made two super-cute Easter treats for the kids (and me, who am I kidding?  I love those things!)

Here's what I did:

EASTER CRISPY TREATS

1/2 stick butter
4 cups mini marshmallows
5 cups crispy rice cereal
food coloring
jelly beans

Heat a large pot on medium-low heat.  Add butter and stir until melted.  Add marshmallows and stir until melted.

 Once melted, stir in about 5 drops of food coloring.  I used blue.  It's hard to tell from the pictures, but it came out a nice pastel blue color.  Once the food coloring is thoroughly mixed in, add the cereal and stir well.  This takes a little elbow grease, but it needs to be completely mixed together.

 Spray a jelly roll pan (or large cookie sheet with sides) with cooking spray or grease it with butter.  Press the cereal mixture into the pan.  I wet my hands before I do this and it keeps it from sticking to me.  Make sure the mixture is pressed out flat and even.

Use an egg-shaped cookie cutter to cut out the treats.  The amount you can make depends on the size of your cutter.  Mine made 14.

Remove to a rack or platter using a small spatula to help.

Keep the scraps after you've cut them out because we are going to use them to make another treat.

You can decorate them anyway you want.  If you have icing, use that.  I didn't, so here's what I did:

Put some food coloring into the compartments of a clean egg carton (I washed it out with soap and water).

Using a toothpick, paint the eggs with the coloring.

Fun to do with the kids, but be careful.  It will stain!

Now, for the scraps we saved.  Take a small amount and using your thumb, press it into the shape of a bird's nest.

Put 3 jelly beans into the nest for eggs.

A cute, easy treat that any kid would love and we used the scraps to make it.  I love that!

Three of these nests fit perfectly in a snack-size zip bag.  A great way to package them so you can add them to an Easter basket.

  
Happy Easter!