{Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats}

Bean will kill me for posting this, but the fact is, school starts here in just over one month.

One month? AREYOUSERIOUS? Yes, and that's just really, really dumb.

Maybe it's the fact that I only have one kid, I'm not sure, but I LOVE summer break. While my child is 16 and headed full steam ahead toward Junior year (talk about dumb! Junior  year? That's not possible!), we still  love hanging out together. In fact, this year we even made a Summer Bucket List.

At the beginning of Summer, I handed him a piece of paper and a pen and told him to write down what he wanted to do this summer. I typed it, printed it, and hung it on the refrigerator. I'm happy to say that the list is about 2/3 completed!

We still have to go on a picnic, have a board game -a-thon, go to the outlet malls, go to Comic Con (not THE Comic Con in San Diego though), finish the River Song episodes (we started), drive with no place to go, have a movie-a-thon, and go to Half Price Books.  Also, the last day of summer thing, obviously. Since Bean was little, on the day before school started, we go out to lunch and to the movies. Sometimes we end up at the cheap theater, sometimes, it's the regular one. We actually watched several movies we expected to not be great and LOVED on these days. Including Ratatouille and How to Train Your Dragon. This year we are hoping to hit up Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.

Anyway, all too soon we will dragging out that dreaded backpack and heading off to school.

When Bean was young, one of his favorite lunchbox treats were Reese's Krispie Treats. They were pre-packaged treats you bought alongside regular Krispie Treats (but not made my Kellogg's). Then, poof. Gone. I looked everywhere for them over the years before I finally gave up. I even tried to google a photo to post here. I found nada. WHAT IS THIS MAGIC? I know they existed. I ATE THEM, people!! They were real. And delicious. Does anyone else remember these?

They were little rectangles of peanut butter krispie treats with chocolate bottoms.

They aren't hard to make at all, of course, but buying them was so much easier. I enjoy making them now as to not have all the icky additives and preservatives in the boxed treats.

What we are looking at here is your basic Krispie Treat recipe with peanut butter, then cooled, cut, and dipped in chocolate.

Easy.

Also, extremely popular. I made a batch last night for Bean's Pool Party (refer to Summer Bucket List), and there were 3 left, with only 8 kids here.

Super great for lunchboxes. Or Pool Parties. Or, really, any time because chocolate. And peanut butter.

Tina

P.S. Don't tell the kids, but SCHOOL IS COMING.


Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats
Adapted from Kellogg's

For the treats:

1/4 cup butter
10 ounces mini marshmallows
6 cups Rice Krispies Cereal (or store brand)
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter


Prepare dish, spray lightly with cooking spray and set aside. You can use a 9x13 for thinner treats (like mine) or an 8x8 for thicker treats.

In a large saucepan, melt butter over low heat. When melted, add marshmallows. Remove from heat. Stir until fully melted. Add in peanut butter. Stir until well combined. Add cereal and mix until fully coated.  Press into pan. Allow to cool completely. Cut into squares.

For the chocolate:

Chocolate bark or chocolate chips
(I much prefer chocolate bark for dipping)

Melt in microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring each time, until fully melted.

Dip each square into chocolate and then place on well greased cooling rack (with paper towels under to catch drips) or onto parchment paper. Allow chocolate to cool and harden.

Enjoy.

Makes approx 24 treats, depending on size.