110-Calorie Chocolate Marshmallow Cupcakes
Posted: March 10, 2012 Filed under: Dessert, The Smart Cookie Cook, Vegetarian | Tags: baking, chocolate, cucpakes, dessert, healthy, low calorie, marshmallows 8 Comments »
Sometimes, Pinterest is a huge problem. I’ll be sitting and doing work like the diligent college student I am, then all of a sudden, I find myself scrolling through Pinterest. It can be hard to make myself get off. That site is just so crazy addicting, full of brilliant ideas, tantalizing food, and funny cats.
Sometimes though, Pinterest is the solution to a huge problem. Take for example the other day when I was craving something chocolatey for dessert. I was eating relatively healthy that day, and I had no desire to diverge from that in exchange for some thousand-calorie dessert. However, I was sick of my typical low-cal dessert options. In a fit of desperation, I called upon the powers of Pinterest to bestow me with a healthy but delicious treat.
Pinterest, being the gold mine that it is, came through. I discovered a 100-calorie cupcake recipe which was also vegan. Intriguing.
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Seriously Cereal: Lucky Charms is Magically Delicious For All Ages
Posted: November 5, 2011 Filed under: Breakfast, Dessert, Seriously Cereal, Snacks, The Smart Cookie Cook | Tags: breakfast, cereal, food, Lucky Charms, marshmallows, snack 11 Comments »
The frazzled cry of, “They’re after me lucky charms!” still rings in the ears of many American adults. As children, we grew up watching Lucky the Leprechaun endlessly fleeting from greedy children with no sense of boundaries. They were, indeed, ALWAYS after his lucky charms. Poor Lucky never caught a break. Even today, he is still on the run. The children are as determined as ever, in hot pursuit of that colorful, marshmallow-studded cereal. But really, who can blame them?
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Make-Your-Own Halloween Candy Mini Pies
Posted: October 27, 2011 Filed under: Candy, Dessert, Holiday, Snacks, The Smart Cookie Cook, Vegetarian | Tags: baking, candy, chocolate, desserts, food, graham crackers, Halloween, Halloween candy, marshmallows, pie 12 Comments »
Trick-or-Treating is a really good idea in theory. You get to dress up however you please, portraying an entirely different person/creature/thing for one night, and frolic about the town collecting candies and confections aplenty. It’s a night full of jocular enjoyment, for sure. However, every year, you face that Day-After-Halloween Dilemma when you say, “What the heck am I gonna do with all this candy???” Sure, you can plow through a good portion of it during mindless snacking, but it’s almost inevitable that an unfortunate chunk will get discarded into the depths of the garbage can. That usually happens sometime around Christmas (or for some people, Easter) when you realize how long that candies has been chilling in your pantry and that you’re probably never going to eat it. The Day-After-Halloween Dilemma usually includes a premonition of that very moment.
And it’s not just trick-or-treaters who are susceptible to the Day-After-Halloween Dilemma. Adults everywhere fall victim when they fail to hand out all of the candy they bought for the trick-or-treaters. They have no clue what to do with the leftovers, and a quandary results.
So, how do you avoid this? Well, lucky for you little cookies, I’ve whipped up an easy and DELICIOUS solution! Cue the Make-Your-Own Halloween Candy Mini Pies. These little guys are not only ideal for using up leftover Halloween candies, they are also PERFECT for Halloween parties! You can make the crusts ahead of time then give everyone an assortment of candy to choose from. Your guests can pick out their favorites then fill their own personal mini pie with the candy and marshmallows! It’s fun, customizable, and so yummy!
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Spooky Rice Krispie Treat Halloween Mask!
Posted: October 20, 2011 Filed under: Candy, Dessert, Holiday, How-To, Snacks, The Smart Cookie Cook | Tags: cake decorating, dessert, fondant, food, frosting, Halloween, marshmallows, Rice Krispie treats 21 Comments »
College poses many obstacles. It tells me, “Hey, write five in-depth, multiple-step essays in 90 minutes for your honors pysch midterm,” and, “Sit through a 3-hour night class where you learn how to use Microsoft Word, even though you learned that in middle school,” then, “Make a two-faced mask out of ‘found materials’ for Art class.”
Wondering what all of this has to do with Halloween or Rice Krispie Treats? Well, I may not be a psychology expert or physically capable of staying awake through three-hour night classes, but I am okay at art. Initially, when my art teacher asked us to make a mask, I wasn’t exactly thrilled. Quickly, however, that feeling diminished as a light bulb illuminated approximately 2 inches above my head. I realized I had an opportunity here to do what I do best: work with food. Dread quickly turned into excitement.
I’ve never sculpted with Rice Krispie Treats nor worked with fondant before this, but I figured I could work it out easily enough using knowledge acquired from religiously watching Food Network (and Cake Boss on TLC). It really wasn’t all that bad. I whipped up some Rice Krispie treats, molded them while the marshmallows were still molten, let it set, frosted it, covered it in fondant, then decorated it. And there you have it: a 100% edible, two-faced Halloween mask!
The Jack-O-Lantern Side.
The Skull Side.
Although I wouldn’t recommend using this for your Halloween costume (unless sticking your face into Rice Krispies is your thing), it would make a welcomed addition to any Halloween party, as well as an awesome centerpiece to a Halloween-themed table-scape. Once you’re done admiring it, you can eat it!
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Down for the Count: What Have They Done to Count Chocula?
Posted: October 12, 2011 Filed under: Breakfast, Holiday, Snacks, The Smart Cookie Cook, Vegetarian | Tags: breakfast, cereal, chocolate, Count Chocula, food, Halloween, marshmallows 19 Comments » 
As a kid, there were no cereal mascots I loved more than Count Chocula and his creepy accomplices, Boo Berry & Frankenberry. Not only were their cereals DELICIOUS, but they were probably the coolest breakfast characters out there. Nothing appealed to me more than that gangly trio of monsters and their sweet, marshmallow-studded cereals. Boo Berry, with its unique blueberry-flavored cereal pieces and sugary marshmallows, was beyond awesome. But, for whatever reason, the original Count Chocula has always held the number one spot in my heart. I never did try old Frankenberry, but I don’t imagine he could knock the Count out of his top spot either. You can’t beat the original.
There was a dark time in my life when many years passed without the presence of Count Chocula’s cereal, or any of his other beastly buddy’s. I don’t know if this applies to all regions of the country, but Count completely disappeared from my radar for a long time. They stopped nationwide distribution and I died a little inside.
Then, a year or two ago, Count showed up again in Target at Halloween time. Good ol’ Target. Leave it to them to sell all things fabulous in the world. Needless to say, I rejoiced. I threw my hands in the air and thanked the almighty Cereal Gods. At last, the Count and I were reunited. I also bought some delicious Boo Berry.
Every year since then, I have patiently waited for Halloween to roll around again so that I could have my Count Chocula. This year was no exception. Last weekend, I trekked over to my local Target to sweep up arm-fulls of Count Chocula cereal boxes and whisk them away to the safety of my home.
…Okay, so I bought one box. Nevertheless, I was thrilled. I might’ve embarrassed my mother a bit by my overjoyed reaction upon spotting The Count in Target, but I cannot bring myself to regret it. I love anything Halloween-related and I love sugary cereal. Count offers me both of those pleasures.
But there was something wrong, my little cookies, very wrong indeed…
