Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen #69: Penguin Rice Krispies Treats

Time for Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen

(A weekly linky to share what you and your children have created in the kitchen.)

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The linky is at the bottom.

I love being able to make Rice Krispies Treats. Homemade taste so much better than those packaged things. Of course, they are also wheat-free, a huge plus these days (though I haven't been doing the greatest job eliminating wheat from our diets). Last year we made some shaped like snowmen and I thought it would be fun to make some this year shaped like penguins as we have just finished our P: Penguin unit.

This week is:
Amelia and a Mom in the Kitchen
(With a bit of help from Tabitha)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter and 1/8 cup butter
1 package (10 oz) mini marshmallows and 1/2 package mini marshmallows
5 1/2 cups Crispy Rice Cereal and 2 3/4 cups Cocoa Krispies
Chocolate chips
Candy Corn

(This recipe is not the official Rice Krispies Treats Recipe. We used the recipe off the box of generic Crispy Rice and I actually like it better. You can find the "official" recipe over on my Rice Krispies Treats Snowmen post from last year. )

We started off by measuring out the butter. Amelia learned that 1/4 cup of butter equals 4 Tablespoons.  Then she struggled a bit to tell me that half of 4 tablespoons is 2 tablespoons which equals 1/8 of a cup. We will be working on this more. I love hands on fraction learning!

We melted the 1/4 of butter in one pot and the 1/8 cup of butter in a second pot. One is for the light Krispies Treats the other is for the chocolate or brown Krispies Treats. I had debated doing the white batch first, but I am very glad I did them together as they need to be warm to be pliable and able to stick together.

When the butter was completely melted we added the marshmallows. 

A full bag goes in with the 1/4 cup of butter and a half a bag goes in with the 1/8 cup of butter.

And we stirred until the marshmallows were completely melted.

Yes, Tabitha came to help.

Then we poured the Rice Krispies into the melted marshmallows.

5 1/2 cups into the larger mixture and 2 3/4 cups of cocoa Krispies into the smaller mixture.

We stirred until they were all coated.

Tip: You need to let them cool for a few minutes to allow them to shape properly. When I first started they were just falling apart. Oh, and don't forget to grease your hands with margarine/spread. They will stick to your hands like crazy if you don't. I also neglected to cover the wax paper with any grease and some of the penguins stuck to it. Lesson learned for next time.

To make the penguins we first shaped the body out of the lighter mixture. I took a handful and shaped it into a ball then we flattened it into an oval shape.

Then I took a smaller ball of chocolate Krispies and shaped it into a head, pressing firmly to attach it to the body.

We then took a little more of the chocolate Krispies for the wings. I sort of gave them a crescent shape and attached them up at the neck.

We then added chocolate chip eyes and candy corn beaks and feet. For the beaks I cut off the bottom yellow part. You have to make sure to attach these parts firmly while the marshmallows are still sticky and they will remain attached. I neglected to actually attach the feet, so when I moved them they fell off. Fortunately we weren't taking them anywhere, they were just for the family.

We had quite the little rookery started. This picture shows 5 of the 9. We also had enough light colored Krispies left after running out of the chocolate Krispies to make a snowman.

Do you have your children help you in the kitchen?  What lessons do they learn? Do you have any kid friendly recipes to share?

I'd love to see your posts, whether you have done something this week or some time in the past. Just link up below. This is a weekly linky.

I am linking up to:

Melt in Your Mouth Monday
Try a New Recipe Tuesday at Home to Four Kiddos
The Gathering Spot at Mamal Diane
Friday Food Frenzy at Close to Home
Fantastic Thursday at Five Little Chefs
Foodie Friends Friday at Robyn'sView
Family Fun Friday at Happy and Blessed Home
Find a New Recipe Friday at Almost Supermom

And here is my Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen linky