4th of July Patriotic Treat!

Hey everyone! First off, Happy 4th of July to all my American friends ;) Today I will be sharing with you a quick and easy, last-minute but very tasty dessert for the Fourth of July! I got the concept of this colorful dessert from my useful friend Pinterest and thought I would try them out. Basically, they are skewers consisting of sticky rice krispie treats, fresh strawberries, blueberries, chewy marshmallows, gooey brownies and bananas (optional). I chose these foods because when put together onto a skewer they look very patriotic and perfect for representing the American Flag! It's a super simple treat and all the ingredients were already in our kitchen which made it even simpler. For me, eating just sweet desserts in one sitting makes me feel stuffed and sickly so pairing fruits helps to balance out the dessert and add some natural, refreshing sweeteners without all the calories. I hope you try out these delicious dessert kabobs! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 6 cups of Rice Krispies [cereal]


• One package of marshmallows + extra for kabob


• 3 Tablespoons Butter

• Brownie package


• Ingredients listed for your specific brownie mix (i.e egg, vegetable oil, water)

• Strawberries (quantity depends on how many kabobs you're making)


• Blueberries


• Banana (optional)

• wooden skewers


• star & circle cookie cutter (if owned); I just used a measuring cup & knife

Brownies:
I usually use a packaged brownie mix so I just follow the steps on that package...however, if you don't have any brownie mixes and you want to make homemade brownies here is a link to a recipe for delicious, homemade brownies. http://moneysavingmom.com/2013/10/ultimate-double-chocolate-brownies.html

TIP: Take your brownies out of the oven a bit before they are fully cooked to prevent overcooked brownies! The reason? They cook on the pan once they're taken out of the oven for several minutes after cooking them.

Rice Krispie Treats

1. Heat a big pot over the stove


2. Combine & melt marshmallows and butter until they are smooth and look like marshmallow fluff [no bumpy marshmallows]


3. Thoroughly spray a glass pan or coat with butter to prevent the rice krispies sticking to the pan


4. Mix in the 6 cups of cereal in with the marshmallow mixture lowering the heat


5. Continuously stir the mixture so that all the rice krispies are completely coated with marshmallows and so that the cereal doesn't burn


6. Quickly pour the sticky mixture into the pan and spread over evenly


7. Cover with clear wrap and let sit at room temperature for several hours before eating


8. Make sure to leave them out DON'T place in fridge for it makes them hard and stale!!

Putting the kabobs together:

1. Wash and cut fruit; I chopped my strawberries in half to conserve them 













2. Once the brownies are cooled & rice krispies are settled it's time to form them into spirited shapes


3. For a much easier time you can use a circle cookie cutter and cut your brownies into tight circles...however I live in Switzerland, and of course they don't have cookie cutters (at least at the store I was at) so I used a 1/8 measuring cup (anything circular would work) and formed the brownies into circles


4. Again a star cookie cutter would be the best option for your treats...but I improvised and first cut the krispies into circles. Then, I took a knife & cut the circles into stars-eating scraps along the way :)

Now, for forming the kebabs...

You can put the kebabs in any order you would like! I decided to do all different orders on each of my kebab. For example, 2 blueberries->1/2 a strawberry->marshmallow->2 blueberries->banana slice->brownie->marshmallow->star treat

I repeated this in varying styles and ingredients that I used until I had 6 (for each of us) dessert kebabs ready to be eaten. Finally, I layed the kebabs onto parchment paper and covered the top with clear wrap to conceal freshness. I would recommend not putting them in the fridge once formed as this makes the rice krispies go hard!