My old college roommate couldn’t eat gluten, so the overlap between our respective diets was pretty slim (since most gluten-free flours and flour-based products have potato in them and I can’t eat nightshades). 

One thing we could both eat, though, was puffed rice cereal treats (aka Rice Krispies). So we alternated buying the ingredients and I’d make them while I was prepping other food. 

I didn’t think much of it until we had a couple people over for Halloween and she asked if I was going to be making my cereal treats, because mine were “the best [she] had EVER eaten.” Well, okay then! 

Honestly, I just make them the way I do because I’m lazy and don’t want to end up with random leftover ingredients. 

The original recipe from Kelloggs calls for 6 cups of cereal, which is in theory about half a box, but seemed to usually be slightly more than half. So if I wanted to make more later I’d have to buy another box and open it, which in turn wouldn’t be used up entirely and I’d need yet another box… rinse and repeat. Much easier to just use the whole thing. 

And if we’re already “measuring” one ingredient by what’s easiest, why not do everything that way?

…And so the World’s Laziest Cereal Treats were born. 

Items Needed

• A really big pot
• A 9”x13” baking dish
• A silicone spatula or something similar that can stir the ingredients without getting super sticky

Ingredients

• One 12-oz box of your choice of cereal (whatever floats your boat — puffed rice cereal like Rice Krispies are traditional, but I like Cinnamon Toast Crunch sometimes)
• One and a half bags (15 oz) mini marshmallows — doesn’t have to be exact, just eyeball it
• One stick (½ cup) of salted butter
• A splash of vanilla extract (probably about ½ tsp, but these are lazy treats so I never actually measure anything)
• Optional: ½ tsp cinnamon, cup or two of chocolate candies, some sprinkles, etc.

Instructions

1. Take your stick of butter and run the end over the pan to grease it. Put remaining butter in the pot and melt it on medium-low heat.
2. Add marshmallows and vanilla to the pot; melt marshmallows.
3. Dump the whole box of cereal into the pot and stir everything together. Pour and press into greased pan. If you’re feeling fancy, add some melted chocolate or sprinkles to the top. Let cool.

And that’s it. It takes like five minutes and you only have one pot and one spatula to clean up. That’s why they’re the “World’s Laziest” Cereal Treats — you barely have to do anything. But they’re still so good! 

What do you think? Will you give them a try? Let me know in the comments how they turn out!

Pin for Later:

My dad loves banana bread, but honestly I was never much of a fan until this loaf of “Use-It-Up” banana bread.

It’s sweet, moist, and flavorful, with spices that help accentuate its banana flavor.

This is a combination-adaptation of Bread Dad’s two-banana bread recipe and the old family banana bread recipe, which hails from parts unknown. (Though there’s a pretty good chance it comes from the back of a box — turns out a lot of our “old family recipes” secretly do!)

It’s called “use-it-up” banana bread because it’s flexible — only have two small bananas and one egg, like I did the first time I made it? No problem. Got a bunch of nuts in the pantry on the verge of going off? Throw them in! Want it vegan? Easy to do. 

Use what you’ve got, and dump in whatever needs to be used up. I promise it’ll be delicious.

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Recently I tried a new recipe for a loaf cake! Orange zest, fruits, brown sugar, and chocolate — yum. 

…Except I realized about 30 minutes into baking it that the recipe used self-rising flour and I’d used all-purpose. 

So there’s no leavening agent. AKA, nothing to make it rise, at all.

Whoops. 

When I went online to see how badly I’d goofed, most of the websites talked about what you could use to substitute baking powder, not what happens when you don’t use any leavening agent at all. 

(I did find a couple cool pages — one where the baker made 12 loaves of banana bread with different baking mistakes, and one with ideas on how to salvage common bad cake outcomes — but neither was specific to my issue.)

So: here’s what happened when I left baking powder out.

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When I was little, I always knew it was Christmastime when my mom started making peanut butter white bark candy.

We had to go to a specialty baking shop to specifically get Merckens melting chocolate, because we didn’t like taste of the stuff sold at the grocery store. So we’d make the trek out, wander around the aisles in awe of all the colorful goods, then come home with our treasure.

Peanut butter white bark candy is a great gift to give during holiday exchanges, since it’s unique and also easy to make. You can pretty much guarantee there won’t be any duplicate givers at your cookie exchange the way there might be with gingerbreads!

If you have kids, this is also a good recipe to make together or to let the kids help you with. Really small kids can help by crushing the pretzels and sprinkling on toppings; kids a bit older can scoop out and measure the peanut butter; and kids old enough to safely use the stovetop can melt the chocolate wafers.

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