Pumpkin Spice Cereal Treats

Earlier this week I made this recipe for Pumpkin Spice Buddies. Me and my husband have been munching on it all week! But I had some of the ingredients left over.

Then I remembered we were meeting with our church's Life Group this week, and I said "SCORE! I'll make snack!"

Now, I know a Bible study isn't the best place for muddy buddies. The powdered sugar gets on everything, and the layers of white chocolate and powdered sugar give everyone a sugar high late at night. So, I decided to modify.

As I've had to remind my friends before, Rice Krispie Treats can be made with other cereals too. My husband likes when I make them out of leftover corn flakes. So for this snack I took the main ingredients from the Pumpkin Spice Buddies (the Cinnamon Chex, roasted pumpkin seeds, and dried cranberries), combined them with melted marshmallows, and turned it into a finger-friendly Life Group snack! My friends said it tasted like fall.

Ingredients:
1 box Cinnamon Chex
1 (generous) cup dried cranberries
1 (generous) cup roasted and salted pumpkin seeds
1 10.5 oz bag of marshmallows
2-4 TBS butter
1 (generous) TBS pumpkin pie spice

1. Combine Chex, cranberries, and pumpkin seeds in a large bowl.
2. Melt 2 TBS butter in a saucepan on medium heat. Add marshmallows to saucepan and stir until melted and smooth. If needed, add 1 or 2 more tablespoons of butter. Do not let the marshmallows burn.
3. Remove saucepan from heat. Add the Chex mixture to the melted marshmallows and stir until well coated.
4. Press the Chex and marshmallow mixture into a greased 9x13 pan.
5. Sprinkle with pumpkin spice.
6. Serve and enjoy!

Recipe Notes:
1. Experiment with the amount of cranberries and pumpkin seeds you want to use. I think I actually doubled the amount of pumpkin seeds I used. This is not a science! Do what tastes good to you.
2. Instead of sprinkling the pumpkin spice on top in step 5, you could combine it with the whole mixture in step 3.
3. Another choice of topping is to melt 1 cup of white chocolate chips and stir in 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the top.

Let me know if you make your own!

Things Kids Say

I nanny three great boys. I love being able to say that I love my job! And the two oldest are so funny! (I'm sure the baby has a great sense of humor, too, he just can't talk yet. The best he gets is comedic timing of laughter and toots.) The three-year-old loves making people laugh and is a natural class clown. The four-year-old is more serious, so I find he is his funniest when he doesn't try. Both will say outlandish things sometimes that make me laugh out loud.

Here are some of my favorites from the oldest:

Me: "What's your favorite Chinese food?"
Him: "Peanut butter and jelly"

"Do you know what makes you stand up? Dirt."

"This is a fweezer, and this is a fridgerfridger."

"This water is too soggy."

Listing family pets:
Me: "Moxie the cat, the fish, the hamster..."
Him: "Don't forget baby Jonah!"
Me: "Your brother is not a pet!"

"Before Captain Hook got his hook, his name was Pirate Hook."

"We don't want to fall and break our noggiums!"

Me: "That's our president now. His name is Barak Obama."

Him: "That's a funny name, it doesn't even make SENSE!"

We've been listening to a children's version of the Wizard of Oz, and he pointed something out to me:

"How is Dorothy going to get her house back?"

I didn't know either! 

And the best quotes from the youngest:

Me: "Do you need a tissue?"

Him: SNIFFFF "No, I suckin' it."

Him: "I'm a hungry tiger!"

Me: "What do you want to eat?" 

Him: "Meat."

Me: "What kind if meat?"

Him: "Chocolate meat!"

Him: "What color should I use?"
Me: "How about purple?"
Him: "...how about you decide black?"

"When you go through the window (of a car) that's doin' it 'Nascar Style'!"

Him: "We've had special training so we can go in space!"
Me: "What kind of training?"
Him: "Hmm... Potty training!"

I just heard him sing the alphabet "...Eucharist, T U V..."

What is growing up to a two year old?
"I'm going to get the BIGGEST pants, and wear them, and they'll STAY!"

Me: "What's your phone number?"
Him: "Number 6."

San Francisco: the Food

I am not one of those people who Instagram their every meal. But goodness people, the food we ate in San Francisco was something else!

Shall we do dessert first?

Schoggi is a chocolate shop we stopped at on our way to Yerba Buena. I'd heard about it from a food blog I read, and it didn't disappoint. It offers plenty of the standard chocolates and truffles, and some odd ducks as well. I tried a curry flavored chocolate and was pleasantly surprised!

Smittens is an ice cream shop my brother-in-law insisted we had to try. It was so good, we went twice!

This is not a fancy place. They have a few narrow benches, inside the small patio and waiting area of the converted box container. They are all about the dessert, without the bells and whistles. They use liquid nitrogen to freeze their ice cream without large ice crystals.

The result is some of the creamiest, most delicious ice cream I've ever had from a restaurant. They only offer three or four flavors at a time, but they do it very, very well.

Yummmm!

Right across the street from Smittens is Miette, a French-style sweet shop. I'd heard about this one from a food blog I follow, and I'm glad I went!

They have chocolate, cupcakes, hard candy, cookies, cakes, and some of the best macarons I've had in my life.

If you have a sweet tooth, Miette and Smittens are the place to indulge. Oh, yes.

Roam Burger is an artisan restaurant, as are many in San Francisco. Sorry I don't have pics for this part. I was busy chowing down! Their menu reminds me of Chipotle's, in that you choose a meat, and then a style to assemble your burger. It's certainly enough food! My brother-in-law recommended the Truffle Parmesan Fries. Also, you're not limited to beef or turkey burgers. They also offer organic veggie burgers and bison, of all things. If you're craving a burger, this is the place to go.

We went to many other restaurants, all wonderful, but these are the ones that stood out to me.