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!