Tasteful Tuesday: Valentine's Marshmallow Treats

Happy February!  I love February - not so much because of Valentine's Day, but mostly because it's my birthday month.  :)  Today I have a "treat" for you - pun intended.  I decided to make some marshmallow treats and jazz them up a little for Valentine's.  Hope you like them!

"Valentine's Marshmallow Treats"

What you'll need:

• 4 cups of mini marshmallows
• 5 cups of crispy rice cereal
• 1/4 cup of butter + a little extra to grease your pan
• 9x13 in pan
• Red food coloring
• Red sprinkles
• 1 square of chocolate flavored almond bark
• Foil or wax paper
• Heart cookie cutter

What you'll do:

First thing's first - rub down your pan with some butter.  Make sure the bottom is covered.  The sides don't matter so much.

Melt the 1/4 c of butter on low heat and then add the marshmallows, stirring often until they're all melted.

While your marshmallows are melting, measure out your cereal.  

Once your marshmallows are completely melted, add your red food coloring.  I used 10 drops.

This is what mine looked like...sort of.  It actually turned out a lot more pink than this pic gives it credit, which is what I wanted.

Take your pink marshmallows off the heat, add your cereal quickly, and then spread into your buttered pan.  Use the back of a rubber spatula (not a wooden spoon - doesn't work too great) to flatten out your treat.  Then sprinkle the top with the red sprinkles.  It should look something like this.  

Allow your treat to cool completely.  Once that's done, slide the marshmallow treat onto a piece of foil or waxed paper.  It should slide out pretty easily if you buttered it.  Use your cookie cutter to cut out hearts from your sheet of treat (I should make a profession out of rhyming).  :)

I managed to get 12 heart treats out of the 9x13 pan with a bunch of scraps.  I'm not sure if there's a way to position the cookie cutter to get more, but I tried my best (feel free to let me know if you have a good method).  

Next, melt your chocolate square in a microwave safe dish and drizzle over your hearts.  I decided to only do half of my hearts with chocolate.

My favorite step is next - eat 'em up!!!  I think these would also be pretty neat as a bouquet of treats - just add a cookie stick or lollipop stick and stick them in a pot with styrofoam in it.  Mine didn't it make it that far...I saved 2 for Matthew and took the rest to my small group leaders' meeting on Sunday night, where they were definitely enjoyed!  Hope you enjoy them too!