OREO RICE KRISPY SQUARES

If it so happens that one evening you decide that sometimes there is beauty in the world surrounding you, you should wake up in the morning and celebrate with some noteworthy treats. Well it's this remarkable Rice Krispy square recipe that has brought me joy once again, this time via an upgrade. I know they're like the deities of all Rice Krispy squares, so where do you even start improving them one may say, but sometimes unexpected upgrades come to you like a deus ex machina plus this is Oreos we're talking about. Make sure you're fine with sugar rushes and cow exploitation in Oreo factories and go for it. At least no bees were blindfolded or earmuffed or tapped on the shoulder in the process.

RICE KRISPY SQUARES

These days I sometimes like to pretend I’m still in America (how very sane of me) and I sit on my own sipping Egg Nog and reading Preacher and sprinkling pumpkin spice on anything I encounter, and I thought I’d make something America-related again. 

So this one day in Williamsburg I found a small little shop selling organic groceries and I got this vegan marshmallow rice krispy bar and I went a bit nuts. I'd never had marshmallow rice krispy treats before (how very European of me) and regular marshmallows have gelatine anyway, so a whole new world opened up for me. I know, I know it's only rice cereal and sticky chewy things but they're the best aren't they. So I've recreated them and as they only take a split second to make they will be my accompaniment of choice for my Egg Nog and my pumpkin-spice-everything and I'll be eating them when I read Preacher and you all should too.

RASPBERRY & PISTACHIO TART

My gluten-free adventures continue, how exciting.
So as not to murder my coeliac colleague, this time I made quite a yummy gluten-free vegan raspberry & pistachio tart. Not all of it made it to work (vegan gluten-free tart pregnancy), but hey, murder-free deliciousness, what more can you ask for.

APRICOT & GOJI BERRY PUFFED RICE BARS

These could be considered a fancy version of kitchen-sink bars. After a disastrous attempt at making vegan white chocolate cookies with a veeery watery fake white chocolate bar the other night, I ran out of flour, oil and pretty much everything you need to bake something edible. However, upon inspecting the kitchen cupboard looking for treats yesterday evening after work (I did find treats by the way. And consequently ate the treats. A lot of them. BAD), I also discovered a sad-looking pack of puffed rice lying there at the back, together with two little bags of equally sad-looking dried apricots. I also had a pack of goji berries, and I actually had been looking for some nice recipe to use them in. Add an opened jar of peanut butter and ta-daah. Mission accomplished. No more abandoned puffed rice. No more forgotten dried apricots. This has cleared some space in my cupboard (and officially allows me to refill it asap), and after throwing everything in a pan (everything but the kitchen sink, as they say), has brought to life some lovely, quite healthy puffed rice bars, which are also vegan and gluten free. I can’t really complain, can I! Should you want to experiment with these bars yourselves, feel free to throw in whatever you have in your cupboard (yeh ok, within reason): dried fruit/nuts of any kind all work a treat (!) here.