Very Valentine's: Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Treats

How in the world is already almost Valentine's Day?

I'm so behind, you guys.

While I grabbed gifts for the kids and put them up as soon as the Valentine's stuff hit the stores I have absolutely no idea what to get for my husband.  It's really too late to order anything and honestly I generally make him a sweet and sentimental gift anyway- but I'm at a loss.

I have exactly four days to figure this one out.

While I may not know what to do for my husband, the kids and I have already played around in the kitchen with some holiday-inspired treats.  In the past I've made a variety of pink baked goods- Pink Sugar Cookie Bars, Pink Pinwheel Cookies, super yummy Pink Snickerdoodles, even Pink Marshmallows.

This year I decided to make it easy on myself and I threw together some marshmallow cereal treats.

Three ingredients- butter, marshmallows, and crispy rice cereal.  Couldn't be easier, right?

After the bars cooled I just used a heart-shaped cookie cutter instead of cutting them into bars, dipped the tops in melted chocolate, and finished them off with a few sprinkles to make them even more festive.

Cute and easy- a winning combination.

My daughter enjoyed eating a couple as soon as the chocolate dried but we wrapped up the rest of them in cello bags tied with ribbon for the kids' teachers.  These would have been great on a platter for a party too!

I really love how these turned out, I've been thinking of all of the other holidays for which these will work.  I'm thinking I might use green candy melts for Christmas with tree-shaped cookie cutters and letting the kids decorate their little trees- what fun that would be!

Marshmallow Treats

Modified slightly from Allrecipes.com

1/4 C butter

10 oz. miniature marshmallows

6 C crisp rice cereal

4 cubes melting chocolate

Desired decorations

1. Melt butter in large sauce pan over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until melted and well-blended. Remove from heat.  Add cereal. Stir until well coated.

2. Using buttered spatula or waxed paper, press mixture evenly and firmly in buttered 9 x 9 inch pan.

3. When cool, cut into desired shapes.  Melt chocolate according to package directions; dip tops of treats into melted chocolate and transfer to wax paper.  Sprinkle with desired toppings before chocolate dries.