BACK TO SCHOOL TREATS

organic brown rice crispies squares with ground flaxseed

I know...I know. There's a ton of sugar in marshmallows and though Rice Crispies Squares seem pretty benign junk food-wise, they do have that ooey chewy marshmallow sugar-high factor that is oh so true to junk food.

Yes, the treats have cereal, but I personally don't think most of the cereals you find in the supermarket aisles are very healthy breakfast options because of the high sugar content. That being said, of course I feed cereal to my child occasionally. Perhaps once a week or once in two weeks, Bebe sometimes has Cheerioes multigrain cereal or her favourite cereal: Kellogg's Guardian All Bran cereal (primarily for the little heart shapes I think). Though these cereals have the fibre I so want to include in her diet, they also have a fair amount of sugar. Since she doesn't eat cereal everyday though, I don't think it's too much of a problem. In fact, I rarely police Bebe's intake of sugar and don't deprive her of a few jellybeans or M&M's if she wants them. You know I would never say "no" if she asked for cupcakes or dessert! She has pretty good self control and I've never seen her over-indulge in anything sweet. She's so not like mommy ;)

My mommified rice crispies treats have been doctored in as healthy a way as possible without compromising on the much-loved taste of the original recipe we all know. I used organic brown rice cereal, marshmallows, unsalted butter and freshly ground flaxseed in my rendition. Flax is so yucky on its own that I have to hide it somewhere and this is as good a place as any.

If you ate these treats, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the original recipe and the "healthy" one. The flax is not detectable. hm. Probably because of the marshmallow. Well, I tried. Doesn't that count?

So, if you want to feel less guilty about eating rice crispies squares, then by all means take the original recipe and add up to 1/4 cup freshly ground organic flaxseed and replace the regular rice crispies cereal with organic brown rice cereal. I don't think it's necessary to locate healthy marshmallows. I just used my favourite brand from the supermarket, but I suppose if you had the energy you could use homemade chocolate marshmallows as I have in the past. Homemade is always best and you can never go wrong by adding chocolate to stuff.