Weekend Recap - Peaches and Greek Fesitval

Last weekend we celebrated Labor Day weekend by heading to the annual 4-day Greek Festival where we enjoyed so much good food! We look forward to this Greek Festival every year. I seriously have a countdown for this event. Usually it falls right on our anniversary weekend, so we celebrate our anniversary there with yummy Greek food and sweet treats.

We also finally picked peaches from our peach tree. We have had our peach tree for about 10 years now and to be honest we haven't really picked the peaches We ask friends to come by and pick them and usually by the time we want to, they are all gone.

But this year we went out with a few boxes and picked as many as we could. And now we have so many peaches. We started giving them away to people walking by, to neighbors, and I still have so many.

It's time to plan some recipes. This weekend I will be making some peach cobblers, peach smoothies, jams, and any other thing I can think of that can include peaches.

Organic and Natural Rice Krispies Treats

Rice Krispies treats were a favorite of mine growing up, but back then and as child, you never once thought about what you were putting in your mouth to eat.

I ate colorful cereals, jellos, candies, an assortment of colorful treats from the ice cream truck, like ninja turtle heads, and red and blue rocket pops.

Things have changed lots for me since then. For example, it is extremely rare if I eat anything that has color, unless I know it is naturally colored with plant or fruits. All other "colorful" frostings, and candies are most likely artificially dyed with Red No. 40, Yellow No. 5 and Yellow No. 6, which makes up 90 percent of the food dyes on the market (NPR). In addition to all the studies that show correlations between these dyes and health issues, I just don't want to eat anything unnatural. I don't think that request and need is too much to ask for. I try as much as possibly to eat organically and naturally. So it made sense that I made one of my favorite treats, Rice Krispies Treats, natural and organic.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons of coconut oil
• 1 Package of natural marshmallows - I used Dandies, but there are a few different makers and they are all great. I bought this at my local natural food market.
• 5 cups of Barbaras Organic Brown Rice Crisps

These marshmallows are also vegan, for my vegan friends, and gluten free. I also use these for my natural smores.

Barbaras Organic Brown Rice Crisps are 100% natural and organic, made with whole grain brown rice, pear or apple juice (instead of sugar) and sea salt. Unfortunately, my beloved Kellogg's Rice Krispies, include BHT, which they indicate is added to the package for freshness (Kellogg's). BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) is a well known food preservative, and is on a "caution" list due to its link to cancer in animals (Berkeley Wellness).  It is recommended to look for packaged foods that use Vitamin E as a natural preservative, or better yet, no preservatives at all.

To get started: In a large saucepan put coconut oil and melt over low heat. Add marshmallows.

You want to stir until completely melted on low heat, and then remove from heat. I might have not waited long enough until it completely melted...I was craving some treats!!

Add the brown rice crisps and stir until combined.

Press mixture into a pan, usually you should press it into a long 13x9 pan, but I only had my square pan available which I lined with parchment paper. Because I used a smaller pan, I had some thick rice krispie treats, but that was okay in my book. 

Once it cools, cut it into the shapes you desire and enjoy.

These tasted absolutely delicious. Exactly how I remember them tasting. There were no difference at all except that these are natural and organic and didn't taste as sugary as I remember them being. These are best made the day before or the day of and enjoyed fresh. I hope you enjoyed this little natural recipe. I am going to be adding quite a few natural and organic recipes replacing some classic favorites.