Too Hot To Cook

With the temperatures well over 100 degrees for over a month it has been difficult, to say the least, to keep the house cool.  My little home is cooled by window units and unfortunately running the stove counteracts any cooling the air conditioner manages to accomplish.  

We/I have had to really get inventive in order to eat and still manage to keep the house cool enough to be bearable.  There are always good crock pot ideas.  Jimmy and I found a NuWave portable type oven/cooker kinda thing at a garage sale.  The lady said that it worked perfectly and would cook without heating up the kitchen.  OH Happy Day, was my first thought, solid, unsoggy, non-bean meal!  So we bought it and brought it home.  In my opinion it has been a god-send.  It cooks the whole meal (veggies and meat) at the same time and usually within or around 30 minutes AND without heating the kitchen.  Love the taste of the food - it is like roasting. 

Perfect, I can still cook and have a variety of food to provide dinner for my dear husband upon his return from his long day at work.  The problem, and not that he has complained, was that I have not been able to bake anything in quite a long time.  I am having withdrawals. 

While having a bowl of Choc-Chunks, the delicious part of a nutritious breakfast, a thought came to my mind.  These would make a great base for rice krispies treats.   (man I am really missing emoticons right now)

Anyway.... I used the cheap chocolate rice krispies from Wal-Mart as the base, bought some marshmallow fluff and off to the kitchen i was to see if I could at least make something sweet without heating up the whole house to the unbearable point.  

I put 6 cups of the cereal in a large bowl (which turned out to be a little too much I think), greased a small rectangle pan, put 1/2 a stick of butter in a pot and started it to melt.  Then I added the marshmallow to heat and mix.  After heating add a teaspoon of vanilla.  Pour this mixture over the krispies and stir.  (It was at this point that I began to think 6 cups may be too much.  Next time I will try 5 cups)  Mix the marshmallow mixture into the cereal until all the cereal is coated and then press the mixture into the pan.  It needs to be pressed tightly into the pan so that it stays together.  With 6 cups it was still a little crumbly.  I am hoping with 5 cups it will hold together much better.  I will see anyway.

Just as I had imagined, the end product was delicious!  Husband was most happy to have something sweet to finish off dinner.  He really loved them, as did I.  Can't wait to try them again with the modified recipe.

I think I will use my new NuWave Oven thing and see if by chance I could actually bake in it.  *I think I feel another blog coming on*  :)