Holiday Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Rice Krispie Treats

Please note that I do not use regular Rice Krispies, because I'm told there's a cross-contamination problem at the factory. If that changes, somebody let me know. But honestly, my daughter Annie is so sensitive, even the slightest bit of gluten makes her really sick.

So we use Nature's Path Crispy Rice, a whole grain brown rice cereal, for our Rice Krispies.

It's also a good idea to check the label on your marshmallows, as well as the food coloring you use. Currently we use Kraft marshmallows and Betty Crocker food coloring, but that may change. I just keep an eye on labels to make sure we're staying GF.

The "margarine" I use for this is Earth Balance natural shortening. It comes in cubes as well as a margarine tub, but I use the cubes for my recipe.

We made these Rice Krispie treats for the 4th of July this year, but you can change the colors to red and green for Christmas, pastel colors for Easter, etc... And here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 bag of regular GF marshmallows--divide them into equal thirds
• 1/2 cube of GF/DF margarine--divide it in thirds
• extra margerine for greasing the bottom and sides of a 9x9-inch pan or casserole dish
• 1 box of GF crisp rice cereal of your choice
• food coloring

Directions:

1. Follow the directions on the back of a package of Kraft regular-sized marshmallows, except divide the DF margarine and marshmallows equally into three bowls. Add red food coloring to one bowl, blue food coloring to another bowl, and for the third bowl, leave it the regular white color that marshmallows normally have.

2. After cooking one batch of marshmallows (say, the blue batch for example) in the microwave as directed, mix in one third of your crisp rice cereal. Then have a greased pan ready to fold in your blue marshmallow/crispy mixture (i.e. have it pre-greased when the marshmallows come out of the microwave). Flatten and spread the mixture all across the bottom of the pan (I use well-greased fingers to do this).

3. Do the same with each color. On the bottom, layer the blue Rice Krispies; next layer the white Rice Krispies; on top, layer the red Rice Krispies.

4. Once cool, cut the Rice Krispies into two-inch cubes, and your patriotic layering will then become visible. You may wish to poke a toothpick down inside each one, with a US flag design on it for the Fourth of July. (Or a Santa toothpick for Christmas, or a shamrock for St. Patrick's Day--whatever.)

5. Put the Rice Krispy squares on a holiday-designed paper plate (or one you buy at the dollar store) and cover it with Saran Wrap or cellophane to keep your treats from drying out.

Yum! Everyone loves Rice Krispies!