I Give a Sh!rt Rice Krispy Tees

Summer is flying by! I’ve made it to August and have managed to keep my two kids pretty busy this summer. We’ve done volleyball camp, fishing trips, the beach, the pool, weekend getaways, bike rides on the trail and many other fun outings.

We had a random day of rain a few days ago which was actually a nice break from the sun and a good excuse to stay home and get a few things done around the house, work on my to-do list, and prep for a busy month of August.   One of the things I added to my list is all of the back to school shopping for Ally and Hudson.  My kids go to a private school that requires uniforms, so luckily we don’t have to buy a bazillion things, but there is still a good amount of basics that need to be purchased.  I learned recently that parents plan to spend over $360 on clothing and shoes in 2016 (according to the National Retail Federation). It seems crazy to me, knowing how quickly kids grow out of clothing. There’s really no need to spend that much when you can choose to thrift to help the environment AND your pocketbook too! My kids LOVE to go browse through our Value Village for books and toys, which 96% of are under $10!

As the day continued to rain, we spent the afternoon in the kitchen making rice krispy “tees”.  Taking inspiration from Value Village’s “I Give a Shirt” campaign, I thought my kids would have fun decorating t-shirts with a variety of candies.

Rice Krispy Tees

You will need:
3 tablespoons butter or 3 tablespoons margerine
40 large marshmallows or 4 cups mini marshmallows
6 cups Rice Krispies
candies (m&ms, nerds, sixlets, etc)
candy melts
cooking spray
9×13 cookie sheet
t-shirt cookie cutter

1. In a large microwave safe bowl, heat butter and marshmallows at HIGH for 3 minutes, stirring after 2 minutes. Stir until smooth.

2. Add Rice Krispies cereal. Stir until coated.

3. Press mixture into 13 x 9 inch pan coated with cooking spray.

One of my tips for working with rice krispy treat batter is to get your spatula wet before you press the mixture into the pan.  It helps to eliminate the mixture from sticking to your spatula.  Try it!

4.  After the mixture sets (about an hour), you can begin cutting out your shirt shapes.

Kids love to be a part of this process.  My son Hudson was determined to cut out his own shirts.

5.  In a microwave safe bowl, microwave white candy melts at 30% power in 30 second increments until fully melted.  Dip rice krispy tee down into bowl of melted candy until the top of the treat is completely coated.

6.  Place dipped “tee” on cooling rack or wax paper and decorate!

Dip and decorate each treat before dipping the next.  The melted candy will stay tacky long enough to decorate (at least 3-5 minutes).

My husband arrived home from work as we were baking and wanted in on the action!  He did a pretty good job!

The Keller family is showing that we Give a Sh!rt about clothing footprint by donating items we no longer need rather than throwing them in the garbage.

Here are a few facts that will likely surprise you!

·         Each year, people consume over 80 billion pieces of clothing, causing the clothing industry to become one of the world’s biggest polluters.

·         This back-to-school shopping season (the second-busiest shopping period behind the December holidays), Value Village is challenging people to come together to save 700 million gallons of water through one simple act: replacing one new t-shirt purchase with a thrifted one. If Value Village gets 1 million people to choose a thrifted t-shirt in place of a new one, it’ll be the equivalent of saving over 1,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools full of water, before the first bell rings.

·         A few small decisions about what you wear can make a huge difference for the planet. By making the choice to shop thrift, people can save up to 700 gallons of water that would go into one new cotton t-shirt and 1,800 gallons of water that would go into making a pair of jeans.

·         Donating your clothes to Value Village’s nonprofit partners, instead of ditching them, can help keep hundreds of millions of tons of reusable clothing from piling up in our landfills every year.

·         You can visit www.rethinkreuse.com to learn more about Value Village’s Rethink Reuse campaign and #IGiveaShirt.

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Photos by Kelly Clare Photography

THIS IS A SPONSORED POST. JENNY COOKIES HAS RECEIVED PAYMENT, TRADE AND/OR PRODUCTS FROM VALUE VILLAGE IN EXCHANGE FOR PROMOTING, HOWEVER ALL OPINIONS STATED ARE MY OWN AND I ONLY PROMOTE PRODUCTS/COMPANIES I LOVE.