What I Did With Rice Krispies Over The Weekend

The past few weeks I’ve been cooking my way through a large box of Rice Krispies, and I haven’t had a single bowl of cereal yet. Keep reading to learn what I did with Rice Krispies over the weekend.

I got a small cabbage from my weekly CSA (community supported agriculture) and wanted to do something other than coleslaw. Or something different than cabbage slow-cooked with a stick of butter (which I love in the heart of winter.) I immediately thought of Okonomiyaki.

Err, what?

Okonomiyaki, Round One

Okonomiyaki. It’s a Japanese street food made with cabbage, scallions, tempera bits, bacon, .and pretty much whatever else you want to throw into the mix. Think of it like a pancake on steroids or super-savory omelet or frittata.

You whisk together, flour, water, eggs, cabbage, and a couple of sliced and diced scallions. Throw in other things as you please like diced shrimp or chicken, sausage, pickled ginger, bean sprouts, noodles…

Fry it on a griddle like pancakes, but before you flip, top with strips of bacon. Flip, cook until the bacon is brown. Flip again, cook until nice and golden brown or whatever brown you’d like.

Top with a a secret sauce sauce and a good drizzle of mayo, and you’ve got a hearty dinner that’s fast and flexible.

Panko and Pasta

The recipe calls for tempura bits. Unfortunately, I don’t keep tempura bits in my kitchen. Heck, I don’t even keep panko bread crumbs. And even finding panko bread crumbs or tempura bits has been a challenge the last few months. But Rice Krispies? No problem.

I smashed some Krispies up for a panko substitute for the topping for this fancy Epicurious Sheet Pan Pasta with Chicken and Kale that’s really just a casserole spread all over a sheet pan. I’m guessing you cook it on a sheet pan because there will be more crunchy bit, which my family usually fight over.

Anyway, the smushed up Rice Krispies worked really well as a substitute for panko bread crumbs. This sheet pan dinner was yummy, but the first reheating of this was bland and boring. On subsequent reheatings (I live alone and ate this recipe for four days,) adding more Parmesan and mustard improved the flavor.

Scotcheroos

With all these Rice Krispies in the house, I was longing for Rice Krispie Treats. I went with Scotcheroos as I love a good peanut butter, chocolate, butterscotch combination. I had to hunt for a recipe that uses marshmallows instead of corn syrup. (Err, I had the marshmallows on hand because, well, if I’m buying Rice Krispies, I’m buying marshmallows.)

I found a great recipe to work from at No Biggie  where Kami uses mini marshmallows, vanilla, and salt to make a huge sheet pan’s worth of Scotcheroos. I made a 9×13 pan, though, and topped with some espresso chocolate chips because who doesn’t have those in the house?

And if you have espresso chips left over, throw them into a regular old Betty Crocker brownie from the box. Tasty!

Okonomiyaki, Round Two

The okonomiyaki recipe I use is based on the “best recipe” and variations from okonomiyakiworld.com. The site has everything you want to know about Okonomiyaki including a history and plenty of ideas for variations. Here’s what mine looked like:

First I mixed flour, water, an egg, scallions.

I added sliced cabbage and shrimp

Made a “pancake” in the frying pan and topped with bacon.

Waited for a bit, then flipped the bacon to the bottom. This side was kinda cooked – not enough color for me just yet.

I waited for the bacon to be cooked and flipped it back and forth a couple of times until it was the color I wanted.

Topped with mayo and Okonomiyaki Sauce and yum!

Admittedly, this time around I made them just a tad too large for my taste. Next time, I’m gonna go for more thin and crispy. But that’s the nice thing about this recipe – it’s super easy and super flexible.