Dia de los Muertos Rice Krispy Treats (GF)

With Halloween right around the corner, do you know what’s really scary?

These Dia de los Muertos rice krispy treats? 

Not so much. They’re kind of awesome and cheery.

Figuring out what I want to do with my life?

Um…yes, that is terrifying.

It’s kind of funny.  When you’re a kid, you imagine yourself as a college age “adult” because that’s the oldest you can even conceptualize yourself being and you expect by then you’ll have confidence and certainty in life. I remember being around eight or nine and having a passing wave of panic that I didn’t know how bills, taxes, or having a real life job actually worked- there was so much about the world I didn’t understand! The way I would calm my worries was by telling myself that I didn't need to know then and by the time I grew up and was an adult like my parents, I would know what to do.

Well…that may be the case with some things in life- such as my capability of paying bills on time- who would have known that would be one of my strengths since I’m more of a creative type?

I’m also pretty good at keeping the main areas of the apartment clean, though as a child and teenager my room usually looked like my closet had vomited up piles of clothing and stuffed animals.

But with other more important, soul enriching parts of life- I find it difficult to quiet the uncertainty and doubt in my head.

I have had a very stable, well paying job in Human Resources for several years. It’s a job that I’m very successful at, but also less than fulfilled with and a bit bored by. It’s funny because you would think that if I’m doing so well at something I don’t love, imagine what I could do with a career that I’m passionate about. 

If only it were that simple.  

My problem is fear and fear is the only thing getting in my way. In other words, I am the only thing getting in my way. 

It was easy for me to become a model employee with my current job- I am smart, driven, and eager to please.  But most of all, I was not afraid.

While still in college, I started to worry about not getting a job when I graduated. Instead of considering options more closely related to my English degree, I decided to give HR a go, since both my mom and my sister worked in it. I wasn’t concerned with failing when I started my job, or even when I interviewed, because it did not feel like this lofty, unattainable career that I wanted so badly. HR did not and still does not comprise a part of my core identity. If I had tried to get a job in journalism or writing, though, I would have been terrified of failing because that would mean I was not good enough. And if I wasn’t good enough, I wasn’t a real writer.  And if I wasn’t a writer, who the heck was I?

I wish that as a young person I had pushed myself past the fear and had accepted challenges with the knowledge that failure did not mean I was a failure, it meant that I needed to keep growing and keep trying. 

Us Generation Y-ers are from the “self esteem” generation. My husband and I talk about this all of the time.  The message we received in school was not “great job, you worked hard” it was “you’re so smart.” It’s been well documented that telling a child he/she is smart, pretty, etc. puts them into preservation mode.  Meaning that they believe that they just “are” and causing them to avoid situations that are a potential threat to this part of their identity. They are crippled by fear and avoid risks. They avoid learning.

Sound familiar?  I bet it does to some of you. Though she doesn’t necessarily talk about our “self esteem” issues leftover from childhood, I really recommend Meg Jay’s book The Defining Decade. If you’re also feeling lost in similar ways, she gives some really great guidance and support in her book. 

Read it- you will be enlightened.

I love Ted Talks and most people know Meg Jay from her talk “Why Thirty is Not the New Twenty.” Please watch it if you haven’t yet. 

Baking is something that I’m passionate about because I feel that it combines my creative side and my intellectual/problem solving side. I truly love coming home to embark on a new food project, snap photos, or work on an entry.
  

I’ve had this Wilton Skull Pan for several Halloween seasons and have never used it. For a while now, I’ve been wanting to make skull shaped rice krispy treats and I’ve finally done it!

I used melted white chocolate for the skull’s “faces,” but you could also use thinned royal icing for a smoother, cleaner look.

If you used an eggless royal icing recipe (like I did for the piping) instead of white chocolate coating, this would be a vegan and vegetarian recipe, since I used marshmallow cream instead of marshmallows in my treats. You could sub the butter for vegan margarine, or shortening perhaps. 

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 7-oz jar (10 oz., about 40) regular marshmallows
• 6 cup gluten free rice krispies, or cocoa pebbles cereal

Directions

1. In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.
2. Add cereal and stir until evenly coated.
3. Coat pan with non-stick spray and press mixture into pan or mold.  Allow to form for about an hour and then decorate as desired