The combination of gooey marshmallows, crisp rice cereal, and holiday shapes means this quick cooking project is a toddler’s kitchen dream come true.

First, melt 1/4 cup Earth Balance butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Add 4 cups mini Dandies marshmallows; continue to cook until gooey and melted.

At this point we stirred in green food coloring. Veronika loved watching the white turn to green! You could also use red food coloring, or a mix of the two if you divide the marshmallow mixture in half at this point.

Next, we added 5 cups rice crisp cereal, stirring until coated. Pat the mixture into an even layer on a baking tray.

I made sure to let the mixture cool slightly so it wouldn’t burn tiny hands, and then showed Veronika how she could press our Christmas-themed cookie cutters into the mixture. She loved pressing these down as hard as she could!

I lifted the cookie cutters out and showed her that we now had Christmas shaped treats to eat. She loved selecting which shape to press onto the mixture, especially the candy cane (“minty!”) and the gingerbread men.

You can’t exactly gather the scraps and re-roll this mixture as you could with sugar cookie dough, but you can pat the mixture back together and get a few more rounds of cookie cutter shapes done.

Meanwhile Veronika didn’t waste a moment before starting to snack! She pretty much took a bite in between each cookie cutter we pressed down.

Whether you devour them all at home or share these Christmas treats with friends and family, they’re a great cooking project for the holiday season.