Super Duper Rice Krispy Treats

*Book Update*:  I finished Shawn Anchor’s “Happiness Advantage” and continued on to his second book “Before Happiness.”  Some interesting tidbits:  a 1968 study yielded what we call the “Pygmalion Effect” basically proving child test scores rising simply because they were held at higher expectations.  Anchor conducted a study in regards to work, but instead of asking if the employee feels they are receiving social support they asked are you giving social support.  Two groups were mainly identified:  “work isolators” who provided little support and “work altruists” who provided the most support.  Those who scored high on the “work altruists” were promoted 40% compared to 7% in the other group.  Why is this so important?  Because most of the focus in workplace is how much we receive instead of giving.  Why do I think it is important?  He doesn’t mention this in the book, but my conclusion from this study is that you can control your giving.  You can’t control what you receive.    Another study later discusses incentives and one of the studies done was on incentives to purchase coffee.  The researches noted that people purchased more coffee faster the closer they got to the “free coffee” finish line.  Even more interesting is how they manipulated the game.  The standard free coffee card was buy 10 coffees and get 1 free.  Fine.  Now change the card so that it has 12 coffees on there, but the first two are already punched as “freebies”.  You still have to buy 10 coffees to get one free.  Nothing monetary has changed.  However, those “freebies” cards led people to buy coffee faster to reach the end than the standard incentive card.  Maybe we should apply this to potty training charts… hmmm…

Meet our new table pig.  He holds salt.  His name is “Sal”:

**Old Recipe Update**  So, I have made the chocolate chocolate chip zucchini muffins a thousand times.  It’s been a while since zucchini season and I went to look up the recipe and jot it down.  I popped those muffins in the oven only to remember I forgot the brown sugar.  But… NObody noticed.  I took a bite (for research purposes of course…) and could barely tell there was a difference.  So… if you want to venture and try this huge hit recipe at our house – just forget the brown sugar and it’ll be okay!

**New Recipe**  Fourth of July is almost here and we all need some fun treats to share and make.  These were a HUGE hit with the kids.  Personally, I found them a little too sweet (I know… I know I’m weird).  The hubby and kids give them THREE HUGE thumbs up, therefore I will post for all the world to see.  These would be so cute with red, white and blue sprinkles or add the star shaped marshmallows Jett Puff makes this time of year!

Recipe adapted from The Pioneer Woman