Friday, January 29, 2010

Our First Winter Storm on the Homestead

Well, it's a little after 4pm and it's been snowing for about 8 hours. We currently have 4-1/2 inches of snow. It's still coming down hard and fast. Every so often a big gust of wind comes along and blows a big flurry of snow off our roof.







We've been staying warm inside up until now, but Shawn's about to take Sam and Sarah outside to play. I'm about to start supper of homemade guacamole and chicken enchiladas. All in all, this snow storm has been pretty nice so far.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Preparing for the Worst

We've done about all we can do to prepare for this big winter storm, I guess.

I baked two loaves of bread and made a batch of granola cereal today. I baked a dozen banana nut muffins yesterday and they're sitting in the freezer waiting for us. We've filled several buckets and rubber tubs with water for flushing and such. We have bottled water and have filled several pitchers full of water for drinking. Of course, there's plenty of other food on hand too. (Did I mention we just bought a 1/2 cow recently?) Shawn has brought in several loads of wood and there's a fire burning in the woodstove right now, which makes the house seem so nice and cozy. The generator is fueled and ready to go. The oil lamps are filled and ready to go. We should have plenty of propane for the grill and the cookstove. I did all the laundry today and all the dishes are washed. The kids have all had their baths and are in bed for the night. Shawn's taking his shower now and I'll take mine when he's finished.

When we lived at the old house we were more likely to have our power restored quickly. During the ice storm last year we were only without power for two hours while many others were without for two weeks. Out here, once the power goes out, there's no telling how long it could be out. I don't think "the middle of nowhere" is very high on the priority list. Yet, despite being in a place where we're more likely to lose power...I feel more prepared and content than when we lived at our old house. I think a big part of that is that we have a woodstove here and access to water (pond and springs) should we need it. With the possibility of massive snow and ice headed our way, there's no place I'd rather be.

Hopefully it won't be as bad as they say, but if it is, I hope you all stay safe and warm and well-fed throughout the duration.

Take care!

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Homemade Toothpaste

I know I said that I meant to have this up yesterday, but yesterday ended up being busier than anticipated. We went to the Ag Expo in the morning. The kids enjoyed petting the rabbits and calves and goats. Then we ran some errands around town before heading home. Once we got home we found a message from the meat processor that our 1/2 beef was ready to be picked up, so we turned around and headed out again. The drive to the meat processors took more than an hour on curvy, hilly roads. Andrew spent the drive throwing up. Apparently he's one to get car sick. Sam went through this same kind of phase. Not fun at all. So, after getting home at 7:30, cleaning up a vomit-covered child, bathtime, and bedtime...Shawn and I were ready to relax. We put in a movie that we got from the library, "Super Size Me," and we just sat and relaxed and enjoyed the movie.

So...here's the post I promised, Homemade Toothpaste.

Before our big food conversion, we used the toothpaste that I got for free using coupons at Walgreens. We had a huge supply of toothpaste. I did purchase the fluoride-free flavored toothpastes for the kids. When we started the Feingold diet, I had to find toothpastes without artificial colors or flavors. Before that time, I had never even thought about the ingredients in toothpastes. The fact that they were neon blue or tasted like a piece of bubble gum never even crossed my mind. So, I started searching for non-artificial alternatives. I ended up purchasing some Tom's of Maine toothpaste. After all this time of getting toothpaste for free with coupons, it was really difficult to pay full price for the expensive toothpaste. I bought two tubes of the Tom's paste before I started researching homemade alternatives. I tried a couple different recipes, but chose this one as my favorite.

Here are the ingredients you'll need:



2 Tbsp. virgin coconut oil
3 Tbsp. baking soda
1/2 to 1 small packet of stevia powder
20-25 drops peppermint or spearmint oil** (Personally, I prefer 25 drops of spearmint oil)

Mix together in small bowl using fork.

**Start by using 1/2 the amount, then add more as desired.

Before mixing:



After mixing:



The first time I made this, I made the mistake of using expeller-pressed (not virgin) coconut oil. It was not very good at all. The virgin coconut oil has a little bit of a coconut taste that helps to make the taste of the toothpaste more pleasing. Virgin coconut oil also has anti-fungal, anti-viral, and anti-bacterial properties which aids in maintaining the overall health of your mouth.

I haven't done it, but you can experiment with this by using cinnamon oil instead of spearmint or peppermint.

If you do decide to try homemade toothpaste, I'd be interested in hearing your experience. I've been thoroughly pleased and do not intend on switching back to the store-bought stuff.

Friday, January 22, 2010

A Book Recommendation



Here we have the lovely young Sarah showing off one of her favorite books first thing this morning. (Note the footie pajamas and uncombed hair!)

Earlier this week we went to the library and borrowed some more books. The kids love Dr. Seuss books, so I usually pick up one or two each time we go. This week I borrowed "Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories" by Dr. Seuss. It includes three stories that have the typical Dr. Seuss rhyming-ness (I know, not a word), but all three of the stories also have very good life lessons. I really enjoyed reading this to the children and they've asked for it NUMEROUS times since checking it out this week. So, if you haven't been exposed to this book yet, I (and the kids) highly recommend it.

Also, I plan on making some of my homemade toothpaste sometime today. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to post the "how-to" along with pictures. I know that some friends have expressed interest in that, so if you are interested, be sure to check back tomorrow for that.

Have a great day!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

A Real Food Failure

My first attempt at making cream cheese and whey from raw cow's milk did not go so well. I'll spell out my journey and maybe someone out there can tell me where I went wrong! I used the recipe from the book Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon.

Everything started fine. Sam and I placed a half gallon jar of raw milk on the counter and started the wait.


After three days of sitting on the counter, the cream is very separate from the milk, but I'm still unsure whether it's ready or not, so I wait another day. The recipe does say "1-4 days" after all, so I continue to wait.


After a full 4 days have passed, I decide to go ahead and attempt processing my cream cheese and whey. I got my large strainer and lined it with a clean and relatively thin dish towel. I tried really hard to only use glass containers to collect the whey, but I didn't have anything that would hold all of it. So, I ended up using a plastic pitcher in the end.


This is what was passing through the strainer.


I removed the strainer and tied the corners of the dishtowel to a wooden utensil and let the dishtowel hang until nothing else was dripping.


This is what I ended up with: a whole lot of liquid and very little cream cheese. The recipe said that I should've ended with about 5 cups of whey and 2 cups of cream cheese.


This picture's not great, but it might give you a better idea of the consistency of my "cream cheese."


I fear that I just ended up letting my milk spoil on the counter and then proceeded in separating the soured milk from the cream. The end result doesn't exactly stink, but it also doesn't smell real tasty either!

Does anyone have an idea on what I did wrong? I'd really like to start soaking oats and making fermented ketchup, but I need whey to do those things.

It's a constant learning process, but I'm stubborn enough to keep on trying!

Also, if you'd like to see posts of real food successes, then I suggest that you visit this site:
http://www.cheeseslave.com/2010/01/20/real-food-wednesday-january-20-2010/

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Growing Herbs Indoors

I absolutely love that I have several herbs growing in my kitchen. My mom gave me one of the kits for my last birthday and I just love it, love it, love it. The kit contained seeds for chives, cilantro, parsley, thyme, and basil. I use the herbs regularly. Before receiving my birthday gift, I don't think I had ever used a fresh herb. All of my cooking had been with dried herbs, which tasted good, but I just love being able to cut fresh herbs and put them right in a dish. The color and flavor that they give a dish makes the time spent tending to them worth it.

Here's a photo of my chives, thyme, and parsley. Besides being tasty, they make a great decoration too...I think so at least.



Ok, so here's my awful little secret. I think I may be killing off my cilantro and basil. Don't tell my mom though.



My cilantro was always pretty finicky. It started off looking ok, but has gone downhill ever since. My basil used to be absolutely gorgeous. It was full and deep green. Granted, I did use some recently to put in spaghetti sauce, so that accounts for some of the thinness, but not all of it. I was really feeling badly about murdering these plants when I read part of one of my favorite blogs recently. This is one of the "healthy eating" blogs I like to visit:

http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2010/01/monday-morning-mix-up-11810.html

She mentioned that she was having difficulty with her basil and cilantro as well. So, I looked through the comments there and got several really good ideas on things I can do to salvage what's left of my basil and cilantro. I've rotated the herb rack so that the two ailing herbs are facing the dining room door so they'll get more sunlight. I'm also going to put some used coffee grounds on the soil to see if that helps.

So, I'll keep you updated if my herbs recover (because I know everyone is waiting with anticipation over this) or if they will end up added to the compost pile.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Eating Out Of Our Pantry Challenge - Menu and Update

Ok, another week of eating from the pantry. Last week we had a lot of leftovers so one evening we feasted on leftovers. Another night, Shawn had a late meeting, so the kids and I just foraged for food instead of me cooking something. So, there's a couple meals this week that are rolling over from last week. Here's our menu for the week:

Breakfasts:
bacon and eggs
soaked oats
banana nut muffins
eggs and cinnamon toast
pancakes
leftover pancakes
soaked oats

Lunches:
leftovers
cheese quesadillas and fruit
grilled cheese and fruit

Suppers:
Leftover Fettucine Alfredo from our freezer, spinach salad
Roasted chicken, herbed rice, steamed broccoli with lemon butter sauce
Stovetop Beef Stew, bread
Chicken stir-fry, rice, pineapple
Barbecued Beef Liver (cross your fingers on this one!), mashed potatoes, green beans
leftovers
Meal with family

You know that you're getting desperate for ideas when you start breaking out the liver recipes. I know this is supposed to be extremely healthy for you, but I'm really uncertain whether I'll be able to get Shawn and the kids to eat the liver. I tried to find the recipe that I thought would be most appealing to them. We'll see how it goes!

I did spend a little more last week on groceries. Our total came to $46.71. This included 6 pounds of bacon, 4 pounds of butter, oats, a green pepper, 2 jalapeno peppers, organic apples, onions, cilantro, 3 avocados, 2 limes, garlic, bananas, tomatoes, and potatoes. So, since December 23rd (3-1/2 weeks) we've spent $95.98 on food. Considering most of that total was produce and dairy, I don't feel too bad about it.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

A Day In The Garden

Today was such a nice day that we decided to get some outside projects done around the house. Since we're going to have so much to do in the garden this spring, we thought this would be a good day to get the garden cleaned up. When the previous owners left, they left us with the remains of their last garden, so we had lots of corn stalks, tomato plants, and okra plants to dispose of.

While pulling out tomato plants, Sarah was very excited to find several small onions.



My enthusiastic helpers



I can't believe I'm putting this one on here, but Shawn insisted. I think he thinks I'm cool with my gun belt on.



See that?? Worms! We never had worms in our soil at the old house..yay!!



Sarah climbing trees. She's turning into a country girl very quickly!



Sam helping Daddy take buckets to the barn.



Shawn and Sarah inside our chicken coop. That's still an unfinished project right now..cleaning the coop and readying it for our first chickens this spring.



Andrew may not have helped us outside today, but I just couldn't leave him out since everyone else got their picture posted today! (These are the most common pictures I get of him lately..him running to attack me and the camera.)



While outside, I was trying to decide what all we were going to plant this year. Looking around, I saw that even if we planted absolutely nothing then we would still have to harvest: asparagus, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, grapes, pears, apples, plums, peaches, walnuts, pecans, and hazelnuts. So, as of right now I plan on keeping our first year simple. I don't think I can handle much more than what's already going to be growing. I think we'll fill the garden with only three more things: tomatoes, green beans, and corn. I'll probably also plant some sunflowers along the fence for the birds just because the kids liked growing them last year at our old house. So, that's the current plan..at least until I change my mind!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

My Mental Block





Can you see the mess in the pictures? It's awful. There's a layer of dust on the curtains. There's even a string of dust on the right side of the curtain that connects to the wall. The dust on the ceiling vents needs cleaned off too. I sneeze and my whole face itches anytime I go into the bathroom where that curtain hangs. Uhh..I itch just looking at the pictures. However, I just cannot make myself clean it.

I don't know if anyone else suffers from this same inability. I know that I need to go through this house, one room at a time, and do a deep cleaning..dusting door facings and windowsills, washing windows, cleaning webs and dust off the ceilings, etc. However, I am mentally incapable of doing any type of deep cleaning until the little stuff is all done. For instance, at our old house before we moved...I couldn't dust the kids' rooms until all their toys were put away. If there were things scattered across the floor, my mind couldn't get past that to focus on the deep cleaning issues. It's the same thing at this new house only magnified times ten! Not only do I have kids' toys on the floor, but I still have half-emptied boxes to go through and a laundry room to organize.

Anyhow, I don't know when I'll actually get around to this deep cleaning stuff, but my thought process today was that, if I confessed here, then maybe I'd be motivated to GET IT DONE! I keep telling myself that I have to get it done before spring because I plan on being extremely busy outside with the garden, orchard, and chickens when things warm up. If you feel led, pray for my productivity...and my sanity!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

A Pretty Picture and a Recipe



We went grocery shopping today and picked up some oats and produce. I cannot explain it, but I find joy in coming home and putting away our newly bought produce. In the picture we have bananas, apples, limes, tomatoes, avocados, garlic, and jalapeno peppers. I just find a display of fresh fruits and vegetables to be really pretty.

Also, today I made up a batch of Crockpot Refried Beans. We like this recipe because it's easy and it makes a large batch. I do this every so often, use what we need, and then freeze the rest.

Crockpot Refried Beans

3 cups dry pinto beans
8-1/2 cups water
1 onion, diced
1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t. cumin
2 t. salt
1/2 t. black pepper

Combine all ingredients in crock pot. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. Drain out most of the water. Mash beans with potato masher, adding some liquid back if needed. Can be portioned out and frozen for later use.

Enjoy!

Monday, January 11, 2010

Eating Out Of Our Pantry Challenge - Menu and Update

Well, for the first two weeks of the challenge, things were pretty easy. My menu came together pretty quickly and there were very few things that I ended up purchasing. This coming week, though, is proving to be a bit more challenging for me. I had a harder time coming up with a menu because I felt like I was having to choose between purchasing extra ingredients versus eating the same meal over and over again. I did eventually come up with a menu, but I'm not entirely pleased with it. Here's the plan for this week:

Breakfasts:
oats with maple syrup and milk
pumpkin muffins
egg sandwiches
pancakes
leftover pancakes
Mighty Tasty cereal and fruit
Homemade granola cereal and fruit

Lunches:
Leftovers
Chicken Chowder

Suppers:
Spaghetti and Cheesy French Bread
Leftover Mexican casserole from our freezer, cheesy refried beans
Steak, roasted sweet potatoes, peas
Grilled chicken, roasted potatoes, boiled carrots
Stovetop Beef Stew, homemade bread
Beefy Spanish Rice, guacamole, chips
Roasted chicken, herbed rice, steamed broccoli with lemon butter sauce

Snacks:
Homemade pineapple gelatin
Blackberry cobbler
Sunflower Seeds
Pumpkin Seeds
Peanuts

Last week our grocery purchases came to $14.62. This included 8 cans of tomato sauce, a large bag of oranges, a large bag of organic carrots, bananas, and lemons. So, the total amount of grocery spending since December 23rd (2-1/2 weeks ago) is now at $49.27.

Since this week was so intimidating I'm really dreading next week! I'm running out of ideas!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Making Homemade Laundry Soap

I made laundry soap yesterday and took pictures of the process. I know that I used to have the desire to make my own detergent, but was intimidated of the process of making it. Hopefully, if anyone reading this is apprehensive about making it, the pictures will help show you just how easy it is to do.

My sister (Hi Angie!)got me started making this detergent. She did it first and gave me a free sample to try. I love it and always use it even though I have two full bottles of the store-bought stuff still sitting in my laundry room. It is especially nice since we try to avoid artificial fragrances. Ivory soap does have some fragrance in it, but the Feingold Association has found that those with sensitivities usually tolerate it well.

First thing...make sure that you don't have any laundry that needs to be done for 24 hours. Your detergent will need to sit for an entire day, so get all necessary laundry done before you start making your detergent.

Here are the ingredients you'll need:



1/2 cup washing soda (NOT baking soda)
1/2 cup Borax powder
1 bar Ivory soap

You will also need water and a small bucket.

First, you grate the entire bar of Ivory soap.



Add the grated soap to a saucepan and add 6 cups of water. Heat it until the soap melts. Here's a photo of the soap/water mixture right after I've put it in the pan.



And here's what it looks like after the soap has melted.



At this point, add the washing soda and Borax. Stir until everything dissolves. Remove the pan from the heat. Pour 4 cups hot water into the bucket.

(Honestly, the most difficult part in making my own detergent was finding an appropriate bucket to use. I ended up using an old cat litter bucket that we had around the house. I don't know what size it is because all it says is that it holds 30 pounds of cat litter! However, the detergent recipe that I use says to use a small bucket that is around 2 gallons.)

Here's my bucket. I put it next to my KitchenAid mixer so you can kind of get a visual size comparison.



After adding 4 cups hot water to your bucket, add your soap mixture and stir. Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir some more. Your soap mixture will look like this...basically cloudy water.



Let this sit for 24 hours. During this time, the detergent will gel. It will become semi-solid. The best term I can think of to describe its consistency is "gloopy." You can see in the picture that it's solid enough to support a measuring cup on top.



After the 24 hour period, give your detergent a little stir to distribute the water better. Use a 1/2 cup per load. I tend to give my detergent a stir each time I get ready to use it.

I haven't had any trouble using this detergent. However, don't expect to see the pretty white bubbles that you get from the store-bought stuff. This is a low-sudsing soap, so you won't see suds.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Happy cleaning!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

You Ain't From Around Here, Are Ya?

So, Shawn has heard this remark both yesterday and again today. We're a little amused by it, so I thought I'd share.

Yesterday Shawn went in to the local hardware store. He was looking at the No Trespassing/No Hunting/Private Property signs when two local men came up to him. "Having problems with trespassers?" one of them said. Shawn replied, "Well I just moved here and noticed a lot of deer on our property. I thought I'd be pro-active so no one decides to hunt on my land." The local man replied, "Where ya at?" Shawn said, "Oh I got a place east of town." At this point the local man nudges the other one and snickers and says, "He don't want us to know, does he? He wants to keep all them deer to himself." They laughed and said, "That's ok, that's ok." The man then said, "You gonna have problems with road hunters then?" Shawn said, "Well road hunting's illegal and I don't want anyone to be tempted to road hunt off my property." The local man nudged his friend and said, "You don't know anything about road huntin' now, would ya?" The two men had a great laugh over that and proceeded to walk away. When Shawn was at the check-out counter, the clerk was talking to him about the items he was purchasing. Shawn explained to the clerk that we just moved here and there were a few projects that needed to be taken care of around the property. Then Shawn heard a familiar voice behind him, "Yeah, you can tell he ain't from around here!"

Then today Shawn went in to the local lumber store. The clerk explained that he would take Shawn's order, then give him a ticket. Shawn would then need to take the ticket, drive around to the other building, present his ticket to a man over there, and his lumber would then be loaded. Shawn got tickled when he drove to the other building only to find out that the man he presented his ticket to was the same man that just took his order. :)

Later, the clerk was loading up the lumber and Shawn was preparing to tie it down using the hitch of the truck. The clerk gave Shawn a confused look and said, "You ain't from around here, are ya?" Shawn replied, "Well, we just moved here." The man then said, "Yeah, I could tell...ya ain't got a knob on your truck." Apparently we're odd because Shawn doesn't keep the knob on the hitch of his truck all the time. So, we are now accepting donations of boat trailers or horse trailers or flatbed trailers..anything that requires a hitch. Come on...don't you want us to have friends?

So, I guess it's pretty evident that we're doing a great job blending right in to our new community. At this rate, we might make the front page of the newspaper.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Living Without Television

One of the luxuries that we gave up when moving out to our homestead was television. Actually, it wasn't something that we had intended to give up. We had discussed doing without TV, but ended up putting in the order to move our service out to our new property anyway. Then we learned that we wouldn't be able to get local channels at our new home. They simply weren't available out here. Shawn wasn't very happy about that and decided that he wasn't going to spend money on a bunch of satellite channels that we didn't watch when the channels we did watch weren't even available. So, we cancelled satellite TV.

We haven't had any television in our home since December 16th. Honestly, I am enjoying it. I was worried about it at first because Sam is very, VERY into TV. Part of his autistic behavior involves him obsessing over certain shows and memorizing them. He could recite the Dora Christmas Carol Adventure to you from start to finish and even include sound effects! So, it's not surprising to know that the most noticable improvement has been in Sam. I've noticed that he's using his imagination a lot more than before. He'll go to the magnetic letters on the fridge and spell out "shows" that we're going to watch. It's funny because he's limited to only the words he knows how to spell. This is one of the TV show lineups that will end up on the fridge:

3 HORSE
4 BATMAN
5 SAM

Then he'll yell at me, "Momma, Momma..at 3:00 we'll watch Horse, at 4:00 we'll watch the Batman computer, and at 5:00 we'll watch the Sam show!!" He gets so excited that you'd think they were real shows he was planning to watch.

So, instead of our normal routine of:
6:00 Local news
6:30 Wheel of Fortune
7:00 NCIS or Biggest Loser, or whatever
8:00 put kids to bed and then Shawn and I would settle in front of the TV with a snack until 10:00 when we got ready for bed

Instead of doing this, we're spending the evenings actually interacting with the kids. Sarah and I wash the dishes by hand while Shawn plays with the boys. There's no longer the constant "noise" in the background. Once the kids are in bed, Shawn and I spend our time catching up on emails, researching future projects, or working on something around the house. It's really very nice and I'm glad we got rid of TV. I think it's really a good thing for our family and our budget.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Eating From Our Pantry Challenge - Menu and Update

So far our challenge has been going well. We've been able to have yummy, filling meals simply by using what we have on-hand. This past week's grocery purchases totalled $34.65. This total included two gallons of raw milk and six dozen farm-fresh eggs.

Here's our menu plan for the coming week:

Breakfasts:
blueberry muffins
homemade granola and bananas
eggs and bacon
more homemade granola and bananas
eggs and cinnamon toast
waffles, mandarin oranges
leftover waffles

Lunches:
Leftovers

Suppers:
Cheeseburgers, fried potatoes, peas
Chicken Noodle Soup, hot rolls
Homemade pizza and salad
Fettucine Alfredo with Broccoli and Chicken, mashed sweet potatoes
Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans
Frito chili pies, peanut butter sandwiches, pineapple
Supper with family

Snacks:
Sunflower seeds
Peanuts
Homemade pineapple gelatin
Popcorn
Ghirardelli chocolates (for mom!)

So...so far so good!

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Miscellaneous Thoughts and a Recipe

Shawn and I were so excited this morning to get up, open the curtains in the living room, and see a group of deer walking across our pasture. They had come out of the woods on one side and crossed to get to a small creek on the other. When we first saw them, Shawn said he saw a total of six deer. As we watched them longer, we noticed another, then another, then another. There were a total of NINE deer drinking from the creek that's 100 yards away from our front door. It was amazing to watch. Needless to say, Shawn's getting rather excited about his first deer season on this property.

Since this is an earth-berm home, the north side of our house is built into the ground, but the south side has a lot of windows. Our living room has two large picture windows. Outside one of the windows is a Bradford Pear tree that we've hung a bird feeder on. We enjoy looking out those windows and watching the birds outside. At one point yesterday I had two turtledoves, a woodpecker, two cardinals, and about five of some unknown cute, little gray bird all eating at the birdfeeder.

On a less happy, but still very interesting note, Shawn also found fresh coyote tracks in a patch of mud that's 40 feet away from our front door.

Since it was such a sunny day yesterday, I spent a little time out in the garden. I was able to tear out the previous owner's old pepper plants. While doing that, I ran across a small carrot that was still in the ground. I pulled it and gave it to the kids. It was only about three inches long, but it was a pretty, bright orange and the kids liked that it came out of our garden. I am really looking forward to working in the garden with the kids.

Oh, how I love it out here!

Finally, I figured that I'd leave you with a recipe that I tried recently for the first time. I discovered it on one of the healthy eating blogs that I visit, then adapted it a bit. I call it "Healthy Fudge" because it has some really good ingredients in it. Shawn and the kids all really liked it too. I hope you enjoy it as well.

Healthy Fudge

1 cup cocoa powder
1 cup unrefined virgin coconut oil
3/4 cup honey
natural peanut butter

Melt halt the coconut oil in a small saucepan. Place remaining 1/2 cup of solid oil in blender with cocoa and honey. Add melted coconut oil and pulse until smooth and blended. Line a bread pan with saran wrap or parchment paper. Pour fudge into pan and place in fridge until solid, about 1 hour. Remove from pan. Spread a layer of natural peanut butter on top and cut into squares. Store in fridge. Yields approximately 15 squares.

I hope everyone has an enjoyable Sunday!