February 12, 2015 (this is my favorite Valentine's present)

My husband showed me how much he loves me yesterday, at 7:45 am, February 11. What did he do, you may ask. Did he shower me with rose petals or present me with a huge diamond? Did he cover me in furs and whisper sweet nothings into my ear to lovingly wake me up with a decadent breakfast in bed?

Nope. He scraped the ice off of my car for me.

Picture this. A late rush-y morning, when I have to be at work and still have to grocery shop and drop Maddie off and she can’t get her rear end out of bed and I’m making her lunch even though it’s her job and it’s freezing cold out and she’s in a terrible I-am-13-and-this-stinks mood and Julian decides this is the morning to get mouthy and I am realizing I have way too much to do today and I won’t get to bed until midnight at the earliest and I could go on but I’m exhausted all over again just reading this.

I ask Jeremy to please start my car to warm it up for me, and I gather everything up (including my very sullen daughter) and head out the door, heart sinking as I realize I am not yet wearing my coat and I will DEFINITELY have to scrape the ice off my windshield (ICE??? It was 70 damn degrees on Sunday! If we can’t have snow can we at least get spring rolling consistently?) and I HATE COLD.

And I stop in my tracks. Because there is my wonderful, patient, thoughtful husband, scraping ice off my windshield. And the side windows. And the back. He finished, smiled, gave me a kiss, and then turned to do the same to his car.

He. Scraped. My. Windows.

I was in a bliss all day. Keep your chocolates, and roses. Keep your Valentine’s Day special celebrations. Tell your love you love them, in words and deeds, every day.

I love you, Jeremy.

So what about this Valentine’s Day thing? Chocolate is nice, of course. And I don’t know about you, but my kids love Nutella, which makes me want to cringe when I read the ingredient list. How about a nutella-like spread that you can make at home, with easily-sourced ingredients that you can, actually, pronounce? Yep, I did. I adapted a recipe I found on The Spunky Coconut and went to town. It more than passed muster, with Maddie taking it to school with her to share with friends. If it makes a teenager smile, it must be good, right? Check out the video for a fun tutorial!

Ingredients:

• 8 oz  hazelnuts, toasted and skins removed (CHEAT TRICK: or you can buy the bag of roasted unsalted ones from Trader Joes – this recipe uses ½ of a bag)
• 9 oz (1/2 of the POUND PLUS bar) of 72% cocoa bittersweet dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
• 1 can coconut milk
• 6 TBS brown sugar (or maple sugar – whoa)
• pinch of salt

Directions

• Melt chocolate in a double boiler until smooth.
• Dissolve the sugar and salt in the coconut milk over medium heat, then remove from heat (coconut milk will need dissolving too)
• IN A FOOD PROCESSOR (and yes, you need one. Sorry.) pulse the hazelnuts, then process for about 30 seconds or until finely chopped.
• Pour in chocolate, then process for about 2 minutes or until VERY smooth, scraping down sides as necessary.
• Pour in coconut milk mixture and process until combined.
• Taste! J

This will keep in the fridge for a while, and yes, it’s thick when you take it out. This has not stopped my kids from eating it whenever they can.

I’d love to connect with you! Leave me a comment, or find me on Facebook or follow me on YouTube. I find friendships to be one of my favorite things in life, and I’m always up for a new one!