I Love Valentine's Day Chocolates - Day Or Night

I love chocolate. Love, love, love it!!

Even more so, since I learned how to make raw chocolate desserts! Mmmm.

These are the ingredients I used. It's not my recipe, so I can't give you the measurements here, but I'll give you the link to where I got it, at the end of this post. I'm cool that way.

Because of Valentine's Day, I thought I'd use my new toys.

I love new toys.

More fun stuff. I love fun stuff.

Now - to making the Chocolate Almond Butter Cups. (Be still my heart!)

The gal, (Jessica) used peanut butter, but I didn't have any and couldn't find any, so I used raw almond butter instead. I was kinda bummed, because "Reese's Peanut Butter Cups" were my favorite candy, when I ate non-raw goodies. Ohhh, I can taste them now!

Sorry... got lost for a second there.

Okay, the first thing I did was melt the coconut oil, by sticking the jar in a pot of hot water.

Then I added the Agave Nectar,

raw cacao powder, a pinch of sea salt and the Stevia. Then I whisked it. Whisked it good.

Next I poured the mixture into my brand new trays. Love them. So cute.

I was supposed to fill them 1/4 full, but that's trickier than it sounds. I think mine were 1/3 full. More chocolate for me. Yayyy!

I wanted some to look like the Reeses, so I put some of the mixture in these little gold-foil thingies. Then I stuck them all in the freezer for about ten minutes, so that the chocolate could harden.

After ten minutes in the freezer it was time to add the almond butter, but making sure to leave enough room to cover them with more chocolate.

Since I was giving most of these... some of these... okay... a few of these

as gifts, I wore gloves because I had to use my finger to get the almond butter off the spoon.

While filling the tray with the almond butter, I gave the chocolate mixture a few stirs, just to keep it smooth. Okay, last one.

Now it was time to add the remaining chocolate and pop them back in the freezer.

And there they are!! Of course, by then I'd tasted a couple, (okay... 4) so I know how great they are!

I was wondering why these little guys were so hard to keep straight. It wasn't until after I took the pictures that I realized they were rounded on the bottom, from that cool tray! Ha!

In my defense, most everything I post here about making raw food stuff, is a first time experience for me. So, not only is it exciting and fun, I get to laugh at myself too. :)

So, in closing -

Here's wishing you all a wonderful and happy Valentine's Day!!

"I don't understand why Cupid was chosen to represent Valentine's Day. When I think about romance, the last thing on my mind is a short, chubby toddler coming at me with a weapon."

- Author Unknown

"True love comes quietly, without banners or flashing lights. If you hear bells, get your ears checked."

- Erich Segal

"Love is much nicer to be in than an automobile accident, a tight girdle, a higher tax bracket,

or a holding pattern over Philadelphia."

- Judith Viorst

THE RECIPE:

For more information about creating these wonderful chocolates, and other great recipes, please check out this fabulous website:

"Delicious Obsessions" Love it!!!!

OK!! I have no idea why I'm getting those dots, or how to get rid of them!! I've tried and tried. Oh well, let's pretend they're tiny little chocolates. A sweet little decoration in honor of the day. Yeah right.

There are SO many things to love!

I love "Followers" and comments too! Dots, not so much.

Thank you.

Signing off for now,

gabriele

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Here's wishing you a day filled with love.

There are SO many things to love.

People, roses, chocolate-covered strawberries.

And a bit of the bubbly.

(A sappy card doesn't hurt either.)

I also love sock monkeys!!

Meet Luther. A very cool dude.

He listens to Los Lobos.

This is Lorna. She's the shy one.

Here's Lu Lu.

A real jokester and all around funny gal.

That's Bubba.

Bubba has a bad temper and a potty mouth.

He spends most of his day in time-out.

Here's Lovey.

She's the one that loves eeeeveryyybooody - even Bubba.

And in case you're wondering -

The chocolate on the strawberries is raw, (healthy!)

from a recipe in the fabulous book, Ani's Raw Food Desserts.

Deeelicious! I love that book and highly recommend it.

Enjoy the day, everyone!!

To my husband:

Thank you for your love.

Thank you for your kindness.

Thank you for your generosity.

Thank you for thinking I'm still

good-looking, after all these years.

Thank you for not wearing your glasses.

Love you!!

"Today is Valentine's Day. Or, as men like to call it, Extortion Day."

- Jay Leno

"Sales ad at a store: ‘You are my one and only.’ Valentine's cards, now on sale: 4 for $5.”

- Unknown

"I wanted to make it really special on Valentine's Day, so I tied my boyfriend up.

And for three solid hours I watched whatever I wanted on TV.”

- Tracy Smith

"The only reason I would take up jogging is so that I could hear heavy breathing again."

- Erma Bombeck

There are SO many things to love!

I love "Followers" and comments too!

(Thank you.)

Signing off for now,

gabriele

Raw Portobello Burger - And The Runaway Kid

As some of you know, we had our five year old grandson and seven year old granddaughter with us for two weeks. The idea was to feed them living, raw food for the entire time.

We drove to the store and bought some organic Portobello mushrooms, lettuce, avocados, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and sprouts.

Here they are in their new, clean aprons.

(We miss those screamin' brats!)

The first thing was peeling the cucumbers.

Talk about concentration!

They were only allowed to start peeling half-way up on the cucumber.

I figured they'd want to use those fingers again.

I let them choose their own dishes, which they liked.

I collect fun dishes - which I like.

They started piling things on and I kept telling them how great it was going to taste.

(The power of suggestion! :)

A little bit of onion.

A few slices of cucumber.

Some sprouts. Pat, pat, pat.

A slice of tomato.

She's so proud!

(Or is that disguised fear?)

Putting the lid on.

And... here it is... the first bite!

This might be a good time to tell you that this little girl "is not a fan of mushrooms".

If it was me, I'd say she 'hates' them, but her Dad (my youngest son) taught her to say that instead. He actually 'hates' them too! Big-time.

She took that first bite, jumped off the chair, ran to the trash and spit it out!!

She apologized and said that she had to do that, or she was going to "bomit".

Bless her little heart for trying!

He actually liked his and ate it all. Yay!

The next day we made a really simple, but delicious, quick dessert:

We broke six bananas in four pieces each, and froze them for a couple of hours.

We put them in a food-processor along with one tablespoons of organic, raw

Cacao Powder. And raw Chocolate Ice-Cream was born!

(And she forgave me for the mushroom.)

Here they are - showing their true colors.

They're adorable and they're dorks.

They are "THE ADORKABLES"!!

(And they'll be back!)

Signing off for now,

gabriele