Last night I made magic!

Magic shell ice cream topping that is.  I sometimes (always) crave sweets.  Last night I really wanted magic shell topping.  Of course, Miss K can't eat it because it contains milk (or at least I am assuming so).  Anyway, I got what I thought was a wild idea to make it myself using chocolate chips and coconut oil.  I googled it to see if anyone else was crazy enough to try something like that, and sure enough I found an endless number of methods for making homemade magic shell.

I didn't follow any one specific recipe as they were all slightly different in there chocolate chip to coconut oil ratio and method.

Here is what I did:
1/2 cup
1 Tbs coconut oil
Melt in microwave.  Pour over ice cream.  (Almond ice cream in our case.)  Easy!

This turned out YUMMY!  It has been quite a while since I've had the real stuff, but this satisfied the craving.  Perhaps it was even a bit healthier!  It was certainly a healthier portion than I would have eaten a few years ago, prior to spending $6 on a tiny container of almond ice cream!

Crunchy Granola and Goat Cheese Day

Today, I made granola and a goat cheese pizza.   I never really liked granola until I started making it myself.  Now I LOVE it.  I eat it nearly every morning for breakfast. 

Here is the lose recipe that I use (this changes a little every time I make it)
3 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup honey
2 Tbs of brown sugar
handful of almond slices
handful of sprouted pumpkin seeds (not sure why sprouted, but that is what Wegmans had)

Line a pan with parchment paper so you don't have to chisel out the baked on granola later.  Bake granola at 350 degrees for um...  well.... no idea, as I rarely remember to set a timer.  I'm thinking it takes about 20 minutes.  Just until it is kind of golden.  As it cools, I like to stir it around in the pan a few times to break it up.  Otherwise it will turn into a big granola brick, which can be a little tricky to eat.

Assuming Mr. B doesn't eat it all, I like to put it in a jar and eat it with soy milk, cinnamon, and raisins or maybe some cocoa nibs. 

Tonight I also tried out goat cheese on Miss K.  I'll admit it was a little risky and I was pretty nervous about letting her eat it.  I rubbed it on her back a few hours before she ate it.  She didn't react at all, so I let her eat some on her pizza.  So far so good!   She was SO excited to be eating "cheese".  I think she liked it!

Miss K also can't let go of Valentine's day. She wanted her pizza in the shape of a heart.  Must be her favorite holiday. 

For the crust I used the whole-wheat crust recipe from one of my new favorite food blogs 100 Days of Real Food.  She has been very inspirational in motivating me to feed my family only real food.  It is a long journey from growing up on hot dogs and soda to eating only "real" and unprocessed foods.  We have been forced to give up a lot of processed foods in the past few years due to my kids allergies, and I really don't miss a lot of it.