Ohhhh... Fudge... My Mouth Is Watering!

    

 The first time I made fudge, I was, oh.... say 17 years old or so.  I melted the butter with the sugar over a low heat... then the chocolate chips... stirring and stirring, so it wouldn't burn you know.  I had little to worry about in terms of sugar diabeties, excess fat, blood pressure and the sort because I was, well, I was 17!  Those were the days I could slam down an entire pizza by myself without gaining a pound or even worrying about the health stuff.  These days are different!  It's been over a decade since those "eat anything, when ever and where ever" days and my outlook on nutrition differs greatly.  It took some extremism (eating disorders, no fat, calorie counting, you name it, I went there!) to finally arrive at the conclusion that I want a fully nutritional diet, the way God, the Creator and Savior of the world, intended.  That includes unaltered full fat, unaltered cholesterol, preferably organic, grass fed (never grain fed, not even at the end of their lives), no processed sugars of any kind, soaking grains, nuts and seeds, make everything in your own kitchen; Picking up what I'm putting down?!  That's right!  I've put down the boxes of manufactured foods in order to pick up raw foods that I make and enjoy (enjoy the awesome flavors as well as the nutritional benefits!)  All that aside, being that it's the Christmas season (yes, I am a Christian and celebrate Christmas), we needed some fudge around here so I went on the hunt!

Here's What I found!  Got your pen and paper handy?!  Enjoy this simple delicious recipe that is full of health benefits and nothing fake!

Ingredients: Five Total

• 1C Coconut Oil
• 3/4 C Carob Powder (you may use Cocoa Powder but Carob is a bit healthier and hardly different in taste plus, carob is naturally a bit sweet where cocoa isn't!)
• 1/4 C Honey
• 1/4 C Almond Butter (Try making it yourself.  I'll follow up with a post on "how to" within a day or so)
• 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract

Add it all to a bowl, preferably stainless steel.  Get a pot of water (approximately 2/3 of an inch of water will do) nice and hot.  When it starts to boil, put the bowl of ingredients on the pot, making sure the bottom of the pot is not touching the bottom of the bowl, we want indirect heat here.  Stir constantly until all the ingredients are mixed well and totally melted and dissolved (approx 5-10 minutes).  Next, line a baking dish with parchment paper and pour the mixed and melted ingredients into the dish. 

When it is totally solid, slice into cute shapes of your choice ; ) and enjoy!  Keep these babies cold as coconut oil melts at around 70 degrees.  Try putting nuts in it next time!

The original recipe came from a compilation of YouTube videos which you can find here.  The nice lady in the video series says the credit for the original recipe goes to Dr. Jordan Rubin.  Dr. Jordan Rubin is the author of "The Maker's Diet" which I plan on following come New Years when the food madness of this beautiful season is passed.  I will keep you posted and am planning on blogging about the details!  Looking forward to it!

As usual, I would love to hear your feedback!  Tell me if you made them and what you thought of them!  I personally think this is my new recipe for the rest of my life! 

A Fun DIY Lampshade!

I have been wracking my brain with what to do for this lampshade that my darling husband got for free from his friends grandmother.  It has a cool vintage mint color along its spiraled stand and the light hinges and extends out about a foot over our brown sofa.  I tried to paint these colorful flowers over the cracked-cream color shade, aiming to make it look mosaic or something but after a few weeks, my eye still hated it!  So I ripped it off in hopes  of discovering a fanciful look for this poor lamp, now with no shade...  I was brainstorming as I was cooking dinner, looking at different ideas online (multitasking!) and at the time, I couldn't find what I had in my mind : / rrrrgg!

I was stuck looking back and forth from dinner in progress to this naked lamp shade trying to think of what I could possibly do... Then!  Then I looked over at a roll of ribbon I picked up from Costco a few weeks ago and it suddenly all came together!  Out came the trusty hot glue gun!  I started measuring and cutting ribbon in lengths that would lay from top to bottom...

Starting with one strip, I lined the shade-skeleton with hot glue, the width of the first ribbon, and wrapped the edge of the ribbon around the skeleton of the shade and over the hot glue (obviously, right... o geez!).  There it stuck, all beautifully finished, so I did the same with the top of the ribbon.  The second and all the rest of the ribbons were lined up with the edges of each ribbon before it at the bottom and bringing the ribbon up, they overlapped the last ribbon by at least half so it would all fit...

Turns out, it looked cool!  Taking pictures with my iPhone does not do it justice!  It does dim the light quite a bit because of the dark ribbon but I am totally satisfied for the time being and now that I have done it once, I can do it again with different kinds of ribbons!  Seasonal even!  Oh, I love being a homemaker!  Thank You Lord!

There you have it!  A DIY lampshade!  Have fun all and let me know if you'd try it or if you have tried it!  I'd love to hear about your lampshades!!!