Happy St. Patrick's Day... and a bunch of other stuff!

Every year my family does a special St. Patrick's Day dinner with a few friends. This year I was asked to make the "Trifle" dessert - which I had never done before. Luckily, Olivia was around to help out! It turned out well and the evening was a lot of fun, as always. It's a great tradition.

This week Adam has been working a TON to prepare to leave on Thursday to L.A. where he will run the ½ marathon that his brother Drew was training for when he suddenly died of a heart attack four years ago. It will be a monumental occasion for our family. He has been training for this culminating event to his weight loss goal for quite some time. I’m so excited to go and witness it. The drive will be long with a 2 and a 4 year old, but I’m sure we’ll survive!

The great news this week is that the Multicultural Center has agreed to accept our donation of Union Preschool and will take over management of it as soon as the current session is over (at the end of May). This is a big relief for me with a new baby on the way, and with my sister, Kristen (who has been running the school with me) moving in the fall.

In other exciting news, the snow is melting and it finally feels like spring!! There is still some snow on the ground, but that didn’t stop us from heading to the park the other day. And Adam even put up the trampoline. There is new life in us as the weather turns, and my girls are loving every minute of it – as am I! Also Olivia started a tumbling class this week and LOVED it! It was so fun to watch her.

Also, our Toyota Corolla sold (woo-hoo!), so we scrambled to buy a replacement for it so that we'd actually have a vehicle in which to drive to CA. We didn't have much time, but there happened to be the car we were hoping for - a 7 passenger Volvo XC 70 (2 rear-facing seats) in a used car lot. We purchased it and are SOOO excited to take it to CA. I'm excited to be able to recline a little! My favorite feature (I'm a mom of young children) is the fact that the center row of seats has two built-in booster seats! Woo-hoo! Is that pathetic? Oh well. Here is how it looks, but ours is not black, it's a dark bluish-green color. We love it.

Recipe of the Week:

I LOVE these chocolates! They honestly taste better than a lot of the junk you get in the stores. I recommend omitting the hemp seed protein for a more sweet, milk chocolate flavor. The hemp seed tends to make them more bitter, dark-tasting.

Superfood Chocolate Candy
http://www.organicauthority.com/organic-food-recipes/desserts/superfood-chocolate-candy.html

1 cup extra virgin coconut oil
1/4 cup organic raw almond butter
1/4 cup almond meal
4 tbsp agave nectar
1/4 cup organic unsweetened coconut
1/4 cup hemp seed protein (OPTIONAL)
½ tsp liquid Stevia or 3 tsp powdered Stevia (6 packets)
1 tbsp organic vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup raw chocolate cacao powder (may substitute Chatfield's roasted carob powder)
1/3 cup goji berries *optional

Directions:

1. Spray an ice cube tray with nonstick spray and set aside or use mini cup cake tins and papers.
   
2. Melt coconut oil under hot water or spoon into saucepan and melt over low flame. When coconut
   oil turns to a liquid, pour oil into medium bowl.
   
3. Slowly whisk in almond butter, cinnamon, Stevia, and agave nectar one at a time.
   
4. Next, whisk in vanilla.
   
5. Then slowly stir in cacao (or carob), almond meal, coconut, and hemp seed protein one at a time,
   sprinkling evenly as you go.
   
6. Batter should run off of spoon. Spoon into ice cube tray, or cup cake papers and chill in freezer for
   15 minutes.
   
7. Sprinkle goji berries of the top. *optional