Saturday, February 20, 2016

Freedom in Order

 What most homeschoolers understand is that struggle we have between the need to have order to our home and school, but often one of the reasons we chose to homeschool is for the freedom and flexibility and ability to hone the school our children's interests even day to day.

How do you create order and structure while at the same time desiring to nurture creativity and freedom?  Not to mention the normal flow of a changing day with sicknesses, new babies, bad moods, and just household tasks that never end?  This post has a few ideas that we are trying, but we are always tweaking it as we go.

Healthy chocolates

 My girls love desserts and especially chocolates, but I hate to give them have too much sugar and compromise their immune systems.  THESE are mostly coconut oil!  Which is great for you, but you can google all about that.  ;)  Also, you can use sweeteners other than sugar.  I like pure stevia and honey in ours.
 Ingredients
1 cup of Coconut Oil (might need to be melted slightly if it's especially cold.  My kitchen is always about 80 degrees so it's not a problem for us.)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
T of vanilla
pinch of salt to enhance the flavor

Mix all that together well and then add your sweetener of choice.
I use honey (local so I know it's pure honey) and stevia.  Start with a few scoops and taste the mix until it is as sweet as you like.  If you go too far and it becomes too sweet you can add more cocoa powder.

Put the mixture in molds or in a pan with wax paper and put it in the fridge or freezer so it can harden.
 I found some silicone molds at a 99 cent store and used them for the shapes!
They turned out super cute and my girls and I love them!