Thursday, September 5, 2013

Homemade Nutella

My kids love Nutella. 
Nutella is loaded with crap.
Mommy stopped buying Nutella :(

Along comes a recipe for Homemade Nutella on Pinterest and I'm determined now that I have a Vitamix to make it. Shopping trip to Costco today and as I'm headed to the check out there is a display with Hazelnuts. I buy them with loads of excitement in my mind and tell my boys that Mommy is going to make them Nutella at home.

No time to waste, I get started on what I envision being some sort of heavenly treat.

Recipe found here.

Ingredients
  • 2 cups (8 ounces) blanched hazelnuts
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • ⅓ cup cocoa powder
  • 2 tablespoons hazelnut oil or coconut oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ⅛ teaspoon salt

Now let me start with saying that I saw blanched hazelnuts and I knew at that moment, I didn't buy blanched anything! These nuts had skin on them! Now I need to blanch the hazelnuts before I can even start the Nutella making process. So back to Google I go and find this site. I can totally do this. Boiling water, baking soda and ice. Easy! The skin basically fell right now. Now I can get started! 



Roast nuts. Complete. 

Gather all ingredients from cupboards. Not so complete. 

I knew I had powdered sugar, but not enough. I can't just quit here so I go back to Google. I have a Vitamix, so I'm convinced I can make my own powered sugar, right? Right!!


 Now I can throw this crap away!  I have my own ORGANIC powdered sugar.

Nuts are roasted. I can officially continue making Nutella!
Ingredients in Vitamix. Blend. Complete.


Taste test. FAIL! This does NOT taste like Nutella. I'm so sad. I think it needs more sugar! 
However, I now know how to blanch nuts and how to make my own powdered sugar. Success!

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Self-Discipline Bulletin Board

Our elementary school does a new bulletin board each month, it corresponds with the character trait. I searched all over for ideas on a bulletin board for SELF-DISCIPLINE. Guess what? Nothing! So back to the drawing board I went. A few ideas came and left. Finally I thought of this little idea and I'm so excited my Sister in Law, Brenda, was able to help me execute it! Thank you Brenda!! The 1st grade teachers came up with the quote they wanted...so here is the fun we had with it! We have words written on the drops of water that represent what self discipline means.

Creatively Yours,

Katie