“Love is a verb”, someone once said. Then again, maybe I read it somewhere. It would be nice to remember exactly because it impacted me greatly. This in spite of the fact the same concept has been shouting up at me from the pages of scripture practically all my life.
“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant…bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things…” – 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7
Maybe I resisted the idea because it implies and involves work and perseverance and not just roses and chocolate and love songs. Or maybe the idea of love as a verb, as an action, was drowned out by a popular culture which so glorifies romantic love – love that is mostly about feelings. Our culture loves romantic love. It loves the idea of love. But true love is sacrificial – it includes a cost.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m as much a romantic as anyone. It’s just that over time you come to realize real love is not that warm, fuzzy feeling you have at the beginning of a relationship. Real love is action, it’s doing and helping and trying long after those romantic feelings have faded a bit.
Real love includes showing those we care about that we value and cherish them. But rather than being cynical about Valentine’s Day and the commercialism around it I choose to embrace it in all its red, chocolate, roses and poems glory! But in embracing it also recognizing the importance of balancing the warm fuzzies with the reminder to celebrate true, enduring love that transcends fleeting emotion. So let us enjoy the day and the small reminder to celebrate those we love and the importance of romance in helping true love flourish and survive!
We need chocolate with our roses…
Why not celebrate Valentine’s Day by making something healthful for your loved ones? There is no need to throw your eating plan out the window when you can have Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes. My new recipe for Strawberry Cashew Cream is great as a dairy-free frosting for the cupcakes or as a dip for fruit.
Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup coconut flour
- 3/4 cup high quality cacao powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon celtic sea salt
- 9 eggs
- 3/4 cup coconut oil (butter or ghee), melted (more for greasing pans)
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 3/4 cup brewed coffee (or water)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350º F
- Line 2 muffin pans with 20 paper baking cups.
- Combine coconut flour, cacao, baking soda and salt and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, with whisk attachment, whisk the eggs.
- Add the oil/butter/ghee, maple syrup, coffee and vanilla extract and continue to mix until combined.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
- Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are incorporated – about 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of mixing bowl (you may need to do this a couple of times) and beat batter on high speed for about one full minute until the batter is fluffy.
- Fill each of the 20 paper lined muffin cups about 3/4 of the way full.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the top of the cupcake comes out clean.
Makes 20 cupcakes
Strawberry Cashew Cream Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw cashews
- 1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
- 1/4 – 1/3 cup raw honey
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon tapioca or arrowroot starch
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
- 1/8 teaspoon fine celtic sea salt
Instructions
- Cover the cashews with water and soak for at least two hours or overnight. Drain and rinse.
- Place soaked cashews and remaining ingredients into a food processor or high speed blender and puree until very smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary.
- Refrigerate for at least one hour.
Makes approximately 1 1/2 cups
Thanks for stopping by! I would love to hear from you in the comments.
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Can honey be used instead of maple syrup?
Honey should be fine. But you should probably thin it out a bit with water to make it more the consistency of maple syrup. Good luck.
I have heard that adding any sort of water to honey, Will make honey unusable, Is that true?
BTW thanks for sharing a great recipe.
You’re welcome!
The recommendation was to add a bit of water to the recipe when using honey to account for the fact that it is more concentrated than the maple syrup which is in the original recipe.
thanks for great post about love. It was a really great reminder for me and it’s just nice to read it through someone else’s words.
You are very welcome.
Do you have protein, calories, or sugar configured. I am supposed to track these things and could not locate them. No worries if you do not!
Sorry, no I don’t. You can usually find a website that will do it for you though. Good luck.
This is great! I’m on the search to find natural ways to dye frosting for my 4 year old’s rainbow cake, and I think I’ve discovered how to get all colors from your site 🙂 I made her your chocolate birthday cake last year (it was a hit!), and was thinking I could just use that frosting and dye it with berry juices, etc. Thank you for all your wonderful recipes!
You’re welcome Jess, Glad you like it!
Thank you for sharing! I read your intro at Sandi’s and couldn’t resist to pop over and say hi. I’m pleased I did … yum!
Mimi
I think I’m obsessed with your recipes! Usually when I follow other blogger’s recipes something always goes wrong and I have to compensate with more of this or that. Your recipes are PERFECTION. I’ve got these baking in the oven right now, and they smell DIVINE. I can’t wait to make another batch for my two-year-old’s birthday this month!
Also, I didn’t have any strawberries on hand, so I made a Grasshopper frosting, substituiting the strawberries with 1/2 cup of avocado and 1/2 cup of spinach and the lemon and vanilla with 1 tsp of peppermint extract. So good!
Okay, that sounds good. I’d like to try your version.
You just made my day, Anne!
Just new to this and trying to find recipes to entice my family to try
Can you use frozen strawberries instead of fresh?
I have not tried it with frozen strawberries, so I’m not 100% sure. I think it would work.