Marriage is a glorious thing. Obviously there are too many awesome things about the institution to list here but one that ought not be overlooked is the permanent condition of always having a date for Valentine’s Day. We don’t have to celebrate officially or do anything fancy at all, but I really dig that I always have a Valentine. Kids changed the holiday a bit (but not too much) and now its an excuse to decorate, do funny activities for school, and above all…eat really fun food.

I’m currently following a keto diet. To sum up, it’s a high fat, low carbohydrate, medium protein approach to food. As with all my diet experiments I’ve learned so much about myself and my body through this process. While I’m constantly tweaking and refining what it looks like on a daily basis, I’m so happy with the changes I’ve seen. There is however, the huge elephant in the room…the low carb thing. The keto diet involves some very cool physiology but basically you sharply limit any sugar or things that turn into sugar in your body. But I do love to bake, and decorate cakes and experiment with all sorts of recipes. Lately though I’ve been making desserts and goodies and I just don’t eat them, and I’ve been experimenting with low carb treats and baking. So on Valentine’s Day we had Keto Cinnamon Rolls. True to my track record, 50% of my offspring liked them and Neil and I loved them.

Kids get normal frosting.

We had keto frosting. Seriously, it was soooo tasty.

Pigs in a Blanket for lunch. Well for the munchkins, Neil and I had something equally tasty, but not exciting enough to warrant a picture.

There were two families at our church who needed meals brought to them (one lady just had her first baby, and the other family just needed a boost) so I signed up to bring dinner to them! Having excuses to make deliciousness is a total win win for me. I can play but there is no pressure for me to eat it. Corra insisted that one family get chocolate donuts…and she helped me make them too!

If it’s Valentine’s Day and you’ve just had a baby you deserve a cake. My mom’s edible printer came in handy and I got to make a tiny cake. Unfortunately, my first attempt at a Swiss meringue buttercream was a fail, but rather than Google how to salvage it (which I did after the fact and I totally could have saved it), I panicked and rigged it to kind of work. Tasted yummy (according to my resident taste testers) but the consistency was all wrong. Sigh. I’ll try again for Layna’s birthday cake.

The kids got left overs turned into cupcakes for dessert.

The family had the option: amazing, fancy steak or cow heart. I was pulling for heart…there would have been a certain poetry about it, right?! Sigh. Filet mignon was not a disappointing option though. Being perhaps the most expensive bit of a cow, I’d never had it before. Oh Man. I get it now. It was magical and we have enough for one more epic dinner.

We felt loved, got to help other people feel loved, and thus Valentine’s Day was a resounding success. Also, I lost my ever loving mind and let the kids eat their chocolate immediately after a token taste of cinnamon rolls…which means that they actually ate chocolates for breakfast. You can tell from the top picture how they felt about this.