Milestone for Ryan and Coconut Frozen Yogurt

Today, March 12, 2013, Ryan reached another milestone into adulthood: it was his first day of his very first job! Ryan is the clerk at a bankruptcy law firm where I used to work, in what seems like another lifetime ago, and where his father is still employed. While being a clerk is not grand and glorious work, it’s a relatively cushy job for an 18-year-old who hasn’t even finished high school (don’t even start me on that one). It’s good to have parents with connections. Winking smile

IMG_1213

For now, it is just 12-15 hours per week, while he tries to finish high school online. He and Daniel have been finishing high school online ever since I fell ill in 2010. We hope that as time goes by, he will be able to 1) finish school, and 2) turn this into a more permanent and full-time position while he decides what to do with his life.

IMG_1214

I’m not sure he was excited about the job, but he was extremely happy with all the nicer new clothes. This is his favorite of the new outfits. When we came home from shopping Friday and he tried it on, he asked if he could just wear it the remainder of the day because it was so comfortable. Sure, why not? He’s really growing up: first a new, more mature hairdo, and now new, more mature clothing. It’s good to see progress!

IMG_1215

To celebrate his new job, we had one of his favorite meals: turkey, cornbread dressing and giblet gravy. Not exactly on our healthier eating plan, but I did use coconut oil everywhere possible. Besides, I am trying to remember to live by the 80-20 rule: eat right 80% of the time, and don’t worry about the other 20%. We don’t live in a vacuum.

By the way, did you know that you can taste coconut oil in giblet gravy? LOL! Okay, so that wasn’t one of my better trade outs; back to butter next time for the roux for the gravy. Live and learn, live and learn.

And, as an extra special treat, we made homemade frozen yogurt!

So, even though I promised something other than another coconut recipe, I just can’t resist sharing this recipe I tried from making frozen yogurt, and none other than coconut frozen yogurt. I cannot give any one person, website, etc., a shout out on this one because it is everywhere on the internet. The recipe was so simple that I just remembered it, and don’t know exactly where I saw it first.

In making this coconut ice cream, I did notice that everyone was talking about using regular yogurt, then straining it for 6 or more hours to remove the liquid; or, as an alternative to use Greek yogurt. Now, to use the regular yogurt, you actually have to buy twice as much and lose the liquid.

One woman said she bought the regular yogurt because it was cheaper, but if I have to buy twice as much anyway, why would I do that? I can get 2 containers of regular yogurt (more hassle to prepare for freezing) for the same price as 1 Greek yogurt…hmmm…let me think…NOT!

My recipe assumes you will be using Greek yogurt.

3 Cups Plain Greek Yogurt (I used 0% fat Chobani)
3/4 Cups sugar or your choice of sweetener (I used Truvia blend)
1/2 Teaspoon Coconut Flavoring
1/4 Cup Coconut shreds or flakes
Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Place in the refrigerator for one hour so the sugar will dissolve and blend into the mixture.

After an hour, place in your ice cream freezer and follow the manufacturers directions for freezing.

 

IMG_1222

My freezer took 20 minutes to make a nice soft serve yogurt, and at 30 minutes it was quite stiff.

IMG_1224

Doesn’t it look awesome? Well, it was! Sorry you weren’t here to share it.

I actually doubled the recipe so we could freeze the leftovers. I’m curious to see how hard it freezes in the freezer overnight.

So, perhaps next time I’ll actually share something that isn’t made with or from coconuts. But, don’t count on it.

Until next time, live loud, live strong!

Love,

Shari

 

Healthy Homemade Mounds Candy from Fresh Coconut

It seems I have fallen behind on my postings, but things have been crazy around here. However, as Clay kindly pointed out, I say that as if it is somehow abnormal for life to be in a whirlwind in our house.

Okay, so I admit, life here is never exactly dull, but between injured possums in the garage, pushing vehicles down the street, preparing one of the twins for his first job (amazing how much there is to do to prepare for a job, and how much money it costs to go out and make money… lol), and the daily general wackiness of a house with twins (even if they are 18) and four dogs brings.

So, when I’ve not been running around like a mad woman, which is, admittedly, quite rare, I’ve found that I have become obsessed with all things coconut.

I’ve tried to move on, but I cannot: coconut pie, coconut cake, coconut candies, coconut oil, coconut cream, shredded coconut, coconut in my smoothies, coconut in my oatmeal, and the list goes on.

Which leads me to my first of several coconut confessions:

I’m a coconutaholic!

I’ve always loved coconut, but I was one of those poor souls who was raised to believe it was bad for you: full of fat and sugar. To some degree, this is true; the highly processed coconut sold in the baking isle of the grocery stores is full of fat and sugar, not to mention all the stuff I cannot pronounce.

But now, I’ve been introduced to numerous health benefits of pure, natural coconut, and have gone crazy trying to fit it into my daily life without creating a body as round as a coconut.

A great deal of my experimentation lately has been in learning to use purchased organic dehydrated coconut versus the fresh coconut we created last time Jen and Deb were here.  The dehydrated shreds are a bit like straw, lacking the moistness you have with the fresh… Even the dehydrated fresh wasn’t as dry as the coconut you purchase.

When Deb and Jen were here, we found a wonderfully luscious recipe for healthy homemade Mounds candies at www.paleozing.blogspot.com.  We used the fresh coconut that we had just processed at home, and there was a natural creaminess to the texture that I have been trying to recreate with the store bought organic coconut shreds.

IMG_1104

For those who wish to use fresh coconut, here is the recipe as we made it:

  • 1 Cup fresh shredded coconut
  • 1/3 Cup coconut oil
  • 3-4 medjool dates, pitted (or 6-8 regular dates)
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • pinch of sea salt
  • 1 Cup dark chocolate chips (we used Special Dark)
  • Honey to taste (optional, if you are using regular dates as they are not as sweet as medjool dates)

 

Directions:

Step 1: In a small saucepan, heat coconut oil and coconut over low heat until the coconut begins to puff up.  (Honestly, neither Deb nor I could figure out what this was supposed to look like, so we finally took it off the heat.)

Step 2: Place the dates, vanilla and salt into a blender or food processor (we used my Magic Bullet) and process until smooth and creamy.

Step 3: Mix the coconut mixture and the date mixture; stir in local raw honey or agave syrup for added sweetness, if needed/desired.

Step 4: Line a bread pan with parchment paper and pat mixture evenly into a bread pan and place in the freezer for about an hour, or until set.

Step 5: Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring after each cycle, until fully melted.

Step 6: Cut the candy into pieces (we made 24 pieces from our pan).

Step 7: Dip each piece into the chocolate and return to the parchment paper.  Once all candies have been coated in chocolate, return to the freezer for 20 minutes, or until chocolate has set. (I actually do this in a 2-step procedure.  I flip the block of frozen candy over and use a spatula to coat the bottom with chocolate, and then cut it into bars.  I place it back in the freezer for 10 minutes, then hand dip the individual candies for the side and top coverage.)

Step 7: “ENJOY!” And, try not to eat all of it in one sitting. Winking smile

IMG_1105

Next time, I’ll share my recipe for making these using the purchased organic dehydrated coconut shreds.

In my quest to recreate the texture of this original batch, and in generally working with purchased coconut, I came to my most embarrassing confession:  I’d actually be willing to crack, hammer, freeze, scrape, shave, process and dehydrate fresh coconut with Jen and Deb a bit more often than when Hell freezes over for some of that luscious coconut meat.

So, until next time: eat well, enjoy life and live every day as if it was the most important!

Love,

Shari

The Coconut Experience

Deb and Jen headed to Deb’s early this afternoon. We had a wonderful time experimenting with the coconuts, and we still managed to accomplish a few of the other things we had actually planned last time, like repairing a couple of quilts. Deb is the quilter; I have an aversion to all things sewing/needlework.

I am, however, trying to learn to do some basic needlework; I have just never liked it. Sewing, for example, has never moved me, at least when it comes to sewing clothing.

I see now, though, that there are some things for the house I’d like to be able to sew, such as pillows, tablecloths, etc. I’m trying to expand my horizons and try new things.

As for the coconut experience, I can honestly say that while it was interesting and amusing, I’ll be buying the finished products online in the future. That was just far too much hassle for my taste, as I just want to get to the business of putting it to use.

I have been warned that we will be doing it again at least once so Pat can participate. I can do that! I will have to be sure to mark Daniel’s and Ryan’s calendar for that week so they’re available to do all the “onerous manual labor.”

IMG_1097

?? IMG_1098


IMG_1099

IMG_1101

Actually cooking and/or baking with it was my favorite part. Okay, perhaps that was an overstatement: EATING the items we made was my favorite part! While I made the first evening’s dinner, Deb did the next two. So, I rounded out the meals by selecting the desserts using our coconuts.

Tuesday night, I selected a recipe for some healthy coconut lemon macaroons, which were to take about 30 minutes from start to finish. You can start laughing now, because they took about 2 hours! The problem we had was that Jen selected some fresh coconut that had not yet been dried to try to make our coconut cream. It went through 3 processors and well over an hour before we finally gave up and decided to use whatever we had.

Note for the future: do not try to make coconut cream out of fresh, undried coconut. While it might be doable, it just didn’t work out with the equipment we had.

 

The good news is the cookies baked up well and were a huge hit, even with the boys! They were wonderfully moist and chewy with a hint of lemon. According to Daniel and Ryan, that’s a recipe to keep and repeat. That pretty much says it all in my house. If I make them again, I will cook them until they have a light brown dusting on the coconut on top; I think it would make them completely divine.

IMG_1106

Give them a try; I think you’re going to love them, too!

What was the worst part of the whole coconut fest? How little was left after we baked with it! I have far too many things I want to use the coconut with for so little coconut in my cabinet.

My answer? I’m hording my fresh, homemade coconut for eating right out of the bag, or on oatmeal, etc. I’ll just have to find a good source for the coconut I’ll use in my recipes.

All this talk about food has made me hungry, so I think I’ll whip up some dinner with the leftover tomato/strawberry salsa and acorn squash Deb left from last night’s dinner.

Have a wonderful evening!

Love,

Shari

Dear Diary:

Let’s not all talk at once now, ladies….  Who’s first?

Well, it was Shari’s idea to create a blog site after we had a 3 out of 4 sister week where we played with coconuts.

Shari says that sounds perverse now, Deb agreed; however, I’m not sure what else you would call it.

Shari thought we should explain why we played with coconuts and even though my name shows at the top of this post, all three of us will have contributed …… SO

Take it over Shari…

Shari here (because Jennifer is insisting, and when she insists….well, you get the idea):

Over the past year, I’ve been trying to clean up my eating habits, and Jennifer has been doing the same.  It seemed as if every time she came to visit me, she had a new health tip: raw honey, quinoa, Himalayan salt, chia, to name a few.  A few weeks ago, Jen came to stay a night or two, she shared her latest craze: the virtues of all things coconut, which as it seems, she got from Deb.

While we were talking about it, we decided I would order some coconut oil and give it a try.  She left my house and went to Deb’s for her weekend of running the karaoke show at the VFW, and next thing I know, we’re all going to provide 2 coconuts for their next trip here.  How we went from buying coconut oil to making our own, I’ll never know, but welcome to the minds of the other half of life.

That’s what I get for being the youngest.

I guess I get to pick up the story from here (at least for a bit) – This is Deb.  Thanks to Jen & her unlimited knowledge of all things including her skills on the computer & her extensive research on all things healthy.  Shari said she didn’t know how we got from the coconut oil to creating our own.

Before Thanksgiving, my son & his family decided to make a lifestyle change to a more whole food type of eating.   In my research for healthier foods, I discovered the benefits of coconut (oil, water, milk, etc).  When Jen came to stay with me one weekend, we discussed the process of making coconut milk, coconut concentrate (butter), and shredded coconut.

We know that we can purchase all of these things either locally or on-line (typically through Amazon.com), but we decided to try and do as many of them as we could.  Jen & I purchased a few coconuts for that weekend & milked, smashed, blended, & made coconut butter for almost an entire day!

We then decided we MUST share this experience with Shari & her boys.  What a day that was.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get very many pictures of the process but, we did, however have a blast!

Jen, over to you now to wrap up our first post!

So, back to me, Jen…. That’s sort of how it all went… in a (coco)nutshell.

Shari took some pictures of our coconut extravaganza and a few of the de-lish sweets that were made… (I almost said WE made- LOL I stood around watching while the co0king experts did their things.)

Deb and Shari are going to be adding some posts talking about what they created over the 2+ days we spent together.

And ……. we’ll be sharing all sorts of things, even how we all decided it was time to get together more often…. like once a month.

Til the next time…  I’ll leave you with this thought…

You’re never too young or too old to have fun … So ……

Live….. Laugh… Love …..

~Jennifer

Sketch Challenge – February Cricut Circle Magazine

The challenge:

You can use any of the sketches from
the magazine or blog to create a card,
layout, decor item, or whatever else you
are inspired to make.

I rarely use sketches in my work, as I’m more of a free flowing, on the fly type, so this was a bit of a challenge for me to come up with something that would fit one of the sketches. In the end, I had been wanting to do a project with fruit for the kitchen/dining room, and this month’s Cricut Circle Magazine sketch by Susan Neal seemed perfect for such a project.

March 8

Here is Susan’s sketch:

03-02-12-challenge

And, here’s my project using the sketch:

03-02-12-b
03-02-12-c

I wanted to do the projects on canvas, and I loved the idea of having the background look a bit like stucco,. In order to achieve this look, I used an artist’s knife and Liquitex Acrylic Color in Gold. I’ve never been a painter, but this was fun! It reminded me of finger painting, and though I did use an artist’s knife, I had enough on me to look like I’d been finger painting. I only painted the first 2/3 of the canvas, as that was all that was going to show. I let them dry overnight to assure they were completely dry.

The fruits were taken from two different Cricut cartridges: the lemon and peach are from the Savory cartridge, while the pear can be found on the Cricut Just Because Cards cartridge. I took the words (nectar, sweet, sour) off the fruit from the Savory cartridge, and applied them as a separate entity.  That allowed me to create the sentiments without using only the fruit on the Savory cartridge. However, each word had a piece of a letter missing as part of the original design. In order to overcome this obstacle, I placed a ribbon flower on each of the words where this occurred.

The fruits and sentiments was inked and shaded, then sprayed with Perfect Pearls Mist in Perfect Pearl. The doily behind each fruit is from the Cricut Elegant Edges cartridge. To add more dimension to the project, I used foam squares on each of the fruits. I added a dark green ribbon with an intricate design and a large rhinestone brad to complete the sketch.

03-02-12-e
03-02-12-f
03-02-12-g

I love all the texture and the richness of the colors of this project.

I hope you enjoy it.

Have a wonderfully crafty day!

Shari

Things We Love Challenge! – Cricut Circle Weekly Challenge #52

I rarely participate in the Cricut Circle Weekly Challenges, but I have had this home d’cor project in my head for some time, and the challenge rules helped me put my idea into focus.  Clay has a very nice apartment in San Antonio while he’s in law school, but nothing whatsoever hangs on the walls.  I had the idea to use the Cricut Word Collage cartridge to create some art work for his walls, but never quite pulled it together.  When I read this challenge, “Voila!”  The project just appeared in my head.  Thankfully, it also turned out beautifully.

February 28

The Challenge: Scrap what you love! Include a tag and use the negative space of a Cricut cut

Now, my love here is twofold:  1) I love Clay, and 2) we love traveling, so the use of the Word Collage “Welcome” sign was perfect.  We both studied German in high school, and he was stationed in Germany during his years in the Army.  Once I had the collage picked out, it was a matter of how to make it all come together.

02-28-12-a

I used the negative space of the Word Collage, rather than the letters themselves, as the base of the project.  Since I did not know what all of the languages, I researched each word that I was not familiar with and jotted down all of the languages used in the collage to say “Welcome.”  The following languages, in order of appearance, are:  Spanish, English, German, Norwegian, Japanese, Portuguese, Dutch or Afrikaan (from when the Dutch settled in that part of Africa and influenced the language), French, Swedish, Hawaiian, and Italian.

02-28-12-b

I have always loved the Cricut Destinations cartridge, but have never had occasion to use it. This was the perfect project for it.  I tried to match a destination to each of the languages, but there three languages whose countries were not represented on the Destinations cartridge:  Portuguese, Norwegian and Swedish.  In order to have 12 destinations to complete the look, I decided to use San Antonio for the USA, since Clay is in San Antonio for law school and Houston because that’s where I live.  I also used both Amsterdam and Tanzania to cover the two countries which use the Dutch/Afrikaan translation of “welcome.” That left me with one more needed, so I chose Sydney because they also speak English, and it’s the one place on earth I have always wanted to see.

02-28-12-c

In order to meet the tag requirement of the project, I also used the Cricut Fabulous Finds cartridge to cut out 12 luggage tags.  I tucked the tag portion behind each of the images, so that all you see is the loop that would fit over the handle of a suitcase.

02-28-12-d

I had wanted to match the place with the language, but that just wasn’t doable, so I laid them out in a manner that seemed to balance one another.

02-28-12-e

I know Clay will love it, and it will look great in his apartment.

Now, I have to come up with a project using the letters from the image for the house!

Hope you enjoy the project.

Have a wonderfully crafty day