I made ice cream this weekend from coconut milk, and it was AMAZING! It’s already gone and we’re clamoring for more.
Here’s the recipe:
1 small can of coconut cream (5.5 ounces)
1 and a half cans of coconut milk (18 to 19 ounces)
2/3 cup maple syrup (~5.3 ounces)
2 teaspoons mint extract
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
I used the Cuisinart ice cream churn, which requires that the bowl be frozen for 24 hours before churning.
I assembled and turned it on, poured in the mixture, and then chopped about 1/3 cup of bittersweet chocolate morsels into smaller bits. I added those as the churn turned.
It takes about 20 minutes to get to the right consistency.
I stored it in a glass casserole dish with a tight fitting lid. When serving, pull it from the freezer and let it warm up for a few minutes, as it gets very hard and hard to serve.
I used organic products shown below, and some maple syrup a friend harvested and shared.
Max is our 15-year-old Chihuahua. We want him to live long and healthy, so a few years ago, we started feeding him “Fresh Pet” dogfood, which is sold in a refrigerator case at the grocery store. It’s kind of expensive.
My husband is a chef, and one day, he decided to try and recreate the recipe. It worked great! Now, we create a big batch every 6 weeks or so and freeze it in sandwich-size baggies. It saves money and guarantees that Max is getting the best food possible.
I thought it might be nice to share this, just in case you’d like to do this for your dog, too. Here’s how:
In a small pot, cook 2 cups of rice. I’m using organic “Field Day” basmati.
In a large pot, brown 3 pounds of ground turkey. Add a sprinkling of turmeric and a tiny dash of salt. You could also use ground chicken, beef, lamb, pork… or mix them. Don’t drain the fat.
Cut 3 or 4 carrots into small bites OR drain and add 1 can of cooked carrots.
Add a can of pumpkin (stock up in the fall) OR 3 to 4 peeled, diced sweet potatoes.
Add a can of green peas.
Add diced butternut squash.
Chop broccoli into tiny bites and add that, too. (Unless your dog is much larger than Max and has all his teeth!)
Simmer all of these together until the carrots are soft.
Add rice until it looks like a good mix. I ended up adding about 3/4ths of the rice I had cooked to this amount.
After I combined all the elements, we were concerned that the carrots were still too hard, so I added 3 cups of water and let it simmer for a while, maybe an hour.
After most of the water evaporated out, we move the dogfood to baking trays so that it can cool.
Once cooled, we bag it and seal up the bags, stacking them like bricks in the freezer.
Max loves helping with the clean up. 🩷🐕
The bags are easy to thaw … just pull one out and set it in the sink for a couple of hours. I usually put a little warm water over it when I feed him so that it warms up and makes a little “gravy.”
I lived most of my life in Florida, where it’s like this all the time: WAY too hot to use the oven for at least 10 months of the year.
There was a cute little diner at the Tahitian Inn on Dale Mabry where we used to meet friends on groggy Sunday mornings. They had an amazing cold plate there… salad greens and three hollowed bell peppers filled with your choice of chicken, tuna, egg, ham, or potato salad.
We made it part of our routine. Summer dinners (and by that, I mean March thru November) were often homemade cold plates, starting with a green salad and adding a bunch of cold sides.
Last weekend, I made a batch of my yummy purple yams with coconut. Yes, I had the oven on for an hour, but I make enough to snack on all week. It makes a great cold lunch or side dish.
I made lentils, too, which is also great served cold.
My husband made a potato salad and an egg salad, and chopped another pineapple into bite sized pieces.
Anyway, if you’re looking for healthy dishes to throw together for hot summer nights, I suggest you try a cold plate night.
Another quick, cold, plant-based recipe for you. I’m sorry, I don’t have a more exacting recipe. You’re gonna have to use the force on this one.
Enjoy!
Red cabbage
Carrots
Sunflower seeds or pistachios
Raisins or another similar-sized dried fruit
Honey
Salt
Red wine vinegar
Find a bowl you’d like to serve this dish in.
Slice the cabbage very thin. You want enough to fill the bowl approximately 60% full of the shredded cabbage.
Wash the carrots and then either use a hand peeler OR a cheese grater to shred them. Add them to the bowl. These 2 ingredients will take up most of the space in the bowl, so keep adding until it is about 90% full.
Add at least a cup each of sunflower seeds and raisins. Mix well. Salt liberally, unless the sunflower seeds have already done that for you.
Add honey and red wine vinegar in equal amounts to coat the ingredients. Mix well.
It’s crunchy, sweet, salty, and healthy. It doesn’t need to be refrigerated, which makes it perfect for summer, camping, etc.
Once you get the hang of it, swap out white cabbage for red, different nuts or seeds, different dried fruit, fancy vinegars… just make sure you include something crunchy, something sweet, something salty, and something vinegarrey. 😋
Not gonna lie, I cut this recipe off the back of the lentil bag. It’s delicious.
1 cup organic green lentils
3 cups chicken broth or water
1 bay leaf
1 large or 2 small carrots, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 garlic clove
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 ounces Feta or goat cheese
Combine lentils, chicken broth (or water), and bay leaf in medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, then turn down heat and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, until lentils are tender.
Remove bay leaf and strain. Let cool.
In a large bowl, combine all remaining ingredients except the cheese.
When lentils are cooled (pop them in the freezer for a few minutes), add lentils to the mixture and stir it all together.
Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Crumble goat cheese on top when serving.
A bowl of these yummy yams is a delicious treat! Better than most desserts! And very, very good for you. Thanking my sister Gabi for this simple recipe.
● Peel and chop 3 purple yams into bite-sized pieces.
● Mix in a scoop of coconut oil and as much shredded coconut as you’d like.
● Preheat oven to 350°.
● Spread the chunks out on a cookie sheet.
● Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or a full hour. The edges will carmelize a bit.
The house smells wonderful this morning as I’ve made a batch of homemade granola. It’s delicious and also good to know all the ingredients are whole foods from sources I’ve scrutinized myself.
Including the chia and flax seeds is a way to add Omega-3s into my diet. Using coconut oil helps reduce my Omega-6 load because even organic granola includes seed oils.
Im using a recipe titled “Maple and Chia Seed Granola” by Maria Provenzano, changed a bit based on what we had in the cupboard:
4 cups old fashioned oats
½ cup slivered almonds
¾ cup pumpkin seeds
2 tablespoons chia seeds
2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup coconut oil, measured then melted
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup dried berries and/or raisins
1/4 cup dried apricots, diced into small chunks
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
In a large bowl, combine the oats, slivered almonds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, sesame seeds, cinnamon, and salt until well mixed.
Melt the coconut oil in a small pan over low/medium heat until melted. Combine the coconut oil and maple syrup together, and mix in the vanilla.
Pour the oil/syrup mixture over the oat mixture, and use a spatula to mix it together so that everything is evenly coated.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper (not wax paper, not aluminum foil), and evenly distribute the granola between the two sheets.
Keep the granola somewhat compact, because that prevents it from getting too crunchy; it allows the center to stay chewy, and the outside pieces to get a bit more crunchy.
Bake at 325 degrees for 12-14 minutes, or until starting to become slightly golden around the edges. Don’t bake longer than 14 minutes.
Allow the granola to cool for at least 10-15 minutes after baking. If you skip this step, then the granola won’t come together.
After it has cooled, add in all the extras like coconut flakes and dried fruit.
Christmas has come and gone, and yes, we did make cookies. Knowing that food dyes are linked to cancer, I went out in search of non-toxic alternatives.
I didn’t find any in the local stores. I did find them online, but after exhausting local options and then returning to my search bar, I found them out of stock.
Does that mean that other folks are looking for non-toxic alternatives? 🤔 I hope so!
So this year, we went without. Our cookies were the color of our non-GMO organic flour, and the frosting was transparent. And we loved them anyway (though it was hard to tell the lemon cookies from the almond ones).
This weekend, I found the colors I was searching for at the Abundance Co-op. My daughter gave me a share & membership for Christmas.
Fun Fact: The old dyes in my cupboard actually have a resale market! At least the brown glass bottles do. I found them online today priced between $10 and $25 per bottle. Huh!
For 99% of my life, I’ve used either the Good Seasons spice packet or the Aldi knock-off to make my dressing with red wine vinegar, high quality olive oil, and a little bit of water.
The spice packets are both delicious and easy to mix in the Good Seasons bottle (you know what I’m talking about).
Recently, though, I scanned the Aldi and Good Seasons packet with the Yuka app. Both scored 18 out of 100… yuck!
Both of the additives flagged “may be associated with” development of breast cancer.
It’s just a spice packet, though. How hard could it be to make it from scratch?
I decided to make my own. I used a big jar and mixed up a bunch, so it’s ready whenever I need it.
Copycat Salad Dressing Spice Mix
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons oregano
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon basil
0.25 teaspoon ground thyme
1 tablespoon parsley
0.25 teaspoon celery salt
2 tablespoons salt (use less if you want)
Put it all in a jar.
When you want to make the dressing, mix:
1 tablespoon of the spice mix above
1/2 cup of olive oil
1/4 cup vinegar
3 tablespoons water
Bon appetit!
Update: Great article from the Environmental Working Group:
The Cancer Canary 