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Strawberry Lime Sorbet
It’s been a while since we’ve had a Foodie Friend Friday post, I can tell you this lapse in sharing definitely isn’t for lack of having incredibly talented friends put out incredibly talented books.
We are back at it today with this gem of a book, Everyday Detox, from Megan Gilmore, AKA The Detoxinista. I absolutely love Megan, her website and recipes and now this incredible book. She just “gets it”. Rather than the all-or-nothing approach of extreme short term detoxes, fasts and cleanses, diets that can set us up for failure, Megan is all about making healthy choices everyday, living life in a mindful way that we can maintain without intense deprivation followed by the post-diet binging.
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How-to Make Coconut Butter
This is a super easy tutorial this week you guys, literally One Step. One ingredient.
How-to Make Coconut Butter.
What is Coconut Butter?
Coconut butter is basically just ground up coconut meat that has been processed until it is smooth and creamy. The same idea as nuts being used to make nut butter. Though it isn’t quite as creamy as a store bought creamy peanut butter and the texture can vary.
What is the Difference Between Coconut Butter and Coconut Oil or Coconut Cream?
Coconut butter includes the meat of the coconut and coconut oil does not. Coconut oil is used more as typical oil is, when cooking or baking, where coconut butter is more of a spread or dip, it could also be used in baking as nut butters would be.
Additionally, coconut butter is different from coconut cream which contains water. Coconut cream involves cooking down as much as 4 parts coconut to 1 part water, then straining out the coconut. Coconut cream is also what is found at the top of a can of full fat coconut milk. Coconut cream contains less water then coconut milk but coconut butter contains no water at all and there is no straining involved, the meat is left in.
How-to Make Coconut Butter:
Start with a quality brand of unsweetened organic shredded dehydrated coconut. Unsweetened coconut flakes will also work. Not fresh, not low fat, not sweetened, not toasted. Just regular ‘ol unsweetened flaked or shredded coconut. Use somewhere between 2 cups and 4 cups of shredded coconut, depending on the size of your food processor or high speed processor blender. 4 cups of shredded coconut will make about 1 cup of coconut butter. I find in my 14-cup food processor, that using 3 or 4 cups of coconut works much better than just 2 cups.
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Sprouted Quinoa Bowl with Kale Almond Pesto {Gluten-free and Vegan}
Since I have started sprouting foods myself, a few months back, I have been pretty excited not only with how much more delicious so many of my favorite foods are, but how much easier they have been to digest. Sprouting seeds and beans especially, have seriously reduced the amount of bloating I have felt with certain foods. Sprouted quinoa is one of my absolute favorites to sprout. It’s super simple and I love knowing that I am maximizing the full nutritional benefits of the quinoa this way. Be sure to check out my recent post on how-to sprout, to read more about why this is and how to do it.
This super easy, vibrantly-colored quinoa bowl is so easy to throw together and it’s full of so many amazing flavors. Seriously, if you don’t count the sprouting time, you can have this for dinner – completely made and on the table in under 30 minutes. It’s just that easy. Besides the food processor to make the pesto, it’s a one pot meal, which I am ALL about. I love easy meals like this, where it can all cook in one pot and your entire meal is in one bowl. Doesn’t get much easier than that.
With all of the many different greens we’ve been getting in our CSA box each week I have actually made variations on this recipe too, last week I actually made it with swiss chard instead of the kale and it was just as amazing. I know arugula or spinach would be incredible, too.
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Grain-Free Double Chocolate Brownies {Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Paleo-Friendly}
Happy Valentine’s Day, friends!! What better way to celebrate LOVE than with chocolate, am I right? I can’t get enough chocolate this month, in case you couldn’t tell. I have been seeing chocolate everything, everywhere and I am not sure what made me think of it, but I realized the other day that I hadn’t made brownies in forever. And that made me sad! What is wrong with me?
I mean really, brownies are happy-making, magical squares of my very favorite stuff!! Soft cocoa-y chocolate chewiness and little bits of dark chocolate in every bite. Ahhhh! It is torture just writing about it.
Though hubby and I don’t generally celebrate Valentine’s Day, I’d like to think we celebrated a little bit early with these beauties. It’s rare that I make a gluten-free or grain-free baked-good and my husband doesn’t tell me what about it makes it taste not quite like the “real thing”. I mean, I don’t blame him. He doesn’t have to eat gluten-free. He gets to enjoy all the “normal” bakeries and their delectable delights, whenever he wants.
JerkGenerally he eats and loves whatever I make (with exceptions, of course), but I think given the opportunity he would still choose it’s gluten-containing inspiration. This time around, he couldn’t get enough of the gluten-free version. He was obsessed with these brownies and we were literally fighting over the last one. I let him have it, but I really should have told him to back-off and take a hike to the neighborhood bakery. At one point during the few days we were eating through these, he walked to the corner store to get a pint of vanilla ice cream, he heated one of these brownie squares up and served it à la mode. What can I say? He’s a sweets guy, the man sure knows how to eat his desserts.
