Coconuts, coconuts, coconuts!

Here I am, behind again. Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. You may also notice my final gift guide, on experiences & charitable gifts didn’t make it in time. It is written, but since it wasn’t ready until a week before Christmas, I thought it was too late. When I work on posts on my lunch break, I have to wait to use my laptop at home to add the photos & end up with a lot of partially written posts.

Today I’m diving into a week of recipes using fresh, delicious coconut. Coconut is one of the foods I thought I disliked, until I tried the real thing. My experience with coconut growing up was the sugared dried shreds. I was never known to pass up candy, but I could do without Mounds Bars. I started seeing young thai coconuts in the market & I can’t help but purchase unfamiliar produce to try. The first attempt at opening one with a standard kitchen knife was a mess. I had to discard the water as so many pieces of shell ended up inside.

I found this video on how to open them properly & armed myself with the proper tool. I purchased a cleaver through amazon for only $12 which had great reviews, including many from people who bought it for the purpose of cracking coconuts. The Asian market had a case of 9 coconuts for $10.

Turns out if you know the technique & have the right tool, it’s easy! I put my husband to working cracking as I removed the meat. The first one did not come out in one piece like the video, but by the third they were coming out as beautiful white bowls. We did 4, which supplied water & flesh for my green smoothies, coconut yogurt & coconut milk for the week.

Today we’ll start with coconut milk. Simply blend the flesh of 2 coconuts (1 – 1 ½ cups) with 1 ½ cups fresh coconut water! Keep an eye out for the green smoothie recipe & simple coconut yogurt with berry sauce.