Homemade Vegan Coconut Yogurt made into Parfaits

Thick, rich and creamy, not only is this yogurt delicious but it is good for the body with it’s probiotics and healthy fats. I have been seeing homemade yogurts for a while now. First at Nouveau Raw, if you have never checked this woman’s blog yet and you are in to raw foods, you MUST go now!!! She is incredible. Her creativity paired with her skill, knowledge and presentation leave me speechless. She is like the Martha Stewart of raw food.

Then I’ve seen this yogurt done several more times. But the one that finally got me doing it is Larice over at Feeding Your Beauty. Larice and I don’t know each other but reading her feels like we have been friends for a while because we seem to feel the same way about raising nutritionally conscientious children and have the same taste in food 🙂  She just made it all look and sounds so simple that I decided it was time for me to give it a go. And I am SO glad I did!!! And so are my kids!

Other than breaking open the coconuts, the yogurt in itself was so quick and simple and came out great the first time!

Will be making this often 🙂

Here I am showing you the yogurt turned into a delicious morning treat, by layering fresh fruit, a drizzle of honey and some homemade raw grawnola. 

Ingredients for the yogurt:

• 5 young thai coconuts
• 2/3 cup of coconut water
• 2 capsules of probiotics

Steps:

• open all the coconuts and sac the water aside. Larice shows her step by step system, in her post. Which is slightly different than mine but since hers is photographed you might as well check hers 😉
• put the young coconut meat in the blender with the water. Blend on high until a rich and creamy consistency is achieved. Add water if you want a slightly thinner yogurt.
• pour in a bowl, open the probiotic capsules and dump them in. Mix with a wooden spoon.
• put a towel over it and let it sit somewhere dark and warm for 12-24 hours. I left mine in my unopened, turned off stove.
• Taste it and if it’s to your liking, eat right away or store int he fridge where it will become a little more tangy.
• I have no idea how long this will last as we ate the whole batch in one sitting, my little family of 5.

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Natural Cold Remedy

If you have been following my blog, you are likely aware that I am not a fan of chemicals, especially going in to my body. I put extra effort in preparing wholesome meals and feeding myself and my family clean, nutrient dense foods for many reasons, and the biggest one is so we can be healthy and have a body that functions optimally, in order to enjoy life to the fullest. Sometimes though, our immune systems can’t handle things that are going around and we can get sick. Although this rarely happens, I like to be prepared in the event it does. Since I do not take store bought medicine or pills from a pharmacy or even really go to the doctor for that matter, I research ways to heal and fight illnesses naturally. I firmly believe in the healing powers of plants and all things that nature has provided for us, therefor I will always look there first before turning to a more “clinical” method. That is when I came across this site and recipe:

http://www.cauldronsandcrockpots.com/2013/01/elderberry-elixir/

I am so excited to have strained my elixir tonight and to be able to share it with you 🙂

Ingredients:

• 1 cup elderberries
• 1/2 dried elderflowers
• 1/4 cup mullein leaf
• 1/4 cup dried boneset
• 1 inch fresh ginger, chopped
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cardamon
• 1/2 peel of 1 lemon
• alcohol (I used brandy)
• raw honey (it is so nutritionally dense compared to the non raw kind

Steps:

• Put all the herbs in a jar
• Fill it a third of the way up with honey
• Finish filling with alcohol
• Screw the lid on top, give it a good shake
• Keep it in a place where you will see it daily so you can give it a good shake everyday
• Let it sit for 6 weeks
• Strain, put it in bottles, label and store for a few years

When you feel any symptoms of a cold or flulike sickness coming on, take 1/4 tsp every couple hours until you feel better.

I haven’t tried the efficacy of this yet, and although I hope I never need to take it, I kinda hope to get sick just to see how well it works!

Mango Sorbet with Strawberry Coulis

We just had a fun day in the sun and it seemed like the perfect way to end a great day was with ice cream. Although I do love ice cream and frozen yogurt, I try to limit the frequency of which I have them. Thankfully I had a bunch of frozen mangoes in my freezer ready to be made into sorbet!! This sorbet is so creamy and rich you wouldn’t believe it’s just mangoes!! I hope you enjoy this as much as we did 🙂 

 

Ingredients for sorbet:

• Frozen MANGOES!!! I had three small ziploc bags filled. That’s what I used. If it were all chopped up I would say maybe 2 or 3 cups? 

Ingredients for coulis:

• 1 cup fresh strawberries
• 1/8 cup coconut oil
• 1 TBS raw honey

Steps:

• make coulis first by blending all the ingredients on high until very well incorporated. Set aside.
• run mangoes through champion juicer with the blank attachment. 
• Put in bowls and enjoy!!!

This made barely enough for 4 of us. Next time I will add another ziploc bag of mangoes (or two 😉 )

I haven’t tried making this in the food processor like I do my banana ice cream, if anyone tries it, let me know how it turns out!!

Homemade Almond Milk and Pulp

I really love the taste of freshly made almond milk. Here is the most basic recipe to make your own at home. It’s cheaper than buying it in a box, and you are guaranteed freshness and premium quality of nutrients. Although it does take some thinking ahead for the soaking process. But once that is done, the whole process takes less than 10 minutes.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup raw organic almonds, soaked overnight
• 3 cups water

Steps

• blend together in a high speed blender
• over a bowl, pour mixture through a nut milk bag (a colander lined with cheese cloth will work fine)
• extract all the liquid by massaging the bag or squeezing the cloth
• you will be left with delicious almond milk in the bowl and almond pulp in the bag or cloth

This will give you about 3 cups of milk. The milk will stay good for a couple days in the fridge. You can add dates or cacao powder or anything you like to the milk to make it a delicious treat. The pulp can be dehydrated to become almond flour, or used to make some tasty raw deserts or spreads. 

Homemade Playdough

My friend is getting married this weekend. And she is doing the most awesome thing a childless woman can do for her child-full friends: she is hiring babysitters to be at the wedding so us parents, can enjoy adult conversations without being interrupted with “I have to go potty”, “i want a snack”, “I’m bored”, or many of the other reasons why we would get interrupted. I love having my kids with me, and we usually choose to bring them with us everywhere we go. And if my friend didn’t have sitters at the wedding, I would be totally happy with having them with me the whole time. That said, it will be really  nice to get breaks throughout the day where both my husband and I can enjoy a conversation together. To make sure our kids will have plenty to do, I have offered to make play dough. I am not a fan of the commercial toxic stuff (especially that I have an 11 month old putting everything in his mouth) so as for most things, making it myself is a guaranteed way to know what is going in the dough (and eventually in my sons mouth). I wish I could say I created this myself, but I am just as happy to have found an amazing recipe that I am sure you will love too. Homemade Playdough