A Trip to My Favourite Place on Earth...

...THE HEALTH FOOD STORE. Yeah, I know. Probably not what you were expecting, but hey, we all have our weird obsessions. :). I'm seriously like a kid in a candy store there! I get excited on my way there, I look at EVERYTHING and I usually drop and wad of cash. Today's trip was no different. Scored some awesome, awesome deals and it made me think of posting a couple fantastic, easy, coconut based recipes for all of you "I can't tolerate" or "I choose not to eat dairy" people out there (I fall into both categories for the most part). I thought I'd also throw a review of a coconut coffee creamer in here too.

 So Delicious Coconut Creamer

I LOVE coconut. I love young Thai coconut, I love shredded coconut, I love coconut milk, coconut water, coconut based sauces, the works! And I recently discovered THE best cream replacement, So Delicious Coconut Coffee Creamer. So good, SO creamy. I've tried every product on the market and was getting close to just trying to like my coffee black. I just can't do it. Thank goodness for So Delicous! It's soy free, dairy free and pretty much junk free. I personally prefer the unflavoured one, mostly because I don't care for sweet coffee. What I DO love, are the other flavours toned down by mixing them with the unflavoured version (because I do love the other flavours I just personally find them far to sweet for my taste). Sooo, on to the flavours: French Vanilla. YUM. One word describes this baby. YUM. Creamy vanilla yummy-ness. Now, onto the Hazelnut. You can definitely taste the hazelnut goodness. Creamy, delicious hazelnut. Yep, another YUM. So there's no risk in any of them. They are simply awesome and are the one and only cream replacement that can hold it's own, and well. Be warned though, they are sweet, very sweet. So now on to the coconut based recipes :)...

Dairy Free Vegan Coconut Whipped Cream

Buy a high quality full fat can of coconut milk (Organic Thai Kitchen is my personal favourite. This WILL NOT work with low fat coconut milk). Open the can and pour/scrape the contents out into a bowl and let sit overnight in the fridge. The liquid will end up separating out from the solid, and full fat cream portion will get super thick. You'll want to pour off  the liquid portion and save it for something else. Sometimes (rarely) you'll get a bum can. If you open your can and the whole thing is liquidy with no solid portion, just cook with it, it won't thicken or separate so you won't be able to make 'whipped cream'.

In a bowl, combine the coconut cream portion with 1-2 tsp pure vanilla extract (and coconut sugar or sugar of your choice to taste - if you like sweet whipped cream) and whip very well. Voila! Delicious vegan whipped cream. You can top pancakes, waffles, fruit, pie, whatever you like.

Coconut Butter

This is a delicious spread that you can use on toast, pancakes, eat right out of the jar with a spoon, add cocoa and a bit of liquid sweetener (honey etc) and make a yummy chocolate coconut butter, top muffins or cupcakes, whatever you like. It's super versatile, really easy to make and will save you a TON of money (the coconut butter that you buy at the store will require a small loan....).

Take a cup or two of shredded UNSWEETENED coconut (preferably organic) and put it in your food processor or Vitamix. Turn it on and let it run until it forms a creamy, buttery paste. In the food processor it takes about 10 minutes, in the Vitamix, it takes about 2 minutes. It does not need to be refrigerated and has a low melting point so it's easy to spread if kept at room temperature. It's a great alternative to using oils in baking too, just melt it first like you would if you were using coconut oil. Oh, and this is NOT coconut oil, it's coconut butter, the coconut meat blended into a yummy, creamy butter.  Enjoy!