Cocomon Balls

Coconut + lemon = cocomon

I whipped up this raw, vegan dessert yesterday while waiting for my curried split pea soup to cook (check back for that blog post soon!). When I found the recipe this was adapted from I was excited to see that it called for almond flour. For weeks I have been making almond flour, hoping that I would someday find a use for it. Every time I make almond milk in the juicer, I dehydrate the pulp, then grind it into a fine powder using the Baby Bullet. Almond flour!

Popping these in the dehydrator for an hour gave them a crunch on the outside, but left them warm and gooey in the center. Omg yum. They're phenomenal with the lemon, but next time I make them I'll use lime. Lime and coconut? Yes please!

Cocomon Balls

Makes 2 dozen

• 1 1/2 cups of almond flour (homemade or store bought)
• 2 1/2 cups of shredded coconut, unsweetened
• 1/3 cup of coconut flour
• A dash of salt
• 6 Tbsp. of agave
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• Zest and juice from one lemon

1. In a large bowl, stir the almond flour, coconut, coconut flour and salt until combined.
2. In a small bowl, mix the agave, vanilla and lemon.
3. Slowly add the agave mixture to the large bowl, mixing with a hand mixer until combined.
4. Roll the mixture into small, one inch balls.
5. Place in the balls in the dehydrator for one hour.
6. Serve immediately.

Vegan Chocolate Mousse

I was trying to make a chocolate pudding, but ended up with mousse instead. I may have whipped the coconut too much, or maybe it was due to the addition of cooled chocolate, but instead of a creamy dessert I came up with a light, fluffy one. I'm ok with that! I've already concocted a delicious vegan chocolate pudding anyways.

This mousse requires only two ingredients. Coconut milk and a vegan chocolate bar. I used Ghiradelli Intense Dark chocolate. It has a 72% cacao content, which to me is perfect! I could eat that chocolate everyday (and I do). Be careful when selecting Ghiradelli chocolate though if you're avoiding animal ingredients, most of their other bars contain milk products.

After scooping the solid part from the can.

Before you start, you have to refrigerate a 15 oz can of coconut milk overnight. I always have a can in the fridge for times like this! Don't use the light stuff, you need the fat of the coconut milk to solidify. When you open the can, the liquid will have separated and will be at the bottom of the can. Using a spatula, scoop out the solid layer into a bowl. Whip it with an electric mixer until it becomes light and airy. What you have now is coconut whipped cream that is excellent on fruit! Whip in the chocolate and voila! Chocolate mousse.

I finally found a use for the whisk attachment to my electric mixer.

I wish I could make this look prettier, but it tastes better than it looks!

Vegan Chocolate Mousse

Makes 4 servings

Melt the chocolate in a double broiler
or in the microwave. Cool it slightly,
but make sure it's still smooth.

• 1 15 oz can of coconut milk, chilled overnight in the fridge.
• 1 3.5 oz bar of vegan chocolate, melted and cooled, but still liquid.

1. Scoop the solidified coconut milk into a bowl, avoiding the liquid at the bottom of the can.
2. Whip with an electric mixer until light and airy.
3. Add the chocolate while still mixing, and mix until you've reached the desired fluffy consistency.
4. Enjoy right away, or keep in the fridge until serving (you might need to rewhip it, depending on how long it stayed in the fridge for).

Happy Easter

I hope everybunny had a hoppy Easter!

My mom used to make a bunny cake like this every Easter when we were younger. I kept the tradition alive by tripling the recipe for blue moon orange cupcakes (minus the beer this time) and baking for about 35 minutes in two 8 inch round pans, and frosted it using vegan buttercream icing. Yum!

Cheery Cherry Chocolate Ice Cream

Oh. Em. Jee.

I never knew how easy it was to make vegan ice cream! Three ingredients. That's it. Coconut milk, bananas, and fruit of your choosing. The difficult part for me was blending the frozen chunks together. My blender was struggling, and I'm surprised I didn't blow the motor. I need a food processor. My blender did the trick, but a food processor would have made things a lot easier.

This was better than any store bought ice cream I've ever had, so keep it movin Ben & Jerry's! It was smooth, creamy, and packed with flavor. I'm looking forward to summer more than ever now, so I can experiment with different flavors as different fruits come into season.

Cheery Cherry Chocolate Ice Cream

Serves 4

• 1 cup of coconut milk
• 4 bananas
• 2 cups of frozen cherries
• Handful of vegan chocolate chips

1. Pour the coconut milk in a large, shallow dish. This will make it easier to break up once it's frozen.
2. Peel the bananas and place them in the dish with the coconut milk.
3. Cover the dish and put in the freezer.
4. Once the milk and bananas have frozen solid, remove from the freezer and thaw for a couple minutes, or until you can break the bananas and milk into pieces. I did this by stabbing through them with a knife.
5. Blend the milk, bananas and cherries in a blender or food processor until smooth.
6. Throw in chocolate chips and blend for a few more seconds to break them into pieces.
7. Serve immediately.

I'm not sure how well this would freeze. I'm guessing it would solidify into a frozen, solid chunk if refrozen, so enjoy it right away. This ice cream is so good, I doubt there would be leftovers anyways!

St. Patrick's Smoothie

What can I say, I'm in the holiday spirit. I adapted this recipe from one I found somewhere online. Probably Pinterest. This smoothie tastes like mint chocolate chip ice cream, but it's much much healthier. I kept the ingredients the same, I just changed the amounts to suit my taste. After making this smoothie, I think I need to add mint to my garden!

St. Patrick's Day Smoothie

Serves 2

• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 loose handful of spinach
• 2 small bananas
• 1/4 cup mint
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 Tbsp. chopped chocolate
• 2 cups ice

1. Blend everything except the chocolate until smooth. 
2. Add the chocolate and blend for a few more seconds, or until the chocolate has been finely chopped and incorporated.

Irish Morning Juice

As delicious as they are, I'm getting a little tired of Bloody Nikkis. It's time to find a new juice. I started today by using an assortment of stuff in the fridge. Carrots were definitely getting juiced since I have way too many of them. I also have a lot of celery, since I'm trying to grow new stalks from the base of an old one. I heard you can propagate celery that way. I'll let you know how it goes.

Soak in a shallow dish of water.
This is as far as I got, since I forgot to plant it today.
I'll keep you posted on its growth.

To propagate from an existing stalk,
cut the stalks off just above the base.

Apples seemed like a good addition, and on a whim I threw the liquid part of the coconut milk I had leftover from making coconut whipped cream. this may have made the juice too sweet, so I won't be doing that again. Other than being sweet, it wasn't too bad. Leave the coconut milk out if you want to skip the sweetness.

I have a question for you juicers. When you juice an apple, do you core it first, or do you throw in the whole apple, seeds and all? I know some people include the seeds, but don't they naturally contain arsenic? That doesn't seem appetizing.

I'll be trying different juices until I find the perfect one, so juicers stay tuned!

Irish Morning Juice

Makes 2 servings

Before stirring, the green and orange reminded
me of the Irish flag, thus inspiring the name of this juice.

• 1 apple, cored
• 2 carrots
• 2 celery stalks
• A couple Tbsp coconut milk liquid

1. Juice.
2. Sip.
3. Enjoy.

Valentine's Day Brunch

I hope everyone felt the love yesterday! I definitely did. I got so many kisses from Logan, got to see one of my best friends, and had a wonderful day with Andrew. I don't care how many people call it a "hallmark holiday" or complain about it for whatever reason.. Scrooges. I like any excuse to get dressed up, go on a date, get flowers and feel extra loved. We skipped hallmark this year anyways and made our own cards, much more sustainable and less wasteful than those commercial cards that usually get tossed in the garbage. I got an idea from pinterest (where I seem to be getting all my ideas these days), and made cards out of Logan's drawings.


Megan, who I've been friends with since forever (we can never figure out how long we've known each other for), came for a vegan brunch in the morning, since she was taking Logan on a date as her valentine. I made heart shaped pumpkin pancakes by scooping batter out with a 1/4 cup measuring cup and pouring it in a "V" shape on the griddle. They came out much better than I thought! With more "pinspiration" I made a couple creative fruit platters, along with a vegan whipped cream using only two ingredients.

Coconut whipped cream

• 1 can coconut milk (not the lite stuff)
• Cinnamon, to taste

1. Refrigerate the can of coconut milk overnight. The liquid will separate, and you will be left with a semi solid chunk of coconut.
2. Remove the solid portion with a spatula and/or fork and transfer to a bowl.
3. Whip the coconut into a cream using a whisk.
4. Add cinnamon, starting with 1/2 a tsp and adjust according to your taste.

Don't throw out the liquid after removing the solid.
Add it to a smoothie or drink it straight.

While not as flavorful as whipped cream, it's still pretty good, and it's definitely healthier. I forget where I was reading this article, but a British chef was saying how Americans have lost their taste for the "subtle". It's true. It seems that unless it's packed with flavor, it's not considered tasty. I hope to break that stereotype and train my palette to appreciate everything along the flavor spectrum. 

Meditazione, meaning "meditate" in Italian.

Andrew and I took our date all the way east to Bridgehampton. Around Christmastime I heard about a new type of wine. It's actually not all that new, but it's something that's recently come back to modern day vineyards. It's not a white, nor a red nor a rose, but it's an orange wine. It's only being fermented in a few places in the world, and we're lucky enough to live about an hour away from Channing's Daughters, one of it's producers. The drive was totally worth it, I've never tasted a wine like that in my life! It tasted like a white, but with characteristics of a red, and it had a unique orange color. We sampled two different types, Envelope and Meditazione. The latter was so delicious that we bought a bottle to bring home. This is a must try for anyone who appreciates wine!

I'm so glad my forsythias were in bloom for Vday.
I took branches from a tree at my moms and placed them in
water. It took 2 weeks, but they're worth the wait!
Photo cred Meg_Shut. Find her on Instagram.