I know you've heard me say it before but it bears repeating ... I am a huge coconut fan. Coconut ice cream, coconut pie, coconut cookies - I love them all. The only thing that I could really never get used to was coconut milk and coconut water. All of the coconut drinks that I've tasted have a strange consistency and texture that I just cant seem to get used to. What I didn't realize was that I could add sugar to my coconut milk and freeze it to make an incredibly refreshing treat. It no longer has the weird texture of a beverage, now it's a snack. A sink your teeth into, wonderfully coco-nutty snack. These are as easy to make as it sounds. Sugar, coconut milk and coconut. I like to dress mine up a little and turn them into a truly decadent dessert by dipping them in chocolate too. Chocolate Dipped Coconut Pops 3 1/2 cups coconut milk 1/2 cup toasted coconut, plus more for sprinkling 3/4 cup sugar 1 cup chocolate chips Whisk milk, coconut and sugar together. Pour into molds. If you want to add chocolate, melt chocolate chips in a bowl. Dip frozen pops into chocolate and sprinkle with coconut. I can't believe that I discovered these AFTER the summer was over. (Maybe that was really a blessing in disguise.) I love these and if you're a coconut fan, I'm pretty sure you will too.
Ciao!
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I may not have a huge pantry but I do keep a lot of food stocked in my refrigerators and freezers. (Yes, you read that correctly, it's plural.) To make up for my small pantry, I have extra cooling space in my house. I have a refrigerator/freezer in the kitchen and and additional refrigerator/freezer combination and a stand alone freezer in the basement. Just to clarify so that you don't think I some sort of weird freezer collector, I use one freezer exclusively for baked goods for my personal chef business and one refrigerator get used almost exclusively for tiered cakes. (If you've ever tried to squeeze a tiered cake into a refrigerator, you know how important it is to have a frig that you can fit them into.) All of that cold storage space actually pays off more than you would think. I have a really well stocked frig and freezer most of the time. Most of you know that I'm a compulsive meal planner but there are times when I like to just use what I have stocked in my frig to put a dinner together. All of the ingredients (except for the bacon) for this Monterey Chicken came from things that I hand on hand. The original recipe came from my Cook's Country magazine and I made a few changes to the recipe slightly to make it a little more - family friendly. This dish is easy to make but the result is a delicious, elegant looking, guest worthy meal. Monterey Chicken 1/2 cup Dijon mustard 1/4 cup honey salt and pepper 4 boneless, skinless thinly sliced chicken breasts 4 slices bacon 6 ounces monterey jack cheese 1 1/2 inch thick slices red onion pico de gallo
Brush each onion with reserved bacon fat and put on the grill alongside chicken.
Top with pico de gallo and serve. I would totally make this chicken for company. It's easy to make and it's REALLY good. I'm not at all offended that Ryan and Courtney both scraped everything off of the top of their chicken as soon as it hit their dinner plates. I was not even upset at that fact that Courtney dipped her naked chicken in ranch dressing - a travesty in my world. Nope, nothing could keep me from enjoying my delicious meal of Monterey chicken, brocollini and whole wheat pecan baguette. I completely enjoyed my meal.
Ciao! Ever have one of those meals that was just doomed from the start? This was one of those meals. Sunday lunches are particularly hard for me in general. We all come home from church starving and I just can't seem to get lunch on the table fast enough. I've tried all sorts of things to hurry the process along like setting the table before we leave for church and assigning everyone a job to help with lunch when we get home. Those things do help but they haven't completely solved the problem. A few weeks ago, I thought I had it figured out. My plan was to wake up at the crack of dawn turn on the on the crock pot so lunch would be perfectly cooked and ready to eat when we walked in the door after church. I found an amazing recipe for pork carnitas on pinterest. I was ready. I had my recipe and my ingredients ready to prep my pork in the crock pot container so that I would have to do was pull it out of the frig, drop it into the crock pot and turn it on. Unfortunately, as I gathered my ingredients, I realized that I was missing one crucial component to Pork Carnitas - Salsa. How could I make carnitas without salsa? I was really looking forward to trying that recipe but I decided it would be better to choose another recipe rather than try to make it without salsa or try and substitute something else. Balsamic pork tenderloin recipe to the rescue. I had all the ingredients on hand so I got my pork all prepped put it in the crock pot, tucked it away in the frig and I went to bed. As if by fate, I woke up in the middle of the night (around 2ish) so I got up out of bed and in my sleepy stupor I took the crock pot bowl out of the frig, plopped it into the pot and turned it to low. I crawled back in bed and I was overwhelmed with the sensation of gratification - knowing that our lunch was already well underway. I drifted back to sleep feeling very proud of myself. I woke up early Sunday morning but I lingered in bed longer than usual because I knew that I didn't have to get up and make lunch preparations before church. I took deep breaths to try and catch a whiff of the sweet smell of roasted pork lofting from the kitchen to the bedroom. Surely my nose must not have been awake because I didn't smell ANY pork cooking. I got myself out of bed and went into the kitchen to find my crock pot sitting on the kitchen counter - UNPLUGGED! Ugggggg! I went from feeling like super-mom to epic failure in a matter of seconds. Now I had NO lunch for after church and no time to make a change. Crock Pot Pulled Balsamic Pork 2 pork tenderloins (about 3lbs total) 2 tsp ground sage 1 tsp salt 3 cloves garlic, pressed 1/2 tsp ground black pepper 1 cup water, divided 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 Tbsp corn starch 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar 2 Tbsp soy sauce
Remove pork from crock pot and let cool slightly. Shred with forks. I served my pork with tortillas and barbeque sauce. It didn't really measure up to the Pulled pork that I cook on my Big Green Egg but it was easier. It really would have been even better if I had remembered to plug in the crock pot so we could have had it for lunch instead of dinner. Everything tastes better when your starving.
Ciao! |
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