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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
What a great way to end the weekend! I am glad to say that it has been nice not having to travel the last 2 weeks so that I could have a chance to catch up on activities and chores around my home. After a weekend of running errands, cleaning home and going to a Jazz Festival.
Yesterday we had a great time in Old Town’s Jazz Festival which was located just outside a friend’s home. Look at the crowds:
We had a chance to hear guitar virtuoso Stanley Jordan who has a gold-selling Grammy® nominated album Magic Touch. HE alternated playing guitar with one hand and playing the piano with another hand. It was really incredible! Enjoy an excerpt that I recorded:
After church today, I felt like I wanted to take a drive and walk somewhere different. I took a long hour drive to Novi and walked around Twelve Oaks Mall. I had people telling me about this town for a while that I decided to take a look for myself. It certainly does NOT compare to any of the malls in Lansing. It was a huge mall and I obviously was not prepared wearing my sandals. I walked for 2 hours, perusing shops and people watching. It is incredible how much diverse the area is compared to where we live.
I took advantage of stopping at a few stores that I have not been to in a long while like TEAVANA! This place is definitely bad news. I cannot help but smell all the variety of teas. Some know me as a tea addict and collector as well as a coffee bean collector as well. I knew I had a budget so I made several careful choices and was able to talk to a friendly salesperson named Carmen. She was really nice and we got to talking about her kids and how they were so different in their eating habits and in health. She even mentioned here desire for eating better but not knowing how to go about it. We talked about veganism and how to incorporate more whole foods and I was even able to tellher about my website. It was really a nice time. Look at all my goodies!
Tomorrow I will share the other goodies I found because I need o share with you a GREAT recipe I have been sharing with some people. Ryan and I were talking about Almond Joy bars with someone and Ryan exclaimed how that happened to be one of his favorite candies, so then I happened to tell him how wonderful it would be to make a vegan version of this candy.
My mind became fixated on coming up with a recipe. Since I had a bottle of Tropical Traditions Coconut Concentrate, I decided to try my hand at creating a healthier and vegan version.
Tropical Traditions gave me an opportunity to review this product and so I began creating a recipe. Coconut Cream Concentrate “is certified organic whole coconut meat in concentrated form. It contains no additives* (not even water). The dried coconut meat is ground into a very fine powder, giving it a creamy consistency. It is 100% natural coconut made from certified organic Philippine coconuts grown without pesticides or fertilizers.” How great is this? You have seen on previous posts about my eating coconut meat fresh from a young coconut but this is the meat ground already. I used this for my coconut filled and for the chocolate sauce. If you decide to order from Tropical Traditions please use my Reference Number: 5723635
Another product I also used was Vanilla Bean Paste from Singing Dog. I have only used extract before but this paste allowed me to get a Tablespoon equivalent to a whole vanilla bean. It already has sugar added and it was quite delicious. I added this to my chocolate sauce.
The recipe I created uses all products in its natural form therefore, if you think it has a high fat content, it is all natural and in moderation a healthy saturated fat. The original recipe consists of sweetened condensed milk and sugar but I replaced it with coconut concentrate and agave nectar. It makes for a great snack or even a dessert for those that have a sweet tooth, ;). Ryan snagged another one today while I was out! Naughty boy! Enjoy the recipe for all its purest forms.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Chocolate-Almond Coconut Bites
makes 8 bites
Coconut filling
16 almonds
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
2 Tablespoons Tropical Traditions Coconut Concentrate
3 Tablespoons agave nectar
2 Tablespoons SO Delicious Coconut Milk
Mix all the ingredients except for the almonds until it becomes moist. Form into 8 rectangular bites, about 1 Tablespoon of mixture. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place 8 coconut bites on the paper. Refrigerate overnight or for an 1 hour.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Chocolate sauce
makes 1 1/2 cups sauce
1/4 + 1/8 cup Green & Black Cocoa
3/4 cup Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil
4 Tablespoons Tropical Traditions Coconut Concentrate
5 Tablespoons agave nectar
2 teaspoons Singing Dog’s Vanilla Bean Paste
Place all ingredients in a blender and mix well. The sauce is ready for use. This sauce can be used for dipping, for chocolate-covered almonds, over ice cream, etc. If refrigerated, melt over warm water bath.
Assembly
Place 2 almonds on top of each bite. Place one bite on a form and dip in the chocolate sauce. Make sure that the excess chocolate drips well and place back on the baking sheet. Repeat with the other bites. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Repeat the dipping process twice, refrigerating 30 minutes in between each dipping session. Once it has been refrigerated for the last 30 minutes, they are ready to eat!
Total time: 2 1/2 hours setting time
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Eating time: 5-10 seconds SO GOOD!
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Chocolate-Almond Coconut Bites
