Coconut Whipped Cream....and "Balance"

First, the good stuff....Then if you want to read my random thoughts you can :)

I love custards and creams. I'm sure I have mentioned that before. I have been playing around with whipped cream made from coconut butter, but I thought about not everyone having coconut butter just lying around. Then I remembered an icing recipe I found a while back that made icing with the coconut milk and I had a marvelous idea! This recipe is quick and easy to make, but you do have to chill the can of coconut milk for at least a couple hours before you can make it. Bananas seem to be my sweetener of choice these days, but feel free to add some coconut sugar or honey to sweeten it up for yourself!

Coconut Whipped Cream (dairy-free)

Ingredients

- ½ cup full fat (not light) coconut milk, the creamy part that hardens above the watery part when chilled for at least 2 hours)

- ½ banana

- ¼ tsp vanilla

- ¼ tsp almond extract (optional, but oh so yummy!)

Method

- Place the unopened can of coconut milk (I use Thai Kitchen Organic) in the refrigerator, preferably overnight.

- After a few hours the water and the fat separate in the milk and the fat/ creamy part rises to the top. Scrape off half a cup of that (or more if you are doubling).

- Mix with the banana, vanilla, and almond extract with a hand mixer (or with a whisk and a really strong arm :)

- I piped mine in the picture with a leaf tip (I couldn’t find my star tip for some reason) so you could see how it stands up like real cream. Piping is not necessary, I usually just throw on a dollop.

- It is best if you use immediately, but if you are making it ahead, know that it will brown some (because of the banana) to a milky-coffee color. You may try adding a couple drops of lemon juice or citric acid to it, but I’m not sure how that will affect the flavors.

Balance
Now, on to my random thoughts! I have been thinking a lot about the meaning behind "middle of the road". I know that right now this blog does not seem quite so "middle". When I set out to blog, I wanted to make sure I was balanced. Besides being dairy-free, I hope to put out a well-rounded volume of recipes. (Maybe I should change my tagline to "a middle of the road food blog, except when it comes to dairy":) I actually have nothing against raw local dairy products- even though I cannot have them! However, lately- because of my tastes/ needs I have been making and, therefore, posting recipes that have no added sweetener, sugar, grains, gluten, or even any meat for that matter. I do recognize this- trust me! I know some may be thinking "if this blog is Middle-of-the-road, then I don't even know where the road is!". I know that if you are even reading past the first couple of lines of this blog, you are most definitely on the "road"! My main focus is to help others make steps towards being healthier in some way. I know for my family, it has come in stages. And that is how it should be. I overheard a vegan at a local restaurant explaining to another couple how he "became" vegan over time. He started out with eating turkey sausage/ meat products instead of pork or cow. For him, becoming a vegan didn't start by dropping meat all at once and drastically changing his lifestyle.

The point is not how to become vegan (I am not, nor do I plan to be). Rather, the point is that we have a society and culture that is rapidly becoming more and more unhealthy. You can see this by the rise in teenagers with high blood pressure, the obesity rate being higher than ever, or even by the fact that it costs $0.49 for generic mac-and-cheese, but $4.90 for whole wheat pasta and 4 oz. of local raw cheddar cheese! Let's face it: in America, it's easier to be unhealthy than it is to be healthy. And since all these things are a reality for us, we have to choose to be healthy. Health is a journey, but it's also a choice. We must be proactive for ourselves and, yet balanced at the same time so that we don't become overburdened and give up! The purpose behind this blog is to simply be a tool that can be used when you are wanting to make things a little bit healthier for your family. The journey at times can seem like a burden, and that's why Pumpkin's Pantry was created- to help along the way :)

Some things to look forward to in the near future:
Sprouted wheat posts- whole wheat recipes, health benefits and where to buy
Our Spunky Holiday post- hint I used my dairy free whipped cream on a yummy pie :)