Coconuts & Almonds

Sunday evening already! The weekend always seems to fly by... then again, I can't believe it's already halfway through June - wasn't it just January?! Yesterday, I dove into a lovely mug of coffee (Starbuck's Cafe Verona), made in my french press... I love that thing! (and when Rich & I moved in together, I gave my coffee maker to goodwill since his had been used, um, never and was *clean* - but his uses those conical filters and I've made a mess every time I've tried to use it). I have my eye on the Cuisinart coffee-on-demand carafe-less (one less dish to wash! the funny thing about me & dishes is I don't *mind* doing them but I am notoriously horrible at them. Rich blames my eyesight. When my friend Will is in town and cooking in my kitchen, he pre-washes every pot and pan he uses. I caught him once and *he* looked guilty. I've never been so embarrassed. I love a clean house. I, unfortunately, am not born to clean. I try, but it is not my forte. I redeem myself by cooking :)). Anyway, I made coffee, then steamed milk (unsweetened chocolate Almond Breeze) and pumped and foamed it in the milk pumper-frother (manual-style... maybe I need an espresso machine with a milk frother too! Why is frother not a word? My mac keeps underlining it red...). Here is the cup of glory:


So tasty! It almost gave me enough energy to clean the house. But I'm still using the gimpy knee excuse :) haha



After we got home from the soccer game (x2!!!) last night and my knee was throbbing, I conquered my first coconut:


it was beautiful. And I finally got to use my Global cleaver! (awesome wedding gift) Shoutout to the Fitnessista who man-handled many at 105* as a cheffer! and the fresh coconut juice was insanely tasty. It didn't have much meat, so I threw it in the Vita with my fresh batch of dark chocolate avocado mousse (it didn't want it's picture taken). I threw it in the freezer so it got cold and frosty, then topped it with fresh strawberries. No words. totally delicious. There's been a lot of talk in the blogosphere lately about local food ... the strawberries were from California, but for a giant 16oz container at 99cents... and they were soooo good, and I bought them at my local farmer's market - I may be headed back to stock the freezer :) I generally prefer local food, but strawberry season here is over for the year, and I love my berries!



I finally made it to Tar-jay today and scored some more coconut & almond:

even though I like the idea of "natural," I have to agree with Averie that sometimes the natural products just don't work as well. I bought the Almond Milk body wash on her recommendation and it smells sooo heavenly! One natural product that I do like is the Tom's of Maine deodorant. I had tried the unscented and found it did not work for me, but then I tried the apricot:

and it's way better :) Anyone have any recommendations on natural (or not) products that they love?



Whole Foods yielded even more coconut & almond:

new-to-me Coconut Milk creamer (since I'm drinking coffee again). I like my iced coffee black, and sometimes hot coffee black, but I thought I'd give this stuff a try. And even though fresh almond milk is (in my opinion) tastier and fairly easy to make, sometimes it's just easier out of a carton. And it was on sale :)



Eats today: Massaged kale salad:

Spiralized zucchini noodles, red & yellow peppers, carrots, shredded romaine, mint, cilantro, & basil - all topped with a Thai style spicy almond butter sauce:


Almond Butter Thai Sauce Recipe:

1/2 cup raw almond butter

2 Tbsp maple syrup

1 Tbsp agave nectar

1 1/2 Tbsp coconut aminos (can substitute namu shoyu or soy sauce or tamari)

3 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

juice of half an orange (about 1/4 cup)

1 tsp red chili flakes, or to taste

1" chunk fresh ginger

1/2 stalk fresh lemongrass

1/4 cup water (add more or less, depending on desired thickness)


Put all ingredients in Vitamix and blend until smooth. This would also be fabulous with toasted sesame oil in it (which I had intended on using, but we were out).

The veggies all tossed together with the sauce:

Spicy and sweet and savory... love it!


I'm off to finish the laundry (which seems to be producing like bunnies!) and do some stretching . Have a fabulous evening and Monday morning! I'd love to hear about your weekend :)