Kitchen Experiment: Homemade Coconut Milk

I was skeptical when I came across a recipe for homemade coconut milk that didn't require any fancy gizmos and used a simple bag of shredded coconut. I gave it a try and my only thought was where have I been and why didn't I make this sooner? It's ridiculously easy to make, it's easy on the wallet, and it has a delicious creamy consistency.  Ready to try it? Here's the recipe!

The Necessities:

2 cups of shredded coconut
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
2 cups of water

Optional- vanilla and/or cinnamon for flavor

I've tried it with both unsweetened and sweetened coconut, and I like it both ways. If I'm putting it in tea or a smoothie, I'll make it with the sweetened coconut because it's cheaper and it saves me a step because I normally add some sort of sweetener to them anyways.

Bring the water to a simmer and add the coconut.

Let the coconut simmer in the water for 2-3 minutes.

Let the mixture cool off and then blend it for 2-3 minutes. The "let it cool" part is key here, because otherwise you might crack your nice glass blender and make your husband upset, not that I did that or anything...

Place a tea towel, over a strainer, over a measuring cup. . . It's a good idea to keep it in that order.

Pour your mixture into the tea towel.

Let it do its thing. Unless it doesn't want to. Then you might need to work your muscles to squeeze out every last drop of goodness.

As you can see here, I got just under two cups of coconut milk.

Add 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda to the coconut milk. I know it sounds gross, but you actually can't taste it and it keeps the milk from separating. You can also add other flavorings here. If I know I'm going to use it for tea, coffee, or smoothies, I'll add a splash of vanilla or a pinch of cinnamon.

Enjoy! My favorite way to use it is to froth the warm milk with an immersion blender and add it to chai tea for a coconut chai latte- it's the perfect companion for an afternoon of editing. It's also delicious in smoothies, rice, soup, and curry.

Time to Get Growing- The Soil Blocker

It's March here in Indiana, and although the cold temperatures and snow covered ground don't conjure up the feelings of gardening in the summer sun or picking bright red tomatoes, we realized it's time to start planting- indoors of course!

We love starting our own seeds. And when I say love, I mean LOVE! We love that we can control what kind of soil blend we are growing our seeds in and that we can choose not to use any chemicals on them. We love that we can save money, I mean, what's not to love about saving money, right? It's actually a pretty steep difference. One plant at the store alone can cost around three dollars, so even if you spend three dollars on a packet of seeds, you can still get 20-30 plants for the same price as you could get one!

Not only have we grown a lot of seedlings over the last few years, we've lost many too! It's definitely not very fun to spend weeks babying seedlings only to lose them during the transplanting process. But have no fear! Last year we discovered the superhero of gardening tools- the soil blocker!

Soil blockers make transplanting plants a breeze. Gone are the days of damaging the seedlings as you try to squeeze them out of a plastic container! No longer will your delicate seedling roots have to attempt to grow through a thick peat pot. Once you make your soil blocks and plant your seeds, all you have to do is transfer the block directly to the garden- we're not kidding!

To get started you will obviously need a soil blocker. You can find these online. You will also need to make a special blend of soil, so that your blocks will hold together.

For the soil blend you will need compost, peat moss, perlite, and fertilizer. We used compost from our compost pit, but you can also purchase it in most stores that have a seasonal gardening section.

There are no "exact" measurements. The blend we use is 2 parts peat moss, 1 part compost, 1 part perlite, and a small amount of fertilizer. As you can see above, we used a planter filled to the brim to measure out our parts.

We used around 1/4 cup of organic fertilizer.

 

Mix it all together! (Definitely the best part!)

Moisten with water until you get a pasty consistency.

Press your soil blocker into the soil mixture and wiggle it around so the soil is tightly compacted.

Release the soil blocker on a firm surface.

Viola! The perfect container to grow your seeds in!

Cover the blocks with plastic until they sprout and then place them under grow lights until you can transplant them outdoors!