Oh how I love the flavor of coconut. It’s so…tropical. It reminds me of home any time drink or eat any coconut flavored drink or food. Where I live, canned coconut milk is about 1.50 for each can. Over time, that adds up. Recently, I ran out of diary milk when I was craving oatmeal so I was forced to improvise because 1. It was snowing outside and 2. I was just tooooo lazy to drive to the store. I’ve seen my grandmother make coconut milk already. She pretty much followed THIS method but I didn’t have a whole coconut on hand nor was I up to the task of grating. What I had though was a bag of coconut flakes lying around and with the help of Google, I was able to enjoy a nice bowl of coconut flavored oatmeal that day. I’m also experimenting with making pecan milk. Will post my results soon.

Ingredients:
2 cups unsweetened, dried medium shredded coconut
4 cups water

Method:
1. Heat water just before it gets to boiling point.
2. Add coconut flakes to hot water and stir. Let sit for 15 minutes.
3. Add water/coconut mixture to blender and blend on HIGH for 3 minutes
4. Pour through a mesh colander first to get most of the coconut out, and then squeeze through a towel or several thicknesses of cheesecloth to get remaining pieces of coconut out.
5. Drink right away or store in the fridge. Should be used within a week of making for best flavor and texture. Since there are no preservatives or fillers, the “cream” of the coconut milk may separate on the top if stored in the fridge. Just shake or stir before using.

NB: With the coconut that remained after I strained it, I simply put it on a baking tray, and in the oven on low heat to dehydrate.

Then I blended it in the blender to make coconut flour. Coconut flour would be a great addition to brownies, cakes, pancakes or anything that calls for regular flour.

Bye For Now…..