Our favorite local farmers have brought in coconuts! They are SO delicious and nutritious, we enjoy the next hour! We try to keep life fun and tasty as we heal. [This is our story why!] And coconut just amazes me.
The Best Way to Render a Coconut
You can make so many kitchen basics from one nut! Thought it would be fun to show you how we can render 5 basic kitchen ingredients today- using only 1 coconut.
The pictures are lacking, but I wanted to show you…You start with the hairy, brown mature coconut. Yes, this is the official name for us, and I suspect most of us speak this official language. {smile}
There are so many nutritional facts on coconut, it is worth incorporating into your diet. We use it as a sunscreen and a healthy fat! We read this book in nutrition school, which explains the value of good fat [I’m a nerd!]. But for a quick resource, Here is an article (not a fan of their ads) that sums up many of the benefits.
For us, right now, we have 2 children on a true Paleo (no peanuts!), GAPS inspired (broth daily), and Weston A. Price instructed diet. We are on a mission to heal and can’t have phytates. Read here.
This brown little hard nut is so cute because it seems to smile. There are 3 holes on this coconut and you have to push each impression until you find the soft one that you can pierce. We use something like this tool and it works great.
Finally! The 3rd one I try is the one! {really bad odds, I’ll never gamble}
1. And here it is! Varies from 1- 1 1/2 Cups of Coconut Water.
Just stick in the straw and drink some nutritious coconut water. This is God-made Gatorade without all the harmful dyes & additives man keeps adding {sigh}.
Now to the meat! The best way to crack a coconut is on concrete. Seriously! Before I met my friend Evi from Mexico, I would hammer and hammer and hammer. One day she just looked at me funny, walked outside, and hit the coconut on the garage concrete a few times and it was broken into about 6 pieces! Super cool!
You can break into smaller pieces if you like with the back of a butter knife or spoon. This makes the harvesting of meat a little easier. Next, you simply press a butter knife between the meat and shell. Gently wiggle the knife and the pieces will begin to fall off. My sons do this very well starting at 8 years old.
2. The meat is coming off in pretty big sizes.
All five members of the family get a good piece to munch on. It’s delicious. Yet we still have enough to keep making more foods.
You can remove the brown back, but it really doesn’t have a flavor, so we just put most of the pieces {those remaining!} into my favorite blender.
Now we cover the pieces with warm clean water and blend until pulverized!
Look how thick and how much with only 1 coconut!
Next you will use a strainer (like this) and place over a bowl.
Pour the pulp carefully in the strainer and spoon press back and forth to allow liquid to pass through the strainer.
3. Now we also have 2 Cups of Coconut Milk!
Once complete, the remaining pulp can be used as flour or manna. We take 1/2 cup of pulp out for manna and pour the remaining 1 1/2 cups of pulp onto a cookie sheet.
This beautiful white, delicious milk is something to write home about. In the photo you can see that the water and milk separate quickly. Just shake before drinking this creamy coconut milk.
4. Here is how to make Coconut Manna (similar to peanut butter, but..coconut)
5. …Now to make Coconut flour
Spread out the pulp onto a cookie sheet and warm at 170°F for a few hours. Remove and put away in a container for later or make gluten-free lavender brownies.
Isn’t this AMAZING! SIMPLE! Have fun! and..
Remember from my family to yours, please keep Fostering Nutrition…because everyone deserves to Be Healthy and Belong. 
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