Category Archives: coconut butter

My decision – with a twist!

Friday! I am happy, are you? I was ready for the gym after having a protein drink.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell Squat 3 sets of 12 at 55# Lower Body
Wide Grip Lat Pull Down 3 sets of 15 at 45# Back
Lying Chest Fly 3 sets of 15 with 10# DBs Chest
Reverse Crunch 3 sets of 15 Core
Standing single-leg calf raise 3 sets of 10 each leg with 35# bar Calves and balance
Bent lateral raise 3 sets of 12 with 12# DBs (24# total) Shoulders
Good Mornings 3 sets of 12 at 55# Low back and hammies
Alternating side lunges 3 sets of 10 (each leg) with 15# DBs (30# total) Lower body

You know, my abs were still sore from the incline situps I did on Wednesday!  That is an awesome move.  Or I need to work my core harder.  Not sure which.

Zipped home for breakfast. Last year I was riding to the gym in the morning because it was just warm enough. Not this year! Still in the teens overnight. Booo…

Breakfast was so yummy.  I had some Wheatena that I added some egg whites to.  Topped with a banana sauteed in a tsp of butter and cinnamon and some of that yummy coconut butter.  With a side of cafe au lait.

This was tres delicious!

For those curious, this bowl has 385 calories in it.

I then got to work – at home!  I am returning home to work.  But not for the new company.  I thought I had 2 options:  Work for new company at home or work with old employee at the office.   Since I was in the office, I spoke quite a bit with the owner this week.

A little background here:  There are 250 transcriptionists employed by my company, so it is not a huge company in terms of the MT world, but big enough so the owner usually doesn’t talk to the individual MTs (we go through managers).  No MTs work in the office, all are at home.  The owner is incredibly nice and she wanted to make sure I was happy working in the office before making me an official employee rather than a contractor.  She put me on more accounts so I had work, which was the only reason I was leaving the company (other than more pay being offered to me) As you know, I was very conflicted about this and talked to her.

Well, lo and behold, she offered that I could go back home, but with a big raise so that I wouldn’t leave her company.  Of course I leapt at that opportunity!  I am going to be making more money than the new job would have offered, plus I can keep my schedule flexibility instead of working from 2 to 10 with a weekend day like I would have.  Funny – all I had to do was go to the top to get this figured out.  It never hurts to ask.  I am over the moon now and this company has my complete loyalty for a long time to come (at least until I start my donut/bagel shop haha!). :mrgreen:

Working at home meant no lunch packing and no eating out of containers today.  I brought tuna back for another go ’round this week. 🙄 I did lemon pepper.

On side side is my new favorite evening snack (yes, I realize it is lunchtime).  I mix canned pumpkin with cinnamon and topped with toasted pecans and tablespoon of cream.

This tastes so good!  My tongue is very used to nonsweetened stuff now and I can taste the natural sweetness of the pumpkin.  Libby’s brand must have some special pumpkin they grow because it tastes different than other brands. (I can’t believe I am a canned pumpkin connoisseur, but there you go).

Afternoon break and I had something I haven’t had for 3 days!

See the happy lady?  I keep waiting for something weird to happen and I will be unemployed come Monday.  That’s because we tend to have some unfortunate luck.

Dinner time!  I had some BBQ chicken with sauteed brussel sprouts.

Those strawberries are standing at attention!  They were so good.  I need more…

To celebrate the homecoming, John and I are out for coffee (decaf)!

We might even go over to the mall before it closes.  Gotta live it up!

Oh, and we passed our permit inspections, so work will progress on the half bath this weekend!

Question: What is your favorite way to eat pumpkin?

Signs of spring!

Gym day today! I am still debating on going back to 3 days a week with Operation Endurance, as I don’t get as fatigued since dropping the weights. Maybe next week 😀
It wasn’t really that dark as I left for the gym. I probably won’t even notice any darkness next week. Spring is on the way! Maybe we will see some ground by next week, too.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Lying Leg press 3 sets of 12 at 75# Lower Body
Dumbbell Pull Over 3 sets of 12 with 20# DB Back
Incline Barbell Chest Press 3 sets of 12 at 45# Chest
Reverse Crunches 3 sets of 15 Core
Good Mornings 3 sets of 12 at 50# Low back and hammies
Standing 1-leg Calf Raise 3 sets of 10 with 35# bar Calves
YTWL 3 sets of 4 (each letter) with 8# DBs (16# total) Shoulders
Pliet Squat 3 sets of 12 with 30# DB Lower body

This workout took me 40 minutes. I rest about 1 minute between sets, although a couple of these I supersetted (the YTWL and calf raise), which reduces time.

Then it was time for food!

Peanut flour waffles topped with a sauteed banana and coconut butter.
BTW – I found some coconut butter/cream online at Amazon
(Linkie)

This is the box.

This is the ingredient.

If you buy creamed coconut, make sure it is just coconut and not with anything else in there (unless you want that).  I did have to heat this up a bit and remix as the oil separated to the top and the solids to the bottom, but it tastes pretty much like the stuff I made.  Score!  The coconut butter has some natural sweetness from coconut meat and very coconuty tasting (duh).  You can always mix in some sweetener if you want it sweeter.  I have it in a jar and just microwave for a minute and then spoon it out.

Lots of work this morning.  I have to put in my notice for this job.  I wish it could have been full time for me, because I do like the company and the flexibility.  I start my new job at the end of this month.  I was hired a couple weeks ago, but it takes time to get the paperwork done and to set me up for the training on their platform.

Lunch time came by pretty fast.  It was big salad time.  You can tell the weather is getting nicer because I am eating more salads!

This one has cooked chicken breast, feta cheese, and some parmesan peppercorn dressing.

Afternoon snack:

This is half of a chocolate coconut tart (with a bite missing 😳 ).  These taste super rich and delicious!  Not too sweet, but very rich.  Almost like a ganache filled macaroon.

That kept my tummy satisfied until dinner time! 4 oz of cubed steak done medium rare.  I love my beef medium rare.  I think it is the best flavor and tenderness cooked that way.

I topped those blueberries with a dollop of whipped cream.  John whipped some up to put on his berries, and it looked so good I did it to mine!  Good thing he doesn’t jump off a bridge, right?

It was so nice after dinner that we took a stroll.  Look – the ground is starting to show!

My walking companion:

Another sure sign of spring?  This ice cream shop is about 1/3 of a mile from our house.  Opening April 1!

I love John at the bottom pointing up excitedly :mrgreen: Now I know spring is on the way!

No ice cream tonight, but I will be having a pumpkin snack.

Question:  If you eat beef, how do you like it cooked?

Homemade coconut butter

If you have ever shopped Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s, you have probably seen Coconut Butter.  Of course, those of us in dinky towns that do not have a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s can either order online or do without.  Well,  I decided I didn’t want to do without anymore, and I was so not ready to fork out $13 for a jar plus shipping.  I had seen a lot of blogs where people made their own, so I thought I would give it a whirl.  And so the adventure began.

Ingredients:

Easy enough.  Note – *do not*, repeat *do not*, use sweetened coconut flakes.  They will never make butter as they are too soft and moist.  We have a small store that sells unsweetened coconut, and it is actually quite inexpensive.  Or, I order it from Atlantic Spice (sister company  on the west coast is SF Herb Co) when I am ordering my hugejass bags of cinnamon 😀

I measured out 8 oz of coconut and put it into my mini processor.  This was mistake #1, as it was too much for my tiny processor.

It was happily whirring away, and I knew it would likely take 15-20 minutes, so I waited.  It became fine and almost looked like it was going to ‘butter up,’ but then it kept getting stuck.  I did not want to overload the processor, so I thought the blender would work.

Transfer to blender = losing about 1.5 ounces on the counter and floor.  Sigh.

I turned on the blender and it started to blend, then got stuck and unstuck.  Then I smelled burned rubber.  😯   Okay, time to evacuate!

I took it back over to the processor and decided to batch it.  And voila!  That started to work.  It was getting creamy, and I kept adding more in.  You will need to stop and push the coconut down periodically.

Once I was done with the whole shebang, 30 minutes had elapsed.

The result?

Nice! It is not a totally smooth texture, but the coconut flavor is ah-mazing.  It almost tasted sweet, too!

What to do with this stuff?

Or, you could put it on oatmeal or on toast or even on something like chicken or fish!

Note this will become solid at room temperature (depending on how cold your house is).  Just heat it up for about a minute in the microwave or scrape out what you want and let it melt.  The fat from coconut oil is a medium chain fatty acid and actually quite good for you, unlike what the CSPI says.

My tips for making this would be:

1. Don’t use the coconut straight from the fridge.  Let it come to room temperature so it won’t take so long.

2.  Start the blending in small batches.  This was tougher than even almond butter, for some reason.

3.  Most important – Be patient.  It can take up to 1/2 hour to do this.

Homemade Cacao Bliss:

Following my own tips above, I made another batch.

This time with cocoa powder and honey.

Ingredients:

  • 8 oz of unsweetened dried coconut
  • 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
  • 1 tablespoon of honey
  • 2 tablespoons coconut oil

This batch I was smart and processed a couple ounces at a time.  This does take a while.  I would say about 30 minutes of processing, stopping and pushing the coconut down periodically, so plan ahead if you want to make this.  Maybe it would be different in a super duper processor and not my little mini.  Someone needs to let me know 😀

After the coconut has ‘buttered’ – add in the cocoa powder:

Put the lid on and process.  You could just leave it at this point if you want.  I drizzled in a tbsp of honey:

This seized it up a little bit, so I added about 2 tablespoons of coconut oil to help smooth it out.  Not sure why the honey did that, but I find that happens with nut butter as well.

Kind of like a melted Mounds Bar.  Yes  it is.  Approved by John!  I think you can be safe to use the nutritionals for Artisana coconut butter for this, which is 92 calories per tablespoon.

Enjoy!