coconut Archives | Wholefully https://wholefully.com/tag/coconut/ Fresh Family Meals - Made for Everyday Life Tue, 30 Apr 2024 15:51:38 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wholefully.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/favicon-150x150.png coconut Archives | Wholefully https://wholefully.com/tag/coconut/ 32 32 Easy Coconut Pineapple Smoothie Recipe https://wholefully.com/coconut-pineapple-smoothie-recipe/ https://wholefully.com/coconut-pineapple-smoothie-recipe/#comments Tue, 30 Apr 2024 15:51:34 +0000 https://wholefully.com/?p=54621 This coconut pineapple smoothie is super sweet, creamy, and so easy to make at home. This smoothie tastes like sipping on a piña colada for breakfast! It’s not every day that you get to go on a luxurious beach vacation, but it is possible to interject a little bit of tropical flair to your everyday life with this coconut pineapple smoothie! Packed with frozen pineapple, banana, and coconut milk, this dairy-free smoothie tastes like a creamy, dreamy piña colada that is nourishing enough to have for breakfast. This smoothie is a wonderful addition to a nourishing diet, especially because of the nutritional powerhouse that is pineapple! Pineapple is loaded with nutrients plus it’s got lots of enzymes that can help aid digestion. And most importantly? Pineapple is delicious! And in this smoothie it adds a sweet, tropical flavor that can’t be beat. Finished smoothie in a glass with a glass straw and fresh fruit.

What do I need for your coconut pineapple smoothie recipe?

You only need three, maybe four, ingredients, and you may already have them all! You’ll need:
  • Frozen bananas. Bananas add a creamy sweetness to this smoothie, and because they are frozen, they also chill and thicken the drink.
  • Pineapple. You can’t have a pineapple smoothie without pineapple! Canned or fresh pineapple will both work.
  • Coconut milk. The stuff from the can is what you want here—you can often find it with the international foods or baking ingredients.
  • Honey or maple syrup. If your fruit is really sweet, you may be able to skip this one.
Read the post »]]> https://wholefully.com/coconut-pineapple-smoothie-recipe/feed/ 4 No-Bake Mint Chocolate Bars https://wholefully.com/mint-chocolate-chip-nanaimo-bars/ https://wholefully.com/mint-chocolate-chip-nanaimo-bars/#comments Tue, 28 Nov 2023 07:08:00 +0000 http://backtoherroots.com/?p=10326 These no-bake mint chocolate bars are a delightful holiday treat inspired by a classic Canadian dessert. These rich bars are perfect for satisfying a holiday sweet tooth.
Close view of homemade mint chocolate bars stacked on a plate, three distinct layers in each bar.
Prepare to delight your taste buds with a twist on the classic Canadian Nanaimo bars – the irresistible, no-bake mint chocolate bars! Inspired by the beloved Nanaimo bars, these treats take the rich and creamy layers of the original but infuse them with a delightful minty freshness. If you're a fan of mint and chocolate, you're in for a real treat. Read the post »]]> https://wholefully.com/mint-chocolate-chip-nanaimo-bars/feed/ 25 How to Make Sweet Potato Pie https://wholefully.com/coconut-sweet-potato-pie/ https://wholefully.com/coconut-sweet-potato-pie/#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2022 18:00:07 +0000 http://backtoherroots.com/?p=20809 Let's learn how to make sweet potato pie—it's a breeze to make and full of fall flavor. This pie should take center stage at your holiday table! Overhead of a slice of sweet potato pie on a stack of plates with a fork. I know pumpkin pie is all the rage around Thanksgiving, but if I had my druthers, Sweet Potato Pie would take top billing on the holiest of pie holidays. Not only do I think sweet potato pie has a more interesting flavor, but I also find baking a sweet potato pie to be so much simpler than a pumpkin pie! If you’ve ever had a pumpkin pie fail to set up on you with two dozen of your closest relatives in the next room, you know the woes that pumpkin pies can bring. Thanks to the thicker and denser sweet potato, this pie is almost foolproof. Team sweet potato pie forever! Read the post »]]> https://wholefully.com/coconut-sweet-potato-pie/feed/ 18 Never Fail Magic Cookie Bars https://wholefully.com/7-layer-magic-cookie-bars/ https://wholefully.com/7-layer-magic-cookie-bars/#respond Tue, 07 Dec 2021 07:00:54 +0000 https://wholefully.com/?p=57271 These never-fail magic cookie bars, also known as Seven Layer Bars, are super easy to make, have a rich chocolate flavor, and freeze well. Finished cookie bar close up on parchment paper. It's hard to beat a baking recipe that is barely more complicated than just layering a few ingredients in a pan—and that's what makes these Seven Layer Bars so magical! You layer a bunch of tasty ingredients together, pop it in the oven, and out comes magic cookie bars that are delicious, rich, and hold their shape beautifully! These cookie bars are SO easy to make that this would be a great holiday baking project for the kids in your life. Let's get baking! Close view of a gooey magic cookie bar held in a hand.

What do I need to make magic cookie bars?

The beauty of these seven layer bars is their simplicity. You only need a handful of ingredients—and about five minutes—to make a quick, easy holiday dessert. Read the post » ]]> https://wholefully.com/7-layer-magic-cookie-bars/feed/ 0 Easy Vegan Fudge Recipe https://wholefully.com/dark-chocolate-coconut-oil-fudge/ https://wholefully.com/dark-chocolate-coconut-oil-fudge/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2021 13:00:00 +0000 http://backtoherroots.com/?p=25868 This Easy Vegan Chocolate Fudge Recipe is a breeze to make. A delicious homemade healthy vegan snack that’s naturally sweetened with just 5 simple ingredients! I’d like to introduce you to a little recipe that we make at our house all the time—coconut oil vegan chocolate fudge. It’s our absolute favorite healthier dessert, and we almost always have all the ingredients we need to make it stocked in our pantry. This fudge is different from regular fudge in the fact that it is naturally sweetened, is totally dairy-free, vegan and gluten-free, and is packed with healthy fats thanks to a good chunk of coconut oil. It is packed with nutrients and good-for-you stuff. Melted coconut oil and cocoa powder being poured into a parchment paper-lined pan.

Do I need chocolate or cocoa powder?

For this recipe, we're going to use cocoa powder. Not only does it give the recipe tons of rich, chocolatey-flavor, but cocoa powder is also easy to keep on hand in the pantry!

What is vegan fudge made of?

  • Coconut oil. The idea behind this fudge is that property that all coconut oil users know well—coconut oil is solid at room temperature, but anything above that, and it’s a velvety smooth liquid oil.
  • Honey or maple syrup. If you want to make this vegan fudge, make sure you stick with maple syrup. Honey works if you are eating animal products.
  • Unsweetened cocoa powder. We recommend using Dutch-process cocoa powder for the best, rich dark chocolate flavor, but standard cocoa powder also does the trick!
  • Vanilla extract and salt. To get a fully-rounded flavor, you need some vanilla and salt. The salt will help amplify the chocolate flavor.
Read the post »]]> https://wholefully.com/dark-chocolate-coconut-oil-fudge/feed/ 98 Award-Winning Nanaimo Bars https://wholefully.com/nanaimo-bars-recipe/ https://wholefully.com/nanaimo-bars-recipe/#comments Thu, 03 Dec 2020 11:00:08 +0000 https://wholefully.com/?p=53741 Nanaimo Bars are a classic Canadian dessert that are rich, decadent, and impressive! My family recipe took first place at a local baking competition a few years back—they're THAT good. Being a born and raised Indiana girl, I can safely say I had never even heard of a Nanaimo Bar—a classic Canadian dessert bar—until I met a cute Canadian boy who would eventually become my husband. The first bite I ever had of a Nanaimo Bar was in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, and let me tell you, I fell deeply in love with the boy AND the dessert all at the same time! I immediately went to work crafting my own Nanaimo Bar recipe, and by the time my soon-to-be-husband had immigrated to the States, I had perfected my very own piece of Canadian food culture for us to enjoy while away from the Great White North. I've now been making my Nanaimo Bars (and married to my husband) for closing in on 15 years, and these bars get raves every time I serve them. Close-up of a nanaimo bar with a bite taken out of it on the edge of a plate. We've fully indoctrinated my Indiana family to the joys of Nanaimo Bars, and I always get requests for "those Canadian chocolate bar things" at family gatherings. I even entered them in a local baking contest a few years back where they received the grand prize, and I received lots of requests for my recipe! Let me show you how to make these family favorite dessert bars.

What are nanaimo bars?

A nanaimo bar is a classic Canadian dessert bar that consists of three-layers—a chocolate graham cracker crust, a velvety vanilla custard filling, and a rich chocolate ganache.

What do they taste like?

Nanaimo bars taste like classic chocolate and vanilla. They are also super rich! Cut them into small, small pieces so that nobody gets overloaded before they get to try everything else on the cookie plate! Read the post »]]> https://wholefully.com/nanaimo-bars-recipe/feed/ 5 8 Easy Infused Water Recipes For Hydration (With Directions) https://wholefully.com/infused-water/ https://wholefully.com/infused-water/#comments Mon, 24 Aug 2020 12:00:00 +0000 http://backtoherroots.com/?p=27070 Make hydration fun with these recipes for fruit infused water, either still or sparkling! We offer 8 flavors, so you are sure to find one you love! Drinking plain ole water has never really been a problem for me—except when I was pregnant. I just couldn't stomach plain water for almost my entire pregnancy. Before that, I had always laughed at people who said they didn't like "the taste" of water. What taste!? Water is tasteless! And then I became pregnant, had the morning sickness from hell, and I totally got it. Water tasted terrible for all 42 weeks I was pregnant. My savior during that time? Infused waters! Now, even though I'm back to enjoying plain water, I still love the treat of some fruit-infused water. It just feels so refreshing, summery, and let's be honest, fun! Opening up the fridge to see a beautiful pitcher of infused water just makes me want to drink more. When the healthy choice is also the fun choice, it's a lot easier to make a good-for-you decision. Overhead of a wide variety of sliced fruits and herbs arranged on a wooden cutting board. Honestly, you can put just about whatever fruit you like into a pitcher of water and enjoy the mild, light flavor, but I think it's so much more fun (and beautiful!) to do tasty combinations of fruits and herbs. I thought I'd show you eight of my favorite combinations today. But before we dig in, a few notes about infused waters:
  • The longer they rest, the stronger the flavor. Within about 15 minutes, you'll get a nice, mild flavor of whatever you're infusing the water with. The longer it infuses, the stronger the flavor will get.
  • You can reuse the fruit for more batches. I can normally get about four refills before the flavor of the fruit is all gone. Keep refilling that pitcher or carafe! I like to make up a carafe in the morning, refill it throughout the day, and then compost the fruit before bed. The flavor will fade after each refill, but it'll still be delicious. Once your fruit has lost all its flavor, compost it.
  • The nutritional benefit is increased hydration. Infusing water with fruit might add a negligible amount of nutrients from the fruit, but the real nutritional benefit is to make you want to drink more water! Hydration is good.
  • Drink it that day. For the best flavor, drink it the day you make it—you might be able to get by with 36 hours, depending on how fresh your fruit is, but it's best to make it when you want to drink it. For citrus fruits with peel, you want to drink it within a few hours or the water tends to get bitter.
  • You can use sparkling or regular water. Use whatever kind of water makes you happy. Sparkling water makes everything feel a bit more fancy, doesn't it?
Get the recipes »]]> https://wholefully.com/infused-water/feed/ 31 Healthy Coconut Milk Ranch Dressing (Dairy-Free, Vegan, Paleo) https://wholefully.com/coconut-milk-ranch-dressing/ https://wholefully.com/coconut-milk-ranch-dressing/#comments Mon, 06 Jan 2020 11:00:00 +0000 http://backtoherroots.com/?p=20779 Dairy and I have a tumultuous relationship. My body seems to handle long-fermented dairy (like kefir or 24-hour yogurt) just fine, but once I dig into unfermented or short-fermented dairy—like regular milk or store-bought yogurt—my body is none too pleased. Over the last few years, I've started tuning in to how different foods make my body feel, and that means I've had to come to grips with some of my favorite dairy-based foods not fitting in. I've had to find non-dairy alternatives for sour cream, coffee creamer, and even my beloved ranch dressing. I thought it would be really hard to replicate my favorite dairy foods, but I've actually found the opposite to be true! I've had a ton of luck swapping out dairy for creamy and fatty cashew cream and full-fat coconut milk from the can. That's exactly what I use here to make this paleo and vegan ranch dressing creamy, thick, and rich without a drop of dairy! A hand holding a fork spears salad greens in ranch dressing.

How do you make healthy ranch dressing?

Making this ranch might be even easier than opening a bottle from the store (and it sure is cheaper!).  To make dairy-free ranch, you just:
  • Combine fresh or dried herbs and spices in a bowl.
  • Add in coconut milk, mayo (use plant-based mayo for vegan ranch dressing), and apple cider vinegar.
  • Whisk or blend together until smooth. I like using my immersion blender so it gets super smooth.
  • Let chill for at least 30 minutes in the fridge for the flavors to blend.

Can you eat ranch if you're following a vegan, paleo, or Whole 30 diet?

You sure can! While all three diets cut out dairy, you can happily enjoy my dairy-free version of ranch dressing. It's paleo and Whole 30-compliant as written, and if you grab some plant-based mayo, it easily becomes vegan. Enjoy your ranch! Get the recipe »]]> https://wholefully.com/coconut-milk-ranch-dressing/feed/ 47 How to Make Overnight Oats (Plus 15 Easy and Delicious Overnight Oatmeal Recipes) https://wholefully.com/8-classic-overnight-oats-recipes-you-should-try/ https://wholefully.com/8-classic-overnight-oats-recipes-you-should-try/#comments Mon, 15 Apr 2019 12:00:00 +0000 http://backtoherroots.com/?p=26469 If you've never heard of overnight oats before, let me give you a quick little primer. Overnight oats are a no-cook method of making oatmeal. Instead of cooking your oats with liquid on the stove or in the microwave, you mix rolled (AKA: old-fashioned) oats with the liquid and other mix-ins, and let it rest in the fridge overnight. In the morning, you have a pudding-like porridge that is perfect for easy grab-and-go breakfasts. It doesn't have the same texture as hot/stove-top oats. It's creamier, denser, and in my opinion, so much tastier. I'd take a jar of overnight oats over hot oats any day! 6 glass jars full of different flavors of overnight oats. All have lids, except for one chocolate flavor, which is open and has a spoon sticking out of it. There are a million-and-one recipes and methods for making overnight oats out there, so I'm not planning on reinventing the wheel here. Instead, I'm going to show you how to make eight of my favorite overnight oats recipes. These are the recipes that I come back and use over and over and over again. You can't go wrong with these! Before I get started though, I want to talk a little bit about overnight oats equipment. You can easily whip up overnight oats in just a regular bowl or a food storage container with a lid. But you know me, I love a good canning jar! Get the recipes »]]> https://wholefully.com/8-classic-overnight-oats-recipes-you-should-try/feed/ 475 How to Make Healthy Tropical Coconut Overnight Oats https://wholefully.com/tropical-coconut-overnight-oats-recipe/ https://wholefully.com/tropical-coconut-overnight-oats-recipe/#comments Mon, 15 Apr 2019 08:00:56 +0000 https://wholefully.com/?p=48641 In my dream world, I’d be writing this post in a beach chair with the sounds of the ocean in the background and a delicious piña colada in my hand, but alas, none of those things are true—so what’s the answer? Bring the beach to me with these Healthy Tropical Coconut Overnight Oats! These pineapple and coconut overnight oats mix up in just a few minutes and result in a delicious and creamy grab-and-go breakfast that brings a little bit of the islands to your kitchen. Welcome to the magic that is overnight oats!

What are overnight oats?

Making overnight oats is a no-cook method for making oatmeal. You make them by combining rolled oats with liquid and other ingredients, and letting it rest in the fridge overnight (hence the name!). In the morning, you can eat it cold like a pudding, or you can heat it up if you prefer. If you’re new to making overnight oatmeal and want a full primer (plus lots of other easy-to-make recipes), check out our Overnight Oats 101 post. Eight different flavors of overnight oats, each in its own glass jar.

What makes overnight oatmeal so great?

Everyone in my house is a huge fan of overnight oats (I love these coconut ones, but my husband and daughter are especially keen on the Chocolate Peanut Butter Ones). So what makes them such a great part of your weekly meal prep?
  • They are so decadent and delicious that even kids love them. The oats soften up in the fridge to make a thick and sweet pudding that is totally yummy. My kid devours overnight oats!
  • You can customize them to fit your preferences. Make them gluten-free, vegan, or in whatever flavor you’d like. We’re covering the pineapple and coconut flavor in this post, but once you get the idea of overnight oats down, you can go wild making your own creations!
  • They can be super healthy. You are in control of how healthy or decadent (or both!) these oats become. Reduce the added sweeteners, mix in some protein powder or collagen peptides, or add in some superfoods like hemp seeds or chia seeds. The possibilities are endless!
  • Overnight oats are great for meal prep. Spend just a few minutes in the evening, and you’ll have a grab-and-go breakfast in the morning!
  • Overnight oats are easy to make in bulk. They are a staple of many meal prep menus for good reason—you can mix up an entire week’s worth of breakfast in just a few minutes.
Read the post »]]> https://wholefully.com/tropical-coconut-overnight-oats-recipe/feed/ 9