I have had a few busy weeks of late. Best of all? I got out backpacking 2 weekends ago with my friend Dani. It had been far too long since I had slept out overnight. Like July of 2009 🙁 My having 2 more kids kind of got in the way. Kirk is ready now with them not being infants anymore, so I got my first night away from them. It was a good trip, although I came home to a sick husband (yeah, that’ll make you feel guilty!!) We did our trip up the Carbon River, in Mt. Rainier NP. It is one of my favorite places to be and a great one when it is hot down low, but snow still up above. I slept better than I had in years and it really aligned my mind better than anything else can.
Me in purple, Dani in green, getting ready to break camp in the morning –
Dani had never visited a side canyon, just off the Wonderland Trail, to Ipsuit Falls. It is always so cool back there, the falls were simply running amazing.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/VAyFBKV0xn8]
But ah, back to reality. I am hoping for another trip later this summer. It’ll be a few years till I am back to my every month backpacking trip. I can’t wait to take the boys with me though, Ford and I hiked and backpacked together for many years, and it is just special!
So what did I enjoy around that time? After I got home? Oh yeah, it was like 84° when I crawled in. Yuck. Thankfully it has cooled off since then!
Not quite a pudding, or a firm gelatin, nor a bar…just a cool treat for summer that was a fun experiment.
I adapted a recipe I had seen, changing the super fatty canned coconut milk for the much lighter So Delicious refrigerated milk, and left out using macadamia nuts, so that Alistaire could enjoy it. Thankfully for now he can have coconut with no issues it seems!
Vegan Coconut Pudding “Bars”
Ingredients:
- ¾ cup cornstarch
- 4¼ cups unsweetened coconut milk, divided
- 1 cup coconut palm sugar
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp fine sea salt
- ½ cup flaked coconut
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375° or as directed on coconut packaging, spread coconut on rimmed baking sheet. Bake until toasted, 5 to 10 minutes, checking often and shaking pan. Set aside to cool.
Lightly oil or spray an 8×8″ glass baking dish with coconut oil, set aside.
Stir cornstarch into ¾ cup of the coconut milk, set aside.
Add remaining coconut milk, sugar, vanilla and salt to a heavy large saucepan, bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook for 5 minutes, whisking constantly.
Add cornstarch mixture, whisking constantly, reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 1 minute.
Take off heat and scrape into prepared dish. Sprinkle coconut on top, chill until cold, slice into servings.
~Sarah
Looks delicious!
Those look cool, especially the way you modified it. I wonder if they’d be good with almond milk? And with stevia instead of sugar.
And, you store these in the freezer? How long do they last just in the fridge?
I kept them in the fridge and was eating them 4 days later, still tasted good 🙂 I’d say almond milk would be good – as for the Stevia, I’d use soem, but not replace all.
I like that. Use some but not replace all.
I actually just found out that the stevia I’ve been using (and promoting) from Trader Joes has, maltodextrin in it. Little did I know that maltodextrin is absorbed as fast as glucose. Apparently you can get stevia extract that’s just stevia and no other stuff. Gonna look into that. Everything in moderation though.
I’m gonna give these bars a shot. Will let you know how it goes.
I am thinking for us I would include the macadamia, and with the coconut sprinkle grated dark chocolate on top.
Uh yeah, that’d be awesome!!
I don’t think these would last 4 days in my fridge. I’m a little sugar addicted these days. 🙂