Recipes I Tried this Week

January is often a difficult month for me.  One of the reasons is that my demanding to-do list shrinks dramatically and becomes more of a list of suggestions for ways I might spend my time.  Some people might enjoy that or find it relaxing.  I, however, struggle with it.  I work best when I have exact and necessary tasks with deadlines.  Call me type-A, but that's just the way God made me.

Why am I sharing this?  Well, because when I feel like there is nothing immediate that HAS to be done, I start searching for things to do.  And this week I found a short stack of recipes to experiment with.  There are three in particular that I feel are worth sharing.  (And one more that is sitting on the counter waiting to be tried.)

The first was a bread dough that used all of TWO ingredients!  I was skeptical, but figured I didn't have much to lose in giving it a try.  The recipe goes something like this: mix one cup of flour with 1/2 cup (8oz) of Greek yogurt.  Organic Greek yogurt is recommended, since the non-organic brands (like Dannon or Yoplait) have fillers to help thicken the yogurt, which might effect the outcome of the bread.  Mix those together and kneed the ball of dough that forms.  No need to let it rise.

This dough is especially good for bread sticks or a pizza crust.  After rolling mine out, I brushed it with olive oil, and sprinkled garlic salt, Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese on it.  I baked it at 400 until it started to look golden and bubbly.  (Maybe 20-25 minutes?  I honestly don't remember how many times I checked it and reset the timer.)

The family all gave it two thumbs up!  Though I think if I make this again, I might try cooking it at a little bit higher temp. to make the bread sticks crispier.  They were a bit chewier than I was expecting.  Still good--just chewy.

The next experiment was making my own coconut milk.  It really wasn't too hard.  We buy quite a bit of coconut milk, so this seemed like a good way to save money.  The recipe is here, with pictures and easy-to-follow directions.

I may be a bit presumptuous in sharing this little experiment, though, as we haven't actually tried the finished product yet.  : ) It didn't seem quite right to sample the milk while it was still hot, so I put it in the refrigerator to cool over night.  And then we forgot about it!  I'm just now remembering that it's sitting in there waiting for us.  Ha!  Ok, so I'll post an update on that later...

Now, last but not least, my favorite experiment of the week!  Chocolate Covered Coconut Peppermint Patties! This is a recipe I will definitely be repeating! You can check out the link I have posted if you want to see the original recipe. But I did make enough changes to it, that I'm going to post the recipe I used here...

1/2 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened coconut)
2 Tbsp melted coconut oil
2 Tbsp coconut butter
2 tsp peppermint extract
1/3-1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 Tbsp coconut oil

* Mix first 4 ingredients together in a bowl and spread onto a parchment paper-covered cookie sheet.  Then stick them in the freezer to firm them up.
* While that's in the freezer, melt the chocolate chips and 1/2 Tbsp coconut oil together.
* Remove coconut mix from freezer, and cut into bite size squares. (I used a pizza cutter to cut them.)
* Dip coconut pieces into melted chocolate and place them back on the parchment paper.  Then put them in the refrigerator until the chocolate sets.

* Lastly--and this step is important--try not to eat them all in one sitting!!  ; )

Check back for an update on the coconut milk.  Plus, there's another experiment involving the homemade coconut milk that I plan on trying tomorrow.  I'll let you know how it turns out.  Should be interesting!