Coconut Cream Frosting

Frosting is one of my favorite foods; in fact, I consider it an actual food group. After all, what is a cupcake without frosting? It’s nothing!

Lately I have been stymied when it comes to the frosting creation process. Yes, I have my delicious vegan chocolate frosting recipe, however, I have been lacking in the white frosting department. For me this has presented hardship because chocolate frosting just doesn’t work with carrot cake and lemon cake. Besides, who wants to use just one frosting recipe on top of all of their baked delicacies?!

Yes, I do admit, making frosting without butter and sugar is quite a challenge. Though for me challenge is the name of the game. So lately, I have been on a conquest for white frosting.

Sixteen batches later, I have a delicious coconut frosting that my many taste testers approve of. Unfortunately, my most important taster is traveling this week, so I confess, I don’t have the ultimate seal of approval. However, I think it is still good enough to share with all of you.

Coconut Cream Frosting
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup agave nectar
pinch celtic sea salt
5 teaspoons arrowroot powder
1 tablespoon water
1¼ cup coconut oil

1. In a medium saucepan, heat coconut milk, agave and salt
2. In a small bowl, combine arrowroot and water to form a smooth paste
3. Pour arrowroot mixture into saucepan
4. Mix contents of saucepan with a hand blender and bring to a boil, briefly
5. Remove pot from heat and blend in coconut oil
6. Place pot in freezer for 20-30 minutes, until frosting solidifies and turns white
7. Remove from freezer and blend again, until fluffy
8. Spread over cake or cupcakes

This frosting will be great on the carrot cake which I am in the process of creating for ~M, one of my favorite readers. She finished school this month and I will post the recipe in honor of her graduation.

On another note, you may have noticed that I recently added a feature to the side bar of this site. It is a survey which polls readers as to which recipe they would like me to whip up next. Check it out and post your vote –for chocolate cupcakes, mango chicken or “candy” bars.

Spinach Salad with Pistachios

Well, Mother’s Day was gorgeous. A warm and balmy 70 degrees, we went for a lovely hike and after that, I prepared a big dinner for my husband, the boys, our friends Chris and Larry and their little ones. We had Chicken Marbella (delicious) and a big spinach salad. Chris helped me to surreptitiously photograph the salad above as the hub does not like it when I take food pics whilst we have guests visiting for a meal. Actually, my entire family gets somewhat annoyed whenever I photograph food if it is anywhere near the dinner hour. They just want to eat. And who can blame them!

On another note, I’ve had something in the hopper for a while now. I have been passionate about the environment for quite some time. Having children drew my focus in from the macrocosm (environmental consulting for Fortune 500 companies) to the microcosm –family and home.

Each spring I am saddened when people in my neighborhood begin to spray their lawns with chemical poisons. There is such a well documented risk of pesticide toxicity; I worry about all of those dogs and children playing on lawns and rolling around in pesticides.

Therefore, I have launched a new site, called My Dandelion is a Flower. If you like your pesticides, then this website is probably not the place for you, so just skip it. If you are a little bit earthy or organic, then definitely check it out –you’ll have a good time. Unlike Elana’s Pantry which is a blog, updated frequently with my writing and recipes, My Dandelion is a Flower is a static site, full of fun facts and helpful hints. Enjoy!

Almond Butter Blondies

Kelly over at Celiac Chicks does a fabulous job covering the latest in gluten-free news. On top of that, she is a lovely person. It has been great getting to know her through our email conversations these past few months.

I recently spent some time looking through the recipe section of Kelly’s site and was most intrigued by these delicious looking peanut butter bars. She traces the original recipe back to one from 2003 in Family Circle magazine. Of course, she made her own adaptations to the bars, which I then edited as well. Since I don’t actually eat peanut butter, I substituted the main ingredient with high protein almond butter and made a couple of other changes along the way.

The most challenging part of this recipe has been naming it. My husband and I sat in the kitchen last night throwing ideas back and forth. Blondies? Chocolate Chip Blondies? No, I said, blondies have chocolate chips in them –Chocolate Chip Blondies would be rather redundant.

Nevertheless, with a mere 6 ingredients, these bars are super easy to prepare. Although made with almond butter, you would never know it, as they taste quite cakey. I have cooked up this recipe at least a dozen times. Even the batches I considered “failures” were devoured by my testers –that would be my little league team, in this instance. Let’s not forget, I coach a bunch of 10 year old blue gatorade drinking boys. Although these bars are not that sweet, my team absolutely loved ‘em. They inhaled even the first experimental batches that were a horribly underdone, delicious goo –which ended up as much on their faces as in their mouths.

So here, expedited, due to a request from Courtney (one of my favorite readers) are my version of Kelly’s Peanut Butter Bars. Hope these go over well at your mother’s day celebration, Courtney and best of luck as head chef!

Many thanks to my mom, for making our food with your own hands after long days at work. Happy Mother’s Day!