It’s March!
You know what that means.
A new challenge!
Despite first degree mouse murder, January’s vegan challenge was a big success.
In February, I was able to complete
six Random Acts of Kindness (RAKS).
With March comes warmer weather and the first official day of spring.
And that means I have that urge to clean.
I squirreled a lot of food away this winter including soups, jams, canned goods and other pantry items.
The goal for March is to clean out the freezer and cupboards by using up as many of these items as possible.
I don’t consider this fun.
I mean, if I wanted to eat this food in the first place, it would be gone already.
It is going to take some creativity to figure out what to do with a plain jane bag of frozen mixed veggies and three jars of peach jam.
Challenge accepted.
The List
Freezer
Blueberry Jam (4)
Peach Jam (3)
Homemade Chili (4)
Homemade Vegetable Soup (5)
Broccoli Soup (1)
Butternut Squash Soup (2)
Broccoli (Half bag)
Mixed Vegetables (1 bag)
Almonds
Boca Burgers
Homemade Veggie Burgers
Bananas
Blueberries
Cherries
Cranberries
Flax Seed
Pantry
Canned black beans
Canned cannellini beans
Canned garbanzo beans
Canned water chestnuts
Canned refried beans
Canned corn
Canned Pineapple
Canned fire-roasted tomatoes
Paula Deen’s Peach Salad Dressing (3)
Brown Rice
Quinoa
Bulgur Wheat
Split Peas
Corn Grits
Coconut Milk
Peanut Butter
Homemade Apple Butter
Cashews
Raisins
Chestnuts
There’s no way I’m going to be able to eat all of this food (and some I don’t want to. I’m looking at you, Boca burgers) in a month’s time but I would like to clean out as much as I possibly can.
First up?
The coconut milk and canned pineapple.
I’ve never had coconut milk (of the non-canned variety) so I bought this awhile ago with the intentions of trying something new.
New ingredient, new recipe.
Coconut Pudding!
Sounds good, right?
Well, it wasn’t.
It sucked.
Like gelatinous, goo sucked.
Not only was the texture of this pudding unappealing, the vanilla flavoring in the milk left a chemical, sort of plastic taste in my mouth. I would like to try the unflavored version but will be staying away from vanilla flavored non-dairy milks from now on.
I just barely saved it by mixing it with a banana to make it creamy and topping it with a tropical fruit salad using the canned pineapple.
The fruit salad was very light and refreshing but the coconut pudding was hardly worth the effort. It would have made more sense to just blend a small serving of coconut milk with frozen bananas to achieve that thick, creamy texture I was looking for. I’ll post the recipe, not so you can make it, but so that if you ever see another recipe like this, you will run far, far away.
Coconut Milk Pudding
2 cups coconut milk beverage
2 tablespoons cornstarch
Don’t add cornstarch to medium sized pot and slowly whisk in coconut milk.
Don’t stir constantly, until mixture comes to a boil.
Don’t reduce heat to low and continue cooking for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Don’t transfer to bowl.
Don’t cover with plastic wrap to prevent skin from forming.
Don’t chill for 2-3 hours.
*Tidbits: I am very aware that this “pudding” has no sugar. The coconut milk was sweetened and I thought I could get away with not adding any additional sugar. Perhaps this contributed to the texture issue?
The good news here is that canned pineapple is surprisingly awesome and makes a tasty fruit salad when mixed with other fresh fruits. This one contains kiwi, honey tangerines, and squeeze of fresh lime juice. It’s amazing what a little lime zest and juice can do to brighten up a simple fruit salad.
Tropical Fruit Salad
1 (20 oz) can pineapple tid-bits, packed in it’s own juice
3 kiwi fruit, chopped
2 honey tangerines or other citrus fruit, chopped
Juice + zest of half a lime.
Drain pineapple, reserving juice.
What to do with the leftover pineapple juice? Uh, drink it. It's juice.
Combine pineapple, kiwi, and tangerine.
Add lime juice and zest.
Toss gently to combine.
Serve with your favorite dairy or non-dairy yogurt.
Top with shredded coconut, if desired.
Do not serve it with my coconut pudding recipe.
Don’t forget to check out my recipage for easy to read and easy to print recipes!
Keep clean and March on!
Beautiful!
Thank you!
Oh my little tropical twin, how yummy that fruit salad looks! I think your March challenge may be my favorite yet….I actually love that kind of “gotta use it up” cooking…it forces you to be creative and think outside the box (like when I chopped up ancient freeze burned cannelloni with some veggies/tomato sauce in some sort of freakish casserole). Can’t wait to see what you come up with!