Caribbean Cooking Demo

Hey everyone!

Well guess who totally forgot to mention that tonight was Whole Foods Cooking Demo night?!

With my usual suspects being out of pocket tonight, The Man was nice enough to join me for some foodie fun

We were supposed to have a grilling class, but chef Jesse changed the plans last minute thanks to the lack of cooperation from the weather (what happened to our sunny, 80 degree days???)

But that was okay with me, bc the new plan was for a Caribbean theme!

How fitting since the rest of Fanatic Fam is in Bermuda on a cruise while I’m stuck in rainy Richmond – but not that I’m hatin’ or anything haha

First up we were all refreshed with a cool fruit smoothie!

Mixed frozen tropical fruit, orange juice & guava juice!  This was fabulous, and probably would have been even more fabulous with a lil’ coconut rum mixed in – just sayin’

After our refreshing smoothie Jesse served up a lovely cool minty cucumber soup.

With flavors of garlic, mango chutney, mint and parsley to compliment the cucumber, this soup was my favorite dish on the menu tonight!

I loved it!  And although hesitant at first, The Man found it to be fabulous as well!  I can see making this at home very soon and I may experiment with replacing some of the sour cream with Greek yogurt

Moving on to what was supposed to be tostones, a plaintain dish (ya’ll know how much I adore these guys!), but was swapped out last minute for new-to-me yucca based on availability that day.

To served the fried yucca chef Jesse made a mojo sauce using garlic, orange juice, key lime juice (!!), cumin and olive oil.

This sauce was killer, it would be wonderful on seafood or chicken too me thinks!

I wasn’t the biggest fan of the fried yucca however.  Maybe it’s because I don’t care for deep fried items or maybe it was the texture, but I won’t write yucca off forever as I have heard it’s quite tasty prepared in a mashed style!

As the main dish Jesse really impressed with fresh zucchini cakes topped with garlic lime shrimp

The zucchini cakes were simply made using grated zucchini, baking powder, egg, flour, S&P and shallow fried in some olive oil.

Then some flavorful & decadant shrimp were prepared using butter, garlic, key lime juice, green onion, parsley and hot sauce.

Piled all on top o’ the cake!

This was The Man’s favorite dish of the night and I must say I enjoyed it as well, even though it was a bit heavy on the oil/butter for my liking!  But a fabulous treat none the less

Overall it was not only a super delicious but also informative night and I walked away with a happy tummy plus some new recipes up my sleeve for summer!

I think that The Man really enjoyed himself tonight too and I presume he will be attending more in the future

And with that, I’m out!  Long day tomorrow friends….

But not before I remind all of you to enter my giveaway for your chance to try some Tropical Traditions Organic Coconut Moisturizing Lotion

Lata gatas!

Coconut has stolen my heart

What a busy day!  Well… not intially

After a delicious breakfast of eggs, spinach, cream cheese and salsa…

Hey, don’t knock it til you try it, it was pretty fantabulous

…we dropped off my car for state inspection.  So I decided to use this “car-less time” as a good opportunity to do some things around the house and veg for a while plus work on some other exciting stuff *to be revealed*

Once that was done The Man and I spent some time outside deciding what to do with our outdoor space this year and also where to plant the garden!  That led us on a trip straight to Strange’s to check out all their fabulous plants & garden gear…

Took this pic with my phone, seriously impressive!

I ended up with cilantro & mint plants (fresh mojitos, my summer dream ) to grow in the kitchen to supplement the tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, lettuce & basil outside… we shall see how it goes!

We also made a trip over to Whole Foods which was seriously the most pleasurably grocery shopping experience I have had with ol’ grocery store hater (aka Mr. Man).  He is an “in and out” kinda shopper, me – a browser (obvi)… however I found him swinging to my side of things in Whole Foods!

He was loving all the fresh cheeses and other goodies, I couldn’t believe it actually.  I think we found a new date spot haha

While we were at Whole Foods I decided to pick up some things for a recipe I had been wanting to try using a new product featuringgggg —> my beloved coconut.

I present:  Split Red Lentils

Are these not absolutely gorgeous?!

And since the kind folks over at Tropical Traditions were kind enough to send a jar of Organic Coconut Cream Concentrate my way and I had been waiting for the perfect opportunity to give it a go!

There is a little bit of work involved in getting the coconut cream concentrate ready to use, which involved placing the jar in some boiling hot water so that the oils & the ‘meat’ could be stirred back together (if you notice in the pic above, the oils rise to the top while being shipped from a very warm climate to cooler Virginia )

Ummm it was so creamy & coco-nutty I seriously wanted to drink it!  I couldn’t stop stirring it around and admiring how beautifully delicious it was (embarrassingggggg) hahaha.

Why do I love you so, coconut?

Onto the recipe!!!

Coconut Cream Red Lentil Soup

When I saw this recipe in Tropical Traditions fabulous archive online I just knew it had stolen my heart from the start

Insert blogger fail – would you believe that I lined up all the ingredients & FORGOT to take a picture? Well, that happened. I’d rather not talk about it haha….

My version, of course, had a few changes based on what was on hand & what my mouth was feelin’ like!

• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tblsp olive oil
• 1.5 cups organic split red lentils
• 2 cups organic chicken broth 
• 2.5 cups water
• 3 tblsp coconut cream concentrate
• 1 tblsp organic curry seasoning
• 1 tblsp organic cumin
• salt & pepper to taste

First up, give the onions and garlic a chop.

Then start by sauteeing the onion over medium heat for about 2 minutes.  Add garlic, cook another minute.

Add in the chicken broth, water and lentils at this point.  Bring to a boil.  Then drop in the cream coconut goodness plus the spices.

And let simmer for 40 minutes or until the lentils are soft & it’s the consistency that you like…

Served up in this cute lil’ bowl I scored at FitBloggin!

Oh. Em. Gee.  Freaking delicious and then some!

I absolutely loved the flavor of this!  Ahhh coconut, you never fail me

I also had the infamous side salad to go alongside (peppers are almost gone noooooooo)

Fabulous fabulous fabulous dinner!

The Man was commenting on how great it smelled too, uhhh felt kinda bad about that as he enjoyed some cottage cheese with a side of swiss cheese (???)

But speaking of The Man, I guess I’ll wrap things up with a pretty exciting moment as far as I’m concerned!

Today The Man had his nurse make him a smoothie (solid foods not goin’ too well still) with banana, almond milk, peanut butter, coconut oil AND maca.

Andddd it gets better, he says to me as I’m making it “you can put some of that maca stuff in there if you want”

So proud.  I almost cried

Well I’m off, we have The Blindside to watch tonight (last copy they had double whoop!!!)

See you tomorrow and enjoy your evening friends

Oh and p.s. there may be a chance to score some coconut cream concentrate headed your way soon!  Stay tuned