Avocado Popsicle For Summer

As promised, here is the recipe of my avocado popsicle. I love this avocado tree variety my mom planted in our garden since it doesn't have much of a roots or fibers inside the fruit. I don't know if you've encountered a kind of avocado which has a lot of brown that looks like roots inside them which makes eating unsatisfactory. I though this avocado variety won't turn into a violet color but it did. So, I am skeptical about the inside of the fruit until I opened it and it turned out to be flawless or else... Anyway, the recipe, instructions and the photos are below. Have fun!!!

Recipe:

1 kilo of avocado or about 3 to 4 pieces

1/2 cup or more of simple syrup (boiled sugar and water)

1/4 of lemon or lemonsito *optional*

Tools:

Blender or hand mixer

popsicle molds or ice candy wrapper

funnel or pitcher

Instructions:

Slice and take off the seed of the avocado.

Put the flesh in a clean deep bowl or plastic pitcher.

Make simple sugar by boiling sugar and water and then add it to the avocado.

Add a little bit of acid to prevent the avocado from turning into color brown.

Blend everything until it has a creamy consistency like "Cerelac".

Pour into molds using a funnel or use a pitcher to pour the avocado mix easily.

Freeze overnight and thaw for a while to easily slip off the popsicle.

Kamias Sour Fruit Slushee/Shake

I never really got the idea of making this fruit into a shake or shall we say slushee since this fruit is really really sour but don't you remember there's already a green mango shake and who can ever imagined that a green mango shake is much better than it's yellow counterpart? The first time I tried Iba or Kamias shake was when my bestfriend invited me for a 3 day trip to Cebu and we had this unforgettable dinner at Zubuchon. Zubuchon is a resto where it caters this super yummy and crispy lechon de cebu. I've tried lechon from Davao and Manila but this lechon right here is super duper yummy and in that resto, they absolutely recommend their Kamias or Iba shake when you're eating their lechon because according to them the oiliness of the lechon truly complement each other. I say, they are not wrong about it and it's definitely a fine combination while eating lechon. The sourly taste of the Kamias or Camias will not make you feel drizzling with oil inside you when you're done eating a lot of lechon. I think the high acidity of the fruit explains the effect of it. Actually, it's really easy making the shake. How come I haven't I think about it ever since? During my childhood days, we only eat this fruit together with some fine salt and that's it! I still can remember the burden of having a severe menstrual cramps because I ate too much Kamias before my menstruation. They said there is no connection between eating sour foods and menstrual cramps but in my case it really did have an effect. From that time on, I minimized myself from eating sour foods like green mango, iba and even lemonsito. Anyway, here's the recipe on how to make a Kamias shake but surely you can eyeball everything out if you know what I mean. 

Ingredients 

1 cup or about 7 large pieces of Kamias or Iba (visayan)

1 cup or more of simple syrup (boiled water and sugar) *depends on your taste buds*

5cups (or less) shaved ice or ice cubes 

3 tbsps. of honey for added taste

1/4 cup water 

Instructions:

Slice the Kamias fruit in half and take out the hard part where it's usually located at the center.

Combine everything except for the last ingredient. 

Add additional water one at a time only if it's difficult to blend everything anymore. 

Serve and drink immediately

Mango Loco Popsicle

It's the time of the year to bring out your swimsuits, sunglasses, sunblock and a cold treat. To our youngest sister, who is so crazy with ice cream but can't afford to buy ice cream everyday, we must find a way to bribe the poor kiddo. Finally, it's mango season here in the Philippines and it's a good time to indulge in this sweet fruit since it's really cheap at this time of the year. Our avocado tree has lots of fruits ready for picking too and can't wait to make avocado Popsicle when the mangoes are all gone in the fridge. This is such a very easy recipe where you can just eyeball everything. Actually, the main ingredients in making fruit Popsicle are only milk, a little bit of simple syrup/honey or sugar if you don't have one for sweetness or don't add any sweetener if the fruit is simply sweet like mangoes but if it's avocado, I guess you will need a little bit of sweet to add some taste and the last main ingredient are some fresh fruits that can be pureed or have juice. You will also need a blender or a good hand whisk if you don't have one and a popsicle molder that comes in plastic or silicone material. If you don't have a molder, try using an ice candy wrapper or cellophane like we do in making ice candies. Let's not make this post very long and just go directly to our "mango business". You can always double the recipe or the ingredients if you have lots of mouths to feed. 

Recipe:

4 sweet ripe mangoes

1/2 pack of Nestle all purpose cream or any brand

Simple syrup (boiling sugar in water) or honey (optional)

Tools:

Blender or Hand mixer

Popsicle molder or ice candy wrappers

Bowl or  plastic pitcher (to pour the purees easily)

Instructions:

Cut the mangoes, scrape the insides and throw the skin.

In a mixing pitcher, add the 1/2 pack of all purpose cream.

Add your desired sweetener if you want to.

Combine all the ingredients inside the bowl or pitcher and use a blender or hand mixer to incorporate everything. Do not over mix and a little lump won't matter anyways.

Prepare your Popsicle molder and pour the mango puree inside.

Pop it in the fridge and wait for it to harden. 

Pour a not so hot water in the molder to slide it out easily when it's ready. 

Enjoy your homemade Popsicle in no less than a day. 

Make Your Own Homemade Virgin Coconut Oil

Hello everyone! Who among here are health conscious like me? Well, I guess most of us wants to be healthy but going organic full time is really difficult especially if you're living in the city. In my case I grew tired living in the city and move myself to the country and started gardening - planting veggies and flowers. For now, I'm not yet a 100% vegan since I just eat anything that was served on the table. We have a lot of workers staying in our place and what we eat is what they eat too. These workers carry a lot of heavy workloads physically almost everyday and we can't just serve them pure veggies to get extra energy everyday. So that's basically my life here in our place and we can't be choosy in food for life is hard to be choosy in this economy. Going back to our main topic in this post, I decided to make my own coconut oil because it's cheap and my parents own a lot of coconut trees and it's better to just make them and save money buying ready made coconut oil. Through the photo tutorials below, you will noticed I did not use any other ingredients than just coconut and water. I even cooked the coconut using wood fire to make it more cheaper and to save gas since we have lots of coconut branches for fire woods. I've came up to this idea of making my own virgin coconut oil because I've read a blog about oil pulling. It's about putting spoonful of oil in your mouth for 20 minutes and lots and lots of benefits you'll get from it. I'm really tired of my allergic rhinitis and I can't wait to try this method to clear my sinuses. Testimonies & claims that oil pulling will whiten your teeth, strengthens gums and jaw, banishes bad breath, prevent gingivitis, relieves headaches and hangovers, helps you sleep, detoxifies the body's hormonal imbalances and many other general pain issues. Actually, my boyfriend sent me a link through my Facebook that I really need to try this since he pitied my everyday grumpiness due to allergic rhinitis. I will update you all soon if this new craze is really effective or not. Let me see for myself within this week. For the meantime, try using this method of how to make your own virgin coconut oil. To read more about the benefits of virgin coconut oil check this article here.

Ingredients:

3 pcs. freshly grated coconuts

2 to 3 cups of water

Tools:
Large wok

Ladle

Strainer

Instructions:

Just add the water to the coconut and start squeezing until the coconut milk comes out. Use a strainer to filter the coconut milk and pour it to the wok and starts boiling it. 

 When the coconut milk starts boiling, keep on stirring it to prevent formation of lumps. 

 Do not leave the boiling coconut milk or it will spill all over your counter or cooking area. 

Attentively stir the coconut milk as much as possible.  

In this photo above and below you will notice that lumps are trying to form and this is now a sign that the oils are coming out and the water from the coconut milk has evaporated gradually. 

 You will noticed that the process is done of making your own VCO when lumps turned from light brown to dark brown and the solids separates from the liquid. 

 You will smell a "coconutty" scent during the final moment of this process and it's a sign that it's ready.

Cool down the coconut oil and strain them to separate the solids from the liquids. The solid lumps can be eaten by just adding a little bit of sugar for your enjoyment or just throw them to the chickens in your backyard. This photo above is the final product of our super simple way to make your own cheap and organic virgin coconut oil. I put my oil in the refrigerator overnight to solidify it and make it easy for oil pulling for which this idea came up. You can use this oil for cooking your veggies too if you want. 3 pcs. of medium coconuts will produce or yield about a cup or two of virgin coconut oil. 

Update: 

Oil pulling did not aid my rhinitis. In other words, it did not clear my sinuses. Tsk! tsk! As a big fan of discovery channel, I've just found out that oil-pulling has no benefits whatsoever. If you want to read the article about it, check it here..