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Indian Themed Dinner Party

1 · May 31, 2014 ·

This Indian Themed Dinner Party is brought to you by Silk Coconut Milk // I adore coconut… Like a lot. My husband and I share this love and it’s a treat that we will take in any form possible. Sweet or savory, there is something about coconut that just takes recipes to a new level.

Not to long ago, the folks at Silk challenged me to throw a coconut themed dinner party and with it being coconut, I was for sure up to the challenge. I checked out Silk’s Coconut Milk Pinterest Board and their Silk Coconut Milk Web Page and decided on an Indian themed night.

We started the night with a flavorful butternut squash coconut and lentil stew…

This soup was inspired by a recipe that was created by Aarti Sequeira of Food Network fame. She is my go to girl when it comes to Indian dishes. She just takes a rather mysterious cuisine and takes all the mystery out of it. Most of the recipes that I used for this dinner have been modified from her recipes and they turned out aaaamazing.

Click HERE for the Butternut Squash Coconut and Lentil Stew Recipe

For our dinner, I set a simple table out in my backyard with mismatched plates and some fresh flowers from Trader Joes. It couldn’t be more simple. I’ve collected all of my plates and bowls primarily from Target and Anthropologie. I like buying mismatched plates, that way, if I fall in love with a plate, I buy one which doesn’t break the bank and add it to my collection.

Next on the menu for the evening was my Coconut Curry Shrimp…

Now this shrimp isn’t your typical deep fried tropical shrimp dish. It has a lovely curry flavor and it covered with dried unsweetened coconut with no frying at all…. It was lovely.

Click HERE for my Coconut Curry Shrimp Recipe

For the main course, I made Coconut Curry Meatballs served over rice. These little goodies were the star of the show…

Forget what you have every thought about meatballs! These scrumptious bites have a totally different flavor profile and they were divine.

Click HERE for the Coconut Curry Meatballs with Rice

Finally, we topped off the night with a creamy and refreshing coconut lime granita…

This is a frozen treat that is a little like lazy man’s ice cream. It’s super simple to make and you don’t need an ice cream maker. The bonus… It’s dairy-free! One of my friends who joined us for the evening has a daughter with a major milk allergy and this little treat will help when everyone else in the family is enjoying a bowl full of ice cream. She won’t feel left out at all!

Click HERE for the Coconut Lime Granita Recipe

My friends were floored when I told them that every single recipe had Silk Coconut Milk in the recipe in some form.

Who knew coconut milk was so versatile. Its not just for drinking or making smoothies, you can make all kinds of dishes. Visit the Silk Coconut Milk site for a $1 off coupon plus a whole bunch of fun recipes to try with your new SECRET INGREDIENT!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Silk. The opinions and text are all mine.

Coconut Lime Granita

0 · May 31, 2014 · Leave a Comment

+ Coconut Lime Granita a creamy yet dairy free refreshing dessert +

Looking for a fresh, creamy bowl full of summer? This coconut lime granita served with scrumptious champagne mangos will totally hit the spot. It’s dairy free so for anyone with milk allergies, this creamy dessert will tickle your tastebuds for sure!

Coconut Lime Granita

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

3 hours

Total time

3 hours 15 mins

Finish your Indian meal with this cream and refreshing dessert!

Author: Heather // WhipperBerry

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Indian

Serves: 5-6

Ingredients

½ cup sugar
½ cup Silk Vanilla Coconut Milk
1 14 oz. can of full fat coconut milk
zest of one lime
juice of a ½ a lime
2 tablespoons of shredded unsweetened coconut
2 mangos, cut into bite sized pieces

Instructions

Place a 8x8 baking sheet or large pie plate into the freezer to chill.
In a medium pot, add the Silk Vanilla Coconut Milk and sugar and place over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and cook until the sugar has completely dissolved.
Remove from the heat and pour into a shallow dish and place in the refrigerator to cool.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the full fat coconut milk, lime zest, lime juice and coconut. Pour in cooled coconut milk sugar mixture.
Place into chilled baking dish and place in the freezer.
Chill for one hour and then remove from freezer and using a fork, break-up the ice crystals that are forming around the edge and pull them into the middle. Smooth mixture and return to the freezer for another hour.
Repeat this process two more times.
When ready to serve remove from freezer and let sit for a few minutes then fluff with a fork. Place into a small serving dish and top with mango.

Vanilla Almond Panna Cotta Recipe

11 · May 2, 2014 · 2 Comments

I LOVE Panna Cotta! Have you ever tried this simple yet scrumptious dessert? When it comes to dessert I LOVE smooth and creamy desserts that just melt on your tongue and panna cotta is one of those desserts that I just crave. It’s origins are from Italy and it translates to cooked cream.

That’s basically what it is, cream or milk simmered with sugar and vanilla, you then add gelatin and let it cool to create this decadent dessert. The nice thing about this dessert is that it’s kind of a blank slate, you can make it with what ever kind of milk you like and then top it with what ever you want. A few years ago I made a lovely Peaches and Cream Panna Cotta that was divine and today I have a fun new twist… I used Silk Almond Milk for part of the cream base!!

It turned out soooo good!! For this recipe, I used half Silk Almond Milk and half cream so it isn’t dairy-free but I’m sure you could play around with the recipe and create a dairy-free panna cotta with Silk.

Why did I add silk? Well… Adding the Silk Almond Milk added to the flavor of the panna cotta with a subtle almond flavor, plus It helps to cut the fat and calories of a normally high in saturated fat dessert. It also lowered the cholesterol in the dessert because Silk Almond Milk doesn’t have cholesterol! Now, keep in mind… I still use cream because I want that nice creamy texture, but by using Silk Almond Milk I cut some of the bad stuff in half!!

Did you know that Silk products are GMO free? What is a GMO? GMO stands for Genetically Modified Organisms and it’s a huge issue in the food industry today. Silk is leading the charge to eradicate GMO’s from our foods. You can learn more about there mission here. You can also visit the Silk Facebook page for even more facts about this fabulous product, plus you’ll be the first to hear about special deals on Silk products!!

That’s why I decided to use Silk Almond Milk in my favorite Panna Cotta! Here is how you make it…

Vanilla Almond Panna Cotta Recipe

3 cups Silk Almond Milk vanilla flavored

3 cups of heavy cream

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups crème fraîche

3 packets of gelatin

In a large sauce pan, add the Silk Almond Milk, cream, and sugar. Stir occasionally and bring to a simmer. Once it has started to simmer, remove from the heat and add the vanilla extract and crème fraîche and combine well. Once the mixture is nice and smooth, slowly whisk in the powdered gelatin.

Pour mixture into serving dishes and place in the refrigerator for three hours or until set. You can serve with berries and a berry sauce of some kind. I used Smucker’s PlateScapers for the berry sauce adding small circles to the top of the panna cotta for a stylish presentation.

Do you have a recipe that you want to try with a Silk Product? Head on over to Silk for some special deals that you don’t want to pass up! Then come on back and tell me what you are going to make!!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Silk. The opinions and text are all mine.

Funfetti Bold Strawberry Shortcake

0 · Apr 8, 2014 · 3 Comments

// This post brought to you by the new vibrant Pillsbury Funfetti® Cake Mixes //

I LOVE going BOLD! I LOVE finding something a little different… I LOVE standing out in a crowd!

Who doesn’t really? We all like to feel like a STAR at times…

Even on those normal, hum drum days…

When the day is normal, the meal is just your typical fair and there is nothing special to celebrate… You CAN add a little FLAIR and turn something typical, into something Funfettilicious!

Our family LOVES strawberry shortcake and we are always looking for fun new “cake” options. We’ve tried several different types of cake from sponge to pound and almost everything in-between! The folks at Pillsbury made my day when they released their new Funfetti® line of cake mixes and bold frostings.

So many fun colors to play with… Immediately I thought of creating a BOLD Strawberry Shortcake with the Vibrant Green Cake Mix…

I knew that the bold green color would look amazing with the strawberries and the cream, together they could turn a normal dessert into something extra special!

What I really love about these new products is how it make baking even more fun with your kiddos! My little guy, Gage and I worked on this project together. It was so fun to open the cake mix together and to our surprise the mix was blue. I thought this would be a fun opportunity for a little kitchen magic so I took a video of the two of us mixing the cake…

Bold Strawberry Shortcake from Heather Thoming on Vimeo.

We had so much fun making this dessert for the family and couldn’t wait to share our goodies. We decided to make it two ways. I found these super cute baking cups from Target that are quite a bit larger than a cupcake liner. They are actually baking cups and create the cutest single serving little cake… We mixed up our cake batter…

Then poured it into our cake molds…

And baked them for about 19 minutes. We pulled them from the oven and let them cool for 20-30 minutes and then we got to work building our strawberry shortcakes. First we made our simple Strawberry Shortcake by just topping a few of the single serving cakes with some strawberries and fresh whipped cream…

Then for a couple more, we decided to make Strawberry Shortcake parfait’s or we could also call them a trifle. No matter what you want to call it… They turned into beautiful, layered strawberry goodness in just a few simple steps.

Gage and I tore up the cake into bite sized pieces and simply layered cake, strawberries, fresh whipped cream, cake, strawberries and topped it all off with a nice dollop of whipped cream.

You know what one of the perks is to helping Mom? You get the first taste…

To quote Gage, “This is TASTY!”

So… How are YOU going to GO BOLD? Check out all of the fun colors you have to choose from…

Visit Pillsbury Baking for all kinds of fun ideas on how to turn the everyday into something special! You can even enter to win a Pillsbury Baking Prize Pack!

Disclaimer // This is a sponsored post. I did receive product and payment for this post. However, all thoughts, ideas and opinions are all my own! ©/® The J.M. Smucker Company. Pillsbury is a trademark of The Pillsbury Company, LLC, used under license.

Sweets

Vanilla Almond Panna Cotta Recipe

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