I love coconut milk and gelatin so I developed a delicious recipe that gives us the tastiness and great nutrition of both. Coconut milk contains vitamins, minerals and antioxidants which are all great. More exciting is that coconut milk is rich in a unique substance, lauric acid, which is a medium-chain fatty acid.  Lauric acid is abundant in mother’s milk; it is important for little developing brains and used to help people with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.  Lauric acid is anti-fungal, anti-viral and anti-bacterial. I use full fat coconut milk because the coconut oil of the coconut milk is where a lot of the benefit is located. I look for coconut milk that does not have preservatives, we don’t have a problem with guar gum, it is a thickening agent derived from guar beans. Native Forest organic coconut milk is canned with BPA free cans. If your coconut milk has a thick layer of hardened  coconut oil on the top just gently warm it or blend it.  

Coconut Milk Jellies recipe
  
2 Cups water

2/3 cup Bernard Jensens gelatin (If using Great Lakes gelatin reduce to ½ cup)

1 (13.66 fl oz) can of full fat coconut milk

¼ tsp stevia (this is equal to ½ cup of sugar sweetness)

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 drops of orange or lemon essential oil (optional)
 
Put the water into a microwave proof dish, I use a large glass measuring cup. Sprinkle the gelatin into the water a little bit at a time, stirring to prevent clumping.  Allow the gelatin mixture to sit for 5 minutes. Microwave the gelatin mixture for 2 minutes until hot but not boiling. If you don’t like to use the microwave, boil a pot of water that your glass dish of softened gelatin will fit into without boiling water getting into your gelatin. Carefully place your dish of softened gelatin into the boiling water, stir for a few minutes until the gelatin is melted, remove the dish from the boiling water. 

Pour the coconut milk, stevia, vanilla and essential oil, if using, into a large container with a pouring spout, I use an 8 cup measuring bowl,  add the hot gelatin to the coconut milk mixture. Stir well. Pour into 48 small silicone
molds. You need to put the molds on cookie sheets or you will have a big mess when you try to pick it up. I only did that once! You can pour the mixture into a large glass pan 9x13 or larger. I like to use the silicone molds because they only take 2 hours to set up and they are fun to eat.  

Refrigerate, after the coconut jellies are set up, pop out of the molds or cut into squares. Store your coconut milk jellies in the refrigerator. Makes 48.

I got my silicone molds at Joanne’s craft store with my 50 % off coupon, they were $6 each. I saw a cute daisy mold there.

When I tell people that we eat “high fat, moderate protein and low carb”, they usually say “you eat high fat?” We have turned the “food pyramid” upside down, placing healthy fats on the bottom and carbohydrates on the top. When you do not eat carbohydrates like grains, potatoes and corn and instead eat healthy fats like coconut oil, pastured butter, cream, and olive oil, your body gets the energy that it needs from the good fat that you eat. As these fats do not raise your blood sugar levels, and if you are avoiding sugar and carbohydrates, your insulin levels will be lower causing your metabolism to be better at burning fat rather than storing it.

This is a brief explanation of what I have learned about fat these past two years. I bought into the low-fat diet theory that was fed to the public in the 80’s and 90’s. Ahh... Snack Wells, those delicious cookies that I could eat with abandon because they were fat free!! Of course, they had to replace the missing fat with carbohydrates! Now, I do not look at the fat gram info; I just care about protein and carbohydrate grams. The protein grams should be nice and high, the carb grams should be low.

In the book “The Protein Power Lifeplan” by Michael R Eades, M.D. and Mary Dan Eades, M.D. introduction page xxi they write:

    "The astounding thing about the whole low-fat-diet disaster is that the entire country (actually, the entire world, at least that part of it that was boneheaded enough to take it seriously) took part in a long-term scientific study based on theories—not fact, but theories—that turned out to be wrong.” 
 
In the same book on page xix of the introduction they write:
      
     “We attended the Second International Symposium on Dietary Fats and Oil Consumption in Health and
Disease hosted by Southwestern University Medical School in Dallas, Texas, in April 1996. At which nutritional researchers from around the world presented their findings on the effects of fat in the human diet. After the presentations showing that study subjects following the low-fat diet hadn’t gotten rid of their obesity, hadn’t lowered their cholesterol levels, had lowered their HDL levels (the good cholesterol), and had increased their blood levels of triglycerides (a major risk factor for heart disease;…), the moderators of the symposium pronounced the low-fat diet a failure”.

 A great article was also published just this week on FoxNews.com: “Want to get healthier and leaner? Eat more fat” written by Jacqueline Silvestri Banks. She writes: 

     “The low-fat diet craze that started in the 1990’s should have made us all lean and cured America’s obesity
epidemic. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. Instead, we became so afraid of fat that we traded in traditional foods (full fat dairy, butter, lard and even bacon) for man-made, low-fat versions (non-fat dairy, margarine or vegetable spreads, vegetable oils and meat alternatives). However, adding traditional fats back into your diet could actually make you healthier and leaner. Yes, you read that right. Fat will not make you fat. A 2003 study from the Harvard School of Public Health showed that people who ate a high fat diet lost more weight than those on a high-carbohydrate diet, even when the high-fat group ate 300 more calories per day”. Click here for the entire article. 

We have really enjoyed getting our energy from healthy fats instead of carbohydrates. Coconut oil, Butter, full fat cheeses, bacon and sausage (free of nitrates and nitrites) are so delicious and satisfying and keep you feeling full
much longer than a bowl full of sugar-coated carbs. Mark lost 30 pounds in two months when we started eating this way. Now both of our weight is very stable, we eat a lot, are never hungry and do not gain weight. We avoid shortening, margarine, vegetable oils, and corn oils; anything that says partially hydrogenated oil means trans fat!

Mom’s “Better Butter”

My Mom has been making “Better Butter” for at least 20 years. At first she made it with Canola Oil but discovered that Canola Oil is made from genetically modified rapeseed. She now makes it with Light Olive Oil—the kind that you can bake with, not extra virgin. It is nice to have a butter that comes out spreadable from the refrigerator.

 
Better Butter

 1 Pound of butter, softened to room temperature (pastured or organic is best)

 1 cup of Light Olive Oil

 ½ tsp sea salt (I use real salt)

Whip your butter first and then slowly drizzle the olive oil into the butter (doing it this way will help the oil not splatter out of your bowl.) Add the sea salt, beat the butter mixture until nice and fluffy. Pour the butter into your
containers. I use two glass lock-n-lock containers. Refrigerate.