CoffeCoNut – Coffee Lovers Watch Out

It been a few months now that I’ve started something new with my diet, basically an addition of a few things.

Back in November 2014 I wrote a story “Coffee and Colitis – Good or Bad“, and that was just about two months into my trial of cutting out all coffee.  Yeah it was tuff at the beginning, but I was able to go coffee free all the way thru the New Year.

And guess what…I miss that stuff. 

Big friggin time.  If you’ve ever cut it out, I’m guessing you know what I’m talking about.

So, since my colitis has been in remission, and I proved to myself that it is for sure possible to cut it out if so inclined, in January of this year I got back on the coffee train.  And holy crap, I’m loving it once again.

But this time, I’m doing something different.  It actually a lot more fun making the morning coffee (and sometimes a small small one in the afternoon too right:))

What’s new…?

Coconut Milk to the rescue!

If you are convinced like me that milk products (and I’m talking about stuff from cows or other mammals, not talking about yogurts here though folks)  are not the best for your colon and your colitis, well…I hear you and agree.

Also, if you are the type of person who is still drinking coffee, still putting in milk or cream, still has active colitis symptoms, still runs off the the bathroom more frequently than you’d like…I think this might be a great thing to try out.

Let’s not forget, if you’re the type of person who has been drinking coffee, and you currently have your UC symptoms under control, but you’re not putting anything in there…just drinking it black… definitely keep on reading, cause you’re world is going to change today, same deal as me.

And if you put honey in your coffee, WAY TO GO!

So here’s the deal:

I’ve started added coconut milk to my coffee.

And, the fun part is I make it myself.

It takes about 1 minute of work, and 9 minutes of sitting, so no excuse not to give it a try.

Ingredients and what You’ll Need

• Coconut Flakes/Shredded (dried and usually shredded)
• Water (2:1…. or in English…you need twice as much water as you have coconut flakes.  for example, if you have one liter of coconut flakes, you need 2 liters of water.  If you have 1 cup of coconut flakes, you need two cups of water…simple right?:)
• Coffee grinded up
• 1 Blender (if it’s a glass one…GREAT!)
• 1 strainer or cheesecloth
• 1 French Press
• Glass Container (or French Press can be used here too if glass)
• Honey optional (I always use it)

Here’s how I Make It

1. Boil Water.  (Boil twice as much as you have coconut milk flakes)
2. Put your coconut flakes in a Glass container.   Needs to be glass because boiling water doesn’t do to well with most plastic containers…  You are going to need enough room in the glass container to fit your boiling water and coconut flakes, so make sure there is plenty of room.
3. With boiling water and coconut flakes sitting in glass container, let them sit for about 8-10 minutes, stir occasionally if you like.  But if you have put in the correct amount of water, the coconut flakes should be nearly submerged in the liquid, and a nice smell should start making its way to your nose:)
4. The mixture should now have cooled down a little bit to the point where its safe to put into the blender.  The goal is to get all the good coconut milk out of the flakes so we can strain it in a bit.  So put everything in the blender.  Be careful since its all still hot.  Put your lid on the blender, hold the lid down tight(sometimes they want to fly off:).  And get your blend on.  Maybe a 20-40 second blend is all you’ll need.
5. Next, you need to strain out the coconut milk.  So get your glass container.  Put that on the counter, and pour the contents from the blender through the strainer so you separate the flakes from the milk.  The milk should start building up in your glass container.  You can use a cheesecloth if you like.  But do what you can to get as much liquid as you can.  I sometimes start pressing the flakes against the bottom of my strainer to squeeze as much as possible.
6. OK, almost done, now you have your coconut milk, the final product, and it’s coffee time.  The next steps are how I do it.
7. Take the coconut milk and heat up however much is wanted in a pan on the stove.  Bring to a boil.
8. Place a teaspoon of coffee in french press.  Coffee needs to be ground up rather fine.
9. Add boiled coconut milk to french press and let sit for a minute or two.
10. Pour into coffee mug and add……HONEY! (if you like)

That’s pretty much it.  I’m really loving these, and it’s a bit of fun.

I definitely believe that regular milk and regular cane sugars are a NO NO for my colitis and that of thousands of others, but since so many of us love coffee “the way we used to drink it”…I’m hoping that something like this might cure the urge so many of us have.

And for everyone wondering….yes, feel free to use old fashioned coconut milk you can buy “premade” at the store, but just as a friendly warning…I can assure you it won’t taste nearly as good, nor will your room smell as good when you’re making it.  And if you have friends over for coffee…they probably won’t be as impressed.  But i’ve been wrong before:)

Enjoy, and let me know what you think, CoffeCoNut anyone?

Adam Scheuer

(Below are some Amazon Affiliate Links from the iHaveUC account for products mentioned above that are the same or darn similar to what I use.  If you order anything on Amazon after clicking any of the links below, iHaveUC will receive a small percentage of your order, that’s how they work.)