HOW TO CRACK OPEN A COCONUT

(for Clean Almond Joy Bites)

We have had a coconut sitting on the counter for about a week now, so today my kids talked me into helping them crack it open. This was one stubborn coconut!! 

I don't know if you've ever cracked one open, but this was a first for me. I eat lots of coconut, but I've never used the water and meat from a fresh one. We first used a drill (yes, a drill), to drill the holes on the end of the shell. We drilled into two of the holes and strained the water into a measuring cup. We ended up getting about half a cup...not bad!

After we drained the water, we used a hammer to crack it open. You want to pound it around the entire coconut. 

It took a while for it to budge, but you would've thought we won the lottery when we finally saw that crack!:)

 We then used the hammer to break it into smaller pieces, and pried off the meat from the shell.

One of my kids wanted to make Clean Almond Joy Bars from a recipe he came across on the internet. The recipe was a little hard to follow with an odd measurement, or two, but we went with it, and they turned out pretty amazing!

We first grated our fresh coconut (Of course, you can use sweetened or unsweetened packaged).

Process all ingredients in a food processor until a paste forms (ours didn't really form into a paste, but I think it was because we modified the ingredients a tad bit).

Roll into bars, or balls, top with an almond, and pop into the freezer for 20 minutes.

Take out and top with chocolate, pop them back in the freezer, and freeze for another 10-15 minutes.

ENJOY!!

 Here is the recipe copied straight from the website he found it on www.rippedrecipes.com

Ingredients

•  
• 0.16 tablespoon Coconut Oil
• 1 bar (2.2 oz) Sweet or Dark Chocolate
• 1 dash Salt
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 10 almond Almonds
• 1 tbsp Honey
• 4 serving (serving = 1/4 cup) Bob's Red Mill Unsweetened Flaked Coconut
• 1 serving (serving = 1 packet) Pure Via Stevia
• 
  
• Directions
• 
  
• Combine coconut, honey, stevia, coconut oil, vanilla and salt in food processor. Allow to run for 3-4 minutes until a paste consistency forms. You should be able to form the coconut into small “bar” shapes with your hands. If the coconut won’t stay together, you may need to add a bit more honey.

Form coconut mixture into your (10) candy bars.
Place a single almond on top of each bar.
Freeze for 20 minutes.
Melt 2.5oz of chocolate in the microwave, 30 seconds at a time, stirring until ready.
Using a small skewer or toothpick to hold the bar, dip and cover each candy bar with a light coating of chocolate. You will need to be delicate with the almond!
Freeze for 10-15 minutes until firm.