Coconut Rice

Some of my friends have a huge problem with coconut, and some of my friends are crazy. Some of my friends fall into the venn diagram space where they are both crazy and have an issue with coconut. While I am not one to imply that correlation suggests causation, it makes me wonder sometimes. I am obsessed with coconut. Even though it's horrible for the environment, I love the smell of banana boat suntan lotion. It reminds me of a Vegas pool in the summertime. I know that coconuts are full of fat, so I try to limit them in my diet as I am trying to lose another 10 pounds. However, I had some flaked coconut left over from the grrl scout cookie experiment, and I was trying to come up with a good way to use both that and the can of coconut milk that has been camped out in my pantry for what seems like months. I decided that if you can use vegetable broth to flavor rice, there's no reason why you can't use coconut milk as well. For this recipe, I use a blend of white and brown rice, so that you get the health benefits of the brown rice combined with some of the lighter texture of the white. I thought about calling it "Doesn't Matter if You're Brown or White", because I just saw Captain Eo at Disneyland. However, we'll just stick with Vegan Coconut Rice, because I am writing this much too early on a Saturday morning for such puns and games.
 

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

String beans and mushrooms and garlic and vegetable broth. Yum!

Before the revolution, I used to be wild about string bean casserole with cream of mushroom soup and fried onions. Now, I find the idea a little revolting. However, I can still get behind the flavor combination of mushrooms and string beans. It has been awhile since I picked up any string beans, and I decided I wanted to work them into my weekly menu plan. I buy mushrooms just about every week, and put them on everything from pizza to veggie burgers, so I'm always looking to use them.