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This week at the MeMeTales Readathon is all about Character Development, and the book Ditto the Butterfly talks about the importance of trying new foods. My kids decided to try a coconut!
They all took turns holding and examining it, then Mike poked holes in two of the three eyes and they watched the coconut milk pour out. The they each tried a little coconut milk, and I captured their reactions on film:
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This series of photos illustrates perfectly which one of my children is the “picky” eater – all three kids thought it tasted pretty strange, but guess who didn’t want to try it again after the first taste?
They all liked the coconut meat – but that stuff is HARD to separate from the shell! Is there a trick?
Disclosure: As a power leader for MeMeTales I get free copies of books that I write about.
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I don’t know if there is a trick but I love the post. :)
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so fun! I love your pictures. That will be a cute memory in a few years.
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Those photos are amazing! Lovely post!
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This looks like a fun new food to try!
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Have you tried cooking with coconut oil? I love it!
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I always used a screwdriver to pry it off, but there’s not a good suggestion I know of.
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I loooove coconuts and have several posts on my blog including how to crack one open :) Those are such cute photos…you can totally tell whose the picky eater LOL
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Love these photos! We did this last year with a coconut and drank out of it with a straw! What a great food to try! It has so many great textures and tastes! I wonder if you could dry some of it to try!
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maryanne Reply:
July 4th, 2012 at 11:10 am
We need to try drinking it through a straw – the kids would love that! I’ll have to look into the drying idea too, thanks for the suggestion!
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I remember my mom showing us how to open a coconut with a hammer! We thought it was so amazing and magical that somehow so hard could have “milk!” Great idea!!
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We’ve just discovered young coconuts. They are very different from the ones round brown ones you just tried. They are completely full of the coconut water (which is so yummy to make pina coladas)and the flesh is very thin and very moist. My mom introduced me to these a month a go and now I’m addicted to these yummy little treats. My kids however didn’t really care for the texture of the coconut. I love introducing my kids to fun new foods. Your kiddos faces are great.
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maryanne Reply:
July 3rd, 2012 at 2:52 pm
How interesting – I don’t think I’ve ever seen the young ones. I’ll have to look for some!
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Haven’t tried it yet but heard something about putting it in the oven will pull the meat from the shell but I don’t know about how high or how long… all I’ve got. lol Kids are too cute!!!
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maryanne Reply:
July 3rd, 2012 at 2:52 pm
Fascinating – I’ll have to look into that, thanks!
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The photos are hilarious. We have a *somewhat* picky eater here too, but we are trying to introduce new foods often enough.
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I love the photos too. That looks like so much fun. : )
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maryanne Reply:
July 4th, 2012 at 11:09 am
Thanks! We all had fun with it!
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In a market nearby, they offer to take the shell out for you. So, I’m left with all the meaty goodness :) Cute pics of the kids, by the way :)
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maryanne Reply:
July 4th, 2012 at 11:09 am
That’s my kind of market!
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It’s been ages since I’ve had a whole coconut – what a fun food to introduce to your kids!!
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Hi :) I landed here from Sadia’s blog and the first post I saw was about the coconut ! I’m an Indian and live in Pune, a city in western India. Coconuts are regularly used in Indian cooking. So I thought I might share things I know about the coconut.
We get two types of coconut – the young, green ones and the old, brown ones. Both are very hard to crack open. We slice open the young ones from the top…like one removes perhaps the top part off a bell pepper…with something like a small-ish hatchet. The water inside is very sweet usually and the coconut flesh in soft, creamy and sweet. We dont use this one in cooking. We drink the water and eat the flesh. Its very tasty :) We use the old, brown one in our cooking. We crack it open along its center by hitting it on a hard surface like a stone or the floor or on a small hatchet-like gardening tool. We collect the water in a glass as we crack it open. Its supposed to be done swiftly so that the water doesn’t spill :) We drink this water and then we scrape off the flesh off each half of the coconut and use the scrapings in our daily cooking. We get coconut scrapers. You can search on google for the image :) Coconut is predominantly used in cuisines of western and southern India.
Sorry I’ve taken up too much space in my excitement of sharing, I guess. Hope you don’t mind. :)
Now I’m off to explore your blog further :)
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maryanne Reply:
July 4th, 2012 at 11:09 am
Thanks for dropping by – and for all the information about coconuts! I’ll have to look for a coconut scraper!
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Love Johnny’s face!
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I LOVE coconut but my kids aren’t that keen – maybe doing something like this would help change their minds :) LOVE all the info from THE Wanderer too!
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maryanne Reply:
July 6th, 2012 at 5:38 pm
The Wanderer’s comment was fantastic, wasn’t it! Nothing like genuine first-hand knowledge!
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The Wanderer Reply:
July 11th, 2012 at 2:22 am
Thanks Maryanne :)
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The Wanderer Reply:
July 11th, 2012 at 2:21 am
Thanks Cristi :)
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You can find coconuts in Buffalo! :)
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maryanne Reply:
July 7th, 2012 at 10:53 am
lol I’m still curious as to where that coconut came from!
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Love the pictures. I agree about it being hard to get the coconut meat. I recently discovered dried young coconut at a Costco store. There are dried mangos and dried tart cherries. One of my children (the picky one) doesn’t like the texture. I see that someone else commented about young coconuts. I haven’t seen any at the store that are fresh. I’ll have to look.
I think it’s great you are exposing your kids to new foods. I try and don’t make a big deal about my picky one. He does try new foods every now and then. When he finds out something is really good he didn’t try for a long time, he always says, “I can’t believe I didn’t like this before now.”
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I think coconut is available in markets specially in oriental markets. Young coconut is softer than these brown ones.
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maryanne Reply:
July 27th, 2012 at 7:19 am
I’ll have to look for young coconut next time…
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