Dairy Free Monkey Bread with frosting

I am a complete fan of monkey bread! I just can't get enough of the ooey gooey caramel-ly frosting covered goodness of it! However, I am now lactose intolerant/allergic- whatever.

So monkey bread is at the top of my DO NOT EAT list.

 

I've been messing around with a few recipes I've seen online, and none of them are tasty enough, or even resemble the monkey bread flavor so fresh in my mind and on my taste buds.

 

Today I made up my own recipe, and am SO pleased with the results that I had to get it written down somewhere so I can repeat it daily monthly.

 

 

I made a small(er) batch because my family gladly indulges in "the real thing" while I have my own batch of non dairy whatever to myself.

 

Double, triple, or keep it as it reads.

 

Dairy Free Monkey Bread

2 cans crescent rolls (I use Pillsbury original)

cinnamon

white sugar

 

1.5 cups brown sugar

1 14oz can coconut milk

2 T corn syrup

2 T coconut oil

1 tsp vanilla

 

Remove crescent rolls and slice log into 8 pieces. Cut each piece in half. Put cinnamon-sugar in a Ziploc bag and toss about 8 pieces into bag at a time. Coat with cinnamon sugar. Place coated pieces in casserole dish (or bundt pan if making a lager batch). Repeat until all pieces are coated.

 

In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, coconut milk, and corn syrup. Cook on medium heat until mixture begins to boil (and foam- and look delicious). Remove from heat. Add coconut oil and vanilla. Stir until melted. Pour mixture over crescent rolls. (This makes way more caramel sauce than you need. I poured the rest in a mason jar and tossed it in the fridge for whatever else I decide needs to be covered in caramel in the next few weeks. You can half it, but then you're left with half a can of coconut milk)

 

Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 30 mins or until golden brown.

 

 

At this point, you can pour on a bit more caramel sauce and call it delicious. OR you can make a frosting for it.

 

Frosting

1/8 cup shortening

2 T coconut oil

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1-2 tsp fresh lemon juice

lemon zest (optional)

 

Beat all ingredients until fluffy, spread on monkey bread.

 

ENJOY!!! (I am)

Frozen Birthday Party

We caught the fever of Frozen! Lovebug had a pirate party half planned for her birthday when we went to see the movie. As we walked out of the theater, she announced that she wanted a Frozen birthday party.

 

This was mid-January, and as many know, there was no Frozen merchandise to be found both online or in a store. I loved Frozen as well, so it didn't take much arm twisting to get me on board. Lovebug wants to be Elsa for Halloween. I am all about multi-uses for costume. You can't find them anywhere OR a pattern for the dress, so I was left to my own devices. I used a princess nightgown to trace the  bodice and then winged it from there.

 

Here is my "Elsa"

 She didn't want poofy princess, but there was no way I was doing  a slit for a 5 year old, even if its only to the knee. A hidden pleat was the answer.

On to the party!!

 

The invitation

 

Decorations

 

We made a bunch of these snowflakes. I loved the youtube tute HERE:

 

 

 

I used the lithographs that came with my Blu-ray preorder from Disney Store here and there to add scenes from the movie. The cone trees are 12x12 velum and have Christmas lights inside of them.

 

Remember that parachute we have? Yep. Its not just a wedding canopy, its snow. I draped it all over the family room.

 

I didn't get as much done ahead of time as planned so the morning of the party was busy and I didn't get all the details photographed. I missed the major Christmas clearance at the craft stores, because we saw the movie and switched themes so late. But I did manage to find a lot of floral sticks, swags, etc at Joann and then used what I had left from Lovebug's fairy party a few years back. I was looking for white, silver, purple, aqua, and blue for the color scheme and everything was covered in glitter. :)

 

Party fun

 

All the girls received tutus

 and tiaras that I found at Joann.

The boys had reindeer antlers and scarves. The antlers were made from a pattern I found HERE

 

 

We also had lots of yummy treats to put in goody bags. I found some stickers on Amazon as well.

 

 

Everyone took home an Olaf building kit. I got the printable from HERE

There were a lot of Valentine versions floating around the web, but I liked this one because it wasn't Valentine themed. I did have to adjust the size of it.

 

Inside there are three large marshmallows- one has "hair" that we made with tootsie rolls shaped like his hair. Two Wilton eyes, one orange Mike n Ike candy for the carrot nose, two stick pretzels, three brown mini M&Ms and two small marshmallows for the feet.

 

 

The food/dessert table

 

I didn't get a photo before they started digging in!!

Parfaits made with keylime yogurt, coconut macaroon, and coconut. I used keylime and vanilla yogurt mixed them together to make the flavor more subtle. I also added a bit of blue food coloring to adjust the color. They were layed with the plain vanilla yogurt, macaroon and coconut, then topped with coconut.

 

Snowflake sandwiches 

 

Blue jello jiggles "ice blocks" were the most popular item!

 

Cupcakes! I made the snowflakes out of vanilla candy melts. The idea was from HERE and she did a much better job than I did. I think my cold kitchen was to blame.

 

The cupcakes were from HERE and were so delicious! Again my kitchen was too cold for the frosting to work with the swirl :( So we just spread it on the best we could as the party guests arrived.

 

In the background you can see the candy coated marshmallows. Just mallows dipped in candy coating and covered in sprinkles.

 

 

Candy coating dipped pretzels and munchkin 'Snowballs"

 

 

We played some youtube Frozen videos with lyrics on the TV and the kids sang karaoke with it for a while.

 

The big hit was the snowball fight. We used Snowtime Anytime snowballs. We have had a snowball fight every day since we bought them several weeks ago. So much fun!!

 

We played Pin the Carrot on Olaf. I used this PRINTABLE and enlarged it at Staples.

 

We played Freeze tag and Freeze dancing.

 

 

It was a great party!!

 



I'm a little teapot word art

Made this little gem for my kitchen. It turned out too cute not to share :)

 

 

Enjoy!