Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil Review & Giveaway

I’ve got a jar of Tropical Traditions Virgin Coconut Oil. Ok, cool! Now what do I do?

That’s exactly what I was thinking when it arrived for review. I knew I wanted to try it, but what the heck should I do with it to try it out for the first time?

It can be substituted for cooking oil and butter when baking, but I was out of brownies and cake mixes and I sure as shootin’ wasn’t about to bake those from scratch.

That’s when a smoothie popped into my head. My son makes a protein shake every time he works out, and I knew I could use the coconut oil! (My poor son is such a guinea pig. He probably wishes he never came home from college.)

So I came up with a little recipe:

Coconut Fruity-licious Smoothie

1 banana
8-10 strawberries (I used frozen)
1 cup orange juice
2 T coconut oil
1 scoop whey protein

Mix ingredients in blender and serve.

Then came the scary part…trying it.

First I tried a fingertip taste. Yum. Next a spoon full. Yum again.

But, that’s all I was allowed to have, because my son needs to have the full serving of whey protein for his muscles, ya know.

He drank that gargantuan glassful off to the left there…and liked it! He usually just chugs his protein drink while plugging his nose. Over the sink. For fear of an upchuck. This time he drank it happily… merrily even.

Next I am going to be doing some baking and substituting vegetable oil with coconut oil. The jar is going to last me a good long time, and since I do a ton of baking over the holidays, I can appreciate that!

Win It: Tropical Traditions is offering one of my readers the chance to win one quart of the Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil ($37.50 value).

Required Entry: Visit Tropical Traditions and sign up for their newsletter and then come back letting me know you subscribed. This is REQUIRED by sponsor request.

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~Tweet the giveaway: – may be done once daily – 1 entry (leave direct url to tweet)–copy and paste the following:

Enter the Tropical Traditions coconut oil giveaway! @blueviolet @Troptraditions http://bit.ly/3YMMQF

You have until 10pm EST on September 29, 2009 to enter. 1 lucky winner will be randomly selected. I will email the winner and they will have 48 hours to respond to the notification email, or a new winner will be chosen. Open to US residents. Good luck!

Thank you to Tropical Traditions for providing the product for review and giveaway.