Review & Giveaway: Tropical Traditions Virgin Coconut Oil - CLOSED

This giveaway has ended!  Thanks for visiting!

I can honestly say that the most amazing smell is coconut oil and cocoa powder cooking over the stove!  I received a quart size jar of virgin coconut oil from Tropical Traditions for review and decided that although I had read about all the great uses for coconut oil in savory recipes, we were going to first make dessert!  I browsed through the selection of free recipes available through Tropical Traditions and opted to try the Chocolate Coconut Peanut Butter No-Bakes!  I also used the no-bakes mix as a based for a layered dessert that included the no-bakes "crust", banana pudding, and crushed vanilla wafers.  The layered dessert was consumed too quickly to take pictures (sorry!)  I never make a recipe as it's written and had sweetened cocount on hand, so here's my modification:                               

Chocolate Coconut Peanut Butter No-Bakes

1/2 cup sugar

2 rounded Tablespoons of cocoa

1/2 cup virgin coconut oil

3/4 2% milk

1/2 C creamy peanut butter

1 tsp. pure vanilla

5 cups sweetened coconut

Mix sugar, cocoa, oil, and milk in saucepan.  Bring to a boil and while whisking continuously, boil for 1 minute.  Remove from heat and add peanut butter and vanilla.  Once the peanut butter is melted, stir in the coconut and scoop onto a cookie sheet. I stuck the no-bakes in the freezer to harden, but they will need to be stored in the refrigerator or freezer because they get soft quickly!

My version of the No Bakes (at least what was left out of two dozen)!

We really liked the flavor of these no bakes!  They were sweet, but not too sweet!  Granted with this recipe you have to love coconut, but the coconut oil itself was only a light flavor before adding the flake coconut itself!  I can't wait to try some of the savory recipes for coconut oil as well!  Tropical Traditions offers so much more than coconut oil, so you should check out their site if you are in the market for organic foods or skin care products!  If you order today and use code 6462728 (in the referred by a friend) during your first online order at Tropical Traditions, you'll receive a copy of the book Virgin Coconut Oil.

Giveaway Details:

One winner will receive a quart of Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil ($37.50 value/sale price $27.50). This giveaway will end on September 6, 2010 at 9:30PM Central.  I'll email the winner who will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen!

Mandatory Entry:

Visit Tropical Traditions and let me know which recipe you will be trying first, something you learned about cooking with virgin coconut oil or another product that you'd love to try from Tropical Traditions!

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Tweet about this giveaway (up to 3x daily, must be at least 1 hour apart) and come back here and leave me a link to your tweet and your twitter ID!

#win VirginCoconutOil @monkeyswashtub @Troptraditions http://goo.gl/fb/GP07y ! Ends 9/6 RT Pls!

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Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.  The opinions presented above are mine and may differ from others.