Green Your Mom Giveaway Hop and Two Mother's Day Gifts with Coconut Oil

 

Welcome to the Green Your Mom Giveaway Hop, hosted by Happy Mothering, Eco-Crazy Mom and Simple City Life. Each of the participating blogs has a prize package worth at least $20 that will help you Green Your Mom for Mother's Day. After you enter my giveaway, be sure to visit all of the other fabulous blogs listed below the Rafflecopter form. Thank you and good luck!

Win 1 quart of  Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil!

Tropical Traditions is America's source for coconut oil. Their Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil is hand crafted in small batches by family producers, and it is the highest quality coconut oil they offer. You can read more about how virgin coconut oil is different from other coconut oils on their website: What is Virgin Coconut Oil? You can also watch the video they produced about Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil:

Tropical Traditions also carries other varieties of affordable high quality coconut oil. Visit their website to check on current sales, to learn about the many uses of coconut oil, and to read about all the  advantages of buying coconut oil online. Since the FDA does not want us to discuss the health benefits of coconut oil on a page where it is being sold or given away, here is the best website to read about the health benefits of coconut oil.

Tropical Traditions is generously offering one Garden Me reader their very own 1 quart size Gold Label organic virgin coconut oil!  Your can read my product review here (its good stuff!). And just in case you are scratching you head over coconut oil for Mother's Day, I'll show you some lovely things you (or your mom!) can do with it: Cocoa Cherry Energy Bites and Tropical Brown Sugar Scrub.

Cocoa Cherry Energy Bites

Rich with dark chocolate flavor and tart from dried cherries, these bites are filled with healthy fats, omega-3 from the walnuts, antioxidants, and fiber. All that, and no added refined sugars! With the exception of the coconut oil and cocoa, I bought all the ingredients from the bulk section at our local natural food store, Green Hut. Next time I will replace the peanuts with almonds or macadamia nuts to bring out chocolate and cherry even more. Adding cinnamon would add some depth, too. So many yummy permutations!

• 2/3 cup walnuts
• 1/3 cup peanuts
• 2/3 cup dried cherries
• 1/3 cup date pieces
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 2 Tablespoons cocoa
• 1 Tablespoon virgin coconut oil

Combine all ingredients in a food processor until almost smooth. Form into a rectangle and cut into bite size pieces. Roll in dessicated, unsweetened coconut. Yield: 30 1-inch balls.

Tropical Brown Sugar Scrub

 Making your own sugar scrub is such a frugal and easy gift! My friend Janice made a heavenly one with lavender and rosemary essential oils--perfect for a relaxing foot scrub! But maybe you don't know what scents your recipient likes, or they are sensitive to strong scents like my mom is. This brown sugar scrub smells sweet with light coconut and a hint of citrus. It tastes so good I occasionally scrub my tongue face with it. The large crystals of the brown sugar are perfect for exfoliating feet and the coconut oil is soothing and nourishing. (Unsolicited advice: use a basin or a no-slip mat since all types of scrubs will make the bath slippery.)

• Fill a small jar with brown sugar
• Pour melted coconut oil over the sugar a little at a time, stirring to make a paste. I think this is a 2 cup jar and I used about 3 Tablespoons.
• Stir in 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice and 1 Tablespoon of lime juice. I used bottled from concentrate.

And you're done! I modified this recipe from HealthyGreenKitchen


To enter the giveaway,  just fill out the Rafflecopter form below (it may take a moment to load). The only mandatory entry is to sign up for the Tropical Traditions email, which will let you know what's on sale, give links to new recipes, and (my favorite) give a link to a list of ongoing giveaways of TT products.

This contest is open to US and Canadian residents age 18 and over. I will email the winner who will have 48 hours to respond or another will be drawn.

Tropical Traditions Organic Virgin Coconut Oil Review

I really like using virgin coconut oil! The Internet has a lot of summaries of research done on the health benefits of coconut oil. Or if you enjoy perusing research articles like I do, you can search Pubmed! (I spent more time reading research papers than writing this post, and I'm a slow writer.)

Virgin Coconut Oil is wonderfully moisturizing to the skin and can be used as an ingredient in homemade beauty and hygiene products (moisturizers, conditioner, deodorant, diaper cream, etc). My absolute favorite use is to moisturize and calm the sting after shaving my legs!

I recently had the opportunity to review Tropical Traditions Gold Label Organic Virgin Coconut Oil. I have tried several coconut oils and this one is my favorite by far! It has a light, clean coconut scent and is so much richer and more delicious than refined coconut oil. I really like that it is processed by a simple, traditional method right on the farms. Its not the cheapest, but I really would recommend this product for its high quality and organic good-for-the-Earth production!

To elaborate, here are some of my experiences with the Gold Label coconut oil.
Baked goods: I replaced the oil that was called for in banana muffins and brownies with coconut oil. I had to melt it (in the measuring cup, not the whole bottle) to measure it and then when it combined with the cold ingredients, like eggs, it solidified again. I just made sure I mixed quickly and thoroughly so that there were no big chunks and it was evenly distributed. Everything came out just fine, so I would definitely do it again. I didn't really notice any coconut flavor in the muffins, but the brownies were an amazing coconut-scented chocolate!

Stir-Frying: I stir-fried chicken strips in the oil which filled the house with its smell--not bad at all. I didn't taste coconut in the dish, but  it was seasoned with curry powder, which is strong in itself.

Assorted Goodies: There are oodles and oodles of ways to make delicious goodies with coconut oil and Tropical Traditions is a really great resource for recipes. I will blog about my Cocoa Cherry Energy Bites and Tropical Sugar Scrub soon! Right now I'm having fun tweaking an experimental recipe for satisfying my dark chocolate cravings.

Sneak peek at the Cocoa Cherry Bites!

Buy It: You can buy your own coconut oil and many other healthy and delicious products at Tropical Traditions. If you order by clicking on any of my links and have never ordered from Tropical Traditions in the past, you will receive a free book on Virgin Coconut Oil, and I will receive a discount coupon for referring you :-)

Win It! Come back May 1st for the Green Your Mom blog hop for your chance to win a quart jar of Gold Label Organic Virgin Coconut Oil! I know a bunch of green moms who would be thrilled to get this versatile oil for Mother's Day :-)

Virgin Coconut Oil, Gold Label - 1 quart

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.

Easter Eggs with Natural Dyes

A search for naturally dyed Easter eggs produces A LOT of results and I think that’s great! It was this blog that got me excited about trying it, since she simplified it into recipes. I love the rich colors! I ended up using things I had on hand in the pantry and the freezer. In brief, I boiled the eggs in 2 cups water, 1 Tablespoon white vinegar, and the coloring material for 11 minutes. Then I removed the eggs, strained the dye into a jar, and replaced the eggs. Finally, I let the jars cool, put them in the fridge for about 20 hours, and drained them, letting the eggs dry on paper towels.

Ready to begin. They all smelled delicious while cooking!

Cooling and looking beautiful in the sunlight.

Happy colors!

Yeah, these are dyes--they stain! Next time I will be more careful.

1 cup frozen blueberries

1 Tablespoon dill seed and 1 cup onion skins--my favorite!

1 cup raspberries (to no effect?) and 3/4 teaspoon turmeric.

I am really happy with the results and I look forward to doing it again. Maybe I won't even wait until next Easter, but will work on perfecting my technique (less mess?).  I would have tried more colors but we didn't have many eggs and no immediate gatherings where they can be eaten and not wasted. 

I wouldn’t want eggs to go to waste and what good are natural dyes if you don’t eat the results? So I ate one! I tried the onion/dill seed since that seems like the least scary flavor. There was a faint taste of dill, which was very nice and the egg was delicious with salt and pepper. Of course I’ve already started burping it, but that’s the price I pay :-)

Yum.

Blue looks slightly less appealing, but there was no blueberry flavor.

The little guy liked 'em! And by liked I mean nibbled, squished, smeared, and threw on the floor :-)

I had a hard time throwing away the dyes, thinking I might use them for dying yarn or cloth. But I really wasn't prepared research-wise and I really didn't have enough time, so I put them down the drain. There are certainly more dying materials where they came from!  There are also MANY resources online for using other natural materials as dyes, like this one. 

Which brings to mind... By Annie Claire is a lovely lady who dyes yarn with plants from her land. You should check out her Spring colors; dyed with horsetail, bracken, mint, and daffodils, they are so sweet! And she's having a yarn giveaway!

Quick Enchilada Sauce Recipe

I made some delicious enchiladas from a Betty Crocker cookbook last night, but I whipped up my own sauce to put on it. I just threw some things together and it turned out great!

16 oz. tomato sauce

1 T. chili powder

1 t. Adobo sauce from canned chipotle peppers

½ t. Cumin

½ t. Salt

½ t. Onion powder

½ t. Smoked paprika

¼ t. Garlic powder

¼ t. Freshly ground black pepper

Stir and use!