Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil Review

Tropical Traditions sent me a sample of their Gold Label Standard Virgin Coconut Oil to try. It came right before we went to Disney World so I just stuck it in the cabinet with intent to try it when we got back. Then our power was out for a week and various other things went on, so I finally just got a chance to try it this week. I wasn't sure what to make, though, so I went to their website, which is full of great recipes, for some ideas.

I think I've mentioned before that I don't cook very much. I love food, but I do not have a love for cooking. So first and foremost, I was looking for something easy. I was happy to find lots of recipes that only called for a few ingredients and that were easy for someone like me to make! I was going to make coconut balls -my husband loves coconut and I thought he might enjoy those, but I could not find any unsweetened coconut flakes at the store, so I decided to go with my daughter's pick instead: egg drop soup (recipe below). Alex loves egg drop soup, but I'm the only other one in the house who likes Chinese food, so we don't eat it very often. She was thrilled when I told her what I was making. 

I pulled the recipe up on my iPad, gathered my ingredients
 and got started. I went ahead and beat the eggs first.

Then I mixed chicken stock, water, and ginger in a pot and brought it to simmering. After it got hot, I stirred in some cornstarch to thicken the broth.

Once that heats up, you drizzle the eggs into the broth. This was the only involved part. I was scared of screwing it up so I didn't take pictures while I was doing it, but it was actually VERY easy.

The last step is to stir in the coconut oil. If you've never used coconut oil, you should know ahead of time that it doesn't look like vegetable oil unless it's warm. When it arrived at my house in the 100 degree temperatures, it was definitely a liquid. But at it's room temperature state, it's more of a creamy solid. I scooped it into the egg drop soup and it really made the soup. Before the coconut oil, it tasted like chicken broth with eggs in it. After I added it, it tasted just like egg drop soup from a good Chinese restaurant! I was very impressed. Alex loved it!

The finished product - YUM!

I am looking forward to trying out more recipes with this coconut oil. I think it will bring a lot of unique flavor to whatever its added to. 

Have you ever used coconut oil? What did you make with it? 

Egg Drop Soup with Coconut Oil

• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1 1/2 - 2 cups water
• 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2-3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 4-5 eggs, beaten
• organic fermented soy sauce (or salt) to taste
• 3 tablespoons coconut oil

Pour chicken stock, water and ground ginger into a medium sized pot. Heat until hot but not yet simmering. Add a little water to the cornstarch to make a slurry and stir into the stock. Bring stock to a simmer, stirring constantly until it has thickened slightly.

Drizzle the beaten eggs into the gently simmering soup with a fork. Push cooked egg aside as you drizzle more in. Towards the end you can just slowly pour the rest of eggs into the soup.

Season the soup with a little soy sauce (or salt) to taste and stir in coconut oil. Serve and enjoy!

Connect with Tropical Traditions:

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

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 in return for the free product. 

Cucumber Tomato Salad

Confession: I can't cook. Or rather, I don't cook. My husband does the majority of the cooking around here, and we eat out more than I would care to admit. I really do not spend a lot of time in the kitchen except to clean (what I lack in cooking skills I more than make up for in cleaning skills!) Anyway, I said all of that to get to this point: if you see a recipe posted on here, then you can be assured that it is very EASY to make. I also don't do well digging out cookbooks and measuring things out (shaky hands and little measuring spoons do not mix). So I eyeball lots of things and estimate amounts and usually just pour ingredients straight into the bowl. If I can do it and have tasty results, anyone can!


We've had lots of fresh tomatoes and cucumbers in our produce boxes this summer. What better way to enjoy them than in a salad? My kids love tomatoes and cucumbers and so they gobble this salad right up! 


Tomato Cucumber Salad 


2 medium tomatoes  
1 large cucumber
1 medium or large onion
1 teaspoon salt 
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Approximately 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (you can also use olive or canola)
Approximately 2 tablespoons white vinegar


I find it works well to use a casserole type dish because more veggies can be in the dressing once your pour that in. Chop up your veggies into your dish. Mix your other ingredients in a small cup and then pour it over your veggies. Stir the veggies up to mix the dressing over everything. Place in refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Everything tastes better after it marinates in the dressing. Ideally, you'll want to leave it in overnight, or if you are serving it at night, make it in the morning and let it marinate in the refrigerator all day. I estimate my ingredients for the dressing and truthfully, I probably use about 4 tablespoons vinegar because my daughter and I love it!


Here's the one I made today. We had no onions but lots of green peppers. So I added a couple of those, one red tomato, one orange heirloom tomato, two small albino cucumbers, and one small regular cucumber. That's the beauty of this "recipe" - if you are missing something, just adapt the recipe or if you have other fresh veggies on hand that you think would taste good, just toss them in! Doesn't it look colorful and yummy?

Do you have a favorite summer salad you like to make?