Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil Review

In our home, we try to keep things deliberate and simple.  That approach gets a bit more complicated when we add in budgeting, like for our food purchases, but basically our food approach is pretty simple.

1. Life is too short to eat things that taste yucky.
2. Life is too short to obsess over what we eat, after all, we're going to die anyway.  Our efforts can be better used on things that will last eternally.
3. Life is too short to further shorten it by willy nilly consumption of unhealthy industrialized food, and we have a responsibility to our children, and to God, to try to leave things better than we found them.

So basically, we try to eat healthy - real foods, local foods, sustainable foods - we try to eat frugally - home made foods, from scratch foods, bulk foods - and we try to eat practically - simple foods, nutritionally dense foods.

Nathan approves.

One simple way that we try to be healthy is by making sure that the fats in our kitchen are good fats.  We avoid all vegetable oils and shortenings, and prefer butter, olive oil, and lard.  And, we've been exploring coconut oil as well!

Tropical Traditions was kind enough to send us some of their delicious coconut oil for review purposes.  We LOVED it.  If they had sent us five gallons instead, we would have eaten it all and died of happiness... so I guess it's a good thing they didn't or we wouldn't still be around to share how good it is! ;) 

As a nursing mama, I've noticed that my energy levels are better when I make a point of having plenty of good fats in my diet.  I know a mama whose midwife specifically recommended to her to take a tablespoon of coconut oil every day to make sure that she was getting enough good fat in her diet!  I know that personally, I would much rather take that tablespoon in fudge, but either way coconut oil is a great fat to be consuming and I have felt that for me personally it was an energy booster.

grilled cheese sandwich with coconut oil... yum!

We still need to sit down and do the math to see just how large a place coconut oil will have in our pantry and diet. 

But, as this very tasty jar of Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil confirmed for us, coconut oil definitely will be a pantry staple from now on around here!




Ways to enjoy Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil:

• on bread!
• in fudge!
• use for popcorn - this is particularly amazing & Micah's favorite oil to use for popcorn now
• in baked items - just substitute for butter or other oils
• use on a grilled cheese sandwich

Is there any coconut oil in your pantry? :)

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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 unless 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.  I am not a nutritionist or medical professional and any opinions in this post are merely my own opinions and are not to be construed as medical or nutritional advice.

Driving Already?

Everyone tells you that your babies will be grown up in no time flat, but I did not expect Nathan and Miriam to start driving this summer, just the same.  Call it new mama naivety.  Be that as it may, though, so far they're doing very well.

Miriam- "I'm driving!"

Except for the whole rollover incident, where Miriam was unbuckled (duh, there aren't any) and miraculously survived a rollover where she went through the windshield (well, where the windshield would be, anyway) with only a little dirt on her face.  She was unfazed.  I guess that she just expected something to happen when Nathan started pushing her around the yard.  I was surprised, though, as our yard, while not exactly a putting green, isn't hilly enough that I would have expected him to hit a bump and cause the car to roll.  Oops.  Apparently the Cozy Coupe has a very high center of gravity.

Nathan- "Smile at the camera, Miriam!"

"Bye!"

They have been having an absolute blast playing with this, and I love it.  I'm not usually into plastic toys,  but isn't this practically a classic anyway?  It was on my garage sale watch list last year, with no success, and this year I haven't made it to hardly any, but a sweet, sweet friend heard I was on the hunt for one... and dropped this one off in my yard since her kids are mostly too old for it anymore.  :)

Miriam - "uhmm, Nathan, the door is over here...?"

She also dropped off a slide and a little picnic table, so our newly picket fenced yard looks just as kid friendly and fun as it is!  Now I'm daydreaming about a kiddie pool, since I know that both my kidlets would just love one, and as hot as it is, so would I.  Plus, it would give Nathan a chance to wear his new life jacket correctly for once.  (Thank you, Stearns Flotation and MOM Magazine! Cannot wait to try it!)

this is NOT how it's designed to be worn!

Of course,we have to wait for surgery to remove his tube first... but after that?  Squirt guns and sprinklers and hitting the pool! :)  I can't wait...

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 I received the Stearns Personal Flotation Device at no charge from them and from MOM magazine through my relationship with BSM Media/MomSelect.  I was not obligated to write about it and any opinions I express are solely my own.  Also, links are affiliate links.  Also, don't let your child put a life jacket strap around their necks... in the immortal words, don't try this at home, kids.  Am I done with the small print yet?  I think so...

Earth Mama Angel Baby Milkmaid Tea Review

I recently received some Earth Mama Angel Baby Milkmaid Tea for review.* 

Milkmaid Tea contains herbal galactagogues like fennel, fenugreek, anis seed, and caraway seed.


I haven't had trouble with milk supply (except during pregnancy, and Milkmaid Tea is not intended for use during pregnancy), but tandem nursing means I am producing a lot of milk (moo!) and so sometimes it is nice to give my milk production a little herbal support.  If you're struggling with milk production, start with this page from Kellymom on how milk production works, and then check out this page with things you can do for your supply.

 The day that my tea arrived, it was pretty warm, and the idea of a hot cup of tea was just not my cup of tea.  ;)  But on the back of the box it suggested that it was good iced or hot, so I made some iced tea with it.  It was great!  It has a nice, mild herbal flavor.  Compared to the Traditional Medicinals Organic Mother's Milk Herbal Tea  I felt that the Milkmaid Tea had a milder flavor.  I think Mother's Milk tea has a  stronger, more licorice like flavor.  I like licorice, so I don't mind it, but I know some people don't like licorice...

The next morning it was cooler and I had a hot cup of Milkmaid Tea instead.  It was tasty, but I felt that it was a bit weak tasting, which surprised me since I had used one tea bag in a standard sized mug and made sure to steep it for 10 minutes (the box suggests 5-10).  However, I didn't squeeze the tea bag at all, like I always do with the Mother's Milk Tea (it says to in the instructions for MMT), so perhaps that was part of it.  The next time I made a hot cup I made sure to squeeze the tea bag instead and I think it seemed stronger.

And because this is a truthful review  - Micah didn't realize what kind of iced tea I was drinking and took a drink.  He did NOT like it, and refused to believe that it didn't contain his childhood nemesis, Slippery Elm Bark, until I read him the ingredients list out loud, at which point he began talking about the need for an ingredient audit!  So, *I* think it tastes fine, but just for full disclosure, that is obviously not a universal belief!

Thanks, Earth Mama Angel Baby!


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*I was sent a box of Milkmaid tea to review.  I was not compensated in any way for this post.  All opinions expressed are my own.  All links are Amazon affiliate links, so if you buy through them I have a few more pennies of play money.

Saint Patrick by Jonathan Rogers

I've heard lectures on Patrick, but hadn't read a biography before.  Rogers gives an overview of the political and historical situation, looking at everything we know about Patrick's life, and interpreting it in light of what we know about Patrick's world.  He also analyzes Patrick's surviving writings, his Confession, and a letter he wrote his superiors.

On the whole I  enjoyed his look at the historical context, and the Patrick legends he retells.  Also, I love that while the  Confession is available on the web, it (as well as the text of a letter written by Patrick) is in the book for easy reference!

While I mostly liked this book, I disliked his his characterization of Patrick as an "antiauthoritarian" "renegade".  Also, Rogers suggests Patrick may reveal "his own prejudices" by referring to the Picts as "blood-thirsty", "wicked, abandoned, and apostate."  Puzzlingly, he interprets this as Patrick dismissing them as hopeless despite having seen the Irish convert.  I disagree. He isn't calling them unsaveable, he's stating the obvious- these are violent barbarians. They need Christ, just like the Irish did.  As do we all.

(Thomas Nelson provided me with a complimentary copy of Saint Patrick to review via Booksneeze.)

 

(Oh, and there's an Online Reader's Guide available, too.)

Coconut Oil Fudge

I tried Lindsay's coconut oil fudge recipe recently... it is such a simple recipe that even though I've never made fudge I thought I'd give it a try. 

Honey, coconut oil, and cocoa powder in the blender...

The first time I made it I used the inexpensive coconut oil that we had on hand.  I liked it ok, although I felt that it was more "fudgy" in texture when frozen.  Micah felt that it had the texture of shortening and disliked the honey flavor.  Only he said it more tactfully than that. ;)

Undaunted, I tried it again, this time with Tropical Traditions coconut oil*.

 I also melted two squares of baking chocolate in the melting coconut oil.  

Yes, only one is pictured, ignore the discrepancy! ;)

 The fudge in the pan, before being cooled down... 

I stored it in the fridge, but didn't have to freeze this batch for a good fudgy consistency.  The flavor was so much better... probably partly because of the difference in coconut oil, and partly because I added the baking chocolate.  Either way, that batch was approved by all.  Yay! 

Another perk of this recipe? No eggs, so I have no qualms about letting Nathan perform the very important job of taste tester!  He approved. ;)

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* I will be reviewing Tropical Traditions coconut oil in a separate post.  
I will be repeating this disclaimer then but thought I would tag it onto this post as well for full disclosure.

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.