Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil Giveaway!

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.

If you’ve been following along at all lately, you may have heard something about my decision to stop eating dairy products. It may or may not be forever, but for now, my body feels best without it. However, this doesn’t mean I’m giving up on baked goods and such! Many times, I want to modify a recipe that calls for butter, and shortening or canola oil just doesn’t seem right. This is when I love to use virgin coconut oil. It does have the flavor of coconut, but when you’re incorporating it into baked goods, the resulting flavor is not really coconut-y at all. I’ve used it successfully in muffins, cakes, cookies, and even brownies. I even cook with it in savory dishes, as long as I don’t turn the heat up too high. And in the winter, when my skin turns dry, it’s a good salve that really seems to help moisturize my skin.

So when Tropical Traditions contacted me regarding an opportunity to share coconut oil with my readers, I jumped at the chance. I am giving away a 32 oz. jar of virgin coconut oil. I’ve purchased from Tropical Traditions several times, and have always been more than satisfied with their products. They run a lot of special sales, which is great. What’s better – they even have a referral program so that you can earn free goodies just by referring a friend!

In order to sign up for this giveaway, simply leave me a comment below telling me what you would plan to bake or cook with your Tropical Traditions coconut oil.

Want more chances to win?  You can increase your chances by doing the following things:

1. Tweet about this giveaway, and leave me a comment telling me you did so.

2. Post an update on your Facebook page about this giveaway, and leave me a comment telling me you did so.

3. Post about this giveaway on your blog, linking back to this post, and leave me a comment telling me you did so.

I’m excited to hear about your recipe ideas! I’m always looking for ways to use it.

This giveaway will end on Friday, July 23, 2010. I will pick one winner at random.

NordicWare and Challenge Dairy Giveaway

Disclaimer: While I mention NordicWare and Challenge Dairy in this post, I have not been paid by these companies in exchange for a review or a post. While I did receive items for review, it was entirely up to me how and whether I wished to share the items and information. The opinions expressed are entirely my own.

The contest is now closed. The winner, chosen by random.org, was commenter #32, Anna! Anna, I’ll email you, but please send me your mailing address.

Congratulations!

Remember those brownie bites from the other day? The inspiration for those adorable bite-sized brownies came with the recent arrival of my new favorite baking pan – a NordicWare tea cake pan! You see, Challenge Dairy contacted me a while back, not just to inform me of their delicious dairy products, but also to share with me some news about new items coming available. They sent me much more than I anticipated, so I would love to share the wealth with you! Let me tell you – after baking with that tea cake pan, I’m sold on NordicWare products. Anyone who bakes gluten-free on a regular basis knows just how sticky gluten-free batters can be. Not with this pan! Those brownie bites fell out of the pan without any sticking. What’s better – the pan doesn’t warp. It’s nice and sturdy, unlike so many of my other baking pans. I’m definitely going to have to add some more pans to my “wish” list.

Another contributor to those delicious brownie bites was the Challenge butter. I’m a big butter lover, and I appreciate that Challenge Dairy only puts “real” ingredients in their butter – just butter and salt. That’s it. No preservatives, stabilizers, fillers – nothing you can’t pronounce. I believe that Jamie Oliver, in his “Food Revolution”, mentioned that if you read a label and it sounds like a science experiment, put it back. If it sounds like something from your Grandma’s kitchen (cream, flour, sugar, salt), then it’s probably okay. (Forgive me if this is not an exact quote, I’m going off of memory here!)  Good to know that there’s a butter out there that meets this criteria.

Because I love you guys, I opted to share a bit of the wealth with you. I’m giving away this totally adorable NordicWare pancake pan – perfect for making little pancakes for your family! Also included in the giveaway are a few coupons for free Challenge butter, so you can taste for yourself. All you need to do is leave me a comment below explaining what you will do with your new pancake pan. The giveaway will be open until May 14, 2010, at midnight CDT.

But wait! There’s more! (read this in your best infomercial voice)

You can increase your chances to win by doing the following things:

1. Tweet about this giveaway, and leave me a comment telling me you did so.

2. Post a Facebook update about this giveaway, and leave me a comment telling me you did so.

3. Blog about this giveaway, and leave me a comment telling me you did so.

4. Subscribe to Tasty Eats At Home via email or RSS feed, and leave me a comment telling me you did so.

This means you have a lot more chances to win! Good luck to everyone, and I promise, I’ll unbury myself from this crazy thing called life, and share another tasty gluten-free recipe soon!

Pan-Fried Trout and Winner of Giveaway!

For the past few days, I have truly been craving fish. This is a rarity for me, not because I don’t enjoy fish. I do. But I don’t usually seek it out. In all honesty, we don’t consume as much fish as we probably should, even. So I opted to go outside of the “planned” menu for the week, and I dashed off to the store to pick up some nice fish.

Lucky for me, Sprouts had some fresh trout at a reasonable price. I picked some up, and wandered the produce area in order to determine what would be our side dish. I found some asparagus spears, which I planned to prepare with lemon zest and olive oil (inspired by Elise’s recipe over at Simply Recipes), and some fennel, tangerines, and mixed greens for a refreshing Orange Fennel Salad. This would be a wonderfully light dinner, perfect for a scorcher of a day. (The temperature on the signs at the high school and a church on the way home read 106 and 111 degrees!)

This trout is so easy, it hardly needs a recipe. You could, of course, add additional herbs or spices to the recipe, but we thoroughly enjoyed it with little adornment. Although this was our Saturday night meal, it could easily become a weeknight regular. In a matter of minutes, dinner was ready. And what a delicious dinner too, the fish was light, moist, and flavorful.

1 lb trout fillets (skin-on, preferably)

salt and pepper

zest of 1/2 lemon

1 T olive oil

juice of 1/2 lemon

Season the fillets with salt and pepper on skin side, and salt, pepper, and zest on other side. Heat a large skillet to medium-high heat, and add olive oil. Swirl olive oil around pan to coat. Add trout fillets, skin side down, into pan. Allow to fry for about 2-3 minutes, or until the edges begin to cook through. Carefully flip fillets and cook for another minute, or until flesh becomes opaque. Remove from pan, and squeeze lemon juice over fillets. Serves 2-3.

Don’t worry, I didn’t forget about the giveaway! Using a random number generator, the winner of the free yogurt coupons and cookbook was  ValleyWriter over at Adventures in the Pioneer Valley! Congratulations!