Coconut Oil

I've been hearing alot about the health benefits of oils and fats and I've been hearing some wonderful things about coconut oil. Now, I hate coconut. I can't stand the smell, the taste, the texture- nothing. But the rest of the family likes it and Brian loves coconut.

I typically use Extra Virgin Olive Oil for all my cooking. But then I started hearing things like this:

The higher the temperature to which the olive oil is heated, the more one should prefer the use of refined olive oils. When extra-virgin olive oil is heated above 350 °C (662 °F), the unrefined particles within the oil get burned. This leads to deteriorated taste and even toxicity

I went and visited my friend Cara, who made me lunch and used coconut oil. I hadn't noticed! Yay for me!!

So, I decided to give it a try. I was able to get Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil from Tropical Traditions.

I've been using it in everything to see what I think. I made scrambled eggs with it- tasted slight coconut.
Made cheesecake crust: replaced the butter with coconut oil- very coconutty, my mom loved it.
Greased my pans with it, used a pastry brush- it was like shortening. I could smell the coconut on the bread, but couldn't taste it. No one else noticed.
Used it to fry chicken in- no one noticed, not even me.
Put it in Baked Oatmeal, replacing the applesauce- I noticed it, but no one else did.
I still want to make granola with it, using the coconut oil instead of butter. I will say though, that since I know how strong this oil can be, I won't be tasting that one, but I'm confident everyone else will enjoy it.
I have really enjoyed using this and I'm really impressed with how they process it.
I think next I will try Expeller-Pressed Coconut Oil because it's not supposed to have much of a coconut taste, but still very healthy.

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 are purchasing from Tropical Traditions for the first time you can get a FREE copy of their Virgin Coconut Oil Book. Simply choose "Referred by a Friend" and enter my User ID# 5691384. This gets me credit toward coconut oil too. :-)**