Also? It was goooood.

While my mind is (mostly) blank, I’m totally completely stuck on the fact that November is almost over. 2010 is almost over. How did that happen??

So tell me, what are your Thanksgiving plans? What about for the “winter holidays” (whatever you observe)?

And for dinner, I made crispy skin chicken thighs, but I put them on top of some carrots while they were in the oven. The carrots got all soft and chickeny and it was really good.

I don’t always make a weekly meal plan, but this week I did. Who knows if I’ll stick to it or not. Hope so!

Tomorrow: Change of Command party – probably bringing one of these? Not cooking dinner.

Thursday: Vampire Chicken (Have you heard of this? Crockpot chicken with 40 cloves of garlic, and parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. I’ll write it up probably. As long as I remember to take pictures.) with green beans.

Friday: Husband will be at the hornet ball. I won’t be, because the hotel was booked already. But I’ll probably have leftover chicken for dinner.

Saturday: Use some leftover chicken to make coconut lime chicken soup (but with homemade chicken stock instead of the water).

Sunday: Country Fried Steak (with coconut flour, not wheat flour) with roasted broccoli.

Monday: Butternut Squash Soup – winging it, and if it’s good I’ll share the “recipe” with you.

So what’s on your menu plan this week?

And this is my post for the day.

I’m doing NaBloPoMo again, where you post every day in November. Well, sometimes there isn’t a whole lot to say. Or things you want to say but can’t say just yet. So that brings me to a picture of shrimp that were “just fine.”

If you didn’t get your full daily dose of me from this, and you feel like you need a supplement, you can follow me on twitter or facebook. I’m VERY talkative on twitter, and love conversations. And I love interacting with you guys on Facebook too.

Coconut cream concentrate is basically ground up coconuts, oil and all. Think of peanut butter, but instead of peanuts, it’s coconuts. In the name of all that is holy, this is amazing stuff.

It’s mostly fat (1 tablespoon contains almost 100 calories of fat) which means a spoonful can be an excellent quick pick-me-up for those primal/paleo/real-food-minded folks.

Some people use it as a spread (like you would with peanut butter) on toast or whatnot, and according to the Tropical Traditions site, it can also be used as a non-dairy creamer in coffee.

You can stir it into water to make coconut milk or coconut cream (depending on how much you use) to use as a beverage or in cooking, too.

It’s 100% organic coconut – no weird ingredients.

My Thoughts:

First of all, it took me a while to try this out, because there’s one inconvenient step you have to complete before you can use the coconut cream concentrate.

You have to actually “prepare” it … the oil separates out of the coconut cream, just like the oil in natural peanut butter separates out. But coconut oil is often solid at room temperature, so it can be pretty hard to mix back into the coconut meat. I did the hot water thing but still got really frustrated in the mixing process… the jar doesn’t have much extra room, so I was really worried I’d splash the oil out accidentally.

My husband actually ended up doing the “prep” part – he’s a pro at mixing peanut butter to start a new jar, and he did this easily too. Maybe I’m just clumsy.

Once it was mixed together, I was a little disappointed that it seemed so runny. Of course, I wasn’t thinking about the oil still being melted at that point. I went ahead and tried it in a recipe:

Coconut cream “health fudge.” I was again a bit disappointed because the fudge wasn’t very fudgy, and it also mostly tasted like peanut butter. I wanted more coconut cream concentrate flavor!

Well, imagine my delight when today I went to inspect the coconut cream concentrate and taste it again, and it had thickened into this delightful texture:

Because the oil had hardened again, but this time was mixed throughout, the concentrate was more like the texture I had initially expected – more like peanut butter. Exciting!

I ate a spoon full. It was awesome. Like the delicious exciting flavor of coconut oil, but without making your lips and throat feel all greasy (yes, I’ve eaten a spoon of coconut oil on its own before).

I’m really looking forward to using it to make my homemade peppermint patty recipe, without having to grind up the dried coconut… this will be much simpler and probably a smoother texture! I’m also thinking of homemade almond joys, and maybe trying it in a cookie recipe in place of butter. In the meantime though, I think I’ll have another spoon full as a snack.

It’s delicious! And now that I know just how delicious it is, I won’t wait as long to “prep” my next jar.

Buy It:

Go to Tropical Traditions and check out all their products – they don’t just have coconut stuff (their pumpkin seeds are also great, I promise). And if you make a purchase and use my referral ID: 6533374, you’ll get a free cookbook with 85 recipes in it. I’ll also get free coconut oil if you use me as your referral.

Win It:

One lucky Joyful Abode reader will win a jar of Tropical Traditions Coconut Cream Concentrate.

To enter the giveaway, you must comment on a Joyful Abode recipe you’d like to try, then come back to this page and comment with a link to that recipe and tell me what # comment you left.

Be sure to use a valid email address when commenting, otherwise I won’t be able to contact you if you win!

I will select the winner using Random.org on Wednesday, November 3 when I get up. I’m not giving you a specific time because, hey, I have a new baby. But it will be in the morning, Pacific time.

UPDATE: Edmund W, comment 49 is the winner selected by Random.org!

Extra Entries:

If you’d like an even greater chance of winning, you may leave an extra comment for each of the following:

• Subscribe to Tropical Traditions Newsletter (1 extra entry)
• Follow @JoyfulAbode AND @TropTraditions on Twitter (1 extra entry)
• “Like” Joyful Abode AND Tropical Traditions on Facebook (1 extra entry)
• Tweet about this contest: “ #win @TropTraditions coconut cream from @JoyfulAbode! #realfood #primal #paleo #WAPF #gfree #celiac http://bit.ly/cEf2nJ Ends 11/3 US/CAN” Comment here with the link to your tweet. (2 extra entries PER DAY, at least 3 hours apart.)
• Subscribe to Joyful Abode. The RSS and email links are in the right sidebar. (1 extra entry)
• Blog about this contest, including a link to this page and a link to Tropical Traditions. Thoughtful posts are appreciated, instead of just a blurb to “get it done.” You may use one of my photos from this post. (3 extra entries – comment here with the link to your post.)
• Email at least 10 friends about this contest, and BCC: me (emily at joyfulabode dot com)so I can see. Only email friends you think would truly be interested, because I don’t want you to annoy people!  (2 extra entries)

The SupaFine Print:

Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, but I promise these are my real thoughts and opinions of the product. If you win, I’ll contact you via email and you will have 48 hours to respond with your shipping information, otherwise I’ll pick another winner. Sorry, Charlie, but that’s how it goes.

This contest is open to residents of USA and Canada.

(Neither Joyful Abode nor Tropical Traditions is responsible for customs or duties that Canada may charge)

Guess what I got in the mail a few days ago! If you guessed YET ANOTHER Department of Defense survey (this time addressed to my baby), you’d be right! If you guessed a HUGE tub of organic dried shredded coconut from Tropical Traditions, you’d also be right!

There’s nothing but coconut in this bucket, my friends. And ain’t life grand?

My Thoughts:

First of all, let me say I’m a HUGE fan of coconut.

I’m a HUGE fan of coconut. There, I said it.

Coconut flour, coconut milk, coconut flakes, coconut oil… You name it. If you’re a primal/paleo/WAPF/”real food” reader (which most of you are), by now you’ve embraced the idea that modern humans eat way too much processed food, way too many carbs, far too many grains, and not nearly enough fat. Fat’s the good stuff. Stable, saturated fat. When you don’t have a ton of insulin floating around in your blood from eating cereal with skim milk, half a bagel, and orange juice (holy sugar overload!), your body LOVES to use fat as fuel.

So check it out. Nutrition facts for oats on the left. Coconut on the right. Also consider dried coconut is lighter than oats are, so 1 oz is “bigger” when we’re talking coconut.

*

*nutrition facts from fatsecret.com

Those little charts at the bottom? I’ll take the fat-filled one please!

Tropical Traditions specializes in coconut products, and they know what they’re doing. Plus, they give it to you in a HUGE stinkin’ bucket, for a reasonable price. Before I found Tropical traditions, I had bought little bags of dried coconut … probably about 8oz in a bag, for $6-7. Special-ordered and delivered to my local gourmet shop. Because of course, the grocery stores are only interested in carrying sugar-infused sticky coconut.

Conversely, Tropical Traditions makes it easy for coconut to become part of your regular diet. This GINORMOUS tub of shreds only costs $17 (and they often have sales or deals where you can get other products free, if you’re subscribed to their email list). I could only get 2 or 3 little baggies of it from the gourmet shop for that price. So you can stop treating it like a “special treat” or an exotic ingredient (am I the only one who does that with expensive foods?), and start USING it.

And why did I compare it to oats? Well, the first thing I did when I got the coconut in the mail was use it to replace the oats in my homemade granola bars. And it did beautifully. So much so that the granola bars are almost gone. And I have to make some more tomorrow because my husband and I both love them, and my mother is coming into town and also requested them.

I’ve also used dried coconut in my grain-free gluten-free cookies of awesomeness. Again, like oats would have, it added another texture profile to the cookies. Perfect. It’s also delicious added to fruit salads.

There are also a ton more coconut-based recipes here at Free Coconut Recipes.

Buy it:

Go to Tropical Traditions and check out all their products – they don’t just have coconut stuff (their pumpkin seeds are also great, I promise). And if you make a purchase and use my referral ID: 6533374, you’ll get a free book about coconut oil with 85 recipes in it. I’ll also get free coconut oil if you use me as your referral.

Win it:

One lucky Joyful Abode reader will win a huge honkin’ tub of organic dried shredded coconut.

To enter the giveaway, you must subscribe to the Tropical Traditions email newsletter, then come back to this page and comment that you’ve subscribed. Trust me, you’ll want to do this anyway, because like I said, they often host REALLY great sales and buy one get one free deals.

Be sure to use a valid email address when commenting, otherwise I won’t be able to contact you if you win!

I will select the winner using Random.org on Monday, September 27th when I get up. I’m not giving you a specific time because, hey, I have a newborn who sometimes wants to nurse for hours in bed before getting up! But it will be in the morning, Pacific time.

Update: Comments are now closed because ELSIE (Comment # 159) has won!

Update #2: Elsie did not respond within 48 hours, so the new winner is LEAH (Comment #99)!!!

Extra Entries:

If you’d like an even greater chance of winning, you may leave an extra comment for each of the following:

• Follow @TropTraditions AND @JoyfulAbode on Twitter (1 extra entry)
• “Like” Tropical Traditions AND Joyful Abode on Facebook (1 extra entry)
• Tweet about this contest: “If I don’t #win @TropTraditions organic coconut from @JoyfulAbode, maybe you will! http://bit.ly/bBxZkp #realfood #primal #paleo #WAPF” Comment here with the link to your tweet. (1 extra entry PER DAY)
• Leave a comment on a recipe here at Joyful Abode that you’d like to try, then come back here and comment with the link to that page (doesn’t count if the comment was left before this contest started). (1 extra entry)
• Subscribe to Joyful Abode. The RSS and email links are in the right sidebar. (1 extra entry)
• Email at least 10 friends about this contest, and BCC: me (emily at joyfulabode dot com)so I can see. Only email friends you think would truly be interested, because I don’t want you to annoy people!  (1 extra entry)

The SupaFine Print:

Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product. I am also not responsible for anything that may happen as a result of the winner falling face-first into a bucket full of shredded coconut.

If you win, I’ll contact you via email and you will have 48 hours to respond with your shipping information, otherwise I’ll pick another winner. Sorry, Charlie, but that’s how it goes.

This contest is open to residents of USA & Canada. Neither Joyful Abode nor Tropical Traditions is responsible for customs or duties that Canada may charge.