I have a confession. Two, actually. I hate coconut. Its the texture. I don’t like it at all. I want to like it because I like the smell but I can’t stand it. Yuck! So when I came across a recipe for a dairy-free snack bar that called for coconut oil, I groaned. Yuck, coconut. But I decided to make it anyway and when I went to the store to buy coconut oil – and here’s confession #2 – I had no idea what I was looking for. I looked up and down the baked goods aisle and all I could find was coconut extract. That’s the same, right? Wrong! I made the No Bake Chocolate Chip Flax n’ Oat Bars with the extract and it wreaked of coconut. And didn’t hold together at all. Then I learned about Tropical Traditions and realized exactly what coconut oil is. Boy, was I off base. Coconut Oil is like shortening in its thickness but more transparent and it definitely smells like coconut. A friend of mine was raving about the coconut oil deodorant she had made and how she also liked using the … [Read more...]