Who wants to win some of my favorite oats?

***Giveaway Closed***

My lucky winner, with comment #94, is MamaChocolate! Congrats, and happy oat-making! 🙂

Original Post:

You might remember my recent review of Tropical Traditions organic oats.

Well, now Tropical Traditions wants to offer one of my readers the chance to win a bag of their own! 🙂

These oats are no longer just a review product for us – they are officially a product we purchase for use in our home.  We liked them so much, we’re currently waiting for another bag to arrive!

Why am I so excited about some simple oats? Because they’re anything but. I love the fact that Tropical Traditions thick rolled whole grain oats are not only certified organic, but they’re also thick, dense and chewy, and add a great hearty texture to our overnight oats.

One of the main reasons I love a bowl of morning oats so much is that they are never the same twice. There are so many ways to enjoy them! I’ve even seen people prepare savory oats with ingredients like cheese and eggs! My daily breakfast usually differs based on what’s in season and what I happen to have on hand.

Here are a few of my favorite combinations:

• Banana, chopped dates, cardamom and a drizzle of honey
• Shredded coconut and cacao nibs or dark chocolate chips/shavings
• Artisana Cacao Bliss and fresh black cherries
• Blueberries, almond slivers and lemon zest
• Raisins, dried cranberries, cinnamon and granola (like an oatmeal raisin cookie!)
• Chopped banana and Tierra Farm Chocolate Hazelnut butter (Nutella who!?)
• Pumpkin, nutmeg, cinnamon and crumbled graham crackers or granola
• Granola, almond butter and Crofter’s Superfruit spread (hits the spot like a PB&J!)
• 1/2 oats, 1/2 cooked millet with cardamom, coconut milk, toasted coconut and lime zest.

…and nothing tops off ANY bowl of oats better than one big, plump Medjool date. My favorite!

If you’d like to enter to win your own 5 lb. bag of Tropical Traditions Certified Organic thick rolled whole grain oats, just sign up for the Tropical Traditions email newsletter! I promise you’ll be glad you did (the email is where I just found the free shipping code for the bag I ordered!)

Signing up for the TT email is the only mandatory entry. Just leave me a comment below letting me know you signed up, and you’re entered! 

Bonus entries:

• Subscribe to my blog via email.
• Like ABCGP on Facebook
• Like Tropical Traditions on Facebook
• Follow @ABCGP on Twitter
• Tweet about this giveaway (please include a link to this post in your tweet. Limit one tweet per day. Leave a comment with a link to your tweet.)
• Tell me your favorite way to top a bowl of oats. I’m always up for new ideas! 🙂

Entry period will remain open until May 15th. I will then choose a winner via Random.org. Winner will be notified via email and will have 48 hours to confirm or a new winner will be chosen. Open to US and Canada.

Oats, Glorious Oats!

We love oats.

I love them, my husband really loves them, and our little man is even starting to love them.

Our favorite way to eat oats is in one of their purest forms: Overnight Oats, like these:

If you’ve never tried them, Kath is a great resource for instructions and recipes. We do ours even more simply, though. Just oats and almond milk, soaked overnight, then topped with whatever we have around. Easy peasy!

When using a recipe where the oats are the star of the show, it’s important to start out with the best ones you can find. Our favorites are the certified organic thick rolled whole grain oats from Tropical Traditions.

(Yup, that Tropical Traditions. The company  known for their coconut oil also carries oats, and a ton of other products, from whole grain cereals to deodorant!)

As you can see, TT oats have a great, old-fashioned rolled oat texture.

They hold up to the soaking without getting mushy, and they retain a dense, chewy bite. Plus, they’re organic! Tropical Traditions oats are by far the best quality oats we’ve found.

Breakfast is a hard meal for me, since I don’t eat eggs or sausage (and I reserve bacon for only the fudgiest occasions.) Empty carbs are easy to find in the morning, but eating them for breakfast is the quickest way to ruin my day. So I stick with what works: Add some fresh fruit, nut butter and a few shakes of cinnamon or cardamom to a cup of almond-milky oats, and you’ve got a satisfying, breakfast that beats any Rooty Tooty Fresh n’ Fruity or McHeart Attack sandwich.

I love having a big bag of Tropical Traditions oats around for savory recipes, too. I recently used them in my new favorite recipe: Quinoa Burgers. If you haven’t tried these, please, please do. I promise you – they are FAB (and easy!)

If you haven’t checked out Tropical Traditions yet, stop by their website and see all they have to offer, and make sure you don’t miss their impressive recipe page (it features more recipes than I could hope to make in a lifetime! 😯 )

Next up on the ABCGP “to-make” list?

Healthy Carrot Oatmeal Bites

Spiced Crockpot Granola

Uh oh! It might be time to order more oats! 😉

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Disclosure: I received a product sample from Tropical Traditions for review purposes. I was under no obligation to provide a review or positive comments about the product. All opinions stated above are my own, honest opinions based on my personal experience with the product mentioned.

Bloobs!

I knew it was about to happen a few days ago when my husband came walking into the house, said,”Open up!” and popped a sweet little blueberry into my mouth.

The first blueberries of the season are ready! 😀

When I say I like blueberries, I mean I REALLY ADORE blueberries. Last year at this time, I was pregnant and I ate so many that I expected my son to have blue hair. (He does have really pretty blue eyes…hmmm….)

So here they are…and since we have raspberries, too, which are my husband’s favorite, they are all mine! 

I know, it’s only a small handful. But there are lots more on the way!

So what do you do with a few choice bloobs?

You throw them into your oats, of course!

This morning’s fuel:

• Oats
• Almond milk (and the last of a container of coconut milk) 
• A sprinkle each: almond slivers, walnuts, dried cranberries, chia seeds, cinnamon
• A smallish teaspoon of coconut oil
• My prized blueberries
• One date

A bowl of oats in the morning is nothing new. I’d be willing to bet that most of you out there had them, too, topped with your choice of fruits, nuts, and yummy things to up the nutrient content.

But that’s not the only reason I eat them.

Not only will this mug of oaty goodness keep me going all morning, but it will keep my son going too! You see, oats, nuts and coconut oil are just a few of the many lactogenic foods, which can help keep a lactating mommy’s milk supply healthy and strong. 

Sure, you need a good supply of calories, nutrients and hydration in order to maintain a good supply, but it’s also important to eat foods that support the very chemistry within your body that causes lactation to happen.

Careful, though. “The more, the merrier” may be true in the case of chocolate and cute shoes, but it’s not necessarily the case when it comes to lactogenic foods (or lactogenic herbs, like fenugreek, blessed thistle, etc.) Oversupply sounds like a blessing, but it can be a problem, too, as your baby can experience digestive issues if you are producing too much foremilk and he is full before he gets to the more nutrient-rich hindmilk. (I had oversupply issues for the first 6 months…) Too much of a good thing may also make you more prone to clogged ducts and mastitis. No fun. 😦

But, as I can fully attest after an all-out panic when I nearly lost my supply due to a surge in my son’s development, lactogenic foods and herbs can be a mommy’s best friend when used wisely. Have you ever heard a woman say, “I tried to breastfeed, but it didn’t work for me?” or “My body didn’t produce any milk,” or the always frustrating, “You’re lucky it worked for you” ? 😡 In a society where processed, fast food and “fat-free” weirdness are the norm and many people can’t even identify a lot of fresh, whole foods, it really makes you wonder…

I don’t mean to criticize anyone: I will fully acknowledge that some women do have medical issues that thwart their efforts to breastfeed, but I’ve been told by many a medical professional that these conditions are very few and far between, and if eating more grains, herbs, legumes and healthy fats might help, isn’t it MORE than worth a try?

If you’d like more information on lactogenic foods and herbs, check out this article from Mobi Motherhood International. or contact your local chapter of LLL. Both helped me, and I hope they help you, too!  

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Have you ever used lactogenic foods and/or herbs to increase or maintain your milk supply? Would you consider it?

What is your favorite way to eat fresh blueberries?

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You have until Saturday, June 26th to enter to win free coconut milk products from Turtle Mountain! Click here.