Olive Nation: A Product Review

*Update: I just found out that Olive Nation has these on sale right now for 15% off. Just enter coupon code EXT15. Offer expires 04/21/12.

Recently I won an awesome giveaway at Heavenly Homemakers  for a $25 gift certificate to Olive Nation. Woohoo! Olive Nation is a great resource for all kinds of healthy and yummy foods. I splurged on several fun things like premium olive oil, a bag of quinoa and a bottle of strawberry extract. I was the most excited about the extract. I have only really tried the usual suspects like vanilla, almond and mint, so using something completely different sounded fun!

The first thing I used it in was a strawberry smoothie. This is the recipe I came up with:

1 c ice cubes

3 bananas broken up in chunks

2-3 c frozen organic strawberries

1 c coconut milk

1 c (+ more if necessary for desired consistency) water

3 Tbsp ground flaxseed

1 tsp Olive Nation Strawberry Extract

I have to say, these were amazing. The kids liked it so much I had to make a second pitcher. The strawberry flavor was really nice - not fake tasting at all. The extract enhanced the strawberry flavor in a really pleasant way.  It was so fresh and re-mindful of a homemade strawberry milkshake - creamy and good!

Next, I wanted to try it in something baked, so I made a double batch of strawberry muffins this morning. I came up with this recipe:

For 24 muffins:

4 1/2 c whole wheat pastry flour (or fresh ground)

1/3 c sucanat

1/3 c turbinado

2 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp real salt

3 c chopped frozen organic strawberries

4 eggs

1 c water (could use milk but we are sensitive to dairy so we use good ole' water)

1 c yogurt (we used coconut yogurt)

2/3 c melted palm shortening (non-hydrogenated) or coconut oil

1 1/2 tsp Olive Nation Strawberry Extract

I know I should mix the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients separately and then combine, but honestly, I just dumped everything into my Kitchenaid and blended it. It came out great!

I spooned the batter into 24 lined muffin cups and topped with this strudel topping:

1/2 c whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 c turbinado

1 Tbsp ground cinnamon

4 Tbsp (give or take, you may need to adjust a bit to get the right consistency - I did) palm shortening.

Work these ingredients with a fork until it resembles course crumbs. Then just spoon over each muffin.

I baked these at 425 for 20 minutes and then popped out to cool. 

The muffins were really good too! I was so pleased. They passed the kid test and even were requested again later in the day. Since I made so many, I popped one dozen into the big freezer to have on hand as a convenience food for later. Again, the extract was not a phony strawberry flavor. It was so subtle in the muffins that I think I will actually use at least 2 tsp next time if not more. 

I was really impressed with Olive Nation's product and would definitely recommend it. And, I really want to try some of their other amazing sounding flavors like blackberry, apricot, peach, pear and how about chai for the holidays! Yum!!!