A New Take on Wheat Berries and a Giveaway!

The more I deal with Tropical Traditions, the more impressed I am.  I appreciate their commitment to offering high quality organic products, and their customer service is fantastic.  So when I was given the chance to offer my readers another giveaway, I jumped at the chance.

This time, I wanted to introduce you to their organic wheat berries.  For those of you who aren't familiar with the term wheat berries, it is just another term for whole grain wheat.  There are two different kinds of wheat:  hard spring wheat and soft winter wheat. Spring wheat has a higher protein content and is ideal for making bread.  Winter wheat is ideal for baked goods.  For eating the whole grain wheat in salads and such, I believe that either type would work.

Last year I purchased a grain mill to grind my own flour.  I use it all the time to make bread for my family.  However, I had problems finding organic wheat berries locally.  I had to settle for non-organic wheat berries from an Amish-run bulk food shop.  Buying organic is something I feel very strongly about, so I knew I needed to find another source before I ran out.  Now that I know that Tropical Traditions carries organic wheat berries, I am going to be placing an order when my current supply runs out. 

I thought long and hard about what recipe I wanted to share with you as part of this giveaway.  My use of wheat berries is generally limited to bread-making and baked goods.  I knew that wheat berries could be cooked and eaten whole, but I had never tried it before.  I did some searching and discovered some wonderful recipes.  I was intrigued by one in particular- wheat berry chili.  So I decided to adapt my own favorite chili recipe to use wheat berries. 

There is a great benefit to adding wheat berries to your chili recipe.  Since my chili recipe is vegetarian, the combination of beans and grains provides a complete protein.  Plus the addition of the grain makes the recipe very filling.  Lots of fiber to keep you full.   Best of all, it is easily made in the crockpot which makes less cleanup for mom!  A definite plus in my book!

Wheat Berry Chili

• 1 cup wheat berries
• 3 cups boiling water
• 28 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
• 8 oz tomato sauce
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 1/2 lb button mushroooms, cleaned and sliced
• 1 zucchini, peeled, quartered and sliced
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 1/2 tbs chili powder
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Place the wheat berries and boiling water into your crockpot.  Cook on high for 3 hours.  Test wheat berries for tenderness.  They should be chewy.  Drain any excess water and return the wheat berries to the crockpot.  Add all remaining ingredients and stir well.  Cook on low for 4-6 hours.

You can purchase Tropical Tradition's Organic Wheat Berries directly from the company by clicking on the Buy It button.

Tropical Traditions also has a Referral Program, so if you place an order with them as a first-time customer, please select “Referred by a friend” and in the box that says “How did you hear of us?” enter my sponsor ID number… 5699782. By telling Tropical Traditions that I referred you, you will receive with your first order a complimentary copy of the book Virgin Coconut Oil: How it has changed people’s lives and how it can change yours!" by Brian and Marianita Shilhavy. This book is filled with testimonies and research showing how healthy coconut oil is, and it also includes over 85 recipes showing how one can incorporate coconut into their diet. If you have any questions about how the referral program works, you can visit Tropical Tradition's customer service page.

One lucky Miss Organic's Kitchen reader will win a 5# bag of Tropical Tradition's Organic Hard Red Spring Wheat. A huge thank you to Tropical Traditions for this opportunity!

Mandatory Entry
Visit Tropical Traditions and see what other products they carry that you would like to try.  Fill out the form below. 

(The mandatory entry must be completed before any of the extra entries. If the mandatory entry is not completed, the extra entries will not count.)



Extra Entries

• Sign up for Tropical Traditions email newsletter. Leave a comment that you did. (2 entries)
• Follow Tropical Traditions on twitter. Leave a comment with your twitter username (1 entry)
• Follow Miss Organic's Kitchen on Google Friend Connect - see sidebar (2 entries)
• Subscribe to Miss Organic's Kitchen email updates or subscribe to our feed. (Form is on the sidebar.) You must confirm your subscription for the entry to count. Comment to let me know you did. (2 entries)
• Follow Great Blog Giveaways on twitter. Leave a comment with your twitter username. (1 entry)
• Tweet about this giveaway. Be sure to use @greatgiveaways in your tweet and leave the url for this giveaway. Leave a comment with your tweet link. (1 entry daily)
  You can click on the birdy below to send a tweet if you like.
  
  
  
• Add Miss Organic's Kitchen to your blog roll. Leave a comment with your url so I can find it. (1 entry)
• Blog about this giveaway including a link back to both Tropical Traditions and this post on Miss Organic's Kitchen. Leave a comment with the url to your post. (2 entries)
• Promote this giveaway in other ways (Digg, Stumble Upon, Technorati...). Leave a comment letting me know what you did, and if possible provide a name or URL. (1 entry)
• Post a relevant comment on a non-giveaway post. Leave a comment letting me know where you posted. (1 entry)

Rules
• This giveaway is open to US and Canada only, age 18+.
• Mandatory entry must be completed before you can earn any of the extra entries.
• Please leave a separate comment for each entry. For example if you get 2 entries for a particular activity, leave 2 separate comments.
• Entries that can not be verified or do not follow the instructions are subject to deletion.
• This giveaway will end March 17, 2010 at 11:59 pm EST.
• Winner will be chosen using random.org's number generator.
• Winner will be posted here and emailed. The addresses entered on the form will only be used for prize fulfillment by the sponsor.
• Please either leave your email address with each comment or make sure your email address is available publicly on your profile. If I have no way to contact you, I will have to choose an alternate winner.


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. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.