Review: Glutino Strawberry Toaster Pastry

Growing up one of my favorite treats to eat for breakfast were toasted strawberry pop tarts. The sweet strawberry filling and icing was the perfect combination. I was never a fan of the other flavors and looking back it wasn't the healthiest of breakfasts but it was definitely one of my favorites. Now that I'm eating healthier I haven't had a pop tart in a while and especially now that I have gone gluten free. I heard about Glutino's toaster pastries through other blogs and have been wanting to try them and finally got to pick them up at Whole Foods Market on sale for $3.99. Glutino has two flavors available, apple cinnamon and strawberry. If you haven't heard of Glutino it is well known gluten free brand in the gluten free world. They have a variety of gluten free products such as pretzels, crackers, breads, breakfast bars, cookies, cereals and so on!

Each box contains five toaster pastries. Unlike pop tarts they do not have icing on top which makes it easy to convince myself that they're a tiny bit healthier ;) They also contain four grams of fiber and 12 grams of sugar which isn't bad for a sweet treat. It has a long list of ingredients but to be honest unless you're eating these every single day which I wouldn't suggest I wouldn't worry about it as an occasional treat. 

I tried these toaster pasties toasted and right out of the package and would recommend toasting them for best quality. I was expecting it to have a harder crust like a pop tart and was surprised for it to have a buttery flaky crust instead. The buttery flavor was so pronounced I actually had to recheck the box to see if it had dairy which it doesn't since I have also taken dairy out of my diet. The filling was my favorite part of the toaster pastry because it had a naturally sweet fruit flavor unlike the sickeningly sweet high fructose corn syrup filling of my childhood. Eating it right out of the toaster oven made me feel like I was eating a personal flat strawberry pie. Eating it right out of the package was okay but I wouldn't eat it like that again. The buttery flaky crust was also very pronounced cold. Overall I would recommend these toaster pastries as an occasional treat however if you're looking for an exact replica of a pop tart you will be disappointed but if you used to be a fan of toaster strudels this would be the perfect replacement.

Review: Larabar Alt Protein Bars

Happy 4th of July to everyone in the States! Today I'll be reviewing Larabar's new line of bars called Alt Protein Bars. When I first contacted Larabar about receiving free samples of these to review on my blog I was excited for them to arrive because I'm a huge fan of Larabar (reviews to come!) due to their short list of ingredients. If you don't know what a Larabar is, it is a bar that is made up of blended up nuts, dried fruits and spices no more than nine ingredients and nothing else! No artificial ingredients or preservatives. All Larabar flavors are gluten free and there are plenty to choose from! For more detailed information on their products visit their FAQ page and you can get all your questions answered!

Many people are on a search for good quality protein bar (me included) and the people at Larabar took notice of that and decided to create their Alt protein bars. Larabar Alt are gluten free, dairy free, all natural, vegan, kosher, non-GMO, have no added sulfites, no preservatives, fillers or colorings. Alt bars don't contain soy but due to being produced in a facility that makes other products that do contain soy they cannot certify their bars as soy free. The protein source in the Alt bars is pea protein.

The four flavors Larabar has released are cinnamon apple crisp, peanut butter cookie, lemon pound cake and pumpkin pie. Out of the four I was most excited to try the pumpkin pie one and most hesitant to try the lemon pound cake.

The pumpkin pie flavor lived up to my expectations with the spices (especially the cinnamon! mmmm!) and pumpkin flavor but also had a strong taste of peanuts in each bite.

 

The next flavor I tried was the peanut butter cookie. This was my second favorite flavor out of the four. It has a huge peanut butter flavor and anyone who is a huge fan of peanut butter like me will really enjoy this.

The next flavor I tried was the cinnamon apple crisp. I was really excited about this flavor as well because I love apple pie/crisps. Unfortunately for me it fell short from my expectations, I didn't really taste the apple in the bar because it was overpowered by the peanuts, it tasted like the peanut butter cookie bar to me except with some cinnamon added to it.

Lastly I tried the lemon pound cake flavor. This is the flavor I was putting off for last because I was so hesitant to try it. I've tried lemon flavored protein bars in the past and they all have had a lemon cleaner type smell and taste to it which tasted really gross. Surprisingly the lemon pound cake flavor ended up being my favorite one out of the four! It tasted exactly like lemon pound cake! I grew up eating lemon pound cake and have memories of it's dense lemony (is that a word?) flavor. This bar made me feel like I was eating a healthier version of lemon pound cake. Overall I would definitely recommend you try Larabar Alt protein bars. The ingredients are so much better than most junky protein markets that are sold in stores and only include basic ingredients such as nuts, spices, natural flavorings, oils, pea protein, brown rice flour and syrup. The only cons to these bars are that it is a little dry and is high in sugar but some of the sugar comes from the dried fruit that each bar contains. Thank you again to the kind people at Larabar for sending me these bars to sample and review on my blog!

*I did not pay for these products and it was sent to me for review purposes. This review is strictly my opinion and I was not paid or influenced in any way.