Quick Review: Banana and Almond Butter GoMacro Macrobar

I'm a huge fan of food bars and make it a personal challenge to find ones that are minimally processed and have good ingredients. On a recent grocery trip to Whole Foods I saw these Macrobars on sale for $2 each and grabbed the Banana and Almond Butter one to try.

Some of the reasons it caught my attention is because it is high protein, vegan, gluten free and non-GMO. I'm a big fan of almond butter as well and as long as it's done well banana flavored products can taste great too. When I opened up the wrapper the first thing that I smelled was the banana and the bar had a shiny slightly greasy touch to it probably because of the fats in the almond butter. It reminded me of a bigger and flatter Larabar due to the ground up appearance of it. 

Taste wise it gets two thumbs up from me. I can taste the almond butter, walnuts, raisins, and banana in almost every bite. I was hesitant about the banana because I've tried many banana flavored foods that taste artificial but the banana taste in this was very natural and delicious. It was enough to fill me up for breakfast and hold me over until lunch time. For 270 calories I would probably recommend this as a meal replacement due to how filling it is or maybe add some fruit on the side to make it a more complete meal.

My only complaint is that it is high in sugar and brown rice syrup is the first ingredient on the list. If it was replaced with another dried fruit like dates I probably wouldn't mind the sugar content as much because it would be coming from a less processed source. Besides the brown rice syrup the other ingredients are pretty good and are definitely a whole lot better compared to other protein bars. Besides being vegan, gluten free, non-GMO it is also USDA Organic, Kosher Certified and Soy Free. Overall I would recommend this flavor Macrobar and would be interested in trying the other flavors they have available.

Review: Crunchmaster Grammy Crisps, Cheezy Crisps and 7 Ancient Grains

Hiya! I'm back from my sister's wedding which was beautiful and now have more time to write down product reviews for you guys :) My first post back will be a Crunchmaster review as stated in the title. Shortly after trying Mary's Gone Crackers I was on the hunt for a new cracker to try and discovered Crunchmaster crackers. I tried the sea salt multigrain crackers and I was hooked! I looked on their website to see what other flavors/products they had and decided to email them to ask if they would be willing to send some of their products to try and I quickly got a response back saying yes! I asked to try the Grammy Crisps, Cheezy Crisps (also known as Kids Crisps) and 7 Ancient Grains crackers since I have not seen any of those in my local grocery stores. Crunchmaster Crackers make gluten free crackers and use exclusive proprietary rice baking techniques to bake their crackers "Usuyaki" style. They only use Californian grown GMO free rice, sesame, quinoa, amaranth and flax seeds. All of their crackers are made on dedicated, certified gluten free rice cracker production lines at their plant in Rockford, IL or Henderson, NV using only gluten free ingredients.

I love cinnamon sugar so I was excited to eat the Grammy Crisps and it was the first one I tried.The Grammy Crisps are certified gluten free, peanut free, 100% whole grain (21g per serving), saturated fat free and cholesterol free.  If you have ever eaten Crunchmaster crackers before they're the same square shape and size and there was plenty in the box. The taste of these are great, they're crunchy, subtly sweet and addicting. It reminded me of a healthier cinnamon toast crunch cereal and I love that these aren't sickingly sweet. While eating these the cinnamon sugar sticks to your fingers which makes it fun to lick off once you're done eating :) Overall the ingredients are pretty good and I would consider this a healthier choice for an occasional treat and I bet you could use these to replace Golden Grahams in Golden Grahams S'mores.

The Cheezy Crisps are also certified gluten free, peanut free, 100% whole grain (22g per serving), saturated fat free and cholesterol free.  Due to being on a dairy free diet as well I recruited my mom to try the Cheezy Crisps. Unlike their other crackers the Cheezy Crisps are little triangles and were covered in a bright orange cheesy powder. They are about half the size of their regular square crackers but there were plenty of them in the box. The texture and crunch were the same as the Grammy Crisps and my mom said there was a lot of cheesy flavor and reminded her of a better tasting thin crunchy Cheeto. The ingredients list on these are a lot longer due to the cheese and has some ingredients I would prefer not to see like corn syrup solids and maltodextrin but out of the long list those are the only two I have a problem with but unlike Cheetos and Doritos it does not contain any artificial food colorings.

The 7 Ancient Grains crackers are low sodium, certified gluten free, saturated fat free, cholesterol free, vegan/dairy free and contains 24g of whole grains per serving. These have the typical square shape as Crunchmaster's other crackers and seemed to have fewer in the box. You can also see some of the seeds in each cracker. I love the ingredients list for these and I would consider this a real food and a great option to pair up with cheese, avocado, deli meat, soup, salads etc. They are crunchy, slightly salty and reminded me of a regular rice cracker. I probably wouldn't eat these by themselves since they are on the bland side but paired up with other foods I would.

 Overall the Grammy Crisps and Cheezy Crisps get two thumbs up from me and I would highly recommend buying them especially if you have kids. The 7 Ancient Grains crackers were okay, they didn't stand out to me and I wouldn't go out of my way to go buy them but I would eat them again. A big thank you to Crunchmaster for sending me these products to 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. 

Back Soon!

Sorry for the lack of reviews! I've been super busy and will be leaving tomorrow for my sister's wedding so nothing new will be posted up yet! Things are going to wind down shortly after and I will post a lot more reviews of products that I have received/purchased. Some of the foods include Crunch Master, Go Raw, Larabar Alt, more Udi's breads and even a random Aldi find that I was excited to discover yesterday! I'm excited for everything that will be posted soon :)

Quick Review: Lucy's Maple Bliss Gluten Free Cookies

I'm not much of a cookie/sweets person but I'm a big fan of things that are maple flavored. While walking through Whole Foods Market I came across Lucy's Gluten Free Cookies and saw they were on sale for $3.50 so I quickly snatched up the maple bliss flavor. Lucy's Gluten Free Cookies are gluten free (obviously), vegan, kosher pareve, allergy friendly and contain 0 trans fats and cholesterol. Each package contains 15 cookies which is good amount for the price and the size of the cookie.

 The ingredients list is pretty good considering these are gluten free cookies and I love that it contains real maple syrup and not just flavoring. I'm also really happy to see Non-GMO corn and organic soy milk/soy beans. The nutrition is good and doesn't have too many calories or sugar per serving if you can stop at one serving ;)

These cookies get two thumbs up from me. They are crunchy, sweet with a hint of saltiness and delicious! I prefer soft chewy cookies but these were actually really good and I didn't mind the crunch. It has a sweet/salty combo going that I love and makes it super addicting! Overall I would highly recommend you buy these. Besides the maple bliss flavor, there is also chocolate chip, ginger snap, chocolate, cinnamon thin, oatmeal and sugar cookie.

Review: Part 2 Udi's Gluten Free Cinnamon Raisin Bagels, Cranberry Granola and Classic Hamburger Buns

If you haven't seen part 1 of my Udi's Review, you can click here. After contacting Udi's about sending me some products to review they generously sent me a box of goodies with their millet chia bread, cranberry granola, cinnamon raisin bagels and classic hamburger buns. I was really excited to see bagels since I haven't eaten one in forever! It was one of my favorite breakfasts to eat before going gluten free especially buying them at a local bagel place that made the best bagels I have ever tasted. The next morning I toasted half a bagel and spread some Earth Balance Buttery Spread on it since I'm also dairy free. The flavor of it was great but the texture wasn't the same as a wheat bagel which I was expecting. It doesn't have the same amount of chewiness like a wheat bagel does and tasted more like a heartier bread. Udi's Cinnamon Raisin Bagels are dairy, soy and nut free and while some of the ingredients aren't the greatest it's expected in gluten free bread products. Some people may complain that there are too many calories in it but it's a bagel! Bagels have a lot of calories and I was satisfied with just eating half of one. Overall I would recommend buying Udi's Gluten Free bagels but don't have high expectations of it tasting exactly like a wheat bagel. Besides cinnamon raisin they also have whole grain, plain, everything inside and mighty bagels.

The next thing I tried was the cranberry granola. In the process of cleaning up my diet I discovered granola. Surprisingly prior to getting sick I have never eaten it except for the tiny speck they put in parfaits in those super processed sugary yogurts. Before making my own I bought a bag of one but it tasted way too sweet for me and after that experience I decided to look up recipes to make my own granola instead. When I realized how good it tasted and how easy it was to make I went granola crazy! Pumpkin, cinnamon raisin, vanilla almond, maple granola and so on! Remembering my first and last experience with store bought granola I had low expectations of how this one would taste. I ate it by itself as a snack and was surprised at how subtly sweet it is. It was perfectly crunchy and had small bits of walnuts in it as well. The only thing I didn't like were the texture of the cranberries, they were a bit hard and stuck to my teeth. The ingredients list is great and the nutrition is better than most store bought granola. It is also soy, nut and dairy free. Overall I probably wouldn't purchase this myself since I make my own and wouldn't recommend this exact flavor of Udi's granola but they also have other flavors that look really good such as their au naturel, vanilla, original, omega 3 cherry walnut granola clusters and antioxidant blueberry cashew granola clusters (this one sounds especially good!).

 Lastly to go with the classic hamburger buns I made my favorite turkey burger recipe that I changed around to make it gluten free. I love to toast my hamburger buns so I took it straight from the freezer to my toaster oven. After taking my first bite I was very impressed by how soft and fluffy it was on the inside and how it tasted exactly like a regular hamburger bun. Udi's classic hamburger buns are dairy, soy and nut free as well. As I've said before there are some ingredients in it that aren't the greatest but gluten free breads need that extra support to make it taste good and have a better texture. Compared to a regular white hamburger bun it does have more calories but unless you're eating a burger every single day I wouldn't worry about it and I was surprised to see it had 4 grams of fiber which is a major plus. Overall I would highly recommend Udi's Classic Hamburger Buns and I will be buying these again in the future for all that grilling coming up in the summer! Besides their classic buns they also have a whole grain version. This completes my Udi's Gluten Free Review and a big thank you to them again for sending me all these goodies to review on my blog!

*I did not pay for this product 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.

Review: Better Batter All Purpose Flour

I have always enjoyed baking and when I started this gluten free diet I took it as a personal challenge to bake gluten free foods that actually tastes good. I had a lot of duds and quickly found out gluten free baking is hard. I searched online for recipes for gluten free flour blends but it quickly became overwhelming. Rice flour, potato starch, xanthan gum, coconut flour, almond flour, tapioca flour and so on. After looking at all these recipes I decided it was best to buy an all purpose flour mix even though it does cost more and I began to research which ones got the best reviews. Eventually I found Better Batter flour and with my first order discount on vitacost.com I decided to try it. I ordered the 20 oz box for $7.29.

Better Batter flour is a mix of rice flour, brown rice flour, tapioca starch, potato starch, potato flour, xanthan gum and pectin. It is vegetarian/vegan, OU Kosher and acceptable for Feingold I and II. What attracted me most to Better Batter is that it states cup for cup substitute for regular flour for most recipes. Once it arrived the first thing I baked with it were soft pretzel bites from a recipe that I found on the Better Batter website. I also baked mini pumpkin muffins and vanilla bean biscotti.

The soft pretzels tasted good but you could definitely they were gluten free. The mini pumpkin muffins tasted great but again you could tell they were gluten free, however I think the gluten free flour worked in it's favor making the muffin's texture soft and fluffy. The winner was using the Better Batter flour in the vanilla bean biscotti, it did not taste gluten free whatsoever and actually baked better than when I use to make this recipe using regular flour. Even though this flour is on the expensive side I would buy it again and use it for baking recipes but probably not for savory types of breads. The pros to this flour would be the texture it gives baked goods and it truly is a cup for cup substitute in recipes. The muffin and biscotti recipe I used were not a gluten free recipe and I substituted the regular flour with no problems. The cons would be the price, a 5 lb bag of flour costs $21.95 so I wouldn't do too much experimenting with this flour since it would get costly. Overall I would highly recommend buying this flour and trying it in sweeter recipes such as cookies, scones and muffins.

Review: Part 1 Udi's Gluten Free Millet Chia Bread

I'm finally back from my long hiatus, I had an unexpected health emergency that came up that is taken care of now. A few weeks ago I contacted Udi's Gluten Free asking if they would be willing to send me some products to review on my blog and they quickly replied back and said they would! If you are on a gluten free diet you probably have heard of Udi's Gluten free and if you haven't...where have you been?!

If you don't know about Udi's, they are a gluten free company from Colorado that began as a franchise known as Udi's Bakery Cafe in 1994. In 2008 they made their first loaf of gluten free bread to sell in their bakery cafes and the rest is history! People could not get enough of their bread and since then they are now the number one gluten free brand in the United States. Originally I was going to review all four products they sent me in one post but I was blown away by their Millet-Chia bread that I had to put it in a post all on it's own.

I was instantly attracted to this bread when I saw the word chia on the packaging, yes the same chia seeds in the ch-ch-ch-chia pet. If you haven't gotten into the chia craze, chia seeds are rich in antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids and are also a good source of fiber. The first thing I looked at was the ingredients list and even though there are a few questionable ingredients, overall it's decent. Gluten free breads need certain ingredients in it in order for it not to crumble and have more stability in the product so you won't be getting a gluten free bread with a short ingredient list unless you make it yourself.

 As you can see in the pictures there is a lot of millet in the bread and if you look closely you can also see the chia seeds. I tried this bread by itself and all I can say is amazing. Simply amazing. You might be thinking you're just saying that because you got it for free or they told you to say that. NO! This bread is honestly the best bread I have ever tasted. I am a bread lover (that sounds awkward) and before going gluten free I ate a ton of bread and am very picky about what I like. Unless someone told you this bread is gluten free you wouldn't know. It has the perfect texture and flavor to it, if I wasn't on a gluten free diet I would keep buying this bread anyways. It also tastes great untoasted which is a huge positive since many gluten free breads need to be toasted in order to taste good. The only downside to this bread is the size, this is the perfect portion for me and anyone else who eats smaller portions but some people may complain that the slices are too small and would need another slice or maybe two to fill them up. Overall Udi's Gluten Free Millet Chia Bread gets two thumbs up from me and I highly recommend you go out and buy it! If you can't find it in stores you can also order it from their website http://udisglutenfree.com/ for $5.50. A big thank you to Udi's for sending me this bread to review! My other Udi's reviews will be posted soon as well.

*I did not pay for this product 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.