Healthy Raw Food Snacks Giveaway

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Moral Fibre Giveaway

Moral Fibre Giveaway

 

A Welcome Giveaway

Hello. I have raw food snack box to giveaway. The competition starts today. More about that below. But firstly, I am so excited today to reveal my new blog site. What do you think of the new look? Though it is sill work in progress, I’ve made it easier for you to navigate around and find the information you need, whether you are looking for recipe inspiration or for our handy travel tips, complete with restaurant reviews. There is now a product review page, too. So you can find out what delectable plant based foods are available to purchase in stores. Health, Interviews, News & Tips, will be available soon.

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Do You Suffer From Healthy Snacking Dilemas? …Call The Saviour To Your Door

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It happens often, when I meet someone and they discover I am vegan, they admit they would love to give it a try themselves, but they just don’t have the time to invest in a considerable amount of time initially, standing in the food isle, reading product labels to educate themselves what is vegan and what isn’t. Understandable. In the beginning, it is a little tricky..but the effort is worth it.  We all want to feel and be our best, right?! Which is why I am always on the look out for products that make you feel like you are indulged and not deprived.  Call me crazy, but I admit I actually like spending hours in whole foods stores, all over the world.  

Recently, I attended a food festival and my vegan magpie eyes caught sight of a pretty green box being shown around to the people queuing to enter the event.  At first I thought it probably contained gorgeous vegan, eco friendly underwear, but no.  It was full of vegan, gluten free snacks that actually help you to look good in your underwear!  

Saviour (cute name), it seems, are label reading addicts just like me.  They have put together boxes of snacks with nutritionist approved snacks, containing a selection of snacks.  Mostly sugar free, the vegan box had all but one of their items gluten free. To give you an idea of some of the goodies in the box;
  • raw energy bars
  • spiced nuts
  • popcorn
  • thai sweet chilli chickpeas (hooked on these! only 88 calories a bag)
  • raw chocolate covered gogi berries
  • The Wild Trail bar was the wild card in the vegan box and was not gluten free.  I donated that to a friend.





Their boxes are in the region of £15 + £2 p+p.  You can sign up and order just one, send one as a gift, or be really time efficient and get one sent to yourself or someone dear, on a regular basis.  I think that is a pretty smart idea and I am kicking myself I didn’t come up with the idea first!


I can attest that receiving the box in the post is such a treat. I can also attest that when I got mine, my will power was weak and I was so excited at all the new, previously untested snacks, that I went through them like a plague of locusts!  Next time I’ll be stronger!



I’d love to see Saviour omit any snacks containing sugar in the future in favour of naturally sweetened or healthier ‘sugar’ made snacks, but the selection does only contain a small amount in one or two products.  They do come quite close to perfect!

I can see the idea being especially great for parents wanting to give their children healthy snacks.  Just looking at the contents enables you to see just what goodness is available and help avoid the so called ‘health bars’ and kid friendly sweets that don’t live up to their guilt free labels. Allergy friendly boxes that are gluten free are available too.

Super Snacks - Are These The Best Raw Vegetable Chips Ever? [+ Special Offer!]

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My latest obsession (not the kale contingent.  That’s a given), are Just Pure Foods  vegetable chips, they’re my obsession.  

When I decided to give these fellas a try I thought I’d just stumble over ANOTHER delicious but pretty standard kale chip.  Let me tell you, these guys are taking the kale way beyond, with their own mix of ingredients and flavours.  Not just kale either.  Oh no.  They’ve dehydrated your humble baton of green, the zucchini, and made it rich, salty, chunky strips of unbelievable crunchiness.  What they’ve done to the tomato is nothing short of a triumph too.  This is snacking like ROYALTY!


They are different from all the other dehydrated kale/veggie chips on the market.  They use healthful sprouted buckwheat, some have chickpea miso (soy free), and not the conventional nutritional yeast, to impart a cheesy flavour, and it adds such a depth of flavour.  Their chips are generously covered, and it makes them superior and satiating.  A guilt-free, gluten free snack. They use natural coconut sugar (doesn’t put stress on your blood sugar levels the same way that white sugar does) for the Kale Apple Maple and the Chocolate Kalenola (they taunt you with their greatness!). All of their ingredients ensure the best product and taste.  I think their packaging may be more eco-friendly even.  Using paper and foil for their resealable pouches.   


As you know, I also get a kick out of it if the company founders are good guys.  So to like the company, not just their food. I like to see them walking their talk or just know they are wanting to make social change. 
I contacted Justin, the founder of Just Pure Foods.  He said he’d be happy to answer a few questions.
Which flavours did you launch first? 
I first started with making Cheesy Kale out of my house 3 years ago. I was creating raw meals and snacks for Janet Jackson via her nutritionist and testing out a bunch of dehydrated snack mixes.


How long did it take you to create your extensive range? 
It took about 8 months from formally establishing the business to going to the market to develop our first 5 products (Cheesy Kale (free of nuts and yeast), Cocoa Kale, Zucchini Strips, Onion Rings, and Jalapeno Tomato Chips). The Tomato Chips were inspired from crop surpluses of local Heirloom tomatoes we were getting from Tutti Frutti Farms. They happened to have a ton of jalapenos too the couple weeks I started developing the flavor, so that became the first flavor! We ended up switching to Roma Tomatoes because of availability, which was sad for me as a chef, but allowed us to increase our production outside of the summer tomato season. The creative process is a constant battle for perfection.
What is your favourite flavour? 

My current favorite flavor has to be the Maple Cranberry KaleNola. It’s the newest of all the products, and I just have such a sweet tooth and love having it in a bowl of almond milk and fresh fruit.  
What stores stock them? Can you ship internationally?
We are currently scattered about Canada, and will have a full Canadian roll-out. Same goes for Austrailia, we already have distribution lined up. Beyond that, we get inquiries everyday from abroad, but we gotta be able to share it locally first! We’re sold in Whole Foods throughout Southern California, and then scattered about the country in independent health food stores. Soon our product will be available throughout Oregon, Washington, and the Rocky Mountain Region. 

Check out the website as they are introducing their products in new stores all the time and their international shippers.

I twisted Justin’s arm for you and he wants you to try them too.  He is offering 20% off.  Use the coupon code JPF20PERCENT on the website, justpurefoods.com.

I cannot recommend these snacks enough.  They are great to take hiking, put in your lunch box or have as an ‘on the go’ breakfast.  I am gathering a bunch of flavours for my next flight.  Tomato Pesto for starters, Sesame Dijon Zucchini for entree, and the Kalenola to finish.  Imagine one day if airline companies supplied kefir and kombucha on board to round off my raw chip fest.  Now that would be something!

Crunch Time - BEANFIELDS Beans n Rice Chips - Review of a healthier snack chip

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I am always keen to inform you of GREAT VEGAN PRODUCTS that are low fat, sugar free and allergen free.  And tasty. ALWAYS tasty.   I know being vegan and STAYING vegan is better for planet, animals, health, economy.  BUT sometimes people can feel it is a challenge, especially if they feel like they are missing out.  No one wants to miss out.  Right?! Carrot sticks are great but so are chips!

I am a self-confessed Crunchaholic.  It is a vice I have no intention of embarking on a 12-Step programme for.  If my day hasn’t had a savoury, culinary crunch..well, it’s a day devoid of teensie weensie bit of  joy.  Being a health junkie, I am always looking out for an alternative to potato chips, or simple carbohydrate - fat loaded crunch of any kind.  And I LOVE me some flavour, so when I heard about BEANS N RICE Chips I was falling over my hessian shopping tote to get some bleeping through the till. Once tasted, then of course, I couldn’t wait to tell you about them!

They have 5 flavours. NACHO. SALT N PEPPER. PICO DE GALLO. SEA SALT. UNSALTED I’ve crunched on them all.  I steered clear of the 6 ounce bag (when not in sharing company) as I’d eat them all in one sitting..and got the 1.5 oz, handbag (and man-bag, for you guys) size packet.  At only 140 calories, 5g of fat and packing twice as much protein and fibre as most tortilla chips, they get 2 perky thumbs up from me.

They are a bit of a phenomenon too.  Both crunchy and delicately mouth-melty all at the same time.  The NACHO & PICO DE GALLO (my favourite) are dusty with spices and really flavoursome.  One small bag really fills you up. Satiation factor 10!

ALL of the chips are free of the most common food allergens.  GMO free.

I chatted with Liza from the family owned company and she told me the company is family run.  Founed by Reed Glidden (together with his brother Roy and wife Liza) Reed is a  “Persistent Entreprenuer”. He started out making banana splits in his pa’s Freeze Truck.  It fostered in him a learning by doing attitude to business.  A vegetarian from 18 years old he was working in construction but always held a dream to own a health food business.  In his late 30’s he left the construction industry and his dream began, in a way..via a Natural Foods brokerage.  It wasn’t until he took early retirement that he realised he wasn’t ready to stop, he hadn’t quite reached his zenith.  His wife Liza one day cooked up in their kitchen,  the idea of a chip Reed had been tossing around for a while.  Excited by what they tasted. His entrepreneurial spirit soared and pretty much there and then, Rice n Beans was formed!  I quote Reed..’I’m happy to be in the natural foods industry, helping people love my favorite foods -rice and beans. To me, promoting beans (the most water efficient source of protein on the planet) and helping America find a better way to snack is WAY more fun than being retired’.  

The chips are only available in America.  Grown here and produced here.  Great for the planet, in so many ways.  Beans are cheap to store.  Requiring no refrigeration.  Growing beans is soil friendly too as beans fix all important nitrogen into the soil.

It’s not just me that thinks these chips are life changing and awesome.  Voted ‘Best of Show‘ in 2012 at the Natural Products Expo West, by Vegnews.

I love Beans N Rice.  Now I am just wondering whether to use the space in my suitcase, when I leave for the UK, for clothes.. or chips!