I’m not nuts! And neither is this delicious mix!

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Mo

Salty, sweet and crunchy?? Oh yes! Yes, they are!

I was recently given an opportunity from Enjoy Life Foods ® to review the new packaging for their not nuts! Seed and Fruit Mixes.

Yay!!

Here at the Mo’s Momstuff house, we’d given up on having little treats like trail mixes. Being a completely nut-free home, we just resigned ourselves to missing those lovely little indulgences. Well…

Not any more!

I have to admit, we had never tried this particular product lineup from Enjoy Life ®. We’re huge supporters of theirs and love everything that we’ve tried, but honestly, their wonderful products aren’t available in our regular grocery store and we just don’t get over to Sunflower Market to get the specialty items anymore. Since they’re ‘extras’ it’s just not part of our shopping routine. But I had definitely seen them before.

Let me just tell you-

They’re delicious! I love both pumpkin and sunflower seeds so it was wonderful that they both had them. In abundance. Yum! But I’m not a big cranberry or raisin fan though. Luckily, neither of these mixes have too many of either of those things. They have enough to vary the flavors and textures, but not so many that you feel like that’s all you’re getting in each bite, which is nice. I know there are plenty of mixes out there that overload you (well…me) with raisins as ‘filler’. Enjoy Life ® hasn’t done that. Thank you Enjoy Life ®!
I loved the chocolate chips in the Mountain Mambo mix. I actually wish that the Beach Bash mix had had chocolate chips as well but at the same time I’m glad that they offer one without. Not everyone wants chocolate chips.

They have new packaging now.

See???

And I like it. I like the look. I like the feel of the bags. They’re a softer, not-so-plasticky feeling bag. It’s different. It’s nice. Resealable is also always a big plus in my book. The only issue I had with this packaging is that they’re not super easy to tear open. The plastic doesn’t rip all that easily but it’s nothing that a pair of scissors didn’t take care of!

All in all, I love the packages. They’ve got a great feel and I LOVE how big the “NUT FREE” declaration is! I also really enjoy being able to see the actual mix. The little ‘windows’ help immensely. I know I’m much more likely to buy a product that I can actually see. Aren’t you?!

This review was a joy and brought to you by…

For more info on Enjoy Life Foods background visit here
Find where to buy Enjoy Life products here
You can Follow Enjoy Life on Twitter here and on Facebook here

~~I was provided with the product contained in this post for purpose of review but all opinions are completely my own based on quality and not conditional or influenced.~~

Mmmm….Crunchy Goodness thanks to Enjoy Life!

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Mo

Who doesn’t love cookies?! I’m just sayin….
I don’t know of anyone that doesn’t love cookies. My personal faves are the soft chewy kind but a tasty crunchy cookie definitely has it’s place. And……I’ve found some absolutely delicious ones that will ALWAYS be welcome in my cabinet.

I was recently given the opportunity to review Enjoy Life‘s New CRUNCHY Cookies.
We were lucky enough to get to try all 4 of their new flavors. They were all tasty but I definitely developed a couple of favorites.

A few years ago when my amazing husband went Gluten Free I embarked on the journey with him. I quickly came to discover that I wasn’t a fan. To me, most GF products are bland and rather cardboard like in both consistency and flavor. There are occasional exceptions but they are definitely that; exceptions.
Well fab fans and followers let me tell you…
That’s not the case with Enjoy Life’s New CRUNCHY Cookies! I was rather surprised and gladly so. To be perfectly honest, although I love the other products of theirs that I’ve tried, I really didn’t expect much in the way of flavor from these. As I said before, I’m not a huge crunchy cookie fan but…
These are my new exceptions.
My favorite of the 4 is the Double Chocolate. And believe it or not…I’m not a HUGE chocolate fan! It’s chocolatey but genuinely so. It doesn’t seem cocoa powdery like so many others. They have a nice creamy texture even though they’re crunchy which was surprising. I tried to stay away from them but it just didn’t work! They’re too good! LOL Darn you Enjoy Life for totally destroying my self control! I have to tell you…I failed in my attempts to refrain. As if you couldn’t have guessed.

The Chocolate Chip comes next in my list. The usual great flavor and consistency of the chocolate that I so enjoy but not as rich as the Double Chocolate.

The Vanilla Honey Graham were quite delicious. I wasn’t sure what to expect from these. Were they going to be like a graham cracker? How vanilla-y would they be? These have great flavor but are dryer than the 1st two. Definitely tasty though.

The Sugar Crisp‘s are tasty but my least favorite of the bunch. No specific complaint. There’s nothing wrong with them. Just not as desired by my taste buds. Evan tried them and enjoyed them quite a bit as did Dominic. And I will be more than happy to have them again. Are you kidding?! Still get sweet tasty cookies but not the decadent kill my self control cookies? I’m in!

As a note…Dominic was of absolutely no help to me whatsoever with this review. All he did was agree with my opinions and then…have another cookie! LOL

My joy at finding a company that makes wonderfully delicious treats that are safe for my family to eat abounds. A company that is dedicated to making products FREE of the Top 8 allergens, Gluten, and artificial ingredients is MY kind of company! With the ever-increasing rate of food allergies and intolerance in this nation of ours (Currently about 12 million Americans have food allergies and more than a quarter of those are to peanuts or tree nuts; Justice being one of them.) the fact that Enjoy Life Foods is still a minority is both disappointing and sad. So I’m all about encouraging and supporting a company that does both of those things for my family and their health.

For more info on Enjoy Life Foods background visit here
Find where to buy Enjoy Life products here
You can Follow Enjoy Life on Twitter here and on Facebook here
**Allergy statistics taken from here

I hope that this info and these opinions find you well and hopefully shed some new light into your healthy eating choices.

~~I was provided with the product contained in this post for purpose of review but all opinions are completely my own based on quality and not conditional or influenced.~~

Tasty little treats that took no time at all…

Posted on October 11, 2011 by Mo

Well…I did it! I managed to come up with an absolutely delicious little no bake dessert treat all on my own. Oh….and did I mention……they’re Top 8 (allergen) Free?!?!?? Tee hee hee….
They are!!
Chocolate lovers….here you go!!

I recently accepted a fabulous opportunity to sample and review two of Enjoy Life Foods newest products, Double Chocolate Crunch Granola and Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mega Chunks. Yay!

2 bags of Yum!

Enjoy Life Foods is this wonderful company that I’m just thrilled about finding. All of their products are not only FREE of the top 8 allergens, they’re also gluten-free. And most of their products are free of Potatoes, Sesame, Sulfites, and Casein. AND…they’re Kosher-certified and Halal-certified. Jackpot baby!
I can’t even express to you how excited I am. I can serve these to ALL of my friends and family with no worries. And since they don’t have avocado…..I‘m safe too!!

Well, I must confess; I broke into the bag of granola pretty quick as it was the item I was most excited about trying. Chocolate Granola that is nut free? Yay!!
It was, as I hoped it would be, Dee–Lish–Us! Crunchy, chocolaty….pretty much fantastic! The next morning I decided to try a little with some milk for a sweet breakfast. It was a tad sweet for my breakfast taste, but tasty and stayed crunchy even while I walked away a few times which made me rather happy indeed. (I just hate it when cereal gets mushy!)
As much as I wanted to keep opening up that bag (which by the way, is resealable which I love) and dipping my hand in, I also wanted to find something, some recipe, some idea for which I could really use this stuff other than just devouring it ever so unoriginally. I must say…I was having a rather hard time coming up with anything other than granola bars. Now, I have a pretty yummy recipe for granola bars and I’m hoping that I have enough leftover to still make them, but I was really trying to come up with something else. And wouldn’t ya know it? I did. It’s certainly nothing fancy or spectacular but, I think they’re tasty nonetheless.
I present for you, my idea for Triple Chocolate Granola Clusters. And hey, I managed to use both products together! Woo hoo!
I used my mini-muffin pan and lined all 24 cups with my cute little mini-muffin cup liners and filled each one about 2/3 of the way with the Double Chocolate Crunch Granola. Next I melted a small handful of the Mega Chunks in a microwave safe bowl, checking it frequently to make sure they didn’t burn.
I know, I know. What precise measurements huh?! How very helpful of me to document specifically right?! My apologies to you. I had originally planned to only make 1 dozen, but the handful of chocolate that I melted the 1st go round was more than I needed so I continued on with a 2nd dozen. It was just an eyeball-it-kind of a trial for me.
At any rate, once the chocolate was melted, I dipped a large spoon in and drizzled it over the granola. Then I just placed the muffin pan in the fridge and let it harden.
Voila!

Teeny tasty treats

The Mega Chunks melted easily and taste just as great as Enjoy Life’s Mini Chips that I’ve used many times before. And of course, we don’t need to talk about the few chunks that I ever so discreetly, and of course completely inadvertently, tossed in my mouth during this process. That won’t be necessary at all….
I must say, I didn’t think there would be any difference between the chunks and the mini chips but the chunks blended quite easily during the melting process which was nice. They’d be great to use for making chunky chocolate cookies which I will definitely keep in mind as well.

I’m sure I’ll be making these again. Possibly for the holiday party for Evan’s class or maybe just to share at karate. Either way, I’m pretty positive they’ll be a hit and I’m ecstatic that they’re allergy friendly.

With that, I’ll leave you…mouth watering over these delectable little dessert type treats and all. Off you go now to check out where you can buy these two bags of yum, not to mention all their other goodies… Click here to see where you can go to bring these home.

Excited to be sharing some great stuff with you and hoping you try them out,

~~I was provided with the product contained in this post for purpose of review but all opinions are completely my own based on quality and not conditional or influenced.~~