Along with the Sunbutter Crunch bars I was sent to try for free from Enjoy Life, I was sent a few other flavors to try for free, including the Caramel Apple variety.

How can you really say no to something Caramel Apple flavored? An image of sticky, chewy, sweet and delicious comes to mind thinking of a caramel apple. And so fitting with the fall. Nothing like a crisp apple picked off a tree! (not that I get to experience that all that often given my current urban situation… -__- )

ANYWAY, insert Enjoy Life Caramel Apple Chewy Bars. Gluten free, vegan goodness in bar form. Very small bar form, aka the size of my pointer finger small, but whatever. Good things come in small packages!

This bar was pretty good. It was dense and chewy, and had the little crispy rice sort of action going on like the Sunbutter Crunch variety had. I liked that it was sweet, but not I have to make a dentist appointment for the cavity I’m going to develop sweet. A good amount.

I could certainly taste the apple flavor, which was a plus. While I was eating it, I couldn’t help but notice how much it tasted like Quaker Apple Cinnamon instant oatmeal. I would know – I ate that oatmeal SO FREQUENTLY when I was younger. It seemed like every school breakfast I heard the teapot kettle whistle, poured the hot water in my instant oatmeal, ate and went on the school bus. *sigh* back to when life was simple!

So, as a whole for this bar, although it lacks sustainability, as in I’d be hungry still if I only ate this, it was pretty good, and a good snack bar/pre workout boost. I’d give it 4 stars.

What was your typical breakfast before school when you were younger? I alternated with instant oatmeal, and toasted english muffin with peanut butter! =)

Yay for new products to try! I was sent a few boxes of EnjoyLife Chewy Bars to try to review for free. Of course I agreed, as I am always up to try new things. Plus….I eat granola bars like crazy! Even more…these bars are dairy free, wheat free, gluten free, fish free, egg free, soy free, and nut free!

I decided to try the Sunbutter Crunch bars first. Why? I don’t know. They called to me. They reminded me of baseball games when I was little where I was given sunflower seeds to munch on. At the time I didn’t know you supposed to take the shell off. I was literally chew-chew-chewing the seeds with the shell on. HA!

But anyway, I opened one up and took a look. The texture is quite weird. They feel almost rough to the touch and dry, and don’t bend well. If you bend the bar, it breaks off into pieces automatically.

These smell EXACTLY like sunflower seeds. Which I suppose they should…they are made from sunflower seed butter! I broke off a piece, and it seemed like a very dense and kind of dry bar. The only way to know for sure was to take a bite. I went for it, and…I can’t say I was a HUGE fan, but I can’t say I hated it either.

At first, it was kind of bland, and it was chewy and dense, with a puffed rice krispie texture thing going on as well. As I chewed, the bar became sweeter and sweeter. As expected, the bar was kind of dry, but not so bad where my mouth was calling water uncontrollably. These were actually kind of good! They had a mild sunflower seed taste, but tasted like peanut butter at times too (no worries- these are NUT free!!).

As I continued to eat the bar, I liked it more and more. A rather unique flavor, but really quite good! I liked it more than I thought I would, as I thought there would be an overpowering sunflower seed taste, but there wasn’t! My only complaint is these are TINY!. Here’s a pic of it in comparison with a pen. Blue ink only, guys. I’m biased and will only write in blue. ; )

See…tiny! But they are only 120 calories each, so I could eat one (or 1.5 of them!) before a workout as a snack and I feel like it would fuel me up just fine. Or pair one with a glass of milk! (unless you have milk allergies of course!) Overall, 3  stars. Recommended to try, especially if you like sunflower seeds!

Do you like sunflower seeds? flavored sunflower seeds? sunflower butter? Tell me! : )

Who doesn’t love trail mix? Crunchy, sweet, salty, savory, and satisfying- all in one! I was pleasantly surprised when I saw a box on my front step from Enjoy Life, and inside was their  Not Nuts! Seed and Fruit Mix in Mountain Mambo and Beach Bash varieties.

Take a closer look. Here’s the Mountain Mambo

camera fail. blurrrrrry!

And heres the Beach Bash flavor

Alrighty, let’s get down to business. The first one I tried was the Mountain Mambo. It had apple pieces, raisins, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and more.

The apple pieces were so yummy! Soft and chewy, and perfect addition.

The raisins were a little off tasting. Not super sweet like I’m used to, and I was a bit disappointed. Especially since in the bag, there was a LOT of raisins. Seriously- I got a big blob of raisins right in the middle all stuck together!

The sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds were very fresh tasting and crunchy, and not really salty at all. However, not salty doesn’t mean they weren’t flavorful!

Then, I shook up bag a little and found…

Chocolate chips!

These were yummy! Smooth chocolate, and tasted like a milk chocolate would.

Another surprise was I found  VERY few cranberries. Only got like 2 in the bag ! However, the two or so I got were quite tasty, and not too tart. So for this variety….

3 ½ stars

Next up, the winner in my eyes, BEACH BASH variety.

Seriously, in a word,- yum.

There were sunflower seeds, pumpkin, apricots, pineapple, cranberries and more. On a brighter side, there were definitely more cranberries in this one and yummy too! Sweet, not tart and chewy!

The pineapple pieces were BEYOND delicious. Seriously- I want a bag of just the pineapple! It was soft, and sugar sweet! I may or may not have picked all the pineapple out of the bag the first day I got it….. oops

The apricot pieces? eh. Kind of hard and dry and tart. Not  a fan. Would rather more pineapple…

Overall, 4 stars

Overall, yummy! Both are NUT FREE, wheat free, dairy free, egg free, soy free, peanut free! And yum-my! I like beach bash better. I would totally buy it!

What would you put in your ideal trail mix? Mine would be dried pineapple pieces from above, glazed pecans, cashews, reeses pieces, and pretzels!

I think I should start off by saying I don’t like dark chocolate.  I will eat it, but I find it too bitter, hardly sweet, and just unenjoyable for my taste buds. My taste buds much prefer milk chocolate, and white chocolate (with my FAVORITE white chocolate review here!) Nutrition courses via an accredited online college for people who have decided they want to
pursue their knowledge about health and nutrition further. It is helpful to learn from each other as well as experts and books.

So, before eating this, in the back of my head I thought, aw man, DARK chocolate? Boo! But who am I to judge based on the name? Who knows what it will taste like? It could be cookie heaven.

And it was…

As you can probably see, it was a bit crumby, and broke apart very easily. Kind of like the other gluten free cookie by Fabe’s. It was dense, and a bit “piecy” as I chewed it, but wow was it DE  LIC  IOUS. And yes, delicious is three words now, you didn’t know that? ; )  (kidding). Literally, this cookie melted in my mouth as I ate it. It was very sweet, and tasted like a brownie. Or just like chocolate frosting. Actually, how about a brownie WITH chocolate frosting on it. SO GOOD!

Seriously, Fabe’s knows how to make cookies. Yes, there are some crumb issues going on, so I wouldn’t reccommend eating this while your wearing white or at a friend’s house who can’t stand crumbs anywhere. In fact, I advise you don’t eat this cookie at that friends house, or I predict he or she will be very angry at you. However, feel free to eat it on your way out the door because you can’t wait until you get home. It’s that good. It’s so good I made up an imaginary friend for you who doesn’t like crumbs. Your welcome.

ANYWAY, this one gets 4 1/2 stars. Again, the crumb/consistency of the cookie is a bit off, but the flavor is right on. And the nutritional facts will set you back 280 calories if you polish off the whole cookie (hey…don’t point your finger at me. I only ate 3/4 of the cookie this time! =) ). Regardless, I think you should try this if you have the chance to!

I got this cookie to try for free from the company.

Along with the delicious Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookie I was sent for free from Fabe’s, they also sent me some others, including the Sweetened by Nature Gluten Free Cranberry Orange Cookie. According to the wrapper, this cookie is also  vegan, egg free, dairy free, all natural, and has no refined sugar.

I’m always a bit skeptical when something says it’s free of a lot of ingredients, as are some of my friends who I have heard comment to me in the past. Well, if it has no refined sugar, no eggs, no dairy, no gluten…what’s it made of? And HOW could it possibly taste good?

Well. I don’t know….doesn’t this look delicious?

Well – no worries here, Fabe’s has you covered. This particular cookie was actually quite delicious. The first thing I noticed is that it was VERY crumbly. It literally started to fall apart as I opened the wrapper, but I liked how it was a bigger cookie. However, there are 2 servings (read 1 serving if you’re me) in this cookie.

There were are a good amount of cranberries, which were chewy and sweet, and slightly tart. The cookie had a melt in your mouth consistency, and had a different texture than any cookie I ever had. It was almost like a crumb cake in texture. It was VERY sweet, but delicious, with a predominant orange zest flavor, and a  coconut flavor as well!

Overall, Fabe’s has proved that even without eggs, dairy, gluten or refined sugar, yummy cookies can be made. If I hadn’t eaten the whole cookie myself (ooooops….) I would bring it over to my skeptical friends to prove them wrong. This cookie gets 4 stars, because I wish it was a tad less crumbly. Also, this cookie has two servings, and it’s WAY too hard not to eat both. So delicious!

Cranberries- are you a fan? I would say I’m on the fence. If they are sweet and dried, I like them. But if they are too tart, I could definitely do without them!

EnjoyLife offered me something new they came out with to try for free, the Double Chocolate Crunch Nut & Gluten Free Granola. Being the nut about granola that I am, (and the fact that chocolate was involved), I couldn’t wait to try it.

This cereal is very “allergy friendly”, as the package states, as it is free of  ”wheat, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, fish, shellfish” and “also made without casein, potato, sesame and sulfites”. Wow. It’s amazing how they can still make tasty products even with excluding so many different types of food!

Once I got the package, I immediately dove in and gave it a try. Here’s what it looked like

Look at all those yummy chocolate chips!

At first, I thought it was a bit bland, since it’s not super sweet. But, as I ate it, it really is delicious, and I couldn’t STOP eating it! Handful after handful, I ate the yummy granola. I loved the fact that there were a LOT of chocolate chips, no scrimping there for sure, and they were smooth and sweet. The texture of the granola was crispy, crunchy, and it had a mild chocolate flavor, that again, was not overly sweet.

Overall, very good. It was kind of like a bag of chocolate candies, once I started eating a few handfuls, I kept saying “oh, just a little bit more”, and then proceeded to take even more handfuls! I love that this is made with good ingredients,has a bit of fiber, and is a decent portion size given that it involves both chocolate and granola. 4 stars

What’s your favorite thing that’s “double chocolate”? I love double chocolate chip muffins!

Chocolate! Nothing is better than chocolate. Ok maybe peanut butter, but there’s room for debate on that one. ANYWAY, EnjoyLife sent me some boom CHOCO boom bars to try for free. I already reviewed the Rice Milk with Crispy Rice variety here, and thought it was pretty good. Today’s review is on the Dairy-Free Rice Milk Bar and the Dark Chocolate Bar.

Both these bars are free of nuts, soy, dairy, gluten, wheat, fish, shellfish,  and eggs as stated on the wrapper. They are also both vegan.

I tried the dark chocolate one first, although hesistantly. As you probably know, I’m not a huge dark chocolate fan. I love the health benefits, but not a fan of the bitterness (Why can’t milk or white chocolate be as healthy as dark chocolate!!!??) I DID like how cute the squares were. Here’s a picture

So, I took a bite of the square, which was rather thick and had a nice bite to it, and was pleasantly surprised. Not as bitter as I thought it would be! It was creamy, actually kind of sweet, and there was a vanilla aftertaste as well. Pretty good! 3 1/2 stars

Next up, the Dairy-Free Rice Milk bar. At first this one was smooth and sweet, but as I continued to eat it, I noticed it had some kind of an aftertaste. Hmm. Have you ever had sugar free chocolate? I have, and I always noticed it had some sort of an aftertaste which was similar to what this bar had. Also what I found odd was that I could almost taste milk in this bar, despite the fact that it was dairy-free. Bizarre. It was OK, but not my favorite. 3 stars

Well, look at that! I actually liked the Dark Chocolate one more than the Dairy-Free Rice Milk bar! Go figure

Dark Chocolate boom CHOCO boom bar- 1 package is 200 calories, 15 grams of fat ( 9 saturated) 22 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 17 grams of sugar and 2 grams of protein.

Dairy-Free Rice Milk boom CHOCO boom bar- 1 package is 230 calories, 17 grams of fat (11 saturated), 21 grams of carbohydrates, 1 grams of fiber, 17 grams of sugar, and 1 gram of protein.

If you could invent your own chocolate bar, what would it have in it? I would have a peanut butter filled milk chocolate bar with bits of banana in it. MMM!

EnjoyLife offered to send me some of their cookies for free, and one of them was the Lively Lemon cookies. According to the box, these are wheat free, peanut free, dairy free, tree nut free, soy free, fish free, egg free and shellfish free, as well as being gluten free. I don’t have any food allergies, but I was still up for trying them anyway.

I opened the box, and saw kind of small-ish cookies with yellow spots on them. They smelled very fresh and lemon like. I took one out of the box and was a bit disappointed at how small they were. For a comparison, here’s what they looked like compared to a Snapple cap.

More like bite-sized cookies to me!

These cookies were super soft,  no crunch here. They were chewy, except for the little yellow bumps that were a bit harder. They were sweet with a lemon zest flavor, and pretty good. It was strange that they were really moist, yet dry at the same time- odd? Overall, they were pretty good. Not amazing, but pretty good. I had a friend try one an she said they were “very good in their own way” but they “had something missing”. I agreed.  3 1/2 stars.

What’s your favorite thing that is LEMON flavored?

2 cookies is 130 calories, 4.5 grams of fat, 21 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 11 grams of sugar and 1 gram of protein.

Here’s a picture I took of them below-So as you can see, pretty good with the toppings, and rather thin bars. According to the packages, the bars are gluten free, Dairy Free, Egg Free, Tree Nut Free, and Peanut Free. Last time I tried one of these I remember the bar sort of fell apart as I ate it, so I hoped these bars would be better.

I tried the raisin first. The raisins were really tasty- chewy and sweet. This bar didn’t fall apart as I had expected and was actualyl quite delicious! It was crunchy and chewy at the same time, and sweet with a good cinnamon flavor. It reminded me of an oatmeal raisin cookie- Yummmy!!

Next up- chocolate chip. This one was also really tasty- sweet, milk chocolate flavor, that was also chewy and crunchy, but not as crunchy as the raisin, and overall really good. Delicious!

Overall, very good products! Sometimes when I get a food product that caters to so many allergies like being dairy free, gluten free, etc. it often has a funny texture or sometimes has an off taste- but these were very good! I would totally eat both of these as a snack, and they are both only 120-130 calories each. Sounds good to me! 4 stars!

Raisin- 1 bar is 120 calories, 4 grams of fat, 20 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 7 grams of sugar and 2 grams of protein

Chocolate Chip- 1 bar is 130 calories, 5 grams of fat, 19 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 6 grams of sugar and 2 grams of protein.

Oh, and if you haven’t entered the coupon giveaway and you want to, here’s a link to do so! : )

I was sent to try these bars for free from Nonuttin’.

Source

Introducing, one of the most allergy friendly bars I have probably ever eaten. Enjoy Life sent me some of their boom CHOCO boom bars to try for free, one being the dairy-free rice milk with crispy rice bar. This bar is soy free, dairy free, nut free, gluten free, and according to the back of the wrapper, “they contain NO: wheat, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, fish or shellfish. Also made without casein, potato, sesame, and sulfites”. How’s THAT for a chocolate bar?

So of course, I was a bit iffy to try it. I mean, milk chocolate is usually what I eat and like, and this bar had NO dairy? Hmm..

So, I opened up the wrapper and saw 4 rather large squares of chocolate. I took the plunge and took a bite and…

mmmmmm.

Sweet, creamy, delicious. This has no dairy? I would have never known! A great chocolate flavor, a great milk chocolate flavor (minus the milk of course), and really good. There weren’t a ton of crispies in it, which I actually liked because I feel as if sometimes the add-ins take away from the actual chocolate. But the crispies themselves tasted like white rice crispies, and left a little bit of an aftertaste.

Overall, 4 stars. Delicious! I think that anyone might like this bar, and it’s great that it caters to people with special dietary needs. It is a bit high in saturated fat (10 grams per package), and sugar (16 grams per package), but then again, it is candy, and probably not meant to be eaten every day.

1 package  is 220 calories, 15 grams of fat, 22 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 16 grams of sugar, and 1 gram of protein.

What’s your favorite type of chocolate bar? Please leave me a comment below!

Evaporated Cane Juice, Non-Dairy Cocoa Butter, Natural Chocolate Liquor (non-alcoholic), Rice Chips (rice flour, rice bran, raisin juice concentrate, honey, salt), Rice Milk Powder (rice syrup powder, rice starch, rice flour, salt, carrageenan), Salt.