Review: Plum Kids Jammy Sammy

Brand:  Plum Kids Jammy Sammy

Flavor:  Apple Cinnamon/Strawberry Jam & Peanut Butter

Where to get it: here @ Amazon.com

                Tiny little squares of fun! By now I think I’ve made it clear that I’m a tinyphile, and these Jammy Sammys fit that profile oh so perfectly. I really liked the Apple Cinnamon ones, the PB & J not as much. I felt the PB addition to the “breading” dried it out a bit. At only 110 calories, these are a great little snack for just about any time of the day or night.

               

Tastes like:  A more compact Nutrigrain bar

Taste rating:  6/10

Qualities:  Organic, Kosher

What’s in it: (Apple Cinnamon)

Review: Sunrise Fresh Dried Cherries

Brand:  Sunrise Fresh

Flavor:  Dried Cherries

Where to get it:  Looks like just CA and NC Costcos, and local CA markets, unfortunately

                Little snack packs of air-dried Bing cherries (and nothing else), what more could you ask for? Bing cherries are naturally more sweet than tart, and that carries over into the dried form as well. They kind of taste like large raisins to me, maybe a tad less sweet, but pretty close. I like raisins and I rarely eat them as a snack so I always find myself thinking, “I forgot how good these are!” If you also like raisins, I’d love for you to give these a try, and then let me know if you agree, or if I’m even weirder than previously assumed because I just described a cherry as a “large raisin”.

               

Tastes like:  Big raisins (I'm not backing down!)

Taste rating:  8/10

Qualities:  Vegan, Vegetarian, all natural, Made in the USA, Non-GMO, Gluten-Free

What’s in it:

Ingredients:  Bing cherries (that's it!)

Review: Dang Coconut Chips

Brand:  Dang

Flavor:  Toasted Coconut Chips

Where to get it: here @ Dang Foods

               

                I am determined to avoid using any puns involving the brand name of these coconut chips in this review. The struggle is real though, because the first time I tasted these, I said it. I swear. Coconut, sugar, salt. That’s it. I know that coconut is a love/hate food, so you’re obviously not going to like these if you hate coconut in the first place. You can shoo. But if you love coconut, you will be super impressed by these. I ate them straight out of the bag before it even occurred to me that they would be good on froyo, ice cream, cereal, yogurt…even a chicken or shrimp salad. I’m dying to use these in a shrimp dish. And guess what?? They sell them in little snack bags. Dang, I love you. (That wasn’t a pun!)

                   

Tastes like:  Crunchy sweet coconut heaven

Taste rating:  10/10

Qualities:  Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten-free, Non-GMO, all natural

What’s in it:

Ingredients:  Coconut, Cane Sugar, Salt

Review: Ostrim Turkey Sticks

Brand:  Ostrim

Flavor:  Maple Brown Sugar Turkey Snack Stick

Where to get it: here @ Amazon

                Pepperoni can never be healthy. Full of MSG, and animal organs and byproducts and chemicals, you should avoid it at all costs, whether you’re on a special diet or not. Wait, what? OSTrim makes a pepperoni that you won’t be scared eat?! Everything on the ingredients panel is recognizable as actual food-product. And how about the taste? SO FREAKING GOOD! I was really surprised since I have had such a hard time finding palatable jerky that wasn’t loaded with MSG. All these natural ingredients, for sure it won’t be savory enough, or the texture will be dry and weird, but NOPE! These sticks are perfect. (Vegetarian and vegan friends, earmuffs please): I ran my meat-eating behind right to Amazon and ordered more turkey sticks, and some of the beef & elk blend. (For some reason, their products are cheaper in their Amazon shop than on their website.) I’ll definitely be letting your know how the red meat sticks are, but these are a straight-up win.

               

Tastes like:  How can this be 100 calories??

Taste rating:  10/10

Qualities:  No artificial ingredients

What’s in it:

Review: Hemp Rules Caribbean Crunch Roasted Hemp Seeds

Brand:  Ziggy Marley’s Hemp Rules Roasted Hemp Seeds

Flavor:  Caribbean Crunch

Where to get it: here @ Ziggy Marley Organics

                Hemp seeds are PACKED with protein. My basic stance is that if you like ‘em, add them to anything that you possibly can. I often find that they have kind of a strange taste though, so I was pretty stoked to try some actual flavors. 99% of the time I put something crunchy on my salads - seeds, nuts, roasted chickpeas, etc. So naturally, the first time I tried these I dumped them on my usual lunch salad (butter lettuce, black olives, chicken breast, mushrooms). I did like them, but I found myself wishing they were sunflower seeds. I’m not ready to give up on these guys yet, I think I’m just not the kind of person who likes to eat them singularly. I dumped my other packets of hemp seeds into my jar of sunflower seeds and mixxy-mixxy! I think I’ll keep doing that, because the nutrition on these is just out of sight.

                 

               

Tastes like:  Gamey sunflower seeds

Taste rating:  6/10

Qualities:  Organic, Non-GMO, Kosher

What’s in it:

The Best of October, 2014!

                So, it's the end of October, and I ate some stuff this month. Some of it, I won't be eating again. Some of it, I might be eating again. And some of it...I have already eaten again. Without further ramblings, here are the top 3 new things I tried (and reviewed) in October, in case talking about them once wasn't enough to capture your interest. In no particular order...

1. Simply 7 Quinoa Chips - After trying these for the first time, I ordered A CASE of the 0.8oz snack-size bags. 110 calories and 7 g protein. Plus they taste just like potato chips & are full of salty goodness. The original review/where to buy can be found here.

2. Field Trip Beef Jerky - No MSG! MSG has 2 jobs - to make things taste good, and to ruin my life. This jerky tastes every bit as good as Evil MSG Jerky, but I don't end up with a racing heart rate and beer cheeks 10 minutes after eating it. Low fat, low calorie, high protein, high quality - I went swiftly to their website & ordered other flavors. The original review/where to buy can be found here.

3. Go Vida Dragon Fruit & Dulce de Leche - So inventive, so unique, so tasty.This is basically a snacking delicacy. I also ordered myself a tiny stash of these bags, and I'm hoarding them like the precious little fruits they are. The original review/where to buy can be found here.

Review: Oloves Olive Snacks

Brand:  Oloves

Flavor:  Tasty Mediterranean (looks like these have been rebranded as Basil & Garlic)

Where to get it: here @ Amazon.com

                Oloves are a glorious collision of a great-tasting, healthy snack, and a brilliant idea. Perfectly sized little snack pouches of wonderfully-seasoned olives (they have many different kinds) – and only 50 calories for the whole bag. If you’re a fan of things that are pickled and/or salty, you need these in your lunch and in your life. They don’t even have to be refrigerated, unless you open them and somehow manage not to devour the entire satchel, and I feel like that's not a real thing. They’re also perfectly-sized to dump on a salad, or a pita. I literally can’t find anything wrong with anything about these. I love you, Oloves.

                 

Tastes like:  Perfectly seasoned salty green yum bites

Taste rating:  10/10

Qualities:  Gluten-free, Kosher, Vegetarian, Vegan, all-natural

What’s in it: