Healthy Snacks - Faith and Family Reviews

Tag Archive for Healthy Snacks

Back to School Giveaway With Pirate’s Booty

Posted by html404 on August 10, 2012
in All Natural Products, Food and Treats, Giveaways, Reviews, School

It’s back to school time and that not only means school supplies and school clothing, but also packing school lunches! I can’t imagine the morning school routine we’d have if I had to get 6-7 school lunches, school bags and children ready to get out the door! Hats off to you ladies with multiple children! What do you do to make sure their school lunches don’t get boring? After all you are packing lunches for at least 180 days in most states.

Growing up I always seem to have a sandwich, apple, granola bar or sweet for my bagged lunches. My mom wasn’t heavy into convenience foods back then and made nearly everything from scratch. Nowadays, there are so many packaged snacks to choose from, healthy and unhealthy. Our family prefers to eat organic (as much as possible), all natural foods and snacks without artificial flavors etc.

One snack we have enjoyed is Pirate’s Booty Corn Puffs. They are made from aged white cheddar so they are similar to other brands of cheese puffs, only better because they have half the fat! They taste very good and are gobbled up in no time at all by our children. Love the little bags, perfect for little hands and great for travel treats too!

Consider adding Pirate’s Booty snacks to your child’s lunchbox. Their products make a wonderful “Snack Swap!” (we all know kids do this, right?) Pirate’s Booty is a deliciously baked, all-natural snack we can give our children guilt-free. Pirate’s Booty is less fattening and has fewer calories than regular fried potato chips. Pirate’s Booty is safe for kids with allergies as it is gluten, peanut and tree-nut free. Pirate’s Booty contains easy to pronounce ingredients and are made without trans-fats. Pirate’s Booty Aged White Cheddar half-ounce size multi-packs have only 65-calories per pack! A convenient lunchbox treat! You can find Pirate’s Booty Aged White Cheddar half-ounce 12-packs at retailers nationwide. They retail for about $6.99.

Back to School Giveaway With Pirate’s Booty!

You can enter to win the Pirate’s Booty Treasure Box in the above photo. It includes 2 12-packs of corn puffs, a chip clip as seen clipped to the box, 3 Pirate’s Booty tatoos, 2 pirates eye patches and two foam pirates swords. For some reason YouTube doesn’t like videos from my iPhone. 🙁 And I cannot even get QuickTime to work today. Boo, I had wanted to share a video of my boys with their eye patches and swords.

Enter the giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

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Family Movie Night and Snacks #Snacks4WimpyKid #CBias

Posted by html404 on July 31, 2012
in Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Fun Stuff, Movies, Uncategorized

Our family really enjoys watching movies. We enjoy a wide variety of movies from super heros to Ann of Green Gables. It has been a while since our whole family viewed a movie in the theater; probably a couple of years ago when we went to see the Tooth Fairy at the Wednesday Morning Movie Series – when they offer movies for $1! It’s a pretty cheap outing for our family. The guys in our family saw Courageous last year. However, we’ve seen no movies release in recent months. It would be kind of fun to see the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which is coming out in a few days. My older daughters and I have watched one of the others and laughed and laughed. I have sort of banned my boys from seeing the whole movie due to the rudeness etc. they seem to pick up on so easily – they come out with enough potty talk all on their own! They have seen clips of DOAWK though and loved it, of course.

Here’s what some of our family might look like in the DOAWK series:

Artwork compliments of our children

When we watch movies at home, our preferred movie snack is popcorn. We make it the old-fashioned way in a pot on the stove. However, when we go out I tend to make them eat something before we go out. Yes, to save money because snacks at the theater are pricey for ten people! I usually like them to eat healthy snacks, like fruit or something and Del Monte Fruit Cups are perfect for traveling or eating at home before going out. They are easy to offer as a healthy dessert after a meal too. There are two different kinds of fruit cups. One is in the produce section and the other is in the canned fruit aisle. We chose the one in the produce aisle as the ingredients seemed healthier and there was no added sugar. Apparently, these are different than the Fruit Cups as they are called Fruit Naturals, which I didn’t know until now. Oops. We have tried the Fruit Cups, just in May as a matter of fact, I just prefer snacks without added sugar or sugar substitutes, like artificial flavors, which I did not see on Walmart’s shelves in the Fruit Cups section, unless I missed some labels as I had already put the Fruit Naturals in my cart.

Robert’s aunt just sent us some money telling us that she’d like to see us use it for something fun and a Del Monte DOAWK family night would be perfect. That or go-carting and mini golfing. 😉 Maybe we’ll plan on doing all three to help celebrate the winding down of summer. August may turn out to be a busy, but highly entertaining month for us!

If you are planning on going to the opening of the new A Diary of A Wimpy Kid consider tweeting about it or Delmonte fruit cups as healthy snacks and please remember to use the hashtag #Snacks4WimpyKid and @DelMonteFoods

Watch Del Monte’s Facebook page for an upcoming Diary of A Wimpy Kid’s contest and be sure to enter too!

Do you have family movie night? What’s the last movie your family saw together? What snacks do you usually eat?

“This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. All opinions are my own.”

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Pure Bars Review

Posted by Brande on October 2, 2011
in All Natural Products, Food and Treats, Health and Nutrition, Organic

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

“Pure Bars are made with simple, whole ingredients and are gluten-free, vegan, kosher, and entirely delicious.”

“Pure’s Mission: Pure is dedicated to helping everyone live a pure, healthy life. We are passionate about creating delicious, innovative products made with simple, wholesome ingredients. We share our knowledge and ideas to inspire people to live a purer, healthier lifestyle, and give back to the community in a meaningful way.”

There are 2 kinds of bars:

“Pure Organic – Certified organic, gluten-free, raw, and vegan, our mouth-watering fruit-and-nut bars are the ultimate pure snack bar. Pure Bars provide completely clean and balanced nutrition in an enticing and entirely delicious bar. Made with only simple, real ingredients, Pure Bar will nurture your body, mind, and spirit.”

The Pure Organic Bar flavors are Chocolate Brownie, Wild Blueberry, Cherry Cashew, Apple Cinnamon, and Cranberry Orange

“Pure Naturals – Pure’s dedication to delicious, simple, clean nutrition continues with our innovative new line of all-natural, vegan and gluten-free fruit and nut bars. Pure Naturals come in an array of succulent flavors and are packed with 5-7 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber. Dive in to a thrilling new combination of nutrition and taste”

The Pure Natural Flavors include Chocolate Almond, Peanut Raisin Crunch, and Superfruit Crunchy.

You can visit Pure Bar on their website at www.thepurebar.com. Pure Bars are available online or search for a store near you.

My Review:

We received 1 bar of most of the flavors, with the exception of Superfruit Crunchy and Chocolate Almond. They were really good, I’m always looking for on-the-go snacks that are healthy. I like that they don’t have any unneeded sugars and are healthy for my whole family. Our favorite was Apple Cinnamon and our least favorite was Cranberry Orange. The Cranberry Orange was a little too Orangy for us. We enjoyed all of them and plan on purchasing them in the future!

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Fruit and Oatmeal Bars from the White House Kitchen

Posted by html404 on May 25, 2011
in Food and Treats, Recipes

I read an article over the weekend that shared a recipe from the White House Kitchen – Fruit and Oatmeal Bars – which are one of the First Lady’s favorite snacks. They sounded good, if you like snack bars. So for some nice blog content and so that I wouldn’t forget the recipe (and yes, I could have just saved it in Word! 😉 ), I decided to share it with all of you in hopes that many of you missed the article. (wry smile)

Fruit and Oatmeal Bars

Time:
About 50 minutes, plus time cooling

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons grapeseed oil, or other neutral oil, plus extra for brushing pan
2 cups rolled oats
½ cup mixed seeds, such as pumpkin, sunflower and sesame
½ cup honey
½ cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup maple syrup
Pinch of salt
1 ½ cups mixed dried fruit, such as raisins, cherries, apricots, papaya, pineapple and cranberries (at least 3 kinds, cut into small pieces if large)
1 teaspoon ground cardamom or cinnamon
2 tablespoons of butter

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9-inch-square baking pan with parchment paper or foil, letting a few inches hangs over side of pan. Brush with oil
2. Spread oats and seeds on another baking pan and toast in oven just until golden and fragrant, 6 to 8 minutes, shaking pan once.
3. In a saucepan, combine oil, butter, honey, brown sugar, maple syrup and salt. Stir over medium heat until smooth and hot. In a mixing bowl, toss together toasted oats and seeds, dried fruit and cardamom. Pour hot sugar mixture over and stir until well combined.
4. While mixture is warm, transfer to prepared pan, pressing into pan evenly with an offset spatula.
5. Bake until brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer pan to a rack and let cool completely. Using the overhanging foil or paper, lift out of pan and place on a work surface Cut into bars, about 1 ½ inches by 3 inches.

Source: Yahoo Weekend Edition Blog

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ClosedBuddy Fruits Review & Giveaway

Posted by html404 on May 6, 2011
in All Natural Products, Food and Treats, Giveaways

Our family tries really hard to watch our eating habits. We read labels and purchase organic, all natural, locally grown food as much as possible. We also do not buy a lot of convenience foods. Usually our convenience foods are a treat for trips or day outings. We bake and cook from scratch, unless our food co-op has some nice quick meals for those nights we just do not want to cook or have a busy day and need something quick and easy. If you are a mom who looks for all natural snacks, without preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, GMOs or lots of sugar, dyes and additives, then Buddy Fruits is a cute little snack option for your children.

We took our Buddy Fruits on our trip to Minnesota a couple of weeks ago and we loved them. There are five flavors for their pure blended fruits, which is a little pouch with a plastic screw top and pretty much like pureed fruit. This is a great solution for children with small appetites and cannot finish their snack in one sitting. Simply screw the top on and a little later when their tummy is hungry they can finish off their Buddy Fruit. The five flavors include Apple & Multifruit, Apple & Banana, Apple & Cinnamon, Apple & Strawberry, Mango Passion & Banana. The only one some of the children were not crazy over was the Mango.

I loved the ease of use, the lack of spills or need of spoons for these snacks while traveling. Even baby could eat them right from the package! Little bit messy for him, but it still was easy to feed him while on the road.

Here’s the ingredients from the Apple & Multifruit:

Apple, banana, passion fruit juice, mango, strawberry, concentrated apple juice.

That’s it.

The other Buddy Fruit snacks are pure fruit bites. Very similar to gummies, BUT they are ALL fruit! No added anything. They come in four flavors: Orange, Pomegranate & Acai, Apple and Raspberry. Can you say yummy! They were another hit. These are not listed on Buddy Fruits’ website but are available on Amazon, as are the blended Buddy Fruits.

Here’s what is in the Raspberry pure fruit bites:

Fruits extract, apple juice concentrate, apple puree concentrate, raspberry juice concentrate, lemon juice concentrate, fruit pectin, glazing agent.

And it says it may contain traces of wheat starch.

A huge two thumbs up from our family on Buddy Fruits. I am hoping to stock up for our trips to the farm this summer for something easy to take with us on the run.

For more information about Buddy Fruits and their company, please visit www.BuddyFruits.com

Giveaway!!

Enter to win Buddy Fruit products!

Extra Entries (Please be sure and leave a comment and link for extra entries):

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2 Entries: Subscribe to Buddy Fruits newsletter here.

2 Entries: Tweet about this giveaway. Up to three tweets per day. Include a separate comment for each and your tweet url with your comment. You may write your own tweet or use this one:

Enter to win Buddy Fruit all natural snacks! http://bit.ly/kzZnpQ @faithfamilyrevw! Please share!

5 Entries: Blog about this giveaway and link back this post.

1 Entry: For every comment you leave anywhere else on this blog, but please leave a link with your comment!

Details:

This giveaway will run from May 6th, 2011 to May 19th, 2011 at midnight CST. The winner will be chosen through Random.org. Buddy Fruits will send one winner their prize. Winner will be contacted via email on or before May 19th, 2011 and will be asked for their contact and other pertinent info. Winners will have 48 hours to send me their e-mail at [ffr] [giveaways] [at] [gmail] [dot] [com] (without spaces and parenthesis). Please note: This giveaway is offered to USA only.

Thanks and have fun!

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Bellybars from Nutrabella – Especially for Expectant Mamas

Posted by html404 on May 31, 2010
in All Natural Products, Food and Treats, Pregnancy and Birth

This review is done in cooperation with The Healthy Moms Review Team that I am a part of. I did receive free products, but that in no way affects my review.

BellyBars

NutraBella Bellybars

All I have to say is yummy, yummy, yummy! I tried the Mellow Oat first which is oat graham and yogurt covering half of the bar. I love yogurt and oatmeal. With my iron still low these Belly Bars have 18 mg iron, plus 800mg of Folic Acid and 8 g of Protein.

I also received a Due for Chocolate milkshake. So for all of us chocolate lovers that is a definite bonus! It was very good, made with real milk without any growth hormones.

The bars and shakes are fortified with all the supplemental nutrients required in a normal pregnancy. The more notable nutrients we expectant mamas need the Bellybar has: 800 mg Folic Acid, 8 g Protein and 18 mg of Iron – something I need mroe of! While Bellybar products are made with no GMOs or growth hormones, they are not certified organic, even though they are labeled “All Natural” because ingredients like brown rice syrup, cane juice etc. No high fructose corn syrup and the like.

I actually think it’s ingenious for Nutrabella to cater to expectant mamas. I love bars like this, so even if they are not certified organic I plan to check to see if our local Walgreens carries them. I find bars high in protein give me an extra boost throughout the day.

For more information visit http://www.nutrabella.com/buy/index.html

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Allergy Free Snacks

Posted by html404 on April 22, 2010
in All Natural Products

I received the following book in exchange for writing a review. While I consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, my review is my honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

HomeFree Snacks are allergy free snacks. HomeFree Snacks were specially created for kids with allergies to nuts, eggs and dairy. You know how you wonder what a product will be like once you try it, well I did my usual wondering about this product and really wasn’t sure what to expect when our family tried the snacks that were sent to us. We have not tasted very many dairy free, egg free, or nut free products. We happen to eat and enjoy all of those ingredients. HomeFree treats caught my interest because we do have friends who have had to change their diets due to having children with allergies.

These treats were a hit with our family. We honestly couldn’t tell the difference between them and our usual baked treats. We gobbled up most of the two packages of HomeFree Snacks that we received to review right away. The rest were saved for after church the following day.

The snacks we received were Soft Oatmeal Cookies and their Mini Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies. Both kinds were very yummy! We really loved them. Surprisingly, the oatmeal cookies tasted like oatmeal cookies. 🙂 You all have heard of the brand name, Teddy Grahams, right? Well, the chocolate chocolate chip cookies were mini cookies that we all thought they tasted like the chocolate Teddy Grahams, but without any chemicals and preservatives. I just wish they sold their treats in larger portions at a more discounted price to make it worth our family’s money to purchase them. I wouldn’t mind keeping a stash on hand just for busy days or for last minute planned trips.

All natural, organic ingredients too. Here are the ingredients of the Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies:

Organic Mini Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie Ingredients: Organic whole barley flour, organic apple juice from concentrate, organic cane sugar, natural chocolate chips (sugar, chocolate liqueur, non-dairy cocoa butter, anhydrous dextrose, soy lecithin [an emulsifier], vanilla extract), oleic safflower oil, organic turbinado sugar, organic whole oat flour, organic tapioca starch, non-alkalized cocoa powder, organic apple sauce (apples, ascorbic acid – vitamin C), organic vanilla extract, baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), organic potato starch, salt, baking powder (non-aluminum), soy lecithin (an emulsifier), xanthan gum, rosemary extract.

Allergen Information: Contains soy lecithin. Our products are made in a dedicated facility containing no peanuts, no tree nuts, no eggs, no dairy, and no wheat*. However, due to agricultural practices, oats often contain traces of wheat. *This is not a gluten free product.*

Approximately 30 mini cookies in each package.

Organic Soft Oatmeal Cookie Ingredients: Each soft cookie is filled with 13 g whole grain (out of 48 recommended per day), and certified a good source of whole grain! Organic whole oat flour, organic whole oat flakes, organic turbinado sugar, oleic safflower oil, organic dried cane juice crystals, organic apple sauce (apples, ascorbic acid – vitamin C), organic apple juice from concentrate, organic tapioca starch, baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), organic cinnamon, xanthan gum, organic vanilla extract, salt, rosemary extract.

Allergen Information: Our products are made in a dedicated facility containing no peanuts, no tree nuts, no eggs, no dairy, and no wheat. Due to agricultural practices, oats at times can contain traces of wheat. *This is not a gluten free product.* This is also a certified vegan product.

There six cookies in a package.

A box of HomeFree cookies sells for $5.79.

About HomeFree

HomeFree Snacks is a company all about providing treats you can trust. The founder of HomeFree, Jill Robbins, is a mom and clinical psychologist. She realized how important it is for kids with allergies to have healthy snacks that were comparable to what their peers are enjoying. Often social events are difficult for children with allergies because they get left out of the snacky foods and this is the void that Jill Robbins desired to fill. She hopes you will enjoy seeing the smiles on your child’s face as they munch on her fabulous healthy treats.

HomeFree is also a charitable company that donates a portion of their profits to food allergy research and education. For more information visit www.HomeFreeTreats.com

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