Review & giveaway: YOUBAR

If you’re a nutrition junkie like I am (sounds oxymoronic, doesn’t it?), you may have heard of YOUBAR. They’re a create-your-own-snack company that lets you invent and customize bars, protein shakes, trail mixes, cookies, and cereal. You choose the ingredients and amounts (as the nutrition calculator along the side tallies up what you’ve added) and name your snack, and they ship you your creation, handmade and custom-labeled. Cool, huh?

For example, to build a bar, you get to pick the base (nut/seed butters and dates), protein powder (soy, rice, or whey), nuts and seeds, dried fruits and berries, sweetener (honey, agave, or brown rice syrup), seasonings/chocolate, grains/cereal (granola, crunchy rice, or oat bran), and vitamin infusions. You can even customize the amounts and ratios of various components. The options are dizzying, and the possibilities endless.

For ease and convenience, you can also purchase predesigned/preformulated products. Joel at YOUBAR kindly sent me some samples recently of their most popular shakes...



...bars...



...and trail mixes! Although some of these were not vegan, due to inclusions of whey protein, egg white powder, or honey, they still earned high nutrition marks with me thanks to their short ingredient lists and high percentage of organic ingredients.



The first thing I tried was the Blended Bliss shake mix, containing whey protein, organic cane juice, organic strawberries, organic bananas, and organic vanilla.



I threw it in my Vitababy with some strawberries, blueberries, and almond milk, and blended it to perfection. The sweetness and bright strawberry flavor made it a great addition to my morning smoothie.



I blended the Vanilla Dream shake, which is just soy protein, organic cane juice, and organic vanilla powder, with almond milk and blueberries, and it was just as good as the Blended Bliss variety.



The Breakfast Bar is dates, egg white powder, honey, cocoa powder, instant coffee crystals, and cinnamon. Of the bunch, this was my least favorite, but probably because of the cinnamon—I’m not a huge fan, and it contained quite a bit of it. The texture was great, though; dense and chewy, it tastes like it came out of your own kitchen.



On the other hand, my favorite of the bunch was easily the Honey Cashew bar, containing cashew butter, whey protein, nutty rice cereal, and organic honey.



SO. SO. SO. GOOD! The cashew butter melted in my mouth while the crispy rice cereal that studded the bar provided a gentle crunch, and the honey lent just the right amount of sweetness. I could seriously eat an entire box of these babies; they taste homemade in the best possible way—in fact, this bar reminded me a little of my no-bake almond butter balls.



The Mix Up Your Day trail mix has oat bran sesame sticks, organic cashews, almonds, dried pineapple, goji berries, and shredded coconut. The pineapple was a little hard to chew, but the crunch of the sesame sticks was nice with the raisin-like goji berries and the raw nuts.



The Best Trail Mix contains almonds, organic cashews, walnuts, organic sunflower seeds, dried sweetened blueberries, sweetened cranberries, and Sun Drops original chocolate candies. This was great! It tastes like something you’d want to munch on during a long hike or bike ride. The Sun Drops were a fantastic addition to the raw nuts and dried fruits.



Ok, I know what you really scrolled down for!
ALMOST VEGAN GIVEAWAY #2
Since the shakes, bars, and trail mixes Joel sent me were individually packaged, I want to share the bounty with one of you! Here’s what you’ll win, and the contents of each:

Breakfast Shake: whey protein, egg white powder, organic cane juice, cocoa powder, organic bananas
Great Date with Chocolate bar: organic dates, whey protein isolate, organic honey, cocoa
Chocolate Peanut trail mix: dark chocolate-covered raisins, Oatios organic toasted oat cereal, organic raisins, apples, organic peanuts
***Please note that some of these contain non-vegan ingredients.***

HOW TO ENTER: Go to YOUBARS.com and play around at designing your own bar, shake, trail mix, cookie, or cereal. Then come back here and leave a comment below describing your creation!
For extra entries (leave an additional comment for each one):
–Link to this giveaway on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
–Follow me on Google Friend Connect (or let me know you already do)
–Add me to your blogroll (or let me know I'm already on there)

The deadline for entries is Tuesday morning, July 6th, at 9:00am CST (which is around 3pm that afternoon for anyone in the U.K. and midnight that night for those of you in Australia). I’ll be choosing the winner at random. Good luck!



In the meantime, if you’d rather try building your own bar, shake, or trail mix, head on over to YOUBARS.com, where you can get 5% off your order by entering coupon code ALMOSTVEGAN at checkout!
(P.S.—While you're at it, why not enter Lisa's e-book giveaway?)

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Review: Sunland peanut butter
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Review: Sunland peanut butter

You may remember that in early April, I took a road trip to Chicago, stopping in Iowa City on the way. There, at a Bruegger’s Bagels, I found, tried, and loved a new-to-me brand of peanut butter—Sunland. I bought the Dark Chocolate variety, and it was pretty much heavenly.



I emailed Sunland to let them know I liked their product, and Brittany in customer service wrote me back offering to send me three jars of my choice from their catalog to sample! I settled on Organic Thai Ginger and Red Pepper, Organic Spicy Southwestern, and Natural Caramel.



Though I definitely plan to cook and bake with each, I wanted to try each one on its own first. Since I have a bajillion packages of Corn Thins (ganked from the finish line party of the Hospital Hill half-marathon I ran the weekend before last), I decided to use those as the vehicle for my PB-tasting.

First up was the Organic Thai Ginger and Red Pepper, the flavor that Brittany at Sunland recommended in particular. I’m not generally a big fan of ginger, and was worried it would be overwhelming, but was happy to find it wasn’t at all. The aroma of Thai spices wafts straight out of the jar, and the peanut butter, though thin in texture, is packed with flavor, plus a nice hint of heat. I can tell this will be great on sesame noodles or tofu satay.



Second, I tried the Organic Spicy Southwestern. Whispers of cumin and ground chili permeate this peanut butter, which is also thin, but features giant chewy chunks of peanuts. The lime flavor is front-and-center here, and though it’s different than I expected, this one excites me—I can envision making a killer mole sauce with it.



I saved the sweet for last, of course, and I was not let down by the Natural Caramel. It’s much thicker than the other two, and really appears identical to any other creamy PB. When I first took a bite, all I tasted was the peanut butter—thick, smooth, and full-bodied. As it started to melt away on my tongue, though, the caramel notes came forward and took over, cutting the richness of the PB and treating me to a dulce-de-leche-esque aftertaste. So good! I’ve since eaten this on honey-wheat bagel and on a banana, and it’s downright magical.



So which was my favorite? Honestly, I’d have to say the Caramel. Though I usually consider myself more of a salt person than a sweet tooth, I guess I like my peanut butter on the sugary side. I’ll probably finish my jar of Caramel with a spoon, but I’m definitely stoked to try cooking with the Thai and Southwestern flavors. I really recommend everyone out there check out Sunland’s online store for some cool and interesting PB flavors (their peanut butter diet is also a neat idea). Thank you again, Sunland, for your generosity!



Sadly, I don't have a giveaway to accompany this review. But stay tuned for one of those soon! In the meantime, check out Amanda's soy candle giveaway (update: Jessie is giving away a candle too!) and Fit and Forty Something's Larabar giveaway.

Raw flaxseed pancakes

Yep, more rawness! I’m following up my savory chilly chili with a sweet raw breakfast duo of flax pancakes ("flaxjacks," if you will) with blackberry-date sauce, both recipes adapted from Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen. This meal is way (way WAY) faster to put together than the chili, so if you found that a bit intimidating, you’ll appreciate the preparatory brevity of this dish. These are obviously pretty dissimilar to real pancakes ("breakfast patties" may be a more apt moniker, but the method by which you eat them – with a knife and fork, drizzled with a syrupy fruit concoction – earns them the "pancakes" label), but they’re delicious in their own right.

This post was made possible by the munificent people at Pizzey’s Nutritionals. Pizzey’s is the only company on the market whose flax contains all three Omega-3 fatty acids (ALA, EPA, and DHA), and its shelf life is blessedly long (2 years without refrigeration!). Awhile back, they offered me "samples" of some of their high-quality flaxseed products—imagine my surprise when two 2-lb. bags (milled golden flax and SmoothOmega milled flax) arrived at my door, followed some time after by two more 2-lb. bags (organic milled golden flax and – get this – blueberry milled golden flax!) plus a box of individual-serving flax singles! WOW. I was blown away.



You can order Pizzey’s flaxseed online at FlaxMatters.com and get free shipping on all orders over $50! They’ve got numerous varieties of flax to choose from, plus some cool accessories like a flaxseed grinder and this cute lil flax scoop. I also think their flaxseed starter kit is a great idea. Thanks again, Pizzey’s, for your generosity!

Ok, I’m done flaxing poetic; on to the recipes!

For the pancakes:
1 1/2 cups ground flaxseed
1/4 cup (raw) agave nectar
1 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 Tbsp water

For the sauce:
1/2 cup blackberries
2-3 pitted dates

I recommend prepping the sauce first, so it can chill and thicken as you make the cakes. Just combine the blackberries and dates in a blender or food processor...



...and blend until smooth, adding a splash of water as necessary. Transfer to a small container and place in the fridge until you’re ready to use it. (It’ll keep for several days in there.)



For the flaxseed in this recipe, I used Pizzey’s milled golden flax with blueberries to give my cakes some fruity pizzazz. (Of course, regular flax will work just fine. If you’re grinding your own, start with one heaping cup whole flaxseeds, which should amount to roughly 1 1/2 cups when ground.)



Combine all the pancake ingredients in a bowl.



Mix well with your hands or a wooden spoon.



Divide the mixture into eight portions. Roll into balls and, somehow or another, form the balls into flat medallions.



I greased a half-cup measuring cup and used the back of a spoon to press each ball into a patty. A biscuit cutter would work even better for this, since you wouldn’t have to bang the cup on the counter each time to free the cake.



Place the cakes on a platter, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until ready to eat. They’ll stay good for up to a week, so you can just take out one or two each morning for breakfast.



Serve the cakes with the blackberry-date sauce, and feel free to add other toppings (like maple syrup, agave nectar, or vanilla yogurt) in addition or instead. You might not guess it thanks to their diminutive size, but these babies are filling. They’re pleasantly mealy and mildly sweet, plus you’ll get a day and a half’s worth of Omega-3s in each cake! If breakfast really is the most important meal of the day, these cakes give it the respect it deserves.



(Pancakes) Yield: 8 pancakes. Per pancake: 157 calories, 10.6g fat (2g sat), 14.1g carbs, 6g fiber, 3.8g protein.
(Sauce) Yield: 8 servings. Per serving (about 2 Tbsp): 21 calories, .1g fat (trace sat), 5.5g carbs, 1g fiber, .2g protein.

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Maple cinnamon pecan milk
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