La Chiva Snacks

Do you find yourself feeling guilty for all of the mindless snacking that you do? I know that here at The Amazing Blog we graze at our desks far too often. Hence, we’re on a neverending mission to find healthier alternatives to our usual choices. Enter La Chiva.

La Chiva was created by Ruth Willis who was born in Colombia and always missed her native fresh fruit and vegetables. Inspired by the flavours of her Colombia, she decided to create a healthy snack with light and crispy pieces of freeze-dried Colombian fruit. That’s it. No other ingredients are used to make La Chiva, where we breathed a sigh of relief, after reading this on the packaging. There’s no need to feel guilty about eating these either as each pack is gluten-free, virtually fat-free, vegan, no added sugars and best of all less than 40 calories! By freeze-drying the fruit at its ripest, La Chiva is able to deliver all the deliciousness of Colombian fruit with nothing added or taken away.

The brand’s name comes from the La Chiva buses, which is the only way to travel in the Colombian countryside. Since the brand is dependent on these buses to take their workers to the farms and their fresh fruit to market, they decided to name the brand after them. We tried all three varieties of La Chiva snacks – Strawberry, Pineapple and Mango. Our favourite was the Pineapple flavour, which was a winner of the Great Taste Awards in 2017. While you can eat these alone, the other possibilities are endless, we added them to cereal and also sprinkled them on top of Greek yogurt. Each pack can count as one of the five daily servings of fruit. Plus, their vibrant packaging brings a little ray of sunshine into our UK grey and rainy days.

Want to taste the goodness of Colombian grown fruit for yourself? The La Chiva Freeze Dried snacks can be purchased here. A box of 12 bags retails for £9.00 (7g bags for the strawberry and 10g bags for pineapple and mango) while an individual bag retails for £0.89.

Mindful Bites - Nut Butter

Who doesn’t love a good snack? Yup and it’s generally naughty little things like crisps that are our bad habit at The Amazing Blog We have been looking to substitute this potato addiction with ‘good snacks’, which is where Mindful Bites comes in. Founded in 2014 by Stephanie Peritore, Mindful Bites aims to change the way people snack, not on empty calories but on protein rich butters ‘one bite at a time’ they want to promote intentional eating.  We are finding that Mindful Bites' Nut Butters are the perfect vegan and gluten-free solution to our snack cravings.

Mindful Bites is built on the company’s four pillars of mindful eating (Intention, Attention, Gratitude, and Pleasure) and these pillars are reflected in the Nut Butter. The thick and creamy texture of the product slowly releases delicious flavours, which allow you to savour what you're eating. The carefully selected ingredients, including a blend of superfoods and high-quality nuts, also have you actively thinking about what you put into your body. However, it's not just the tasty and nutritious flavours that have us drawn to the Nut Butter; it is the way it makes us feel after eating it. The plant-based protein, made with no added sugar or sweeteners and palm oil, is a game changer for reinvigorating yourself during a mid-afternoon slump. Spread sparingly on some oatcakes  (in our case) it is filling and delicious and has made our cravings disappear resulting in a better, more energetic mood here in the office.

We had the chance to try all four of their  Nut Butter flavours (Hazelnut & Berries, Brazil Nuts & Cacao Nibs, Almond & Maca, Cashew Nuts & Baobab). Our personal favourite was Hazelnut & Berries. It has a rich taste of hazelnut, not dissimilar to Nutella, but with a yummy hint of a berry flavour which stays gently with you. However, if you want a more intense chocolate flavour, we suggest trying Brazil Nuts & Cacao Nibs. While nut butter is traditionally eaten on toast or straight from the jar with a spoon (not so good for an office share!) Mindful Bites suggests adding it to a smoothie, porridge, or yogurt for a protein boost.

You can purchase a single jar (185g) of their Nut Butters here for £6.99 or a box of all four for £25 here.

Butterscotch, Mixed Nut Brittle and Salted Caramel by Fudge Kitchen

All of us at The Amazing Blog are huge fans of Fudge Kitchen and their addictively sweet treats. Having never previously reviewed their products before, we leapt at the opportunity when it finally came around. Fudge Kitchen very kindly sent us three of their products, including some Salted Caramel, Butterscotch and Mixed Nut Brittle. 

Fudge Kitchen has been making hand-crafted treats for over 30 years, using traditional techniques to make new sweet treats. Each piece of confectionery is hand decorated in a small batch, and contain only natural ingredients. The Salted Caramel is utterly delectable; sweet caramel is topped with thick milk chocolate and pink Himalayan rock salt crystals. It had a rich, sweet and salty flavour that left us wanting more. The Butterscotch is a relatively new product for Fudge Kitchen. Creamy Gourmet Butterscotch is smothered in milk chocolate, combining an iconic British favourite with the velvety texture of smooth milk chocolate. The butterscotch is vegetarian-friendly and contains no gluten so everyone can enjoy this. The mixed nut brittle was the perfect snack to bring to work for when we needed a sugar boost. The thick caramel brittle is infused and filled with mixed nuts adding extra texture, flavour and snap.  This snack is also gluten-free and vegetarian-friendly.

We cannot wait to try Fudge Kitchen again and hope to do so soon. If you want to try these delicious treats then click here for the Butterscotch which will cost £6.50, the Mixed Nut Brittle is available here for £6.00 and the Salted Caramel here for £6.50
 

Cricket Flour Protein and Energy Bars by Jimini's

We try our hardest to be sustainable at The Amazing Blog, both as a collective and as individuals. As hard as we try, it can seem like a daunting issue with many problems and fewer solutions, so when someone told us about Jimini’s we were intrigued and keen to try their alternative and delicious protein and energy bars.

Jimini’s hope that simply by introducing a new sustainable and healthy source of nutrients they will be able to change the world. What is this new source I hear you asking? Well, it’s very straightforward, insects. Now we know what you are thinking! For years we have been conditioned into believing that eating bugs is gross. In fact, if you bought a delicious snack and found a bug in it you probably throw it out or even threaten to sue somebody, so why would you buy energy bars made of the stuff? Well Jimini’s use cricket flour, dried fruits and almonds in their bars. You cannot taste the insects whatsoever, just as you would be unable to taste the flour in any other energy bar, cake or piece of bread – it’s entirely flavourless. Unlike regular flour though, cricket flour is rich in protein, fibre and iron. In fact, there is there is twice the amount of iron in crickets as there is in spinach! Wouldn’t Pop Eye have been very different if they had known that then? What’s more 100g of crickets contains 63g of protein, while beef only contains 55g and chicken only 25g!! Crickets also require less space water to look after, which is a huge sustainability issue at the moment. Cows require about 10 hectares of land and 22000 L/kg of water while crickets need 1 hectare and less than 10 L/kg of water. Crickets also produce 99% fewer greenhouse gasses than cows do. 

2 billion people around the world eat insects, so really it is just our western sensibilities getting in the way of our ability to see past their exterior and ignore the wonderful and amazing benefits that they offer. The flour itself is entirely flavourless, full of fantastic benefits and the bars themselves are delicious. We purchased a variety pack; the pack included all four flavours; Banana and Dark Chocolate, Dark Chocolate and Fig, Apricot, Goji and Chia and lastly Apple and Cinnamon.  If you do manage to pick a favourite, which is tough as they are all delicious, then you are able to purchase only that flavour. Pick up a variety box of these wonderful and sustainable energy bars here for £6.81.

Peter's Yard - Knacks Crispbread Bites

Like most of London, here at The Amazing Blog, we're struggling to get back into the swing of things after the Christmas season.  We're particularly struggling to let go of our Christmas indulgences and curb the snacks that we've been nibbling on freely for the past week or two. But our blue Monday has become a little more bearable now that we have Knacks Crispbread Bites for a little pre-lunch snack. Peter’s Yard have launched three delicious new flavours of their baked crispbread bites; Sea Salt, Five Seed and Cumin & Nigella Seed, and now we're happy to keep on snacking.

The bites are great for a number of snacking occasions. Sea Salt is light and crispy with the addition of Halen Môn Sea Salt, making them the perfect base for canapés with drinks. Our favourites are the Five Seed because they have a more rustic texture with the additional healthy mix of pumpkin, sunflower, poppy, linseed and chia seeds. Cumin & Nigella Seed has a crunchy texture derived from linseeds and a warming flavour from the special whole spice mix that includes cumin, nigella seed, caraway, anise and fennel. Each flavour is based on a Peter’s Yard’s classic recipe, made with high fibre and all-natural ingredients including organic whole-wheat flour, rye sourdough and organic fresh milk. The moreish treats didn’t last long in our office, and we can’t wait to see what else this delectable brand has to offer.

Snack away the Monday blues for just £2.40 a bag. Grab a packet here and discover the moreish flavours.