Review, Giveaway, and a Discount: Ambrosial Harvest Muesli + Granolas

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Cereal is one of America's favorite breakfast foods. It's one of my favorites, too! 

Starting the day with a bowl full of sugar and refined grains, however, is a questionable health decision. Sugary breakfast cereals aren't good for energy levels or blood sugar levels, they don't contribute much other than empty calories to your nutritional needs, and they're just not 'breakfast of champions' material. On the other hand, a bowl full of twiggy bran that both looks and tastes like shredded cardboard isn't satisfying anyone's cereal craving.

Luckily, there are healthy cereals that both taste great and are great for you!

I love Ambrosial Harvest cereals! Ambrosial Harvest makes whole grain granolas and muesli that are all USDA organic, gmo-free, gluten-free, vegan, certified kosher, free of refined sugars, and full of heart-healthy omega 3 fatty acids. 

As a bonus, they're also local! Ambrosial Harvest granolas are made right here in New York!

I love the creative flavors - their muesli has goji berries, big flakes of shredded coconut, generous pumpkin and sunflower seeds sprinkled throughout, and filling whole grain oats.

I'm half-German, so I grew up on muesli for breakfast and it has long been a favorite. This one didn't disappoint! While I would have liked a bit more of the dried fruits (I loooove dried fruits) the balance was sweet enough and the combination of flavors was delicious! I love it soaked in milk for 15-20 minutes, so the oats start to soften, but don't turn to glop.

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Review + Giveaway: GoMacro's Thrive Bars

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MacroBars are delicious and GoMacro, the company behind them, has recently released a new line of Thrive bars! 

Thrive bars are made up of a superfood ancient grain blend, are vegan, and provide plant-based protein, essential fatty acids, and prebiotic fiber.

I tried six delicious flavors - chocolate, nuts & sea salt, blueberry lavender, chocolate peanut butter chip, ginger lemon, almond apricot, and caramel coconut.

How delicious do those flavors sound? Especially chocolate, nuts & sea salt, peanut butter chocolate chip (noticing a trend?), and caramel coconut.

Thrive Bars are all USDA-certified organic, non-gmo, kosher, certified gluten-free, soy-free, and 100% vegan. There's nothing in them that you don't want in you! 

And unlike some bars, where it feels like you either have to suck it up and pay shipping fees or you have to go on an epic journey to hunt them down, Thrive Bars are available in stores at Whole Foods as of this month, October 2016. Yay!

I can definitely stand behind their front of package pitch 'Ingredients: Grown Not Made.' Works for me!

Especially because they're chewy, the right amount of sweet, and flavorful.

They're filling, hearty, chewy, and have a nice crunch from the ancient grains. I liked all the flavors, but was surprised to find that I liked the fruit flavors, like Ginger Lemon (above) a lot more than I expected! They're not boring or flat at all, likely due to the spices that they mix in.

But don't take my word for it - try them yourselves! The team at GoMacro is giving away one box of assorted Thrive bars (MSRP $26.28) to one lucky Living, Learning, Eating reader. 

Just enter below by midnight on 11/05. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you don't want to wait, get 30% off of your order of Thrive bars using the promo code Thrive30.

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Review: Paleo Scavenger Granola

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Granola is my absolute favorite sort of cereal. Nuts are my favorite crunchy snack. So a granola made almost entirely out of nuts sounded delicious!



It didn't disappoint. Paleo Scavenger Granolas are handcrafted in Chicago and, as the name suggests, completely grain-free, gluten-free, and paleo-friendly.

Instead of the usual grains, these granolas are made of healthy nuts, like almonds, walnuts, and coconut, as well as dried fruit and natural sweeteners, like honey and maple syrup!

Healthy fats are so important for healthy skin and hair! Paleo Scavenger granolas are a much better choice than many other commercial granolas, which can often be packed with processed sugars and sometimes even trans fats. I would much rather have a breakfast or snack that keeps my skin soft and glowing and my hair shiny and healthy!

 

They're also all delicious! They're not what I would first think of when I think of granola and they do taste different than other granolas, so I would say they're somewhere between granola and trail mix. 

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Tips for Better Train Travel (AKA There's Spinach in My Chocolate)

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I'm moving to Boston for the summer on Sunday (summer is coming so quickly!) and I'm going to take the Amtrak up again, like last year.

I go/have gone back and forth between NYC and Boston quite often over the years and Amtrak is almost always my choice. It's faster, more reliable, and more comfortable than a bus. It's slower than flying, but if you account for the time spent getting to the airports, which are, unlike train stations, outside of the city, as well as TSA time. It also has less strict limits on the amount of luggage allowed, which is great when the trip will last multi-months and you have to pack a lot.



I would honestly have expected it to be much cheaper than a flight, but it's usually only slightly cheaper. It's still always the overall cheaper option, however, because you can take the subway to the train stations easily whereas airports generally require a cab or Uber ride.

Still, there's no perfect form of transportation. Here are my tips for a better train trip!

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Review: That's It Bars

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I love the chewy sweetness of dried fruits and I love the on-the-go convenience of snack bars. That's It bars have both!

Many dried fruits (and snack bars, for that matter) can be loaded with added sugars. That's really just not necessary when you consider how sweet fruit is naturally and that dried fruit has all of that sweetness, but concentrated! 

Many of us eat too much sugar as is, since it's in everything from ketchup to pasta sauce to cereal to yogurt. I was thrilled to see that That's It bars are 100% natural dried fruit with no added sugars or other unhealthy fillers.

They don't need them! The bars are chewy, sweet, flavorful, and satisfying. I tried ten delicious That's It bar flavors and they were all unique, but all delicious.

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Review: Kit's Organic

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I love Luna Bars! They're made by women, for women and they're both vegan and (as of fairly recently) gluten-free, so they fit into many different healthy diets! They're as delicious as dessert, but as healthy as a busy millennial's snack ought to be. 

But this post isn't about Luna bars!

Kit's Organic is another line of delicious snack bars from Clif Bar, the healthy snack company that makes Luna Bars!

Like Luna Bars, Kit's Organic bars are vegan and dairy-free. But for those with soy sensitivities, or who just like to avoid much soy, Kit's Organic are the perfect choice. They're soy-free! 

The fruit and nut bars are made of just a few simple ingredients, combined in really delicious ways, and are, as you could probably have guessed from the name of the line, certified organic!

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Review: Nookie Bars

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An afternoon snack is great for so many reasons, especially when working or traveling. It gives us energy, fights off hangriness, and keeps us from being ravenous by dinner time!

But what we choose for our snacks matters just a much as choosing to have a snack. Nookie Bars are a nutritious snack that are both healthy and delicious! 

We don't have to compromise taste or convenience for good nutrition. Nookie Bars  have yummy chocolate, healthy fats and sugars for the energy we need to make it through the rest of our days, and even the superfood spirulina!

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Top Five Tips for A Healthy Holiday Season

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Who else can't believe we're already a full week into December?

Since the holiday season is clearly in full swing by today (though, let's be real, I've been watching Christmas movies and listening to my (six) favorite Christmas Pandora stations since October) I have teamed up with goodnessknows to put together a list of my top five tips for a healthy holiday season. Let's be healthy and happy this holiday season!

1) Be gentle with yourself.

This one comes first on the list, because it's so important. Especially in NYC, where everyone is so high-powered and high-strung and ambitious, being unnecessarily strict with ourselves isn't a rarity. Whether it's expecting ourselves to be perfect nutritionally, or throw the perfect party, or stick perfectly to our fitness goals, or prepare the perfect holiday dinner, all that perfection is very unhealthy!

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Review (and a Recipe Round-Up!): Food to Live Goji Berries

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I loved trying Food to Live's Medjool Dates a while back, so I was really excited to try their festively-colored little red goji berries, now that the holiday season is in full swing!

For those who missed my review of the dates, Food to Live creates certified organic dried fruit snacks featuring delightfully short ingredients lists of only one nutritious ingredient each. The goji berries followed that wonderful trend!

The berries are chewy, sweet, flavorful, and each one is the same exacting quality as the last - you won't find a dry berry in the bunch!

I love to eat the little red superfood berries plain, as part of a trail mix, sprinkled in a peanut butter and honey sandwich, mixed in with my yogurt, as a topping on my morning oats, or as a healthy 'sprinkle' on ice cream. Yum!

Read on for three more fun ways to enjoy the yummy goji berries!

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Choose This, Not That: Holiday Edition!

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It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas Thanksgiving!

Okay - it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, too.

But I'm trying to restrain myself from going too nuts (Christmas carols 24/7, decorations all over the place, daily Christmas baking, searching for the perfect gifts for all my loved ones, and just generally being a holly jolly elf) until Black Friday. It's a tradition for me to try to exercise a teeny-tiny bit of self-control until that hotly-anticipated Friday when I can dial it up to 95% and then December 1, when I can go 100% Christmas nuts.

I don't even participate in Black Friday shopping, but I'm always really excited for the day because it means Christmas is approaching!

Anyway, the holiday season is a time of indulgence. Holiday indulgences are wonderful and I firmly believe in taking part, but over-indulgence doesn't feel good and doesn't do anyhting to increase our enjoyment of the season - quite the opposite, in fact!

Go for the indulgence on the big days and when you really want them, but when you're just looking for a bit of a festive feeling, try a healthy swap! Read on for three healthy holiday swaps that I recommend!

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Review: Food to Live Medjool Dates!

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When I was little, I loved prunes. They were sweet and chewy and delicious, so I couldn't care less that (along with my beloved knitting) my big sister insisted that my love of the sticky snack meant I was secretly a senior citizen.

I still love prunes today, but I've also fallen in love with a new sticky and sweet dried fruit snack over the past few years.

Dates!

Medjool dates are among my favorite types of dates and Food to Live medjool dates are my favorite brand to buy. Dates are nature's candy, a super sweet and nutritionally dense energy bomb that makes it easy for hikers, athletes, busy snackers, and plantbased eaters to get in enough calories and healthy sugars to keep energy levels up all day long.

They also taste like caramel, but are made of only one plant ingredient, are loaded with iron, are unprocessed (and, in the case of Food to Live medjool dates, organic), and are vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, paleo, non-GMO, and naturally free of added sugar but packed with healthy natural chocolate!

Whir some dates into a smoothie, pack some in a little jar or Tupperware for a work or school snack, blend some with nuts in a food processor for the base of homemade energy bars, or stuff them with nuts and chocolate (I love almonds or peanut butter and dark chocolate chunks). There's no wrong way to enjoy them!

What are your favorite dried fruits?

What is your favorite way to eat dates?

What food did your siblings tease you for liking when you were little?

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Latest Finds: A Purely Elizabeth Granola Review!

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Granola is my favorite sweet cereal, hands down.  

Despite its healthy reputation, however, some commercial granolas can be unhealthier than even the worst of your childhood sugar cereal favorites! 

Granola is very dense and can pack a lot of sugar and fat into a very small portion (who eats a measly quarter cup?) and I've seen boxes of granola where the ingredients list was longer than a Faulkner sentence and featured more chemicals than an orgo exam. No thanks!

Luckily, not all granolas are candy in a bag. There are healthy and delicious choices out there, you just have to choose carefully!

One such choice is Purely Elizabeth granola. Available in three flavors (Original, Pumpkin Fig, and Cranberry Pecan), Purely Elizabeth granolas are all free of gluten, refined sugar, and GMOs. 

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Nakd Bar Giveaway!

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Did you enjoy my Nakd bar review? Did the photos whet your appetite?



There's good news! The wonderful people at Nakd Whole Foods have offered to send one lucky reader a sampler pack of their own!

Enter my giveaway below now through next Wednesday, April 15 for your chance to win!

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Review: Nakd Bars

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I love bars. They're convenient, (often) yummy, shelf-stable, backpack-friendly, TSA-approved, safe for sharing, and perfect for donation if you come upon a surprise food drive or a hungry person in need of help. 

For those who follow non-traditional diets like the raw vegan diet or a gluten-free diet, however, it can be hard to find a yummy bar that fits into your diet! You'd be surprised by how many protein bars are not vegan (I was surprised) and if you're raw vegan it's a real rarity to stumble upon a bar that you can eat.

Nakd bars are a great bar option that are vegan, raw vegan, gluten-free, healthy, and well portioned for snacking.

Even those of us who don't follow those special diets will enjoy them! I did.

Nakd bars are from the UK, but readily available to healthy snackers in other countries, too, through an easy-to-use online ordering site.

The bars ship quickly and arrive in a cardboard box (within a larger mailing package with padding that perfectly protects the bars from breaking or getting smushed in shipping). 

You can order an assortment of bars, like I tried, if you're new to Nakd bars and haven't chosen flavors yet. 

First, your snack compliments you. Then you eat your snack and it's delicious. Then you have the energy from the healthy, natural snack and, in the long run, become more gorgeous (setting you up for the cycle of snack box compliments to continue) from the healthy fats of the nuts in the bars. Those healthy fats are great for your skin and your hair!

The cycle of happy Nakd bar snacking is the perfect snacking experience, really.

The bars come in a large assortment of scrumptious flavors, each more delicious than the next.

The bars all look more or less the same, except for different coloring between the flavors, but the flavors are diverse. The Caffe Mocha was one of my favorites - it was lightly chocolatey with a strong coffee flavor. Yum! It tasted like a candy bar.

Unlike a candy bar, however,  Nakd bars are made of just nuts, dried fruits, soy crunchies, fruit juice, and spices. 

There's no added sugar, it's just solid plant-based nutrition!

Bars made of nuts and dried fruit bars are, by nature, rich and dense. A lot of fruit-and-nut bars are thus quite heavy for a light snack, especially for children. Nakd bars are portioned well for that little peckishness or for an on-the-go snack for kids. If you're hungrier, you can pack two!

Have you tried  Nakd Bars?

What are your favorite snack bars?

Do you prefer chocolate-y or fruity bars?

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Wrawp Review - Raw, Vegan, and Packing Veggies!

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In theory, I like wraps. They're a convenient lunch and hold crunchy veggies, creamy spreads, and smoky tempeh perfectly. 

In reality, however, the bland flour tortilla used to create the actual wraps turns me off of the entire thing. 

Perhaps I was spoiled growing up with the best bread in the world (German bread, in case you were wondering) but wraps didn't have the textural appeal of good bread and didn't have any exciting flavors. I was quite unimpressed.

But I've recently discovered a raw vegan wrap that works for gluten-free and paleo diets (I don't do any of the above personally, but I know that many of you do).

Wrawps are made out of dried fruits, coconut, spices, and some varieties even include veggies!

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Prospect Hill Orchard: A Healthy Granola Option

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I absolutely love granola! It's hands-down my favorite kind of cereal and goes great with everything. 

But a lot of granolas are nutritionally worse than the infamous 'sugar cereals' of 50s breakfasts. Between achieving the trademark rich crunch with hydrogenated oils and achieving the sweetness with high fructose corn syrup and more refined sugar than cookies, the shortcuts used to make some granolas turn them into veritable nutrition disasters. 

Definitely not how you want to start your day on a regular basis.

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Tali-O Bites Review

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Dates can be a lot of things. They can be fun or awkward, good or bad, exciting or duller than a dollar store can opener. But you know what dates you can always count on?

The sticky kind, especially with nuts.

Bahahahahahaha I know, I'm so funny (why isn't anyone laughing?). Moving on...

As a self-proclaimed date-lover, I was excited to try Tali-O Bites! They're date and nut bites (also available in bar form for those who don't find all miniature finger food snacks adorable) and they are vegan, certified paleo, all natural, and made exclusive of whole foods with names you can pronounce!

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(Better) Brownies - Raw Vegan Style!

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We're heading into the second week of the shiny New Year and resolutions - like eating healthy, being nice, and texting less than 50 100 times per day - are threatening to break, if they aren't broken yet. 

I can't do much about the slow walkers who tempt you to let out your inner snark or the fact that you're battling a severe iPhone addiction (hang in there, we'll fight it together), but I can help prevent fits of hanger and feelings of deprivation!

How? By encouraging you to partake in the above fudgy, sweet, rich, scrumptious brownies.

Before you throw your hands up in the air - 'But Danai! I want to be healthy this year' - let me clarify. These are not your usual from-a-box overly processed and nutritionally void brownies. There's space for those in a healthy diet as an occasional treat, but these are the kinds of brownies that you can eat every day as part of what makes your diet a healthy diet!

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Review and GIVEAWAY - Enjoy Life Not Nuts! Seeds & Fruit Mix

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Want a snack that's salty, sweet, and crunchy all at once? Want it to be school lunchbox-friendly, in days when many cafeterias are going nut free to avoid dangerous allergy situations?

Enjoy Life Not Nuts! Seed and Fruit Mixes fit the bill perfectly!

They come in two varieties, Beach Bash and Mountain Mambo, both of which are entirely free of peanuts (as well as any other nights!) and all eight of the most common allergens.

Both varieties are delicious and available in both a larger 6oz bag for multiple occasion snacking and an individual pack for convenience!

The Beach Bash features sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, dried pineapple, dried apricots, and cranberries for a tropical-flavored treat that will warm you right up as the winter approaches and sunny 85 degree afternoons become a distant memory.



The Mountain Mambo is a throwback to old school trail mix, with dark chocolate chips, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and dried fruits - but made allergy friendly!

They're healthy and delicious snacks for a quick pick-me-up at any time of day. Yum!

But don't just take my word for how great these snacks are - try them yourself! We're giving away two big 6oz bags, one of each flavor, and two individual packs, one of each flavor, to one lucky winner!

You have until midnight on the 28 (next Tuesday) to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

Good luck!

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Healthier Fall Treats

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Pecan pie is, hands down, the best fall dessert in existence.

Served a la mode, it might just be the best dessert (period) in existence!

But if you're avoiding eggs for whatever reason, or looking for something that fits into a primarily plant-based diet, it isn't that easy to find a good pecan pie.

Just want some pie!

Sure, increasingly health conscious consumers and increasing understand of the health risks of a diet high in trans fat mean that it isn't too hard to find a pie without lard. But a pie without eggs and butter? Keep looking.

Finding Carrot Top Bakery was awesome, because this artisan bakery is making life sweeter for everyone! Whether paleo, vegan, diabetic, or just trying to be a little healthier, their made-to-order treats fit the description. Best of all, they ship from Ohio to everywhere in the USA!

That's actually the second best thing (or maybe third best, if you count that the ingredients are natural and nutritious). The first best thing is the taste!

I fell in love with this pecan pie. This will definitely be a repeat order for Thanksgiving and all subsequent Thanksgivings, especially when hosting vegan friends or those with egg allergies.

But honestly? I'd order this pie even if none of those dietary restrictions apply. It's a really good pecan pie, not just a really good vegan pecan pie!

The filling is perfectly indulgently sweet with big, buttery pecans and a rich crust. It's very flavorful, so perfectly intensely pecan-y.

Ohmygosh warmed up and served with coconut ice cream, this pie is just heavenly. But it's also delicious all by itself!

In case pecan pie isn't your thing (how can it not be?? Seriously) Katie of Carrot Top Bakery has a lot of other healthy treats to over! The list includes Carrot Cake Energy Bites, Apple Pie Babies, and a variety of muffins and breads to fit different dietary needs.

In addition to the pie, I tried the Chocolate Cashew Almond Raw Energy Bars.

They're raw, vegan, individually wrapped for convenience, and absolutely delicious!

They're very chocolatey and nutty with a little date-y-ness and the perfect combination of sweet, rich, and nutritious. They're like a yummier, artisan version of a Larabar!



Since they're fresh and preservative-free, store them in the fridge and eat within a month of purchasing.

But they'll hold up just fine in a backpack or handbag (uncooled) for a day!

What is your favorite fall dessert?

How far in advance do you start planning Thanksgiving festivities? 

Do you generally have big Thanksgiving dinners with lots of family and friends, or small dinners with just immediate family?

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