Reviews: Truffles, Spirulina, Soups, and More

Energy Truffles - The presentation on these is great, and even comes with a little card to identify each flavor. These definitely aren't your typical truffle--they deliver lots of good stuff like hempseeds, chia seeds, nuts, and other whole foods.  The inside is kind of like an energy bar (thus the name, I imagine!) with differently flavored chopped nut fillings. My favorite flavors were probably the Orange, Salted Fudge, and Cinnamon. The Coconut was also good (it had a nice buttery coconut flavor), and the Cayenne was surprisingly fun (not too spicy; just right). All truffles are vegan, gluten-free, and made with 100% organic or wild crafted ingredients.

Pinkies Vegan Sweets - This Etsy shop sent me quite a few things to try. My favorite of the bunch was the Vegan Chocolate Caramel Corn. It was amazing! Imagine really good caramel corn drizzled with white and semisweet chocolate, and sprinkled with peanuts and almonds...and that's what you get! Sweet, salty, crunchy…mmm! I found the Vegan Snickerdoodles to be a little doughy, but if you like super soft cookies you will love these. They tasted incredibly "buttery"...I wish I knew the baker's secret! The Vegan Peanut Butter Fudge was sweet, peanut buttery, and kind of addictive. Plus, it's made with all organic ingredients! My family loved the Vegan Whoopie Pies. Their favorites were the the mint one and  the chocolate one. My mom said she would give the Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars a ten. She even asked me, "Are you sure these are vegan?" My little sister replied, "Mom, some vegan stuff is GOOD." :)

Spirulina Energy Bites

Green Tara Spirulina - Spirulina is incredibly healthy and a wonderful food to add to your diet. The Spirulina Energy Bites-- made of organic bananas, organic sesame seeds, organic coconut, organic dates, and spirulina--make it easy to get a boost of green power on the go. These are bite-sized and mostly taste like banana and coconut with a little crunch from the sesame. Green Tara also makes Spirulina Crunchies which, as the name implies, are crunchy little spirulina pieces. These would be great for sprinkling on cereal, yogurt, or salads, or blending into smoothies. All products are non-GMO, vegan, raw, and use no preservatives. (P.S. I'm a little confused by the packaging; the image is kind of strange.) 

Cusinart Handheld Blender - I reviewed this handy device for Wayfair. I thought it would be good for blending soups, salad dressings, and other small jobs that don't require getting the big blender or food processor out. I love how easy it is to use and to clean, and that it comes apart for easy storage. However, I found that it was very tippy when using the plastic blending jar. The cord also seemed to really get in the way. As for performance, just as I hoped, it works great for dressings, soups, and even some smoothies. The chopping attachment is also very handy.

 

Kettle Cuisine Soups - Not all of Kettle Cuisine's soups are vegan, but a few of them are. I recently tried two of the vegan flavors-- the Roasted Vegetable Soup and the Tomato Soup with Garden Vegetables. Both soups were delicious and so handy to have in a pinch. They are rather low in protein, though, and the first one is also a bit higher in oil then I would use if making at home. I added some nutrition by bulking them up a bit with extra beans, greens, and veggies. This made for a very satisfying bowl of soup and also stretched them a bit more. (I didn't try the other vegan flavor, the Three Bean Chili, but I imagine that has more protein than the other two.) Over all, I would definitely recommend these for a healthy meal in a pinch. I know that I was sure glad to have them waiting for me in my freezer.

Thank you to all the companies that sent me products to review!

Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this post were sent to me free of charge for the purpose of reviewing on this blog. I received no monetary compensation.