sweet bounty

I think some of my family members are thinking about starting food blogs just so they can get free samples of things like I do. I love capitalism. I have so much swag at the mo!

First off:

Stevia! NuNaturals kind of overwhelmed me with stevia-tion!

Here’s why I requested a sample; this is true confession time.

I am a total artificial sweetener addict.

I’m not too bad about diet soda (well, I scarf it down at my dad’s house, but fortunately I’m not at my dad’s house very much. And I scarfed it down during exams, but I very wisely graduated early!).

However, I eat FRIGHTENING quantities of “lite” flavored yogurts (whatever brand is on sale) and they have ingredients ranging from unappealing Splenda to cancer-inducing Nutrasweet.

The other big offender is coffee. There are times I just like it black, or in a cappuccino, so that’s okay. But, I am far too reliant on “skinny” lattes with artificially sweetened syrup and on iced coffee with a Splenda packet or two.

It’s odd, because I’m so neurotic about the other things I put into my body, but some of it must be weight paranoia disguised as health paranoia, because I put the CRAP that is artificial sugar into my body in a grim tradeoff for no calories.

So I’m thrilled to be trying stevia! Stevia comes from PLANTS!

I took it out for a spin first in my afternoon coffee. I started with a nice familiar form: the packet.

 

The products I got actually ranged from packets to the baking mix to liquid stevia to- this is most mind boggling- the pure stevia concentrate. When you use pure stevia concentrate, the sweetness of 3/4 of a teaspoon is equivalent to ONE CUP of sugar (!).

Have other people used stevia before? Any recommendations?

I poured out the packet along with some instant coffee. Stevia in its crystallized form definitely isn’t fooling anybody- it looks like artificial sweetener, not sugar.

I added hot water and milk and sat down in the living room to enjoy my afternoon coffee with yet ANOTHER review product: more from Newman’s Own Organics.

This little guy was the Ginger Hermit. As you can see, it is basically identical in appearance to the original Hermits. My review? Also virtually identical in taste. I’m not complaining. Hermits rock my life.

   

As for the stevia in coffee?

Two enthusiastic thumbs up!

Very sweet (I may actually use a bit less than a full packet next time. Now that I think of it, I use a bit less then a full packet of other sweeteners, too), but the best thing is that there is no aftertaste. I’ve heard people complain that stevia is bitter, and while it may be in some cases, this particular product is not. It also doesn’t have that weird horrible chemically thing that Splenda does (eurgh eurgh I am so glad to be freed of that addiction!)

S’more swag from the lovely people at YouBar!

 

Trail mix AND bars AND shakes. I’m excited to have some more exciting ways to get protein in my life. Since Food, Inc, I’ve been trying to cut back on meat (and only eat things already in our freezer!), but beans do get a bit tiresome.

The first thing I tried was a trail mix: the BDWMC’s Climb Fuel.

It contains: raw almonds, raw cashews, roasted pepitas, dried cranberries, mini pretzels, sweetened dried cherries, SunDrops [a less artificial version of M&Ms], pistachios, and dried apples.

My thoughts? Honestly, as a Trader Joe’s shopper, my standards for trail mix are EXTREMELY HIGH. Theirs always have insanely fresh and delicious fruits and nuts with great seasoning.

I was underwhelmed by this trail mix! First of all, I find raw cashews dull, so this may not have been the trail mix for me. However, everything else was dull, too. The nuts were not exceedingly fresh or crunchy, the fruit was too dried out and chewy, and there was no appreciable seasoning or unity. The pepitas, too, were really small, and more than that were way smaller than all the other ingredients. I love pepitas, but had I just eaten this straight from the bag, I wouldn’t have gotten any til the end. And who wants to go through the work of scraping up ingredients from the bottom of the bag? Eating trail mix should be easy!

I only had a few bites and passed off the rest to my sister, who’d just returned from a run. She gave them some points for excluding peanuts, as they tend to overwhelm trail mixes made by other brands, but overall agreed that it was boring.

However, I’ve heard great things about the other products, and am looking forward to reviewing them!