Bar Hopping

Today a local grocery store had a sale on raw and/or relatively unprocessed food bars, so I stocked up. I got a couple for Husband, who has stinky meetings that frequently spill over into his lunch time. I also got some for me because eating snack bars for a treat is better than eating Snickers.

Today I finished my last ThinkFruit bar for my 10:30 snack. I’m trying to cut out snacking but only made it until 10:45 before I was too ravenous to exist without eating.

You will notice that I am posting the picture of the empty wrapper because… that’s all that survived. I tried the Chocolate Pomegranate and the Peanut Goji Glow bars last week, and today I had the Cashew Acai Protect Bar.

Here’s the nutritional info:

Those are some fingernails courtesy of Green Monster calcium!

I like that the bars are created by a lady named Lizanne Falsetto, because my name is Elizabeth Anne and Lizanne would be a cool name for my alter ego.  The alter ego that does not need to lock raw snack bars in the trunk of her car to prevent her from eating them in one go.  She’s a former model and a mom and now a CEO of her own thriving business.  I give all of those things, with the possible exception of modeling, a thumbs up.  I like to support businesses of people I like.

According to the website, ThinkFruit bars boast the following virtues:

1. Antioxidant bar
2. No Sugar added  (Big Plus in my book!)
   
3. Omega-3 fatty acids
4. All Natural  (Another Big Plus)
5. Good source of Fiber – 5g of Fiber per bar  (yes!)
6. Zero g of cholesterol
7. Superfruit bar  (all right!!)
8. Flaxseeds  (good!)
9. Low Sodium (that’s nice as well!)
10. Support healthy cholesterol levels  (I’m not opposed to this, but it’s not one of my pets at the moment)

So the stats all seem good… rockin’ chick starting her own company, moderate calories, natural ingredients without processed/ addicting/ stimulating junk… but what about the TASTE!?

The taste is fine.  To be honest, I think the genre of bars made of ground up nuts and fruits taste… vaguely sweet, vaguely nutty and end up with the consistency of damp chalk.  I sometimes wonder whether I should just buy trail mix and eat these things in the non-ground up form.  Unlike the LaraBars, which also received my tepid praise, the ThinkFruit bars use sort of stronger, more unusual dried fruits like acai, pomegranate and gojis.  This makes the fruit taste in the bars a bit more aggressive, though not unpleasantly so.

I would end up buying these bars again because it did still feel like a treat and those are great nutritional stats.  I see on the website that there are some green superfood bars (ThinkGreen), and if I see them in my local store, I will have to try them.

I left work for the day at 1:00 and stopped by the store to stock up on the discounted bars before heading home for lunch. In the car, I tried to control myself but I was SO HUNGRY.  So… I had another bar a little before 2:00 pm.    I managed to go 3 hours without eating and I evidently couldn’t wait another 10 minutes to get home to my lunch that was waiting for me in the fridge. 

I tried a new brand of bar called Bora Bora Organic Wellness Bar which is more of a granola-y kind of bar than mashed up fruit and nut bar.

Again, you get only the empty wrapper :

Nutrition stats:

I really loved this bar!  It was a bit sticky to the wrapper, which may be from the agave syrup or because they were on clearance and had been on the shelf awhile.    Either way, I really liked them.  As much as I like the taste of a granola bar, I always end up with a sugar crash and worse hunger pangs than when I started.  It was not the case with these bars!  I felt satisfied, both my hunger and my sweet tooth!

Here’s the rest of the bars I bought:

Ginger Snap Lara Bar, Sesame Raisin Bora Bora Bars, Cherry Pie Lara Bar, Cranberry Crunch Bora Bora Bars, Apple Pie Lara Bar, Coconut Acai Prana Bar, Apricot Pumpkin Prana Bar, Apricot Goji! I can't wait to try all these flavors!

Quite a haul!  Although, I will be sharing a few bars with Husband.  There’s a random Kashi Pumpkin Bar in the pic but it had just been wandering around my car for a few weeks. I brought it in to photograph with the other loot because I didn’t want it to feel sad that all the fancy raw-ish bars got to have their picture taken.