Snack of the Week: Larabars

Hello everyone!

It's Sunday! Time for a snack of the week post.  This week's snack is a recommendation I got from Bob Harper on the Biggest Loser as a filling and healthy snack. It's called a Larabar and it's an all-natural fruit and nut bar that is full of yummy ingredients. They are dairy free (all except ones with chocolate chips), soy free, gluten free, and vegan (all except the ones with chocolate chips). They are also kosher!

Here's what the wrappers look like. I bought mine today at Whole Foods for about $1.35 a piece.  You can also order them online (and see all the flavors!) at www.larabar.com.  They come in all different flavors from Cherry Pie to Peanut Butter and Jelly.

Whole Foods had at least 2/3 of the flavors I saw online. I'm in an interesting situation in that I can't eat snacks that have tree nuts in them. My husband and I are both allergic. Our allergies aren't severe (they don't involve anaphylaxis), but our symptoms are still unpleasant enough to avoid them. So anything with almonds, walnuts, cashews, pecans, macadamia nuts, Brazil nuts, or pistachios are off limits to us.  This can be frustrating because a lot of health food companies fill their products with these types of nuts because they are healthy and full of protein.  This is especially true with Kashi. I've wanted to badly to try their cookies and bars and cereals, but every single product I look at has some type of tree nut in the ingredients. Luckily, Larabar has three different flavors without any tree nuts in them: Peanut Butter and Jelly, Peanut Butter Cookie, and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip.  Whole Foods had the first two flavors, which I snatched up today. Instead of tree nuts, these bars have peanuts in them (peanuts are legumes, not actual nuts, so Kyle and I can eat them without side effects). Also, because so many people have severe peanut allergies, Larabar's company makes the peanut bars in a separate place from the tree nut bars!

So anyway, I found some tree nut-free flavors and decided to give them a try. I ate one of the Peanut Butter and Jelly bars today for an afternoon snack and let me just read you the list of ingredients: dates, peanuts, unsweetened cherries, and sea salt. THAT'S IT! No preservatives, no fillers, no artificial flavors.  I was amazed. When I usually stop for a bar, like a Fiber One bar or a Special K protein bar (both delicious), there's a long list of ingredients to look through.

Granted, they aren't the most appealing to look at, here's the bar unwrapped:

I really enjoyed my snack today!  It wasn't the same as eating a PB& J sandwich, but it definitely had that same flavor, which satisfied my sweet craving.  The bar was also very moist.  Most bars I eat are pretty dry, but not this one. It had almost a cake-y quality to it. As you can see from the picture, the ingredients are apparent: you can SEE the peanut and cherry pieces immediately.

These bars are 6 points plus per bar, which seems like a lot, but they have 6 grams of protein and 4 grams of fiber, so they should be nice and filling! I also appreciate the fact that I know EXACTLY what I'm eating with that tiny list of truly all-natural ingredients!  So give a Larabar a try if you want and see if you like them as much as I do!  Snack smart!

Until next time,
BK