One of the perks of being a food blogger is you get to try new things that you may not ordinarily try. For free.
While I was in Europe, I received a Tasting Box by Foodzie…
It had all kinds of goodies including:
Dried Pineapple from Peeled Snacks – Brooklyn, NY
Traditional Alfajores from Sabores del Sur – San Francisco, CA
Lemon Poppyseed & Almond Biscotti from Biscotti Bari – Petaluma, CA
Pure Southern Iced Tea from Pluff Iced Tea – Bluffton, SC
Assorted Fresh Herb Sea Salts from Woody’s Gourmet – Campbell, CA
Classic Seaweed Snack from Sea Snax – Los Angeles, CA
The peeled snacks were the first to go. For 12 hour shifts I’m always looking for easy on-the-go eats that are healthy and practical (meaning portable and not messy). These caught my eye because they were both organic and pure.
See that ingredient list? Just one thing, organic pineapple.
You see, when it comes to dried fruit, there’s often some additives involved (sulphur dioxide) and occasionally extra sugar sneaks in, too. Dried pineapple rings used to be my favorite snack, but the out of control sugar content actually got to be too much for me. In my opinion, fruit doesn’t need help in the sweetness department, it’s naturally perfect on it’s own. And as far as preserving the fruit’s color (which is why other companies use sulpher dioxide), I actually prefer eating food that don’t look like it has been plucked from the Land of Oz. No offense to the Lollipop Guild.
I was nervous the pineapple chunks were going to be a bit tougher, given the natural state of the fruit, but I’m happy to report they were soft and flavorful. I could easily see myself snacking on them all day (and night) long without breaking my jaw from chewing.
Peeled snacks also offers mango, apricot, apple, banana, fig (!!!), and cherry flavors, which I’m pretty excited to try as well.
As for the rest of my work food…I was on night shift, so it was more snack heavy than my day shift eats are. I had roasted almonds, candied ginger, Hersey’s special extra dark chocolate, dried apricots, two apples, and a big salad.
My salad was bit of a beast actually. It had spring greens, roasted butternut squash, bell peppers, edamame, carrots, and those crazy addictive sesame sticks. I’m 100% certain I could put those sesame sticks in every meal and I’d love it. Why is salt so good?
After I got home from my 12 hours, I failed at falling asleep right away, so instead I made oats.
I kept adding more and more ingredients to the oats…
Unmeasured amounts of:
- almonds
- shredded coconut
- carob chips
- diced apple
- mashed banana
- raisins
- cinnamon
- Sunbutter
Just throw it in the bag…uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. [Son I’m from Brooklyn, what it look like!?]
Anyone else thinks of Fabolous when adding multiple ingredients to a pot? No? Just me?
FYI, I don’t cut corners when it comes to nutbutters.
Normally I’m not an advocate of food induced comas, but after all-nighters, you gotta do what you gotta do. And this girl needed to zonk out.
This bowl (followed by a second one) helped me get into the very necessary sleep state.
Because you can’t do a second night shift when you’ve only slept two hours. Oh wait. Yes you can. [It sucks, but it’s doable]
Sadly, I woke back up before noon and had no success napping the rest of the day. And then back to night shift I went…
I’m not even sure what meal I’d call this since timing is irrelevant in zombie-night-shift-land. This combo is a staple for me – carrots, seitan, quinoa, and Bragg’s liquid aminos. I rarely take pics of it anymore because it’s such a basic meal, but I love it immensely.
I also love these caramel dark chocolate almond clusters immensely. And since they cost FAR too much for the rate I’m downing them (is a box not a single serving?), I’m going to have to learn to make them myself.
I don’t think it’s overly complicated. I don’t know if you can mess up chocolate and nuts. And even if you do, the “mess up” will probably be delicious too.
Super random question: When you buy a new product, what do you think is the most important thing that determines if you purchase it or not? Does the cute package catch your eye? Do you put the nutritional info first? Are you more likely to buy from recognizable brands (that you’ve gotten other items from) before other lesser known ones?
I used to think that the cuter the package, the more likely I was to buy something. But nowadays it’s an item’s price and ingredients that dictate what goes in my cart.
If something has a cute package, I’ll definately pick it up! But I usually always put it back after scoping out the ingredients/nutrition label/price. It drives my mom crazy, but I think its fun. Its kinda like window shopping… I’m just “looking,” not buying.
I actually buy very little packaged stuff these days, all our grains/pasta/beans/snacks come from the bulk bin at our grocery store. That said, I’m still easily seduced by the fun stuff in the super crunchy, extra organic aisle, but I always put it right back when the ingredient list turns out to be long and unfortunate. I Like Marissa’s explanation of how you’re just “looking” not buying. Unless of course, it’s a raw cacao coconut cup or something…
I also barely eat anything packaged (too expensive!!), but if I do it’s nutrition first all the way!
I just tried SunButter in my oats over the weekend, they gave us a sample in our race packets from my half marathon. Delicious!!
Those oats look incredible!! I love adding lots of goodies to my oats too 😉
Ingredient list and price are usually the ways I sift through the grocery store and new products.
Oh….the post night shift food coma. It is the only way that I have managed to try to get to sleep lately. (Right now I am trying to adjust back to days). A couple other things:
1) I recently tried and finished off a jar of SunButter. It may just be the best nut butter I have ever had!
2)Thanks for all your posts and for being consistent. I am just reading a book called the China Study, and although I have never been much of a meat eater….my eyes are being opened. Have you read this…have any thoughts?
Thanks!
I would definitely agree that I choose items based on price and ingredients. I only buy things with ingredient lists that meet my specifications and then I look at price. Often price is what deters me from trying something for a while. I usually eventually try it, but it may take a couple of months or even a year depending on how badly I wanted to try the product. Cut packaging often catches my eye, but if the ingredients aren’t there, it isn’t going in my cart. Blogs also make a difference in my purchases; if I have heard good things via a blogger who I trust or thinks has good taste, I will be more apt to seek out and try and certain product.