Product Review & Giveaway: GNU Bars

Hi friends!

I hope everyone had a good Easter! My Easter weekend was a bit stressful, and I went to the skin doctor to find out why little red spots keeping popping up all over my arms, back and sides…. apparently it's a common viral infection that will heal itself over a few months. At least it's nothing serious!

Time for another product review, and a giveaway – Happy Easter!

A little while ago, the kind people at GNU Foods agreed to send me a box of 8 of their 10 bars, with 2 of each flavor. They also sent me another of the exact same box to giveaway to one lucky reader – keep reading to find out how to win!

I really love GNU bars because they all weigh in at around 130-140 calories per bar, but each bar is still filling and full of fiber. They also don’t use a lot of added sugars, which I really liked.

As mentioned earlier, they sent me 8 flavors to review: Carrot Cake, Cinnamon Raisin, Blondie, Orange Cranberry, Chocolate Brownie, Blueberry Cobbler, Peanut Butter, and Banana Walnut.

Three of these flavors are new – the blueberry cobbler, blondie, and carrot cake bars. I found all of these to be delicious, but the blueberry cobbler was bar far my favorite! It was the first bar I tried out of the package I was sent and I liked it the best. It definitely tasted like a blueberry muffin – so yummy. It had all the components of a blueberry cobbler - blueberries, lemon juice, and oats 0 and big pieces of visible blueberries. The blondie, although I don’t eat many blondies, tasted like what I imagine a blondie to taste like. And I always love carrot cake - this was a great alternative to its more fattening cake cousin!

All the other bars were delicious, and tasted much like their names. A close second to blueberry was the orange cranberry. I loved the strong flavors present in this bar!

The Daisy Rating

4/5 daisies

Luckily, one lucky will get to try all of the flavors mentioned above! Here’s how to enter (leave one comment for each entry):

MANDATORY  - tell me which GNU bar  you most want to try and why.

Extra entries:

-Like GNU bars on Facebook and follow them on Twitter
-Like Passing Daisies on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
-Tweet about this giveaway and tag @cityxlights13
-Subscribe to PD by email (3 entries)
-Post about this giveaway on your own blog and provide the link

Giveaway ends on April 15^th at midnight.
OPEN TO USA RESIDENTS ONLY.

Good luck!

Much love,

Guest Post: Apricot Oat Bars

Hey guys! Today I have a guest post for you from Annie over at Naturally Sweet Recipes - she and her sisters have the most ADORABLE site! They only post recipes that are sugar free, so for those of you who want to watch your sugar, be sure to check their blog out! Now, without further ado... please welcome Annie!

Hello, Passing Daisies readers! I’m Annie from Naturally Sweet Recipes and I’m so happy to guest post for Rachael! She’s got an amazing blog and I’m thrilled to have the chance to be a part of it!

I share Naturally Sweet Recipes with my 2 lovely sisters, Holly and Chelsea.  We share a common love of good food, but more particularly delicious sweets and desserts! As we’ve experienced some health challenges and learned about healthy eating, we’ve adapted lifestyle habits for better health and well being. This has led us to cook with whole, natural ingredients and bake with natural sweeteners. Naturally Sweet Recipes was born out of a love of baking and cooking and a passion for natural clean eating.

Today, I wanted to share a recipe I made when I first started going sugar free and eating more natural foods. It’s a recipe that was inspired by the food network star Giada De Laurentiis.  Apricot bars are a delicious sweet treat that are loaded with nuts, grains and fruit. Using natural sweeteners, they become pretty healthy! Add a good measure of cinnamon and vanilla and these bars are scrumptious and a bit addicting too!

Apricot Oat Bars
(adapted from Giada De Laurentiis)

Filling:
1 1/4 cups (13-ounces) sugar free or naturally sweetened Apricot Jam
10 Dried Apricots, chopped coarsely
1 teaspoon Honey

Crust:
1 3/4 cups Spelt Flour
3/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon (divided) Coconut Sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon Sea or Pink Salt
3/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 3/4 cups plus 1 Tablespoon Oats
3/4 cup coarsely Chopped Walnuts
2/3 cup Honey
1 cup Coconut Oil or unsalted Butter, melted
1 beaten Large Egg, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract
Optional: 1 Tablespoon flax seed

1. Start by mixing your filling of the apricots, jam and honey in a small mixing bowl. Set aside.
2.For the crust, mix together your flour, 3/4 cup coconut sugar, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, oats and walnuts. Stir in your honey. 
3. Add the melted coconut oil or butter, beaten egg and vanilla and stir until well combined. 
4. Spray a 7 by 11 or a 9 by 13 baking dish. With clean fingers, press half of the crust mixture firmly in the bottom of your baking dish. Spread your apricot jam filling all over the crust.
5. Cover the apricot filling with the remaining crust mixture and press lightly to flatten and firm. Sprinkle on bars 1 teaspoon of coconut sugar. 
6. Bake at 350 for 28-30 minutes. Let cool for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Thanks so much, Annie!

If anyone else is interested in writing a guest post for me, or would like me to write a guest post for them. please email me at rachael[at]passingdaisies[dot]net! I can't wait to hear from you all and I would love to feature as many of you as possible!

Much love,