Product Review: The Bearded Brothers

I was recently sent two raw energy bars from The Bearded Brothers (Chris and Caleb) to review. 


A little about the company from their website:
Bearded Brothers is an organic snackfood company, located in beautiful Austin Texas. Most of our handmade energy bars are 100% organic, mostly raw, gluten free, vegan friendly and amazingly delicious. Just try them, we guarantee you will be back for more.


They even sent me stickers. See how nice it looks on my laptop?

Also, thanks to the brothers for being patient with me. It's been a rough week and I haven't had much time to blog, so this review is long overdue! 


First up: Bodacious Blueberry Vanilla.

This bar was by far my favorite. It tasted like a delicious blueberry muffin! One thing that I thought was really nifty about this was the use of raw vanilla protein powder as an ingredient. Very cool! You can also see the chunks of blueberry in the bar. This is a winner for me. 


Next: Mighty Maca Chocolate. 

I'm always a little nervous about trying bars with raw chocolate - sometimes they are great, and other times they taste like perfume. Or roses. Luckily, this bar had a good flavor to it! Both the chocolate and the maca are strong flavors and very present in the bar. Much like the blueberry bar, this was chewy and delicious. 


Both bars resembled Larabars in look and texture, although The Bearded Brothers bars were much bigger. The only downside to these bars was the calorie count - 288 calories per bar. Since they are quite large, however, it's easy to save half for later and therefore save half of the calories for later! 


I loved the product packaging. They are recycled and have the awesome logo on the front. Plus, the bags are resealable - perfect for if you don't eat all of yours at once and want to save some for later (like me!).

Want to try some of these bars? Lucky for you, The Bearded Brothers is giving all Passing Daisies readers a   15% discount when you order online and enter the code daisybeard at checkout. All shipping is a flat rate of $4.95, no matter how much you order! Awesome!

The Daisy Rating

3.5/5 daisies

I recommend trying these bars for yourself! And thanks to the brothers for allowing me to review their products!

Much love,

Product Review: Hail Merry Raw Snacks

Let me begin by saying that I absolutely adore this company. 

It's rare when I come out in a product review and say that just love a company. A product? Yeah, sometimes, but not usually a company. 

I think Hail Merry does such a great job at what they do - a lot of time, raw snacks can be a hit or miss - and in my experience, I've have a lot of misses. Not here. They know what they are doing.

I had tried both flavors of their raw macaroons before - cocoa and original - and loved them. Honestly, they are probably the best macaroons I've ever eaten. They have a strong maple flavor, are the perfect size, and are just overall delicious. Great coconut flavor. And of course, how can you go wrong with chocolate? (The answer: you can't). Both flavors are wonderful and I highly recommend that you run to your nearest Whole Foods and pick up a bag or two. Or three. 

The nuts that they sent for me to review were new for me, and I was excited to try them. I was expecting nothing but the best. 

These were the Vanilla Maple Almonds. Oh. My. Goodness. 

The maple was the first flavor to hit me - it was very strong, and very yummy. The vanilla was also a strong flavor, and it paired well with the maple. I devoured this package right after receiving the package of snacks. These lasted maybe 10 minutes - if that! So good.  I definitely recommend them. 

Hail Merry also offers a wide variety of other raw seasoned nuts, like Orange Rosemary Pecans, Lemon Thyme Pecans, Chimayo Chili Pecans, and Salt N Black Pepper Sunflower Seeds. They also offer something they call "Grawnola" - or raw granola! If only my Whole Foods sold those babies. 

They also offer chilled raw "Miracle Tarts," which I want to try, but my Whole Foods doesn't sell those either. Darn. That Lime Tart is totally calling my name.

There are a few reasons why I love this company. First, they have great packaging and I love their slogan, "Feed your body royally." Secondly, all of the products that I've tried have been great. Third, they use a lot of coconut oil, which is a healthy fat for your body. Learn more about coconut oil/butter here. And it's yummy. And no refined sugar! 

Overall, great products and great people. I highly recommend trying these products for yourself if you haven't already!

The Daisy Rating

5/5 daisies

I would also like to congratulate Hail Merry on receiving what I think may by the first perfect score I've given out on a product review! 

What is your favorite raw food snack?

Much love, 

My First Foodie Pen Pal

Welcome to my first ever Foodie Pen Pal! I'm super excited to reveal to everyone what my pen pal, Lauren from The Holy Kale, sent me! Tons of raw vegan goodies from Texas! 

So, what was in the box?

{World Peas, Thunderbird Energetica Bar, Hail Merry Cocoa Macaroons, Sweet Curry Sprouted Sunflower Seeds, Spiced Apple Fruit Leather, Raw Pecan Butter}

 To be perfectly honest, I thought this box just screamed my name. I absolutely am madly in love with adore Hail Merry macaroons. Best. Cookies. Ever. Those were the first to disappear. All the rest are things I actually have been wanting to try for a while, but didn't want to pay for shipping...and they were great! 

I loved the raw pecan butter - so yummy. I enjoyed it spread on slices of banana! The curry sunflower seeds and fruit leather were delicious as well. I'm still trying to decide what I think about the Thunderbird bar; it's good, but I don't love it. And the World Peas, which I had never heard of before, were pretty good. They are a good alternative to wasabi peas! 

I think she loves exclamation points as much as I do!

And of course, an adorable little card. Wasn't the outside of the card adorable? (see the picture above). Thanks Lauren! I loved my box! 

I sent a package to Mallory over at Plastic California, so be sure to go check out the box of goodies I sent her! 

I can't wait to see what everyone else received!

And now it's time for some details about Foodie Penpals.  In case you’re a new reader, here’s a reminder of what the program is all about:

-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
-Foodie Penplas is open to US & Canadian residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We've determined things might get too slow and backed up if we're trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. So, I'm going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!

If you’re interested in participating for March, please send  an email to Lindsay at theleangreenbean@gmail.com and include the following information:
-Your full name
-Your email address
-Your blog name/address
-Your twitter handle (if applicable)
-WHETHER YOU ARE A US RESIDENT OR CANADIAN RESIDENT. - this is SUPER important so you get on the right list!

Much love,

Product Review: Rawxies

Happy Friday, everyone! It's time for another product review.... Rawxies! 

But before we get to that, another update on my workouts! I have been really looking forward to my workouts recently... this is not normal for me. Usually I loathe going to the gym. However, since I've started the Couch to 5K program, I've really been excited to push myself and get closer to running a 5K! 

Hopefully today I will be able to go to Ault Park and check out some of their nature trails, which will be where one of my future 5Ks takes place. I'm really nervous about it. Depending on how I feel when the race date approaches, I may not run in that 5K. It seems geared toward serious runners, which I am not yet, and I don't know if my first run should be an intense, 3.6 mile trail run. I will determine that later, though. 

I've also been consistently working on my arms, and have just recently added thigh and ab workouts. I definitely feel like my body is changing; hopefully by the end of Lent I'll be looking fab from eating no sugar or fatty foods! (Which has been going well so far, by the way!) I hope to post my arm routine soon for you guys to try!

Now on to the review. The wonderful creator of Rawxies, Callie, agreed to send me some of her scrumptious looking raw cookies to try. 

I was sent one of each flavor: Chocolate Cacao Nib, Lemon Poppyseed, Banana Nut Bread, Cranberry Pecan, Mint Chocolate Chip, and Cinnamon Walnut Raisin. 

My favorites, from best to worst, were: Lemon Poppyseed, Mint Chocolate Chip, Cinnamon Walnut Raisin, Banana Nut Bread, Cranberry Pecan, and Chocolate Cacao Nib.

That's not to say any of them were bad. Actually, they were all pretty delicious. The Lemon Poppyseed and Mint Chocolate Chip were definitely the best, though - one tasted like a muffin, the other like ice cream! All cookies tasted like their names. 

The wrapper for the Lemon Poppyseed Rawxies

The Lemon Poppyseed Rawxies

I definitely appreciated all the natural, organic ingredients. All very pronounceable and recognizable things! And I just love the heart shape. Too cute! 

Overall, I definitely recommend this product. Delicious and adorable - what more could you want? These are perfect for a snack or breakfast. 

The Daisy Rating

4/5 Daisies

What is your favorite raw snack? 
Much love,

Product Review: Stirs the Soul Chocolate

A girl always loves her chocolate, right? I know I do!

A couple weeks ago, I received a package in the mail from Stirs the Soul, a raw chocolate company who uses sustainably grown, fairly traded, and dairy free chocolate to make their products. After trying Fearless Chocolate a while back, I was excited to give this raw chocolate a try!

Upon opening my package, I found a huge amount of goodies! Hemp cups, raw, dehydrated, and chocolate covered bananas, figs, and currants, and five different raw chocolate bars. What a selection! The chocolate bars included: Cayenne Cinnamon, Maca, Lavender, Honey Rose, & Spiced Chai and Currant. All of them sounded intriguing and were very unique in the their flavors. They were also very different from each other!

First up: Hemp Cups. I was expecting these to be a creamy butter made from hemp seeds, similar to peanut or almond butter. However, it was nothing at all like that! The filling wasn't very creamy at all, and I found it to be rather bitter and in need of more sweetener. I've never had hemp seeds before, so I don't have anything to compare this too, but I wasn't a fan. Overall, these needed a lot more sweetener!

Next: the chocolate covered, dehydrated fruit. This was by far my favorite thing that I sent sent. Super yummy! The fruit flavor was extremely strong in all of them, which was fabulous. The chocolate was sweetened with dates, which I had never heard of before! It tasted good though! Not quite as smooth as their honey, agave, or coconut palm sugar sweetened chocolates, but still good. The currants were my favorite! I don't think I've ever had currants before, but after this experience, I love them. They taste very similar to raisins. Bananas and figs were great as well!

Finally, we have the chocolate bars. My personal favorite was the Maca Chocolate - it was the sweetest of them all, light in flavor, and also the smoothest. It was the only bar sweetened with Coconut Palm Sugar. Next, I liked the Spiced Chai & Currant Chocolate. Strong chai flavors and full of yummy currants! The Cayenne Cinnamon Chocolate was my 3rd favorite - it definitely has a kick from the cayenne! My least favorite were the floral chocolates - Honey Rose and Lavender. Maybe it's a personal preference, but I can never get myself to enjoy eating either of them. They tasted too flowery and had a lack of sweetener. The lavender, which was sweetened with agave, produced the smoothest chocolate as far as consistency goes.

Overall, I wasn't a huge of fan of these products. I loved the chocolate covered raw fruit - they are deleicious, and the maca chocolate was pretty good. Would I buy them from the store? No, probably not. If you're used to extremely strong dark chocolates and don't have a huge sweet tooth, then I think you'll really like these!

The Daisy Rating

3/5 daisies

Disclaimer: All opinions stated are my own and no one else's. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review. 


Much love,

Back to School Stress & Raw Food 101

**Have to entered my giveaway yet? Only ONE DAY left to enter!!**

I've only been through one entire day of school so far, and I am already feeling extremely stressed.

I have a terrible, terrible case of the Mondays.

Let me explain. From 9:30am - 1:30pm I am in class. From 3-5pm I meet with my spiritual mentor, from 5:30 - 7pm I meet with the leaders of Navigators, from 8-9pm I lead a small group, and from 9:30 - 10:30pm I have my RA staff meeting.

Needless to say, Mondays are CRAZY. At least for the moment. I'm debating what I can do to lighten up my schedule!

So yesterday, being a Monday and the first day back to school, was crazy. I was feeling really physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhausted, and then finding out that my Jane Austen class will be reading approximately 15-22 chapters of a Jane Austen novel for each class sent me a little over the edge. Thankfully, today I am feeling a bit better.

Today was also Day 4 of my 30 Day Shred challenge! So far, it's going pretty well. I'm still on Level 1, and after briefly looking at what is in store for me on Level 2, I decided to stick with Level 1 for at least a full week. I'm always sweating buckets after each intense 20 minute workout and feeling pretty good about myself. I can definitely tell that I am building strong muscle! However, I am still incredibly terrible at push ups... I don't know if I'll ever get better at them! I can usually do the initial few, but then have to stop because I just can't push myself back up. Hopefully, after spending some more time doing the shred, I'll become a lot better at them!

I also received 3 other Jillian Michael's DVDs for Christmas: Yoga Meltdown, Banish Fat Boost Metabolism, and No More Trouble Zones. I will most likely move on to one of those after I finish my 30 Day Shred challenge. I am a bit concerned about Yoga Meltdown....because I am extremely inflexible and bad at bending. According to Jillian, she isn't flexible either, although she is still more flexible than I am.

However, exercise just isn't enough if I really want to lose those 20 pounds in 30 days. It also involves a change in diet; a switch to healthier eating. I am trying my hardest to eat more fruits and veggies, since I rely a  lot on processed foods and junk foods, because I know that will help me develop a lean body, burn the most calories I possibly can, and shred away all that fat!

Before I cut my hair and dyed it back to my original blonde. How I miss my long hair :( 

In light of healthy eating, I'm going to talk about a newly released DVD from raw food expert Tanya Alekseeva of Better Raw. This lovely lady really knows her stuff when it comes to raw food! A Russian wellness coach living in London, I heard about her raw food expertise through her e-book, Seduced, which contains tons of great raw chocolate recipes! 

Basically, I REALLY need to purchase that e-book. I would love to make raw chocolates!

Her new DVD Raw Foods 101 is a 2 and 1/2 hour guide to everything you need to know about raw foods, including health info, food prep, recipes, how to use a dehydrator, making nut milks, and much more. The program is divided into short sections, so you can choose to watch different parts or all of it at once. I found this DVD to be extremely insightful. For example, I learned: 

-Maca is good for your hormones

-We crave chocolate on our period because of body is lacking magnesium

-Chia seeds are much easier to digest than flax seeds

-There are two different types of juicers, masticating and centrifugal

-The molecules in greens resemble the molecules in human blood, so drinking green juice is like having a healthy blood transfusion

-1 glass of soymilk = the same amount of estrogen found in 8 birth control pills. Yikes!

And so much more! Her recipes we very easy and sounded delicious, not to mention looked beautiful. 

Complaints? My only complaint is that, at the endings of sections, the final word sometimes gets cut off. Still, this isn't a big deal, and it only happens on a few of the sections. Because of the amount of information provided and everything you will learn from this program, the DVD is worth the money you will spend purchasing it. 

For more information on purchasing Raw Food 101, click here.

The Daisy Rating

4.5/5 Daisies

Thanks for allowing me to review your DVD, Tanya! Best wishes to you on your raw food journey! It has definitely inspired me to try to incorporate more raw food into my diet. 

Have a great day, everyone! 

Much love, 

Product Review: Rhythm Superfoods

All opinions are strictly my own, and I received no monetary compensation for writing this review.


Over Christmas break, I received a package from Rhythm Superfoods to review. I was really excited about this, because I love the company's philosophy! Take a look: 


We create delicious, clean, nutritionally powerful products which help people to achieve optimal energy. The foods we make are RAW, VEGAN, GLUTEN-FREE, NUTRIENT-RICH, and always DELICIOUS.


I'm specifically excited about their kale chips, which come in the following flavors: Zesty Nacho, Kool Ranch, Bombay Curry, Mango Habanero, and Texas BBQ. Of those flavors, I received the Zesty Nacho, and Mango Habanero to try. 

Ingredients: organic kale, organic mango, organic carrot, organic cashew, organic onion, organic apple cider vinegar, organic ginger, organic lime juice concentrate, organic spices, sea salt, organic mango concentrate. 

Ingredients: organic kale, organic cashew, organic red bell pepper, organic zucchini, organic carrot, organic onion, organic yeast powder, organic garlic, organic apple cider vinegar, organic lemon juice concentrate, organic spices, sea salt. 

Overall, I was really impressed with these kale chips. I have also tried the Kaia brand kale chips, and I find these to be much, much better! All of the chips tasted tasted exactly like the titles. The Mango Habanero was sweet with a little bit of a kick and the Zesty Nacho tasted similar to cheesy nachos! All the chips were crunchy, too. Very good. I highly recommend trying these kale chips!

Rhythm also sent me both of their new Sweet Potato chips to try. Of course, these chips were raw as well! They sent me one of each of their flavors: Sea Salt and Hickory BBQ. 

Ingredients: organic sweet potato, organic apple cider vinegar, organic spices, organic raw cane sugar, sea salt, natural liquid smoke concentrate. 

Ingredients: organic sweet potato, organic raw cane sugar, organic spices, sea salt. 

These were delicious as well! They were crispy and had a strong, authentic sweet potato flavor. I love that they are raw and are able to get that crispiness without deep frying in all that fatty oil! Again, both tasted exactly like their titles. 

Overall, Rhythm Superfoods has impressed me with their snacks. I really want to try the Kool Ranch flavor, mostly because I love ranch, and I think ranch kale chips would be delicious! 

The Daisy Rating 

4.5/5 daisiesMuch love, 

Let's Talk Chocolate: Fearless & Fantasy

I think you all know just how much I love chocolate. So, when I was given the opportunity to review Inspired Foods' new Stevia sweetened cake mixes, as well as 3 different raw chocolate bars from Fearless Chocolate, I was one very happy girl. No monetary compensation was given for this review, and I asked to review the products. All opinions on this post are strictly my own and are completely honest. 


First up: Inspired Foods' cake mixes! Vanilla and Chocolate.

I apologize for having no pictures of the final product.

Upon first look, the cake mixes looked pretty good. They promised no sugar, using only Stevia to sweeten the mix. So far, so good.

The ingredients were few, mostly flour and Stevia and rising agents, which I think I could pull together from my pantry in the same amount of time it took me to put together this cake mix. However, if you are really pressed for time and just cannot make it to your pantry, these are good.

Now, I made the mixes vegan, so I'm not sure what they are like using what the recipe calls for (eggs, milk, butter, vanilla). I used egg replacer powder instead of eggs, rice milk, and Earth Balance buttery spread instead of butter.

To me, they both had an odd consistency, but it could be that I did not do a good job of making vegan substitutions. It was more like a pound cake than a regular cake. My mom made a vanilla cake non-vegan as well, that one turned out similar. They also had that Stevia aftertaste, although it wasn't very strong. The vanilla definitely had a strong vanilla flavor, although that comes from adding 2 tsp. of vanilla extract and not from any flavoring in the mix. The chocolate, in my opinion, was much better than the vanilla. It had very little of the Stevia aftertaste and a strong chocolate flavor!

The Daisy Rating

3/5 daisies

Next up: Fearless Chocolates!
All images from their website, Fearless Chocolate and their Facebook page, Fearless Chocolate.

I was exceptionally excited about trying these chocolates because A) I have never tried a raw chocolate bar and B) most raw chocolate bars I have seen are extremely tiny and ridiculously high in price. These, however, are reasonably priced at $5.99 a bar. And the bars are about the size of your typical chocolate bar.

Let's start with a little background about the company. Fearless chocolate bars offer 2 -3x more antioxidants than your typical organic chocolate bar. Why? Because their chocolate is raw and unroasted, silly! All chocolate is sweetened with an unrefined rapadura (whole cane sugar). All of their cacao comes from Brazil, and 1% of profits from each chocolate bar is donated to different people or organizations doing good for others. Their packaging is also recycled and eco-friendly (it bio-degrades in 6 months)!

I was sent three different bars to review: their Dark as Midnight 70% dark chocolate, Exploding Coconuts 70% dark chocolate, and Sweet & Hot (Hibiscus and Ginger) 70% dark chocolate.

Dark as Midnight was simply that: DARK! It was delicious, and although I'm used to a lighter dark chocolate, it was really good. It had a fruity quality to it that made this very enjoyable. It also uses only two ingredients: cacao and rapadura!

Exploding Coconuts was very similar to Dark as Midnight, just adding some raw shredded coconut to the mix. This bar was sweetened using coconut palm sugar instead of rapadura, as well! Also very delicious, with a subtle hint of coconut. Smooth and delicious. Honestly, this raw chocolate has definitely surpassed my expectations for a raw chocolate bar!

Finally: Sweet & Hot. Not to end on a sad note, but.... I did not enjoy this flavor. The Hibiscus is just too strong for me. I'm not into floral flavors, so this really threw me for a loop. The ginger flavor was great, but I would much rather have just ginger in the chocolate and omit the Hibiscus altogether. This was awkward, and I Couldn't eat much more than one very small piece.

Overall? These chocolate bars were great! Not to mention that the top right corner of each bar looks like an elephant took a bite out of it!

So adorable! There were also elephants on the wrapping which made me smile! Fearless also sent me two stickers (which are now on my laptop!) and two pins for stick somewhere (I haven't decided where yet). I would really like to try their Green Tea and Peppermynt flavor; that sounds like something I would really enjoy!

The Daisy Rating

4.5/5 daisies

I'd rate the chocolate itself a four, but I'm giving an extra half a daisy because I love the company's packaging, eco-friendliness, and cute little mascot, among other things.

Phew! That's a lot of chocolate!

Much love,

Product Review and GIVEAWAY!: Superfood Snacks

*Disclaimer: I was provided with one free bag of Superfood Snacks from the Superfood Snacks company to try and review, and two free bags are being provided by them for this giveaway. I was not monetarily reimbursed for this review, and these honest opinions are entirely my own.


Superfood Snacks recently sent me one bag of their Brazilian Chocolate Ecstasy Chocolates to review. 


Superfood Snacks, a company based in Hawaii, focuses on creating products using raw superfoods and special ingredients from around the world. Their line of chocolates are all made from raw ingredients and are packaged in a sustainable, biodegradable, and compostable. Each serving of truffles also contains a ridiculous amount of antioxidants! There are four different types of truffles in this product line: Chocolate Cherry Qi, Chocolate Goji, Green Chocolate Dream, and Brazilian Chocolate Ecstasy, which is what I was sent to review! 

The bags are small, but each bag contains 6 truffles. They are delicious! I was a little hesitant at first, but these were wonderful. They tasted like... well... chocolate truffles! They were like Larabars in ball form, and covered in raw cacao powder! Two balls are only 110 calories, which is pretty good, if you think about it. They had a strong brazil nut flavor, which makes sense because the primary nut in this truffle is the brazil nut. 


Take a look at the ingredients: 
Organic Clear Agave Nectar*, Organic Brazil Nuts*, Organic Cacao Powder*, Organic Dried Mango*, Organic Hunza Raisins*, Organic Coconut*, Organic Dates*, Organic Dried Bananas*, Organic Incan Berries*, Organic Chia Seeds*, Organic Maca Powder*, Organic Vanilla Powder*, Organic Cinnamon*, Selina Naturally Hawaiian Deep Sea Salt. 


Nothing you can't pronounce, all raw, and all natural. Tons of stuff that are good for you and good for your body! These little guys pack lots of flavor and will keep you full of energy. Great snacks for a hiking or camping trip! 


GIVEAWAY!
Now, for the new year, a common resolution is to get fit, eat healthier, work out more, or something of the sort. Why not kick the year off right by trying some of these wonderful little raw treats? Superfood Snacks has offered to give away TWO bags of the Brazilian Chocolate Ecstasy... one each to TWO winners! Wanna find out how to win? Leave a comment for each thing below, unless otherwise noted!


MANDATORY ENTRY - Tell me about your favorite raw snack!


Other ways to win: 
1. Tweet about this giveaway on Twitter, including a link back to this page and the tag @cityxlights13 (2 entries)
2. Visit the Superfood Snacks website and tell me about what flavor you would like to try. 
3. Subscribe to Passing Daisies via email (3 entries)
4. Follow Passing Daisies by clicking the "Follow" button at the very top of the page
5. Give me some feedback on Passing Daisies and tell me what you want to see more of/less of! Or any suggestions!
6. Follow Superfood Snacks on Twitter


Sorry, only open to residents of the USA!


This giveaway will end on January 4th at midnight EST. 


Happy entering!