Earnest Eats Review & Giveaway

With 2014 being only 2 weeks old, a lot of us may be thinking of our new year's resolutions. Resolutions can have us looking at habits, fitness, and the food we put into our body. Earnest Eats is a company that makes delicious AND healthy food that can help you achieve your new year's goals. Their food is minimally processed, contains NO preservatives or artificial yuckiness, and are made in small batches in actual kitchens. Their foods also don't contain spray-on vitamins or protein powders. All of the nutrients are derived from the actual ingredients in the food! Also, all of their snacks are 100% wheat-free and vegan! It is so wonderful to read an ingredients list and not only be able to pronounce everything on it, but know what everything is!

The first snack I tried was the Hot & Fit Cereals. The American Blend has cranberries, almonds, sunflower seeds, and pepitas in it and the Mayan Blend contains cocoa, pepitas, cashews, almonds, and sunflower seeds. I really enjoyed both of these. There is a unique nutty flavor to both. The cereal is chewy, crunchy, and earthy. The nuts and seeds added a lot of texture that other oatmeals just don't have. I loved this cereal. It is so much more enjoyable than regular oatmeal and provides much more nutritional value. I liked adding a little maple syrup to the American Blend and a little scoop of peanut butter made the Mayan Blend out of this world. These are delicious and taste like you are cheating but you aren't! 

Next, I dug into the energy bars. Most energy and protein bars taste chalky because they use spray-on vitamins and protein powders but these don't contain either! These are wonderfully chewy, moist, and flavorful. My favorite ended up being one I was a little iffy on; Cran Lemon Zest. Oh my goodness! Get up and go get one now! It is lemony and sweet and absolutely amazing. I can't even put into words how much I enjoyed it! I will definitely be keeping these on hand from now on. Choco Peanut Butter was awesome as well. Have you noticed a peanut butter and chocolate trend here? You can't go wrong with it. I am not the biggest fan of dark chocolate due to its tendency to be bitter, but my husband absolutely adored the Dark Choco Espresso bar. The first words out of his mouth were, "Where can we get more?"

Last but certainly not least, we have the granola planks. I tried all three; Blueberry Vanilla Crackle, Maple Almond Crunch, Pomegranate Walnut Crisp. These bars are so versatile! They can be eaten right out of the package (which is what we did), crumbled over yogurt, ice cream, and frozen yogurt, or even toasted! My favorite was the Blueberry Vanilla Crackle. It was sweet, nutty, and a little tart from the blueberries. My husband stole the rest of the Maple Almond Crunch after I took a bite. That bar was fabulous. The maple was the main star and it shined! Pomegranate Walnut Crisp was also stolen from me, but this time by my daughter and son. We all really enjoy these bars. Another positive, they keep you feeling full for a very long time!

Bonus time! Earnest Eats also sent a cookie recipe for me to try. I did change a few things because I didn't have all of the ingredients on hand, but they turned out so fabulous! Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup agave syrup (or maple syrup)

2 tbsp almond milk 

1/2 cup brown sugar

3 1/2 tbsp oil 

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

2 cups Mayan blend oats, or other Earnest Eats oatmeal blend

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Put all ingredients in a food processor and whiz until just blended, or mix by hand if you don't have a processor.  Add oats a cup at a time and mix until just blended.  Dough should stick together enough to form a ball the size of a ping-pong ball, and it will be very sticky in your hands.  Place on a greased cookie sheet or baking stone and flatten into a 1/3" thick round.  Bake for 10-15 minutes and remove from oven.  Let cool for 5 minutes on the pan/stone and then transfer to a wire cooling rack.

I used a full teaspoon of cinnamon, maple syrup, cow's milk, melted butter instead of oil, and all purpose flour. These turned out wonderfully chewy and moist. They really reminded me of the energy bars I mentioned earlier. These were super easy to make and all the different oats and nuts in the oatmeal gave these awesome texture. Crunchy, chewy, moist, AWESOME!

Be sure to follow Earnest Eats on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Also, browse their site and learn more about their great products and natural ingredients. Once you are done, come back because they have provided me with 12 single serving Hot and Fit Cereals (6 American Belnd, 6 Mayan) to giveaway to one lucky reader! Open to residents of the continental US, 18 and older.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I may receive products in exchange for an honest review. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I personally believe will be good for my readers. My Empty Nest is not responsible for lost or misdirected mail.