Halloween UNREAL Candy

October 24, 2012 By

Halloween UNREAL

Halloween has got to be my favorite holiday ever! I love dressing up and all the cool decoration, but truth be told I don’t love all the “treats”. Have you really read what is in your kids’ Halloween candy? It scares the *&(%$ out of me. Yes, I’m that mom. The one that inspects everything the kids get and often replaces it with her own “treats”. I have to do that anyway since the boy are GFCF, but wouldn’t it be nice if one day you opened up your kids trick or treat bag and saw UNREAL candy in there instead of those chemical laden other things?

Well last night my husband checked our front porch just to make sure the delivery guy didn’t leave anything out there without ringing our bell, and low and behold, there was a package. It was a great big box of UNREAL Halloween treats for us. I was so stoked because I really like UNREAL. I love their idea of removing all that artificial stuff from their products such as GMOs, Corn Syrup and Hydrogenated stuff. They use REAL ingredients and then they put those products in accessible stores so everyone can get them. So everyone has a choice. They keep them at the same price point as all those other candy companies, but they don’t rely on junk to make their products. Instead they make them with REAL ingredients and then they do crazy stuff like make them higher in fiber too.

So UNREAL is going to be what we are handing out this year. How about you? Do you think you can make the choice to hand out candy that is made with REAL ingredients? Maybe you can choose to send UNREAL in for your children’s Halloween party? Or just keep UNREAL on hand when you want a candy snack. Wouldn’t that make you feel better? I know it makes me a lot happier. I am so proud of UNREAL for doing what they are doing. Showing us that a company can have a heart, can produce yummy candy, have a conscience, AND still stay profitable. I love UNREAL. How about you?

UNREAL sent me a surprise Halloween treat with their compliments.

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My Favorite Stevia Giveaway

October 9, 2012 By

 

Stevia

When we decided to remove all artificial sweeteners from our diet I had a hard time with drinks. I used to drink diet soda all the time, and for some reason I never used to enjoy plain water. I started adding lemons and limes to my water and I tried using sparkling water too in an attempt to make it more palatable. Then someone suggested I try vanilla Stevia. I got some and found that it was a sweet addition. I love using NuNaturals vanilla Stevia in my San Pellegrino and sometimes even add a dash of lime. It reminds me of an old fashioned cream soda without all the calories and it isn’t full of artificial junk.

Recently I started using NuNaturals orange Stevia in my water and that has fast become my favorite. I made the mistake of letting the boys try it once and have officially created NuNatruals Stevia monsters. Matthew loves the peppermint in his water and I suspect as the winter approaches he may really enjoy it in his homemade hot chocolate. Nico adores the orange and lemon, while Lorenzo seems to be hooked on the vanilla. At dinner we often hear little voices asking for vanilla water. We all love the fact that unlike many other Stevia products, NuNatruals Stevia is non-bitter and NuNaturals uses real essential Orange, Lemon and Peppermint.  I plan to use NuNaturals in my peppermint meringues this Christmas.

My mom is a diabetic and I have recently gotten her hooked on NuNaturals. After reading that Dr. Mercola feels Stevia is the near perfect sweetener, I suggested she try it to replace the artificial sweeteners she used in her tea and oatmeal. She loves it and doesn’t miss the other sweeteners one bit.

NuNaturals also has a new product called Tagatose. It is a sweetener safe for diabetics that is naturally occurring in milk, fruits and vegetables. It is lactose and gluten free, low calorie, low glycemic index and low in carbohydrates. One of the really amazing things about Tagatose is that it will “brown” and “carmelize” like sugar and helps retain moisture longer, making baked goods remain softer longer. NuNaturals PreSweet™ Tagatose is also a prebiotic ingredient, which means it feeds probiotics and helps promote good bacteria growth. I recently saw a recipe for a ginger and mint syrup made with Tagatose. I can’t wait to try this as I have previously made ginger syrups with regular sugar and although I love the taste I don’t love the calories that go along with it. Tagatose may be the answer to some nagging sugar problems, as I would love to make some delicious desserts that my mother could also partake of, without risking raising her blood sugar or exposing her to artificial sweeteners and chemicals.

NuNatruals has been generous and offered to give away four (4) sets of Lemon, Orange and Peppermint Stevia Liquids to Matthew’s Puzzle readers.  Simply enter using the RaffleCopter entry form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was provided with free samples of all of the items discussed in this article. All the opinions are mine or my family’s.

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Healthy Junk Food! UNREAL Candy

August 13, 2012 By

Healthy Junk Food UNREAL

Healthy Junk Food! OK, maybe not healthy, but definitely NOT full of all that bad stuff. Instead it is UNREAL Candy. I’m very excited to tell you about the UNREAL campaign. UNREAL is Candy Unjunked.

The UNREAL Mission: We believe that all junk food can be made differently, with better ingredients, without the junk, with great taste, and at the same price.

UNREAL is an idea that I can fully endorse and I’m so proud to have the chance to tell you about them. I have been reading all about UNREAL candy and I have to say the folks there have actually made me mist up. I LOVE their mission, because I really believe that we need to Unjunk our food if we are to survive. And here is a company doing just that. They are making delicious candy that is free of GMO’s, partially hydrogenated oils, corn syrup, artificial colors, flavors and preservatives. The dairy they use is from pastured cows! I know, this is truly a dream come true.

I received a box of UNREAL candy including UNREAL 77 peanut butter cups, UNREAL 5 Chocolate Caramel Nougat Bar, UNREAL 8 Chocolate Peanut Caramel Nougat Bar, UNREAL 41 Candy Coated Chocolates and UNREAL 54 Candy Coated Chocolates with Peanuts. The first thing I noticed when I opened the box was the fact that t e UNREAL Candy is packaged in rather cool, slightly techno designs. They are eye catching. These will stand out on the shelf, and that is exactly what we want. I hope that any child (or adult for that matter) that was planning on purchasing candy would be attracted to this package and grab an UNREAL candy before they took a more well known national brand.

UNREAL candies are made with real cane sugar, not Corn Syrup! And because they use REAL sugar they don’t need to use as much of it. One of their candies has 48% LESS sugar than it’s national counterpart, and it tastes GREAT. It happens to be one of my favorites from the bunch. UNREAL uses more Cacao than the other leading brands, “because it is all about the chocolate.” They don’t use artificial preservatives and no artificial colors. In fact their colors on their candy coated chocolates comes from natural ingredients like beets, cabbage, turmeric and achiote tree seed. UNREAL Candy even has more protein and fiber because they want more of the good stuff in place of the bad stuff! I LOVE this company and these candies. In two of their bars they have raised the dietary fiber compared to the other leading brands by 400%!

I urge you to join UNREAL connecting with them on Facebook, YouTube,  Twitter @getunreal #getunreal and on their website. You can already purchase UNREAL for the same price as the other leading brands at stores such as Kroger, Rite Aid, CVS, Michael’s, Walgreens and Staples. And look for them coming soon at BJ’s and Target. I would love to see them everywhere. Wouldn’t you?

I was provided with a sampler box of UNREAL Candy for this review, but the ideas are my own. I really did enjoy UNREAL Candy, I really like their Mission and I look forward to buying their products. I hope they have something wonderful in store for Halloween!

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Cook’n Recipe Organizer Software Review and Giveaway

July 12, 2012 By

Cook'n Recipe Organizer

AND THE WINNER IS … Author: Sarah Yurga

 

 

I love food. As a youngster I remember watching Julia Child on PBS, and later Michael Lomonaco’s show. My parents and I would write down the recipes and then we would venture into the kitchen to work a little recipe magic. Cooking is in my blood and now that I have my own family I am always getting a chance to dream up something delicious. But with Matthew’s dietary restrictions I can’t always rely on my favorite cookbooks, and instead I spend a lot of time surfing the web looking for a good gluten free, casein free, soy free, sugar free…yada, yada, yada free recipe.

I have tons of recipes and websites bookmarked, but more often than not I forget to hit the bookmark key and then I have to remember my query term and what website the recipe was on. (yeah, I lose more recipes than I get.) Often I just forget that I used to make this killer flourless chocolate cake, and then the recipe is lost for years until someone reminds me how much they loved it, and then the search for that elusive recipe begins.

While I was at Brandcation I received a copy of Cook’n Recipe Organizer software. This is a super cool recipe organizer that allows you to pull recipes right off the web. It will parse the recipe and then store it in your recipe book you create in Cook’n. You can also enter your own recipes so you don’t have to keep reams and reams of paper recipes on hand. I love it because I want to start sorting through all my recipes and get them in some sort of order. I want to get all my GF recipes in one place, but I don’t want to lose any of my family recipes from my childhood (one day I pray my kids will be able to enjoy my mom’s Christmas cookies.)

Cook’n doesn’t stop there, it will take your recipes and give your the nutritional content based on the ingredients and number of servings! I think that is awesome, since it makes homemade foods easier to use on diets. I often found that when I needed to calorie count or when I was on Weight Watchers I relied on processed foods more since the calories, fiber and fat were already on the package. With Cook’n I can simply click a button and I get all that information from my favorite recipes! Cook’n also has a menu feature where you can set up your menus for the week and then ask it to print you a shopping list, this way you won’t forget the baking soda or the ginger. It will even organize your list by isle/department so that you won’t be walking back and forth throughout the store.

Folks new to gluten free living often ask me for my favorite recipes and Cook’n allows you to email your recipes to friends and family. I love sharing my recipes, but I HATE to have to type them out when emailing them. Cook’n makes it simple to share your recipes. It also allows you to print family recipe books. I think this is a great idea for Christmas or other holidays. It would also make a fantastic bridal shower gift.

Giveaway

Want to win your own copy of Cook’n? One winner will receive their own copy of Cook’n. To enter to win you must Like Cook’n on facebook, and leave them a note on their wall. Please come back and leave me a comment with a link to your Facebook comment. Make sure you leave me your email address so I can get in touch with you should you win.

Additional entries:

For each additional entry please leave me a comment with link if appropriate.

Contest is open to those 18 years and older. And the Winner is plugin will be used to randomly choose the winner. Contest will run from 7/12/12 to 11:59:59 7/26/12. Matthew’s Puzzle is not responsible for the contest and does not accept responsibility should Cook’n not fulfill/deliver product. Winner must claim prize within 48 hours of receipt of the email notification or a new winner will be selected.

I received a free copy of the software for review. All opinions are my own.

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