Enjoy Life Foods: Seed and Fruit Mixes

November 21, 2011 By 2 Comments

Enjoy Life Foods has done it again! They’ve made another great product… that I will be hooked on. I just love how great their snacks taste and I love that they are all made safe for people with food allergies. I was so excited when Enjoy Life Foods sent me a package of both varieties of their no nuts, seed and fruit mixes to try.

Seed and fruit mixes

These mixes make a great snack whether you’re on the go or just need something to munch on after dinner while watching television. I’m actually not even allergic to nuts, but I will still buy these again for sure since it’s hard to find a mixture that doesn’t have something I’m allergic to in it. These have a great mixture of salty and sweet, crunchy and chewy yummy-ness.

Each variety had a great mix of flavors, but I have to say that the Mountain Mambo was my favorite. It has a mix of sunflower kernels, pumpkin seeds, raisins, apples, chocolate chips, and cranberries. I could seriously eat the whole bag in one sitting if I let myself.

The second flavor is called Beach Bash and was also very tasty. I was surprised at how different it tastes despite having mostly the same ingredients. This one was a mix of sunflower kernels, pineapple, pumpkin seeds, cranberries, and apricots. This one lasted long enough to try out another one of the recipes on Enjoy Life Foods’ recipe page… Beach Bash Brittle.

Recipe

I started by mixing sugar a water together and heating it in the microwave to dissolve the sugar. I made only half of a recipe since I only had half of the trail mix leftover.

Heating sugar

I continued heating the sugar until it was a dark amber color, like the recipe directed. Then I mixed in the trail mix.

Mixing trail mix

Working quickly, I poured the mixture onto a cookie sheet as soon as it had stopped bubbling.

Poured onto sheet

After allowing it to cool completely, I then broke it into bite size pieces and transfered to a serving dish.

Ready to eat

This came out great! Being that this was my first time making a candy-like treat, I was a little nervous that I might end up with my spoon hardening onto my measuring cup or something like that. But this was super easy to make, and such simple ingredients too. What a yummy, sweet snack!

Thanks to Enjoy Life Foods for yet another great, allergy-free snack that I can enjoy!

Filed Under: Allergies, Food Reviews, Recipes Tagged With: , , ,

Allergy Free Holiday Recipes: Green Bean Casserole

November 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Can you believe that green bean casserole is not a dish that I grew up eating? It wasn’t until we moved to Florida and were invited to a friends’ house for Thanksgiving that I was first introduced to its yummy-ness. It’s been one of my favorites since then.

I came across an allergy-free and gluten-free version of the recipe on Enjoy Life Foods’ recipe page and could hardly wait until Thanksgiving to give it a try. I was very pleased with the result. It didn’t taste too much like green bean casserole I’m used to, but it was very good. Also, it was a LOT more work… compared to mixing a can of mushroom soup with a can of green beans. Maybe it will be easier when I make it for a second time.

Ingredients

I started by chopping up a small carton of mushrooms. I have to say that I’m not a huge fan of mushrooms… in fact, this is the first time I’ve ever bought any type of mushrooms. Usually I would skip the mushrooms in a recipe, but since it was really a main ingredient this time I thought I would brave them. Since they are so soft, they were super easy to chop up into small pieces. I felt like a professional just chop, chop, chopping so quickly!

Chopped mushrooms

I sauteed the mushrooms in some olive oil until they were softened.

Saute mushrooms

Then I added the spices and the chicken broth. I used arrowroot instead of rice flower to thicken the broth since I already had that on hand.

Add broth

Once the soup had cooked I transferred it to the blender to puree the mushrooms.

Puree mushroom soup

Then soup mixture was mixed with the green beans and poured into a casserole dish. I sprinkled Enjoy Life flax seed cereal on top before baking.

Green bean casserole

We really liked this recipe. The main difference to the traditional recipe is that the soup was a broth instead of a cream, but it was still a great mix of flavors. And I got to have my casserole back again!

Finished casserole

I hope you enjoy this one!

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Enjoy Life Foods: Crunchy Cookies

August 23, 2011 By 2 Comments

Enjoy Life Foods is still one of my most favorite brands. Their products are so good, you would never know you were eating something completely gluten and allergen free. I also love that they keep coming out with new items to try. I once thought my days of enjoying delicious treats was over… now it’s hard to decide between all the yummy choices that Enjoy Life Foods offers.

I was overjoyed when Enjoy Life Foods contacted me again to try out some more of their brand new products… crunchy cookies! I had seen them talking about their new cookies on their Facebook page and seen them on their website, but they hadn’t shown up in my local nutrition store yet. They sent me all four of the fantastic new flavors: sugar crisp, vanilla honey graham, chocolate chip, and double chocolate!

Cookies

Before trying them for the first time, I examined the ingredients label carefully (as I always do now) and found a few ingredients and flavorings that I was unsure about because I hadn’t tried them before. One flavoring I was initially concerned about was the vanilla since it’s difficult to find it without added corn syrup. However, I found a very helpful ingredients page on the Enjoy Life Foods website that confirmed that their vanilla and other flavorings were corn free and safe for me.

As you can imagine, I had a rather difficult time picking which box to open first. I finally landed on the sugar crisp first, mostly because many of the products I usually choose are chocolate-y and I wanted something different. I brought them to game night at my parents’ house to test them out on my family. We all thought they were great! They have the perfect sugary-sweet taste without being too much.

Sugar crisp cookies

Next I tried the chocolate chip. Who doesn’t love a chocolate chip cookie? These did not disappoint! I could have eaten the entire box if I wanted to.

Chocolate chip cookies

Then I went for the vanilla honey graham. What can I say? Also great! They really reminded me of graham crackers. As kids we would use leftover frosting between two graham crackers to make frosting sandwiches. I decided I’d try the same thing here. It was so yummy, I couldn’t resist making myself a second one. You have to try these this way.

Vanilla honey grahamFrosting sandwich

Last, but certainly not least, I dove into the double chocolate. When the entire cookie is chocolate with more chocolate in inside, it’s hard not to love it. I really expected these to be my favorite, but I have to say I’m not sure I can choose a favorite. They were all so good!

Double chocolate cookiesMe eating cookies

These cookies are so similar to cookies I would have eaten before food allergies. I really like the soft baked cookies that Enjoy Life Foods makes, but honestly these even more yummy. Just writing this post makes me think I should go give some of these cookies another taste. I will definitely buy these again in the future. Many thanks to Enjoy Life Foods for all of their fabulous products for people with food allergies… especially the great, new crunchy cookies!!

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