Tea and Sympatico

I recently got sent some bags of Nothing But fruit snacks to try. My initial thought was that I'd save them until my twin four year old niece and nephew came round as I thought they'd appeal to children but I'm afraid the kids didn't get a look in! The snacks are made from freeze dried fruit slices. The fruit is cut up, the water removed and then it's bagged up. Simple. This leads to a very low calorie (between 34-45 cals per bag) snack with only naturally occuring sugar. The bags are light weight so would work equally well in a lunch box or as a travel snack. In my office we have a snack table that is constantly full of sweets, chocolate and biscuits. Seeing as we have two vegans and a coeliac on the team, people are really considerate and often add things that appeal to all. Whilst I'm not immune to the temptations of the snack table I do try to limit my afternoon snacks to fruit rather than sugary treats as I find it's better at keeping my energy le...

I was recently contacted by a company called Plain Tasty to see if I'd like to try their new product - The Rysp. I was all too happy to especially as all their range is suitable for vegans and they are a local Manchester based company.  Rysp either come as long crispbread or as small snack sized bites. Essentially it's a really thin crispbread which doesn't sound that exciting in itself but I must say the taste was a revelation! Creators Jonathan and Tom have looked to their Scandinavian roots using rye sourdough and carefully selected flavourings. The long crispbreads have strong aniseed flavours from the caraway seeds and a hot kick from the black pepper and the slightly scooped shape was perfect for hummus. The bite sized Rysps come in two sizes of bag and in flavours of garlic + rosemary, caraway + black pepper and dulse seaweed + sesame. They are low in fat and calories and with only natural ingredients these make a fantastic alternative to crisps. As a ne...

Happy Kale sent me some samples recently of their products for one of my Can I Eat It? reviews . At the moment they do two different flavours, BBQ and Carob and Coconut. They interested me as they are doing something different from the usual cheezy, cashew flavoured kale chips. Don't get me wrong I am a fan of these flavours but it was interesting to try something different. What I wasn't prepared for the sweet savoury thing which is even going on in the BBQ flavour. I even went out and bought some more of the Coconut and Carob ones to try them again. The second bag got me hooked. What was different on the second bag was that I got past my expectations of what kale chips taste like. I forgot that I was eating a vegetable. The kale really isn't a focal point. Sure it provides a crunchy vehicle for the toasty coconut and caramelly carob flavours but just sit back and enjoy the ride. I was eating these at my desk on my lunch break when they suddenly gave me a massive ta...