Comunidad Health Foods

Confession: I love the appetizer section of most casual/family restaurants. You know what I’m talking about – the mozzarella sticks, buffalo wings, nachos, cheese fries, and every other artery clogging calorie bomb the establishment can think up. As much of a sweet tooth as I have now, when I was growing up, I was all about the salty-savory, and I haven’t lost that love completely. Unfortunately, although treating yourself to the appetizer section is perfectly fine every once in a while, it’s not something that you can really live on day in and day out. That means that one of my favorite things to do is take those dishes that have very few redeemable qualities aside from taste, and turn them into meals or dishes that can legitimately be a part of a healthy diet – and not just once in a blue moon.

For the super bowl, I made “healthified” nachos. I was a little overambitious with the serving size, and in the spirit of the game I devoured the entire plate, so I don’t know that how I ate them constitutes as healthy, but the actual ingredients are perfectly nutritious. I layered lime-flavored tortilla chips with homemade vegetarian refried beans, fresh pico de gallo, sliced avocado, scallions, and some nutritional yeast flakes instead of gobs of shredded cheese. I dolloped my plate with some plain greek yogurt instead of sour cream, and went to town.

The nachos were so good! Spicy at times, creamy and fresh-tasting with every bite – you really feel as though you’re eating something that couldn’t possibly be healthy for you, but I can assure you, it is. There’s protein, healthy fats, fresh vegetables, fiber – and an enormous dose of flavor. I know we’re now past both the super bowl and the Oscars, but you shouldn’t feel like you need a special party to make them. Please, please don’t let that stop you!

 

Today I have perhaps the last of my product reviews from the goodie box I received from Around the Plate. We were given a coupon for a Stonyfield Farms yogurt, and I have to say, I was a little hesitant to use this one. Stonyfield Farms has developed a bad reputation with me for being excessive in the sugar department. I’m sorry, but 29g is just not ok for first thing in the morning for me – even if each and every one of those grams is organic and devoid of the words “high,” “fructose,” and “corn syrup.” L loves Stonyfield Farms, and I’ll eat it on occasion – usually as more of a dessert than a full on meal. I like the company, but I knew I wasn’t crazy about all of the flavors’ nutritional profiles. Still, I wanted to give the company another try. After all, as I’ve mentioned before, there is a lot to be said for a company who cares about the impact it has on the world around it.

I decided that the best way to approach this review was to find a recipe that called for yogurt, and use the Stonyfield brand. To me, this blog isn’t about food reviews. I’ve certainly done my fair share of them, particularly recently, and plan to do a few more over the next month or so. However, I don’t want them to take away from this blog’s true purpose – sharing food and recipes with you. So, this is a hybrid post: a review of Stonyfield Farms and their yogurt, plus a delicious pancake recipe that calls for yogurt in the ingredients.

But first, let’s talk about this yogurt, because I’m sure I’ve done a great job of drawing you in with my attacks on its sugar content (it’s amazing any company tolerates the reviews I give, right?). I went with the 0% Super Fruits flavor (think Pomegranate, Raspberry, and Acai) – not only was it modest in sugar (22g), but it was a flavor that you don’t see very often. I do have to commend Stonyfield on that. As much as I adore my Chobani and I think they have fantastic flavors, I long for more exotic, creative flavors. Stonyfield has flavors like “Banilla,” which I’ve heard is out of this world, “Chocolate Underground,” which – despite being laden with sugar, and probably understandably so – is definitely something I could enjoy for dessert, and “French Vanilla” which just sounds a little more indulgent and fancier than the typical vanilla.

In terms of Nutrition, it’s a pretty standard yogurt – 120 calories, 130mg sodium, 22g carbohydrates (pretty much exclusively from sugar, which will be partially added and partially naturally derived from lactose), and 6g protein. It delivers 25% of the daily recommendations for Calcium. Because the sugar is a little higher than I’d like to see, I might be inclined to choose the low-fat over fat-free varieties, just to give my body a little bit of a glycemic buffer – but really, 22g isn’t obscene. The other flavors that inch up closer to 30 are more of a concern. It seems that Stonyfield Farms has heard the cries of other sugar police like myself, because they’re in the process of rolling out a new, lower-calorie, lower-sugar line of yogurt (100 calories, 30% less sugar), using Stevia with a touch of cane sugar (read more about the switch here!).

The taste came through as a more or less typical mixed berry yogurt. The raspberries play the starring role, but you do get a hint of the pomegranate and acai in a nice, subtle way that makes it just a little different from the other mixed berry flavors on the market. It’s also not a very thick yogurt – it’s one of the more liquidy ones I’ve seen, especially compared to the thickened greek yogurts that I’m so used to – which could be nice for anyone who is a little turned off by yogurt’s consistency. 

The bottom line: I have to admit, I like the taste of Stonyfield, and I do like what their company does and how it presents itself. I’m definitely interested in the reduced sugar line they’re making now, and will have to update this post if I ever get the opportunity to try it. Until then, I personally will stick to yogurts with lower sugar contents for my day-to-day use, but that’s just a personal preference. I know so many people who can’t get enough of Stonyfield Farm’s products, and I can definitely see why. For anyone who is less concerned with their sugar intake, the nutrition panel was already commendable; now with the introduction of Stevia, that’s even more true; the taste is excellent; and the price is more than reasonable. This is a great option for yogurt, and definitely one of the best non-greek varieties on the market right now.

 

So about these pancakes, since something that Stonyfield Farms encourages is creating healthier food by using yogurt as an ingredient. They’re not nearly as thick and fluffy as I like my pancakes to be, but they do taste good, especially mixed with the extra yogurt and a warm berry sauce as toppings. I did find myself adding flour to the recipe that otherwise just called for oats, because I wound up with a very soupy consistency. The recipe suggested greek yogurt, so I have a feeling the thinness of the batter had a lot to do with the fact that I used Stonyfield. Once I added the whole wheat flour, though, the batter was a really nice thickness and cooked up beautifully, so don’t view that as a deterrent. 

 Tomorrow is National Pancake Day – a perfect excuse to tell you about this yogurt and these pancakes at once - and I have to smile at the fact that it falls on a Tuesday. I’ve mentioned it before, but growing up there was this traditional in my house known as “Pancake Tuesdays.” Not a Tuesday went by that my grandmother and, once she passed on, my mom didn’t crack open that box of Aunt Jemima pancake mix and whip up a batch for my sister and me. It wasn’t until college that the tradition broke, though I have to say that a really good stack of fluffy pancakes can still win me over, even in the worst of moods. They are, for me, the ultimate comfort food.

Would you ever think to combine the flavors of balsamic vinegar and avocado? When I first saw the recipe, I was intrigued in the way that I always get when faced with a surprising new marriage of ingredients. I love weird food, or at least different food. I knew that I had to try it for that very reason – and really, of all the bizarre food combinations I’ve made and eaten in the past, this is really tame. So if you’re not as curious as I am with food, I think you’ll still enjoy this.

The salad is cool, creamy, and even a little sweet. It has a little bite to it without being overtly spicy, which is nice. The balsamic flavor was a little subdued, although I admittedly didn’t do too much measuring and may have been a little heavy handed with the lime. I would suggest doing what I always forget to do: once you make the marinade, taste it and actually adjust the flavors. For some reason, I never bother with this last step when cooking. I still really liked it, paired with my all-time favorite, go-to protein source: an egg (poached this time, which added to the creaminess of the dish).

Seriously, does healthy & delicious get any easier than that?!

Oh, and please ignore my very unattractive poached egg in the picture. I'm still wrapping my brain around the nuances of cracking an egg into a simmering pan of water and having it come out in a pretty little package.



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Some foods are just made for certain weather. I don’t even mean the obvious ones – piping hot soup and freshly baked bread during a blizzard or fresh tomato and mozzarella salad in the midst of a heat wave. There are other dishes, more subtly tied to a climate or season, that just make you feel right when eating them at that time of year. This warm white bean salad from Rachael Ray is one of those. As I ate it, it just worked with the chill that had developed outside. This dish was made for winter, and I don’t know that I would have thought that before tasting it.

It’s warm but not heavy, and savory in a gentle way. It really is a wonderful dish, and whether you serve it as a side dish or a lighter main course, I really think you’ll like it. I doctored it up a little – swapping in spinach for the radicchio, mostly – and think that you could reduce the oil if you really wanted to. But then, this is a dish to comfort you in colder weather, and doesn’t a salad richly dressed in healthy olive oil sound indulgent enough to do just that?

To anyone who thought their final semester at college was a joke, I have to say, I’m jealous. I always thought of senior year, particularly the spring semester, as more of a formality – I’d only have classes a few days a week rather than the full five, I wouldn’t start class early in the morning and wouldn’t stay late in the day, and the classes wouldn’t be all that demanding. What a dream that would be! Nutrition does not afford such luxuries. I’m sure many other majors are the same. The classes I’m taking now are the most rigorous I’ll ever have, and I find myself waking up at 7 in the morning on weekends and not finding time to breathe until nearly 9 at night. I’ve had to stage several self-interventions as the stress escalated within me, and by the end of the day I collapse into bed and am shocked when I hear my alarm going off just minutes later – or so it seems.

It goes without saying that I have been craving comfort food, and one of the most satisfying dishes I’ve found to alleviate stress and exhaustion is polenta. It’s smooth and creamy, warm and filling. It’s like a pillow for my taste buds to relax on. In fact, this mushroom and polenta mélange was exactly what I needed, with flavors that work well together and a warmth to it that transcends just physical temperature and actually soothes you. The recipe also yields an alarming amount of food, yet it amounts to just about 450 calories if you eat the full serving, so you can feel like you’re stuffing yourself into a stupor (thus satiating that all-too-pesky compulsion to eat when stress gets the better of you) without actually doing too much caloric damage. Now that’s what I’m talking about.

Lastly, I want to say that I hope the name I devised for this dish doesn’t offend anyone. I know very little about Italy or true Italian culture: I barely speak a lick of the language and I’ve certainly never visited the country. However, I am currently reading Under the Tuscan Sun, and although this by no means makes me even remotely knowledgeable of Italian culture, it has sparked in me a little bit of inspiration. This polenta dish may be worlds away from authentic. The name I created for it may be butchering the language. I certainly hope not. But something as fluid as “Polenta con Marinara di Funghi” seems to embody this dish so much more appropriately than the all too boring “Polenta in a Tomato-Mushroom Sauce” that it really is. Again, I mean no harm, and freely admit my ignorance. It just sounds pretty, you know?

Polenta con Marinara di Funghi (Polenta in a Tomato-Mushroom Sauce)

New nutrition majors are militant. They’re overzealous, enthusiastic, and on a mission to cure the world of all nutrient maladies. It’s endearing, in a sense. I was one of them. My view on food is still much more strict than the average Joe’s, but I’m a far cry from the pseudo food Nazi that I was even just one year ago. The one battle I still forge on in is the one against sugar. I have demonized sugar a thousand times over in my head. I can indulge and treat myself to a cupcake or ice cream cone without batting an eye, but try to sneak a few extra grams of that simple carbohydrate into my yogurt? My almond milk? My dried fruit, which already has such high concentrations of sugar to begin with? Forget it. My brain has drawn a glaring red line between dessert foods and everything else I eat throughout the day, and you can guess which side sugar and its associated ingredients/food products are confined to.

I know I need to work on this. It isn’t that I want to move toward a complete, uncontested and unequivocal acceptance of sugar, but I need to be less rigid. I even cringe at honey, agave, and some dried fruits. So when I got two little jars of the most adorable honey crèmes I have ever seen with my Around the Plate goodie box, it was a bitter-sweet feeling. They sounded fantastic, but what would I eat them on? They sounded way too sugary, way too rich for spreading on a breakfast scone (heck, right now I wouldn’t even eat most scones for breakfast – honey crème or not - due to their nutritional profile); fruit already had its own sweetness, so I wasn’t sure I could add it to that, either. I worried that I would let these products go to waste, and the folks from Honey Ridge Farms and their products deserved more than that.

You see, Honey Ridge Farms is a family business run out of Brush Prairie, Washington. They produce single-floral source honeys in many varieties, all of them 100% from the United States. When it comes to more commercial honeys, many of them can’t even be considered honey anymore, and it can be incredibly challenging to find a 100% U.S. made brand. Although I will most likely continue to purchase my honey from more local sources, since Washington is still on the opposite side of the country for me, it’s refreshing to hear of an American company with its feet still planted firmly in the ground and its values entrenched in the wellness of our world - people, places, and “things.” Honey Ridge Farms even goes a step beyond supporting local bee keepers and the use of only the highest quality ingredients – they donate a portion of their profits to fund research aimed at promoting bee colony health. As deathly afraid of bees as I am, I know the devastation our ecosystem would face if they were to vanish, and their populations are being seriously threatened. You can feel good about buying honey from Honey Ridge Farms, and that’s not something that can be said of most honey manufacturers and distributors.

So now you know why I couldn’t just shrug off these honey crème samples – the company was too good to ignore. So, I swallowed my militant, anti-sugar qualms and incorporated it twice (yes, you heard me right – not once, but twice!) into my breakfast routine. Scandalous, I know, but we all need baby steps sometimes. I still have only tried the lemon honey crème – I was nervous to open both and have them go bad, since it will admittedly take me some time to go through a full container on my own (a little goes a long way!) – although the more I think about it, the more appealing some sort of blackberry-lemon honey crème combination sounds, doesn’t it? But I digress.

I opened that jar of lemon honey crème and found a thick, creamy texture that reminded me just a little of a semi-liquid fondant. Because it’s so sweet on its own, I find that it’s easier to use in the right proportions if you heat it first to thin it out and spread it out across whatever it is you’re eating it with. I’m not sure if this ruins the integrity of the honey, as the company prides itself on the fact that they don’t heat it during the process of making it. I hope I haven’t broken some cardinal rule of honey crème eating by thinning it out. If you have an insatiable sweet tooth, go ahead and slather it on your favorite muffin recipe or mix it into oatmeal as it is.

I used the honey crème to make a sweet drizzle to go over a citrus egg white omelet, which was excellent. The strong sweetness of the honey balanced out the intensity of the grapefruit. Next time, I would consider chopping the fruit into smaller pieces and letting them soak in the honey and spice mixture, reserving some honey for the topping but switching most to the filling. It was a beautiful way to use the honey crème, though, and would definitely recommend it. Scroll down for the recipe (which has been changed to reflect the alterations I just mentioned)!

The second time I tried the honey crème was also with grapefruit (I know, I know, not very adventurous of me). This time, I mixed it in with diced grapefruit chunks and broiled it until it began to glow. Did you know that grapefruit glows when it heats and caramelizes? It develops a very warm tone to it, seriously. I then let it cool completely and stirred in some vanilla greek yogurt for a citrus honey parfait, which was also wonderful.

So, after all of that, what do I really think about Honey Ridge Farms’ cute little jars of honey crème? I have to say, I’m pretty impressed. I still don’t find myself reaching into the fridge every chance I get to use it, but it’s a nice treat every now and then. I’d love to try it thinned out as a salad dressing (fruit or veggies!), maybe blended with some frozen bananas for an extra sweet banana “ice cream” dessert or with some almond milk and fresh fruit for a smoothie, or stirred into hot tea for an extra special cup. I can really think of a number of ways to enjoy it, and it’s certainly different from regular honey, which makes it an even nicer treat. These would make great gifts for people – how about pairing a jar or 2 with a batch of your favorite muffin or scone? They’re also not wildly expensive, considering the level of attention and care the business puts into its product and the fact that you can use it so sparingly and still get a punch of flavor. The only downsides I found were its slight spreading difficulty at its natural consistency (but that’s certainly not enough to prevent me from liking the product) and the missing nutrition facts panel. I’d be interested in a nutritional profile (the ingredients are listed on the container and are very impressive, but there’s no indication of serving sizes, sugar content, etc.), though I would imagine it’s fairly comparable to regular honey. The fact that it’s missing is not uncommon for a smaller, family-based business.

If you like honey and incorporating it into your recipes, I would definitely recommend this product. Even if a part of me still shies away from straight sugar (and yes, even if honey isn’t processed like white sugar is, it’s still sugar), I can still praise Honey Ridge Farms for all of their efforts to stay green and responsible. The next time you find yourself in need of a small gift for someone, or you run out of your favorite honey and are itching for something new, try ordering from Honey Ridge Farms. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

For more information on Honey Ridge Farms and its products, you can explore their website or Facebook page, or follow them on Twitter via @HoneyRidgeBuzz.

And if you do buy their lemon honey crème, try making this omelet. It’s kind of fantastic.

Chili is, perhaps, the greatest dish ever invented, and it’s perfect for the kind of weather dampening the mood outside my window. It’s grey, cold and wet, and quite frankly, nothing much sounds better to me right now than a pair of comfy sweatpants and a nice, hot bowl of chili. It’s comfort food turned healthy (well, usually – the way I make it, it is!). It can be spicy to add a different kind of heat to warm me up, and it’s really filling. To me, you can eat it any number of ways – with cornbread or without, with a dollop of greek yogurt or not, piled high with cheese and toppings, or bare bones and beautiful.

The recipe I have for you today is definitely spicy, definitely filling, and beyond satisfying. It doesn’t have too many toppings, though you could certainly add them – just a sprinkling of tortilla chips for crunch and, though I didn’t think to do this at the time, a dollop of greek yogurt to cool your taste buds down just a little bit with each bite. That’s all this meal needs. It’s also vegetarian, which is really how I prefer my chilis anyway. I’ve had some fantastic turkey chilis, some phenomenal beef ones, but in the end there’s something so great about a bowl of beans and vegetables in a thick, tomato sauce. Even if you’re not a vegetarian, you can definitely get behind this one. And, as the top of the recipe indicates in Rachael’s notes section – the leftovers only get better, which is so true. So make this, make a lot of it, and enjoy every bite. In the margins of this recipe I wrote GOOD! – capitals, underlining, and all. There’s no reason to be shy about how much I enjoyed this dish. Rachael Ray, you certainly hit it out of the park with this one!

I talk a lot about low-carb meals here, and I always feel as though I should be prefacing these references with a PSA about how beautiful carbs really are and how I do genuinely support eating an adequate amount of them. I just personally happen to gravitate toward a very high carbohydrate diet, and if I don’t make it a point to eat a few low-carbohydrate meals eachweek, I tend to be a bit of a carb loader. So when I go off on these “…and it was even low-carb!” please don’t take me as Atkins’ number one fan.

With that being said, I do enjoy eating a very low carbohydrate meal from time to time. Unfortunately, I’ve found that carbohydrates have a lot of staying power, and it can be tricky to make a healthy, filling meal without them sometimes. This recipe for Sesame Kale is, unfortunately, an example of that. It tasted great – naturally sweet yet savory, a little chewy as wilted kale tends to be. I wanted the poached egg that I served on top of it to be less cooked to create a creamy sauce for the kale, but it didn’t really happen. C’est la vie. Hoisin also came through as the dominant flavor rather than sesame, so maybe this should be called Hoisin Kale - but does a rose by any other name still taste as delicious? Why yes, yes it does.

The only thing I would change would be to either use it as a side dish for a larger meal or throw in a piece of toast. I’m waving my white flag of surrender to the carbohydrate enthusiasts out there – you’ve won this one. It did not satiate me as a low-carb dinner, but it isn’t as though I left the kitchen table famished, either. I just needed a little pick me up later on in the night. Take that as you will – but whether you make this exactly as I’ve indicated or you incorporate it into a more filling dinner, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this one.

Just this past week, the sun was shining and I wasn’t even wearing a jacket to go outside. Now, I’m sitting in bed staring out the window as snowflakes fall gently to the already-white ground. Go figure. No, but really, as much as I smile into the sun and grumble about cold fronts, I feel better about this weather. After all, it is February and I’m currently situated in central Pennsylvania; anything less than the weather falling down upon the grass and lake behind L’s dorm building is, quite frankly, unnatural.

The other relieving part about Mother Nature finally deciding to switch over to winter is that I can really get behind telling you about this recipe for a ground turkey casserole. I did love breaking up the parade of heavy winter dishes with the light avocado salad on Thursday, but it’s just as nice to have this warm and comforting, yet ultimately healthy version of a comfort food to counter it today. Life is all about balance, no?

This casserole brings a meek heat, just as though the spices from the rotel tomatoes were peeking around a corner, asking not to be forgotten completely. It’s creamy in a respectful way, so you can indulge in flavor without feeling weighed down by the end of the meal. The only change that I would make, which should really come to no surprise to you by now when it comes to the meat meals that I cook, is to supplement some of the turkey with some beans or extra vegetables. I definitely like the meat in my recipes to get nominated for Best Supporting Actor, while leaving the starring role to the plant-based ingredients. Still, it tasted delicious as it was, so if you come from a more meat-centric household, I certainly wouldn’t fault you for leaving this as is.

 

Boy, I really let this Thirty Minute Thursday get down to the wire, didn’t I? It’s been a busy day, and after writing a fairly long product review yesterday, I’ll keep this one short and sweet.

The recipe from Rachael Ray’s cookbook that I have for you today is called a Mexican Fiesta Salad, and there isn’t much to say about it except that I really enjoyed it. Halfway through February, we’re well into the season of heavy eating – filling stews, chili, casseroles. It was nice to work this into my dinner plan for the week because of how clean and simple it was, providing a nice change from the more traditional winter fare. I want to say this even tastes good for you, that’s how light it is, but I feel like people interpret a phrase like that in a very negative way. It tastes good for you in a way that makes you feel good about yourself, not in a way that makes you feel like you’re eating cardboard and calling it diet food, or something miserable like that. It would pair well with other “clean” foods, by which I really mean other light dishes – no sauces, no gobs of cheese, even red meat might be a little too overpowering for this little gem. I ate it with a simple egg white omelet (is it just me, or is there something extremely refreshing about a plain, well cooked batch of egg whites?), but can imagine it being excellent in a number of other ways, too: grilled chicken, a light wrap or sandwich, or a bean salad on the side. You could even use the salad as a topping for plain tortilla chips.

This salad is vibrant in color but subtle in flavor. The cilantro and lime are at just the right intensities, and the red onion offers a small bite in both texture and flavor. The recipe certainly isn’t revolutionary, but it is very enjoyable, and it may even make you feel like Spring is just around the corner.

Last year, my food science professor gave us a homework assignment: we were to bring a protein bar in to class the following week. We were going to conduct a taste test and sensory evaluation. Now, mind you, the closest I had ever come to tasting a protein bar was an array of cereal bars – Kashi, Kellog’s, Fiber One. As I was soon to discover, breakfast bars and protein bars are two very different beasts. That first experience with protein bars – a chocolate peanut butter one, no less – was decidedly unfulfilling. It wasn’t that it tasted bad or I actively disliked it; it was more that there was this strange essence to the bar that I couldn’t quite pinpoint. It was the kind of gustatory experience that I certainly wasn’t actively enjoying, but felt compelled to continue nonetheless.

If that mildly disconcerting taste test wasn’t enough to make me a skeptic, a curiosity-kills-the-cat type of investigation of the nutrition labels of various popular bars certainly was. Sure, the bars have protein. Some even have an impressive dose of healthy fats, which are always welcome in my world. But have you ever looked at the sugar? The fiber? The calories? These babies are dense packages of protein, absolutely, but they’ve also got enough sugar to boost you to the moon and a meager 1 or 2 grams of fiber – not nearly enough to balance the sugar out. Ok, perhaps I exaggerate: 15-20 grams of sugar is certainly better than some of the health-claiming yogurt brands out there (a discussion for another time) – but it’s still more than I want as a breakfast or pre/post-workout fuel up.

All of this to say – I was skeptical of the Nimble Bar by Balance Bar when it came as part of my Around the Plate goodie box. Would there be hydrogenated oils holding it together? Would the sugar content make me want to eat it as a lackluster dessert rather than as a pre-work out boost? Would I be as disappointed by the contrast between delicious sounding flavors and ultimately off-putting taste as I was last year?

Before I opened the package, I inspected the nutrition label and ingredients list with a fine-toothed comb. The sugar was remarkably low, as a result of their using Truvia – a bittersweet concession, if you ask me, as I’m still just about as wary of the potential effects of alternative sweeteners as I am about highly refined white sugar. Truvia certainly isn’t Splenda, though, so I moved on in my investigation without much of a grudge. Fiber reached a commendable 5 grams, and calories were low so I could eat it with a piece of fruit or glass of milk to incorporate some more fresh foods without overdoing the calories. It would also be enough to tide me over if I ever were to find myself hungry but not in good reach of real food, which is great because it’s the perfect size to slip into my purse or book bag (I’m always looking for good on-the-go snacks to stash in my purse for when I go out). The ratio was 50:50 between saturated and unsaturated fats, but total fat was really low so I wouldn’t get too hung up on the fact that it isn’t more of a 25:75 or 15:85 ratio. Sodium was low, cholesterol was negligible, and reading through the remaining items on the nutrition panel was like opening up my advanced human nutrition textbook to the chapter on vitamin and mineral recommendations: 100% folate, 50% vitamin D, 50% vitamin E – they even had chromium, molybdenum and selenium covered, and who except for registered dietitians have ever heard of those? Granted, they were all fortifications, and I could go on about getting your nutrients from whole foods and natural sources, and all of that…but in the end, as long as you don’t go and throw everything in your kitchen away and replace it with a diet of 100% Nimble bars…I think you’re ok getting some “extra” nutrients the not-so-natural way every once in a while.

I also took the time to read up on the “40-30-30” ratio of macronutrients that the label touts and, apparently, Balance Bar uses for all of its products. It’s thought that keeping a carbohydrate-protein-fat ratio within these values is the best distribution of nutrients to keep blood sugar and mood stable while bringing down inflammation in the body and boosting energy – all very good things to try to achieve. This isn’t something I can say that my nutrition education has taught me, per se, but it is very similar to the AMDR values set forth by our country’s nutrient guidelines (which state that a healthy diet should consist of 45-65% carbohydrates, 10-35% protein, and 25-30% fat), so I would imagine the science behind this ratio to be relatively sound. What it’s really saying, if you think about it, is that this bar has a well-rounded set of nutrients, so you won’t be loading up on any one type of energy source while ignoring another.

So after what you have probably gathered was a very thorough reading of the packaging, I finally opened the yogurt orange swirl flavor. I took my first bite with caution. I chewed slowly. When I swallowed, I paused before taking the next bite to evaluate the experience I had just initiated. Not too shabby, I thought. It was dense but not overwhelmingly so, sweet but not cloyingly, and the flavor was pretty reminiscent of a creamsicle, which happens to be a favorite of mine from my childhood. Unfortunately, the first bite of this one was definitely the best. The sweetness developed this manufactured component to it, and by the end of the bar I had felt I had had more than enough. The texture was a little bit chalky if you concentrated too hard on it, though not nearly as much as other protein bars I’ve had. In the end, I found myself wishing for a bar half the size – it was just a little bit too much, and I don’t mean in terms of calories or gram weight. 

I tried the peanut butter flavor a few weeks later, and enjoyed that one much more. I found it to be significantly less “chalky” in texture, and because it didn’t have the creamsicle elements to it – peanut butter is naturally more decadent than sweet – I found its sweetness to be much closer to what I tend to prefer. I still couldn’t shake the slight aftertaste of something heavily manufactured and just, well, not fresh off the tree, so to speak, but it was absolutely the best protein bar I’ve ever eaten.

So, what was my ultimate verdict? Personally, I’m not really a protein bar kind of gal. I’m not sure that I would purchase these on a regular basis, but I certainly wouldn’t rule it out as an occasional addition to my snack pile, and I think that’s a pretty big concession coming from me. I’d also be interested in seeing different flavors come out, and would absolutely try those based on the differences I saw between the two that I received as samples. That being said, I think this is a great product for the right demographic. Like I said, their portability is phenomenal – they’re discreet, shelf-stable, and I belief tough enough to withstand the depths of a woman’s purse or briefcase, which is none to be trifled with. As much as I harp on getting nutrients from whole foods, the truth is that many people don’t get enough nutrients on a day-to-day basis, so having a bar that gives you a healthy dose of some of the really key ones (especially for women) is not something to overlook. And if you do like protein bars or at least find yourself able to palate them, you should definitely give them a shot, because this overall positive review is coming from someone who usually doesn’t tolerate protein bars well. They’re less than $2 a bar, which sounds reasonable compared to other protein bars on the market (though still not nickels and dimes), and as I’ve said and can’t say enough – they’re better than any other bar I’ve had.

If you’re interested, you can find more information on Nimble (and all of Balance Bar’s products) at www.balance.com or on Facebook. The bars can be ordered online either via the Balance Bar website (previously listed) or Amazon, or found in stores alongside other Balance Bars (though I personally have not stumbled across them in retail in my region yet).

Balance Bar may not have completely converted me with their new Nimble line, but they certainly took me by surprise in a positive way – and as we learn so often in my dietetics courses, it’s those small, incrementally won battles that matter the most. You may be able to make a protein bar lover out of me yet.