Happy Friday! I am very ready for the weekend and Halloween fun. CalorieLab has some interesting candy alternatives to hand out to trick-or-treaters this year. Another alternative a co-worker suggested is little tubs of PlayDough, though I’d be a little afraid if that was not well received in my neighborhood. But there are no shortage of candy alternative ideas if you’re not comfortable with handing out candy and aren’t afraid of retaliation:
There is Halloween candy all over the place at work today and while I don’t crave chocolate like I used to, I still crave it a little. One of my all-time favorites are Nestle Crunch bars, simple, but something about crunchy rice in chocolate is absolutely amazing to me … which is why I never buy them to hand out on Halloween to avoid temptation. While at Whole Foods, I found a new raw chocolate alternative crunch bar, like Larabars, but lower calorie and %100 raw ingredients – the Cacao Crunch Bar by Lydia’s Organics, a raw vegan producer near by that I’m only now discovering! A wonderful quote from their site:
Lydia’s Organics produces high-quality dehydrated foods made from raw, organic, vegan ingredients. Her combinations of sprouted grains, seeds and nuts, along with fruits, vegetable, herbs and seaweeds are manufactured with the utmost care for the preservation of the living vitality and nutrition of these ingredients.
And what a beautiful chocolate bar it is, looks a lot like a crunch bar.
I snatched one up and figured today is the perfect day to try it. At $2.29 each, they’re more expensive than Larabars and much more so than my typical snack of an apple. But, something I’d pick up for road trips and emergency meals. I found it interesting the wrapper says eat crunchy or rehydrate, looking for a Nestle Crunch-like experience, I choose to eat crunchy.
The bar smells like a sweet, chocolate granola bar and is pretty big, about twice the size for a Larabar, but not as heavy. There are lots of visible grains and sunflower seeds in the bar and it’s tough texture made it difficult to break off a piece. The first bite was a pleasant surprise, it was chewy and chocolaty, but not too sweet or tough. The chocolate flavor did not over-power the natural grains and nuts and the sprouted buckwheat added great texture. It was not as crunchy as a Nestle Crunch bar, nor as sweet. Then again, I was not looking for a candy treat, but more an energizing, flavorful snack. It’s does not taste so much like a raw dessert or candy bar, but I still felt as though I was eating a chocolate treat.
It disappeared quickly after I opened it and I enjoyed every chewy bite. I’m excited about Lydia’s Organics and plan on trying more of her products and maybe attending her next event.
