Enjoy Life Snack Bars

When I bought these snack bars, I was hoping they would be something like a nutri-grain bar. No such luck. They have the potential, there just wasn't much fruit in them which I thought was strange since they are called Very Berry.

http://www.enjoylifefoods.com/our_foods/snack_bars/very_berry.html

They also have the Sorghum flour, but I don't think it's quite as noticeable as in the cookies. Also again disappointed with the small number actually inside the box.

Household rating:
Very Berry: 5/10

Enjoy Life Cookes

Sounds good doesn't it? After having Enjoy Life's chocolate chips and chocolate bars, I just had to try their cookies. First up was their Gingerbread Spice.

http://www.enjoylifefoods.com/our_foods/cookies/gingerbread_spice.html

For the first time ever, I had to throw out cookies. I just couldn't stand these. I even tried their recommended warming them up in the microwave suggestions. It didn't make any difference. Enjoy Life is known for everything they make being allergen free. This is fantastic, but when you don't have to worry about gluten, you would like to have regular flour in your cookies rather than the sorghum flour used in their cookies. I didn't like the texture of this flour and I didn't like the way my stomach felt afterwards. Maybe the sorghum flour takes a little getting used to. I was also disappointed that there we so few cookies in such a large box.

Next up was their Double Chocolate Brownies.

http://www.enjoylifefoods.com/our_foods/cookies/double_chocolate_brownie.html

They aren't bad, but I think I would rather try to come up with a chocolate cookie recipe myself (again the flour was an issue, but I was able to eat more of these cookies than the gingerbread ones).

I still have a box of the Snickerdoodle ones is the pantry. I just haven't wanted to try them yet.

Household ratings:
Gingerbread Spice: 1/10
Double Chocolate Brownie: 5/10

Chocolate Bars!!!

And no I'm not kidding! Enjoy life came out with a line of chocolate bars so I just had to try them. They come in 3 flavors - Crispy Rice, Dark Chocolate, and Rice Milk.

http://www.enjoylifefoods.com/our_foods/chocolate_bars.html

I tried the Crispy Rice first, and it was by far my favorite. I was hoping it would be like a Crunch bar, but there wasn't much rice in it (to my disappointment). I wasn't crazy on the dark chocolate one, but to be fair, I'm not a fan of dark chocolate anyway. If you like dark chocolate, than you will probably like this one best. The rice milk one was ok, it just tastes like melted chocolate chips. I really think it could use something else in it (like lost of puffed rice)! The dark chocolate and rice milk ones I couldn't eat the whole bar at once (even though they are less than 2 oz). I don't know if it was because it had been so long since I had had chocolate or if it was just too rich (not usually something that bothers me).

Household ratings:

Crispy Rice: 8/10 (would have gotten a 10 if it had more rice in it)

Dark Chocolate: 5/10

Rice Milk: 6/10

Rice Puffs

Emily's stomach is really bothered by oats. When it was time to give her finger foods, we weren't sure what to give her. We first tried Rice Krispies (because we already had them in the house). She really liked them, but they got soggy very fast, so we were hoping to find something a little bigger for her. That's where we came across the Rice Puffs by Nature's Path.

http://www.naturespath.com/products/cold_cereals/puffed_cereals/rice_puffs

Their one ingredient is Organic Brown Rice and their size is perfect for mastering that pincer grasp. They get a little soggy (as everything does when a baby is eating it), but they hold up quite nicely.

Emily rating: 10/10
Household rating: 10/10

Amazon Frosted Flakes

Since I enjoyed the Gorilla Munch cereal so much, I thought I would see if there were any other brands that I could have and came across Amazon Frosted Flakes.

http://www.naturespath.com/products/cold_cereals/flaked_cereals/amazon_frosted_flakes

Another great find! I love them! These are also corn based, but the taste is really great!

Household rating: 10/10

Healthy Times Baby Food

I was recently looking for a teething biscuit that was milk and soy free and came across the line of Healthy Times Baby Food.

http://www.healthytimes.com/hthome.htm

They offer products that are wheat, milk, and soy free. I found the Vanilla Arrowroot Cookies and thought they would be good to try (they are not wheat free, but they offer a Maple Flavored Arrowroot Cookie that is). When I first handed it to Emily, she thought it was a toy. I put it up to her lips and she licked it. She immediately had a big smile on her face and couldn't get enough of it. She was able to suck on it for quite some time before she was able to break it up into pieces she could chew. It was a wonderful treat and fun to watch her explore a new kind of food.

I only found a few of their products at our local Whole Foods Market, but they are available to purchase from their website and Amazon.com has listings for their items with a "coming soon" disclaimer.

Emily rating: 10/10
Mommy rating: 9/10 (I had to try one too of course!)

Earth's Best

Earth's Best Rice Cereal was the only rice cereal we could find at any of our local stores that doesn't contain soy. It's available in all our local grocery stores - Shaw's, Stop 'n Shop, Whole Foods, and Sudbury Farms, as well as Target. You can also buy their products online:

http://www.earthsbest.com/products/product/291.php

They have a whole line of products that we have used, however, with Emily now having issues with protein, we're sticking with the fruits and vegetables as well as the rice cereal only.

Emily wasn't a fan of rice cereal at the beginning. We took the suggestion from our pediatrician to add in a little veg or fruit to give it some flavor and she's been eating it ever since. We tried the other cereals, but they bothered her stomach so it was suggested we stick to rice only as that doesn't seem to bother her.

Emily rating: 8/10 (only because she doesn't like it without something mixed in)

Vanilla Frozen Rice Dream Dessert

Vanilla was the only flavor of Frozen Rice Dream that our local Whole Foods stocked. There are only a few (3 I think) of the frozen desserts that don't contain either milk or soy. I wasn't a fan of this one. I could get used to the texture (more like Italian ice than ice cream), but it has a really strong rice flavor. I had to doctor it up with some homemade chocolate syrup (I made with cocoa, confectioners sugar and rice milk) in order to eat it. I'm not giving up though - I'm still looking around for other flavors to see if they are better.

http://www.tastethedream.com/products/product/1483/204.php

Household rating: 6/10

Chocolate Rice Dream

I made the mistake of trying the Chocolate Rice Dream drink after trying the Rice Dream Supreme ones. It's good, it just doesn't compare to the taste of the Supreme drinks.

http://www.tastethedream.com/products/product/1471/202.php

Household rating: 7/10

Vanilla Hazelnut Rice Dream Supreme

Next I tried the Vanilla Hazelnut from the Rice Dream Supreme line.

http://www.tastethedream.com/products/product/1833/202.php

This was also great - as I drank a glass, all I could think of was how great it would taste in rice pudding (only I drank too much so I didn't have enough to make it with what I had left). I can't wait to buy these again!

Household rating: 10/10

Chocolate Chai Rice Dream Supreme

During the same trip to Whole Foods where we found Gorilla Munch, I checked out their stock of Rice Dream products. I picked up quite a few that I have been testing this week.

The first product I tried was from the new line of Rice Dream Supreme drinks - Chocolate Chai.

http://www.tastethedream.com/products/product/1832/202.php

I've always been a fan of Chai tea, so this sounded like an interesting combination. It was quite a treat! The chocolate and Chai flavors worked well together but the Chai flavor may not be for everyone.

Household rating: 8/10

Gorilla Munch

So I went to our local Whole Foods in Wayland, MA a few days ago looking for Enjoy Life's bagels thinking they'd be a great breakfast idea. No such luck - I'll have to order them online to try them. Having breakfast on my mind, I headed to look at toaster pastries while my loving hubby found this great cereal - Gorilla Munch. It reminds me of Cap'n Crunch cereal I loved growing up. It awesome with Rice Dream - makes me forget for a few minutes that it's all milk and soy free.

If you can't find it in your local grocer, it is also available to purchase online:

http://www.naturespath.com/products/cold_cereals/shaped_cereals/gorilla_munch

Household rating: 10/10

Rice Dream

Rice Dream rice drink is a wonderful alternative to milk. It's great in baking and cooking. It's also good alone as a drink. I was a BIG milk drinker before we found out Emily was intolerant so this was the hardest change for me. The first time I had a glass I was so thrilled to find something that was similar to milk, but there is a bit of an aftertaste that reminds you it isn't the real thing. I've talked to another mother who is on a milk free diet for the same reason and she loves Rice Dream, however, she wasn't as big of a milk drinker before, which I think is what makes the difference. They have many flavors if you are looking for something to drink, I just need to get around to trying all of them. They also have frozen products (alternative to ice cream) that I'll be trying next. There are only a couple of their frozen products that don't contain soy, but there are options :)

http://www.tastethedream.com/products/product/1467/202.php

Remember to really watch labels closely as there are many other brands of rice milk but many of them contain soy. Rice Dream and Trader Joe's brand are the two that I have found without some form of soy.


Household rating: 8/10

Mayonnaise

Cains All Natural Mayonnaise Rich in Omega-3 is a canola oil based mayonnaise that is great on sandwiches as well in cooking and baking. There are other canola oil based mayonnaises out there - but please be careful and read the labels carefully - as many of them contain soybean oil as well. The taste is really good - my husband really likes it and I used it in sandwiches for a baby shower last weekend (chicken salad and a turkey mango wrap) and got many compliments so I don't think anyone knew the difference. My only complaint is that I tried to use it in crab cakes and they fell apart in the pan. I used the same amount of mayo as I would normally use, but I think I need to tweak that recipe a little more. The crab cakes still tasted awesome, they just didn't hold together very well. I was also using panko crumbs instead of bread crumbs in the recipe, so I don't want to blame it on the mayo alone.

http://www.cainsfoods.com/News_April2007.html

According to their website, they have come out with a line of natural salad dressings as well. They don't have the ingredients on their website and I haven't seen them in the stores yet, but I'm hoping a couple of them are milk and soy free. Cains products are sold in New England and Upstate New York, but they do sell to other parts of the country by calling their 800 number (according to the FAQs page of their website).

Household rating: 7/10

Crackers!

I can't believe that with all the labels I've read in the crackers and cookies section of the grocery store, that I somehow missed these I don't know how many times! I was at our local Sudbury Farms grocery store shopping for a friend's baby shower and just happened to stumble upon Late July Organic Classic Saltine crackers.

http://www.latejulysnacks.com/pdf/panels/ClassicSaltine12-61.pdf

They're fantastic! They look just like a Ritz cracker but tastes something between a Ritz and a Saltine cracker. They are so good I had to triple check the ingredients as I couldn't believe there was no butter in them! I couldn't help myself - I ate the whole box (including some with Skippy's Natural PB of course).

Household rating: 10/10

Orgran Outback Animals

Having a sweet tooth, I'm always looking for sugary to snack on. Organ Outback Animals are a pretty good choice. They're a chocolate animal cracker (more like a cookie than an animal cracker to me), nothing more, but a whole lot less! The Organ brand is primarily gluten free, but many of their products are also dairy and soy free. In fact, these cookies are gluten, wheat, dairy, egg, yeast, GMO, soy, and nut free! I found them in the health food section of our local Sudbury Farms (Roche Brothers) but I'm sure they can be found in other grocery stores as well. According to their website, they are also available in vanilla (our store only carries the chocolate). They have many other products, I just haven't gotten around to trying them yet. Will let you know when I do. I just happen to pick these up whenever I'm at the grocery store (my husband usually does the shopping so these are my special treat when I go).

http://www.orgran.com/product-information/biscotti-cookies.html

Household rating: 8/10 (they're good, they just don't compare to a real animal cracker)

Enjoy Life Brand

I've recently discovered the Enjoy Life Brand of foods. They make all their products allergy-friendly and gluten free. I've only tried the chocolate chips so far - they're great! I made chocolate chip cookies that were very well received. We happened to have company the first time I made them including two kids without allergies - ages 2 1/2 and 5, and they couldn't tell the difference and loved them! I took the traditional Toll House cookie recipe and tweaked it (I will post it soon). I'm looking forward to trying their bagels next! I will post a review once I have. Not all stores carry their brand, but their website allows you to find stores in your area that carry them or you can shop directly from their website:

http://www.enjoylifefoods.com/index.php

Our household rating: 10/10

Peanut Butter

Let's face it, there's lots of natural peanut butter's out there, but before Emily, we were a Skippy household. My husband and I are both big fans of PB sandwiches (although he prefers PB&J), and our favorite is now Skippy's Natural Peanut Butter which is soy free.

http://www.peanutbutter.com/natural.asp

It's got the same great Skippy taste (it's even won a tasting award), but it does get a little bit oily (much less than I would have expected). Of course this isn't recommended for infants, but I highly recommend it to older kids and adults who are allergic to soy.

Our household rating: 9/10 (only because of the oil)