I’ve got a fun assortment of food products for which I accepted offers to review. Since it’s the holiday season, let’s start with some chocolate.
RED Chocolate
“Guiltless indulgence?” You’ve got my attention. RED chocolate bars ($12.99 for pack of four) have 30-40 percent less fat than other chocolate brands and no added sugar, using only natural sweeteners (stevia extract). Can it still taste good? Yes, indeed.
I was impressed by how deliciously sweet the five chocolate bars were despite their lack of added sugar. The milk chocolate (120 calories per six-piece serving) has a creamy flavor, definitely different than a Hershey’s bar. I actually thought the macadamia nut milk chocolate (130 calories per serving) tasted more like a standard milk chocolate bar. The nuts are ground into tiny bits and complement, instead of overwhelm, the chocolate flavor.
If you’re not a fan of dark chocolate, RED’s version (100 calories per serving) may change your mind. In your first bite, you’ll immediately notice the lack of bitterness, a pleasant surprise. The same goes with the orange and almond dark chocolate (100 calories per serving), which in fact was quite zesty–I didn’t think dark chocolate could be so bright in flavor.
As for the extra dark chocolate (110 calories per serving), it, too, wasn’t bitter. I kept thinking how well this chocolate would fare on a charcuterie board with cheese and fruits. All the dark flavors are Keto-friendly, by the way.
Of note, the cocoa beans come from the Ivory Coast of Africa. In Madison, you can purchase RED at Walmart and Woodman’s.
Photo courtesy of RED
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Lemonette Dressing
As the name implies, Lemonette is a lemon-based dressing ($6.99). It’s vegan, non-GMO, Keto-friendly, Whole30-friendly, dairy-free, and each serving has only 50 calories.
Lemonette comes in Mediterranean herb, Italian herb, lemon garlic and zesty cumin. Each is versatile enough to replace a vinegar, cream or soy-based sauce.
In my first bite of salad with the Mediterranean herb, the adjective “earthy” came to mind. I mean this in a good way, as there are so few ingredients in the dressing that you taste them all: certainly the lemon, spearmint and sumac (ground berries). I plan to use this dressing in a marinade in an upcoming meal.
Meanwhile, I really enjoyed the lemon garlic on my salad. It’s more garlicky than citrusy, and I kept thinking to myself how well this dressing would pair with other foods. Both dressings are thin, so you wouldn’t dip anything into them per se, but brushing them on, say, a grilled chicken breast would be the way to go.
If you take a look at the recipes on the Lemonette website, you’ll see how you can use the dressing on fruits, antipasto and even quinoa.
Lemonette is not available in Madison, but you can buy it online.
Photo courtesy of Lemonette
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Big John’s Snack Sticks
Circle B Ranch in Missouri makes an interesting variety of products: chutneys, BBQ sauce, Bloody Mary mix, bacon and Big John’s snack sticks. These snack sticks ($1.50) are Keto- and Paleo-friendly, with no carbs, 5 g. of protein and 90 calories in each stick. They say they have no sugar in them, though the list of ingredients includes cane sugar, maple sugar and brown sugar.
I got to sample all three flavors: uncured bacon, uncured hickory-smoked pork pineapple and uncured bacon jalapeno. The uncured bacon was smoky but not at all dry, with a stronger pork flavor than bacon flavor (I do realize they’re the same animal) that was quite enjoyable.
My favorite was the pork pineapple. It wasn’t as smoky and had a slight sweetness to it. On the other hand, the bacon jalapeno was the dryest of the three, and it was smoky. You can see the pieces of jalapeno in it, but the stick isn’t spicy.
Circle B Ranch offers free shipping to Wisconsin with orders of $50 or more. In addition to these snack sticks, I’m thinking of ordering some pork hocks and pork steaks.
Photo courtesy of Circle B Ranch
