A Brand Gnu Hippie Chow

Remember when I posted the recipe for the healthy granola bars a few weeks ago? Well, I got an email from someone at Gnu Foods asking me if I'd like to try their version of a snack bar. I'd never heard of them before, but they have no high fructose corn syrup, no cholesterol, no preservatives, no artificial colors or flavors, no sugar alcohols, and best of all - HALF of your daily value of fiber in each bar. Whoa.
Part of me was skeptical, because I've tried "healthy" snack bars that made similar claims (seriously, do yourself a favor and avoid Soyjoy bars) but the cheap ass in me kept thinking, "but they're FREE!!!" so I told her to go ahead and hook a sister up. Besides, I've heard of other bloggers getting stuff in return for reviews, but I never thought it would happen to me, you know? Heck, I'm still surprised when I find out that people read this thing!

So, a few days later, I got a nice visit from the UPS man. She sent me two of each flavor that they make, so I thought I'd tell you what I thought of each one individually.

This was the first one I tried. Obviously. I'm such a sucker for chocolate flavored stuff. I opened it up and I have to tell you, it didn't look very appetizing. It did, however, smell good. It also tasted pretty good. I liked this one. It got bonus points for having not only real cocoa listed in the ingredients, but chocolate chips as well. YUM.

I'll have to say, I was not really looking forward to this one, because I HATE raisins. When I make oatmeal cookies, I make them with chocolate chips instead of raisins. I thought perhaps that I could pick out the raisins, but they appeared to be kind of smooshed/ground into the cookie part. Luckily, due to the chewy nature of the bar, and the great flavor, I couldn't even taste the stupid things. This one looked a lot more appealing too. Two thumbs up.

Okay - I'm a REALLY picky eater. I don't like bananas. I REALLY don't like fake banana flavor. If I do eat a banana, it has to be slightly green so it's not stinky. Once it gets spots and starts to get that strong banana smell, it's only good for banana bread (which, oddly enough I do like) as far as I'm concerned. So, when I peeled open the wrapper on this one, and I was greeted by a really strong, sickly sweet, banana smell, I didn't have very high hopes for it. Luckily, I'm not a quitter, so I went ahead and tried it. It was really good! Kind of like an oatmeal cookie/banana bread hybrid. I'd eat this again.

This tasted like a nasty orange peel. I took one bite, choked it down (I don't spit things out, my mother trained us well), and gave the rest to my husband. He described it as "interesting" and having a "unique" flavor. He's the king of diplomacy, I tell ya!

Okay, I'm not a quitter, but I also have deal breakers. I don't eat peanut butter. I passed these to my husband also. I asked him what he thought of it, and he said that he liked it. He said that it tasted like peanut butter, not peanut butter flavoring.

So, there you have it. I loved that I could read the ingredient list and pretty much identify everything on there, the fat to calorie ratio was pretty good across the board, they have a lot of organic ingredients, have no trans fats, and have low, if any, saturated fat. They're also vegan and kosher, if those are concerns for you. I think they'd be great to keep stashed in your purse or diaper bag for when you're out and just need a quick snack. Honestly, the only thing that threw me was the little Gnu with the gears on his belly that invited me to "join the movement."

I don't like to associate my food with pooping. Ick.