Enjoy Life ProBurst Bites

I received this product to try from Enjoy Life. 

There are four different flavors. 

Mango Habanero which is an interesting blend of spicy and sweet and chocolate. This one is not for people who are not fans of spicy. But the flavors do blend together well otherwise.

Sunseed Butter with chocolate. I would describe this as similar to what Reese's peanut butter cups might have tasted like at some point. Or for people allergic to peanut butter like I am now, they might taste similar to Sun Cups. I think these are one of my favorite flavors. 

Cranberry Orange with chocolate. Sort of tastes a little like a chocolate fruitcake. 

And then the Cinnamon Spice with chocolate. This one is just an odd combination. It doesn't impress me, but it is not bad either.

Overall, these remind me a little bit of cake pops and they are dry, so you would want to make sure to hydrate after eating them.

Each bag has 5 servings with a serving being 3 pieces, and as you can see from the pictures they are a good two bite sized. The package describes them as being "truffle-like." Most of them have 6 grams of protein and one of them has 7 grams. As the name suggests, they are protein bursts. 

They are currently available for purchase online at Enjoy Life and should start hitting stores sometime after March 1, 2017 and are priced at $6.99 per pouch. 

As with all Enjoy Life products, these are free of the top 8 allergens. The pouches are resealable. And there are no artificial ingredients or GMOs. They are also certified kosher and halal. 

Personally, this is not one of my favorite items, but for those looking for this kind of product, I would highly recommend them! 

Enjoy Life Mini Cookies Review and Giveaway

Winner Announcement: Congratulations Kim Ledford-Burley!

I received a lovely package from Enjoy Life Foods consisting of three boxes of the new mini cookies, a lunchbox, and a t-shirt in size small.

This is the t-shirt. And because I am definitely not able to wear a small, I have decided to do a giveaway with it which I will explain a little further down. 

Here is the other side of the lunchbox. It has their logo on it. In terms of what all it can fit, I carried an 8 oz bottle of water in it along with three of the packs of the cookies the other day. I'm sure it can fit more as it deeper than it would appear. 

The inside of the lunchbox. 

These are the three varieties that I received. 

Just a demonstration of how well they can fit in the lunchbox. 

Seriously, these cookies are tiny. But the taste is still big. I'm not a huge fan of the double chocolate brownie cookie. It just seems a little overkill to me.

I mean these things ARE really tiny! I love the flavor of the vanilla honey graham, but this took crunchy to a new level. I am currently wearing Invisalign and my teeth hurt a little more as a result. Not the fault of Enjoy Life on this one. I just have not been a fan of their crunchy line.

And last but not least the chocolate chip. And I am telling you, they are tiny!! This one is one of my favorites. Though if I had to choose one favorite, I would undoubtedly love the snickerdoodle ones. 

At any rate, they are participating in the social media campaign of #eatfreely and #minifreely. Each of the seven varieties - soft baked chocolate chip, soft baked double chocolate brownie, soft baked snickerdoodle, crunchy chocolate chip, crunchy double chocolate, crunchy vanilla honey graham, and crunchy sugar crisp - come with 6 single serve 1 oz packs per box. They are definitely great for on the go snacking and school lunches.

Now let's get to the giveaway.

As I mentioned, they sent me a t-shirt in a size small. And I definitely will not be able to wear it. So I am going to give it away to one lucky reader. This giveaway will be quite simple as I don't like complicated forms. And I will use a random number generator to pick the winner.

It is not required, but I would appreciate a like on the blog's Facebook page: My Gluten Free Life.

The only real requirement I will hold is this: Visit Enjoy Life Foods at the link posted at the beginning of this post. Then come back and leave a comment with the following information: Which Enjoy Life product would you most like to try and your e-mail address in the following format - yourname [@] yourserver [dot] com/org.

Legal terms of the giveaway - Winner must live in the United States. The giveaway will officially close at 11:59 p.m. Monday, September 5 and will be announced and contacted by the end of the day Wednesday, September 7. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to their message. If after 48 hours, the winner has not responded, a new winner will be selected. The winner be chosen using a random number generator at random.org. After the winner responds, if they are a fan on Facebook, their name will be announced like this: first name, last initial.

Love With Food Gluten Free Box Sponsored by Enjoy Life Foods

I received a Love With Food Gluten Free Box from Enjoy Life Foods to promote for the month of May, which as you may or may not know is Celiac Awareness Month. 

I must confess that while I do love the Enjoy Life brand for being one of the most allergy friendly lines, this box left a little bit to be desired. As it came through Fed Ex and was not marked fragile or keep this side up, the cookies and the chips both came quite broken and in crumbs. This is a deterrent for me wanting to actually order one of these boxes myself. 

However, I must also confess that these are some excellent goodies to have when you have a lot of food allergies! Some of these products can be quite expensive at the store. 

Also, this month, readers have the opportunity to win one of these boxes simply by posting on social media how they are celebrating Celiac Awareness Month using the @enjoylifefoods and #EatFreeLove by 11:59 p.m. May 31. So I encourage everyone to get involved. 

By the way, I cannot stress enough how much I truly love the Enjoy Life Foods products. 

http://enjoylifefoods.com/project/enjoy-lifes-love-food-gluten-free-box-takeover/

Birthday Week and Veterans Week with Food Allergies

So birthday week usually falls at the same time as veterans week. Not my fault, of course. But with food allergies, it can be quite challenging. However, the wonderful thing about birthdays is being able to try some restaurants you might not otherwise be able to try. Sign up for their loyalty clubs! You will be treated like royalty. Most of the time. 

For the Birmingham, Alabama area, I have compiled a list of somewhat safe places to eat that have excellent service to boot. Bear in mind that safe is contingent upon what you feel comfortable with and how severe you are.

These are my safe places:

1. Ruby Tuesday. Did you know they now offer gluten free buns? That's right! You can now get a bun for that delicious and juicy burger! It costs $1 extra, but what the hey, it is well worth the cost! I would however like to mention that the servers may need more education about what gluten is and they do need to compile a printed allergy free menu for perusal. I asked if the fries were gluten free and she said she did not know. I substituted a baked potato and she assumed that gluten free meant no butter or sour cream. However, I would say that they are pretty great with food allergies. Especially if you get the chance to speak with a manager.

2. Red Robin. The sad thing is there is only one about an hour away in my area. But they have gluten free buns and gluten free sides. The only thing I am not liking is the new Ziosks because at Red Robin they do not have the allergy free menu on them. Maybe soon.

3. Chick-fil-A. The grilled nuggets. I never get the fries because I am the weird one that is allergic to peanut and peanut oil. So fries are a no go for me.

4. Joe's Italian is my new local favorite here in the 'ham. Why? Let's just say that up until I won that gift card this summer from summer reading, I would have never given them a try because I did not know they had gluten free on the menu. And when I arrived, they had an accordion player, gluten free ravioli (get out of town with that!), and every sauce was gluten free including a creamy pesto. No meatballs here though. They are made with flour. My second time was with some new people working so there was confusion about the sauces, but I did get official confirmation. The sauces are made with corn starch instead of flour. I also had the chance to try this amazing new flourless brownie they have! Had to give my mom the strawberry (allergic) and whipped cream though. Next up for Joe's Italian will most likely be the gluten free pizza. If the prices on the menu are any indication, the gluten free should not be too expensive. 

5. Bonefish Grill. Mom, when are we going back?!? I need that flourless brownie of theirs. Their gluten free options are pretty good, but they are on the pricey end of the scale. 

6. Mellow Mushroom. This place offers a gluten free and dairy free pizza option!!! And they use separate counters. At the table, if two pizzas are ordered and one is regular and the other gluten free, they will put the gluten free on top and there will be separate cutters provided. They minimize the risk.

7. Chipotle Mexican Grill. The bowls mostly. 

8. Moe's Southwest Grill. Pretty much everything except the tortillas here is safe, like with Chipolte, but the bowls are the best choice for that. 

9. Scholtzsky's. Okay. Did you know they use Udi's gluten free sandwich rolls now? Yep! Found that out last year. 

We have a few other places as well that have great service and gluten free options, but these are the ones I will gladly go to again and again.

Some not so safe places: 

1. Chilis - pretty much what threw me here was peanut oil. Apparently my location uses it? 

2. O'Charley's - this place is a disaster if you have food allergies. We thought it would be nice to give them a try. Little did I know what to expect. Never again. Not that the service was bad, but they just did not have very many safe options. 

3. Olive Garden. Anyone else ever have their location run out of gluten free pasta or find a rogue gluten noodle? Typically I will order the steak tuscano or they now have a new chicken entree that is not on the kid's menu. However, our last visit this year was a disaster all around. THREE servers. No cheese offered for the salad. No cheese offered for the entree. No drink refill. Overcharged on both tickets for tip. And overcharged for the meal itself and no discount was applied for the veteran's day promo on my ticket. Yeah. It was pretty bad service overall. They failed to meet the expectations we had of them and mom said never again. 

4. Applebee's - remind me why you have steak on the gluten free options then not have steak in the restaurant? Yikes!!! This was the Ozark, Alabama location. I refuse to go back to one. 

I have a dream though. And I hope it is a good dream. But one day I would love to own a restaurant free of the top 8 and employ individuals with special needs. 

Oh, we also have some movie theaters selling the Go Picnics and some of those are gluten free as well. 

Also, I have to say this here where I know I cannot be attacked by cyber stalking cyber bullies, but Facebook really needs to reign in the bullying. I posted about the negative experience to Olive Garden and immediately got attacked by multiple bullies. I posted a POSITIVE experience on Ruby Tuesday's page and again I was immediately attacked by the same bullies. Then I posted the question to Joe's to confirm about the sauces and got attacked by some of the same bullies. Seriously. To the bullies out there, GROW THE HELL UP. People have the right to post experiences, compliments, feedback, and questions to restaurants without being attacked. Matter of fact, if not for the Facebook posts in many cases, restaurants would not know how they can improve things. I am going to keep posting away so my companies will know why I like them, why I am frustrated with them, and what they can do to improve. And bullies will be blocked and dealt with to the fullest extent the law says they can be dealt with. Creating a fake page after being blocked just to continue stalking and harassing someone is disgusting and mentally sick. 

One more note, the next time I post will hopefully include some pictures from the upcoming vacation. It is a much needed one as it is not only the first one but it may be the last one. Not just due to financial stress caused by my immune deficiency, but my immune system has gotten to the point that I will be having to wear masks soon until and unless infusions get approved. My body is pretty much no longer making the IgGs and my gut is reactive to everything. Constant pain and bloating. The hope is that IVIG might actually help me see some improvements. In the meantime, I will continue to make notes on how the world around is working to help more food allergic people enjoy life in general. 

Hey, Long Overdue Update

I am now GFCF and peanut free. But I have been through the ringer of late. Testing for ulcerative colitis came back with mixed results. Now being treated for allergies that inflame the gut. I am making a shift on my diet to closer to paleo. Fortunately, my area now has a Sprouts and is about to get a second Sprouts and a Trader Joe's. These complement the other stores in my area that carry limited safe foods: ALDI, Wal-mart Marketplace, Wal-mart, Publix, Winn-Dixie, Super Target, Organic Harvest, Whole Foods, Earth Fare, and the occasional trip my mom makes to the commissary. Feedback though: Where do you shop for your dietary needs?

Enjoy Life Chewy Bars Review

 I received product for review. All opinions are my own.

I received four boxes of Enjoy Life Chewy Bars. They come in Cocoa Loco, Caramel Apple, Mixed Berry, and SunButter Crunch. The Chewy Bars are made with Ancient Grains which include quinoa (KEEN-wa) and buckwheat.

All Enjoy Life products are free of the top 8 allergens: wheat, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, fish, and shellfish. They are also free of casein, sesame and sulfites.

Mixed Berry. Both my mom and I tried one. I was hesitant because I had previously been diagnosed with strawberry allergy. And unfortunately, I do not care much about strawberries, so the Mixed Berry was unimpressive to me. My mom said that it was too dry. And too plain.

Cocoa Loco reminded me a little of the cocoa powder and again was a little too dry for my personal preference. But the flavor was a hit.

Caramel Apple was my favorite. It, too, was dry, but it tasted much better than I thought it would at first. It even reminded me a little of apple pie.

SunButter Crunch tastes like sunbutter, which is the allergy free substitute for peanut butter. Although I am not the biggest fan of sunbutter because it reminds too much of peanut butter, I actually liked the SunButter Crunch bars and they were not as dry as the others.

For readers, Enjoy Life has an offer to save 10 percent on the first order of Chewy Bars in the online store. Just visit the Enjoy Life Shop and enter the code CHEWY10 at checkout.

If you would like to connect with Enjoy Life Foods, they can be found on their website, on Twitter, on Pinterest, and on Facebook.

Enjoy Life Decadent Soft Baked Bars

I received this product for the purpose of review. All opinions expressed are my own.

With four flavor options, there is sure to be one that pleases!

Chocolate Sunbutter, Cherry Cobbler, S'mores, and Cinnamon Bun.

My family is not a fan of the sunbutter bars because the taste is a lot like peanuts, and we thought the Chocolate Sunbutter bars tasted like peanut butter cups. Sunbutter is derived from sunflowers. 

I found the S'mores to be a little dry. I was pleasantly surprised by the Cinnamon Bun which contains raisins and the Cherry Cobbler both of which are very moist. 

Overall, these decadent soft baked bars are a hit! 

All Enjoy Life products are free of the top 8 allergens: wheat, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, fish, and shellfish as well free of casein, sesame and sulfites.

With no artificial ingredients, these under 150 calories bars are a perfect, guilt free, on the go snack! 

Get a 10 percent discount on the first order of Decadent Bars from the Enjoy Life online store using the code DECBLOG10.