What do you eat when you’re feeling ‘snacky’? Yes, there’s always the banana, the coeliac’s friend, but sometimes you just want something a little sweeter and stickier, and a little less fruity.
Some people swear by energy bars, but they often contain gluten – usually oats – and you may have decided to avoid them completely, just to be safe. We’ve recently been sent a couple of varieties of these snack-bar things that are gluten free to taste and review.*
Divine Foods sent us some Boomi and Prana Bar samples. Two different varieties (the Coconut Acai Prana bar – 220 calories – and the Apricot Cashew Boomi bar – 190 calories), and we all tried each of them. They are quite sweet and chewy, because of the dates and raisins; the ones we had were amaranth-based, instead of oat-based, which was interesting.
Predictably, we had two wildly divergent views: some people loved one, and some the other. No agreement here – typical!
Goodness Direct sent a box of goodies, including some Eat Natural bars. We tried the ones with brazils, hazelnuts and sultanas, and the comments were ‘tasty.. interesting… big dry chunks of nuts… would eat this again’. Note that though the ones we tried used puffed rice as a base, some Eat Natural bars are oat-based, and so are NOT gluten free.
Overall? I won’t be buying either on a regular basis (not that Boomi/Prana are available over here), though I can see that the Eat Natural bars are a handy stop-gap if we’re out somewhere and need food in a hurry – they’re widely available here in the UK, in train stations, supermarkets and corner shops. The downside to these energy bars that I see is that there’s a lot of calories in a small space. There’s a reason why they’re called ‘energy bars’…
We’re probably not the ideal tasters for this kind of product, as it isn’t something that we’d buy as a rule. But perhaps you are? What snack-bars have you tried recently, that tasted good, and filled that ‘snacky’ need?
Me, I’m still sold on the Graze scheme, where they send a regular box of snacks chosen from nuts, seeds, raisins, fruit, olives … I like the surprise element, and receiving a parcel each week. Really, though, I need one a day, because the snack box doesn’t last long enough – or else I’m just greedy…
* Disclosure: we were sent free samples.
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We’ve tried both of these. The Eat Natural bars were good when we were traveling in the UK as emergency rations until we could find gluten free foods at places like Sainsbury’s and Waitrose. They were easy to find at Boots and corner shops and train stations as you point out, so good for a couple of American celiacs to carry for a quick snack. I did find both the Boomi Bars and the Eat Naturals to be a little too sweet for me and of course a little too calorie dense for a middle-aged, hobbit shaped woman. So unless I am walking for miles in a foreign country, I leave energy bars for the teenagers in my life.
Wendy
Wendy – Hobbit shaped? As a small, rather rounded woman myself (though without the hairy hobbit feet), that made me laugh. I suspect in my case it’s too much red wine and chocolate…
I hope you enjoyed your trip to the UK – how easy did you find it, being gluten free over here?
Lucy
It was very easy being gluten free in the UK, much easier than in the US, especially two years ago. It has gotten much better here in America in the past year, larger cities mostly. But, it is still a challenge.