It's A Review of Pamela's Whenever Bars

Since going gluten free it seems difficult at times to find a snack item that is healthy for me but tastes good.
Ya know something you want to eat!
Sure I eat protein bars and if you've read the blog at all you know that I enjoy them just fine but I don't
consider them to be a snack.

 Snack, mmmmmhmm!

 Something that makes you go mmmmhmm! Something you want to eat again and again.
What do you look for in a snack? I look for gluten-free, taste, smell, texture, filling/satiety and I actually would like for the snack to be somewhat healthy for me.  If you have kids you want the snack to not only do all these wonderful things you also want your kids to like them right?

Is there such a thing? Well there is fruit or veggies.

Yeah about that, while I do love my fruits and veggies, I mean really I do love them and there are many varieties to love, they are not something I can carry in my purse day in and day out and eat every single time I need a snack.
Don't get me wrong here, I LOVE fruits and veggies. Let's move on....

Pamela's gluten free Whenever Bars. OHMYGOODNESS
I LOVE these things and so does everyone that tasted them. Heck I had to fight my kids for them!

Lets start with Taste~
 mmmmmmmmm that was the response as people stuffed bite after bite in their mouth. No really, you think I am kidding don't you? Think of when you were a kid and your Grandma/Mom/Dad/Someone just made the best oatmeal cookie loaded with the best stuff. Yup it's like that, so delicious.

Smell~ mmmm remember that oatmeal cookie coming out of the oven, how does it smell? Yup it's as good as that. The one that impressed my smell senses the most was the Coconut, how did they get that fresh cracked coconut smell in there?

Texture~ soft but firm, something worth biting into. Full of textures; oats, chocolate chips, almonds, walnuts, raisins, chia seeds and a bit of your childhood memories packed in there.

Filling/Satiety~ Wikipedia describes satiety as "the absence of hunger; it is the sensation of feeling full." 
 Feeling full, satisfied is exactly what you get when you eat these bars. Heck they are packed full of foods that are nutritionally dense which bring us to

 A Healthy Snack~ Gluten-free, oats, chia seeds, almonds, coconut, coconut sugar, eggs, blueberries, raisins, cranberries, walnuts, chocolate, all healthy for you (unless you have an allergy to a specific item) and these foods go hand in hand with the filling of fullness or satiety.
*** Additional information, the bars are CERTIFIED GLUTEN FREE and are dairy free.

In the past I have shared with you all that I have a difficult time feeling full and I am hungry quite easily, these bars give me that satisfied feeling - I'm not starving within minutes of eating them - yes this actually happens to me, I eat something and am hungry again within a half hour. Feeling full is something I value and with the Whenever Bars I feel full longer than with other snacks. I don't spout science to you all very often and this isn't one of those times, my view is that eating slow to digest complex carbohydrates, natural grains, create a feeling of fullness longer than simpler carbohydrates all of which helps to keep my energy level up and my sugar levels even.
 If you are gluten free and you are worried about oats, don't be unless you are allergic to them. Certified gluten free oats are safe for those  on a gluten free diet unless you react to them specifically, of course when in doubt check with your health care professional.


Let's talk flavors:
Oat Raisin Walnut Spice
Oat Cranberry Almond
Chocolate Chip Coconut
Oat Blueberry Lemon

Honestly I cannot pick a favorite, each and everyone is full of flavor. Pamela's got it right when these bars were created, the flavors are true to their names.

 Blueberry lemon tastes of blueberries and lemon and I mean really the perfect balance of lemon - if you love lemon you will love these, the blueberries actually are blueberries - not an apple died to look like blueberries.

Chocolate chip coconut - heck the instant you open it you smell coconut - fresh coconut and the taste is truly coconut while the chocolate actually tastes like chocolate (if you've ever eaten something with chocolate that had no chocolate flavor then you know what I mean).

Cranberry almond, what can I say, bites of cranberries and almonds - I could almost call this one my favorite.

Oat raisin walnut spice is the best substitution for that oatmeal cookie in your distant memory - It is honestly that good.   My only wish is that my local stores would carry these bars, while they should be available everywhere they are not yet in my stores.  The best place to find them so far is at Pamela's or  Amazon.

I promise you won't be disappointed when you eat these bars, pick the flavor you think you will like the best but be open to trying them all - as I said I couldn't pick a favorite.

A Clean Kitchen Sponge?

I'm  certain you must have seen somewhere someone talking about keeping your kitchen sponges clean.
I am also certain I assumed it was common sense to keep your sponges clean, well maybe the term
would be disinfected.

If you Google "how to clean your sponge" the responses are many and varied. Mostly they
suggest the microwave or bleach. Some of the responses even tell you they've studied it and the
results are to do this or that. Others will tell you to use antibacterial soap and some to put in the dishwasher.
Some of these are valid and honestly each website says something different. Each website also says
that they studied this and that and this works better then that. OH WOW!

Something interesting to point out is the sponge makers on the dish sponge package instructs you
to DO NOT MICROWAVE the sponge!!!!! WHOA what, everywhere else suggests the microwave
so what to do?  Oh there is a potential for a sponge to catch fire while in the microwave.

 I grew up learning that boiling water was the best way to kill germs in the home kitchen
and you know what, I think I am right!

 The instructions on some of the sponge packets tells you to boil the sponge and some tell you to rinse the
sponge thoroughly and allow to dry completely, both methods work just fine. The only downfall to allowing  the sponge to dry completely is, well it's a sponge - sponges hold onto water and are in frequent use.  The other suggestion is to replace the sponge often.

Here are some articles for you to consider:

This first article is a bit scientific and quite honestly I am not scientific at all! But if you are like me and your eyes glaze over then scan the article but read the second last paragraph which pretty much tells you to
boil the sponge for 5 minutes!  Link

In this article, Scientific American Blog tells you dirt isn't so bad! No they are not suggesting you leave
your dish sponge dirty, I just want you to realize that spotless and sterile aren't where it's at! Clean yes,
clean is important as we don't want nasty germs infecting every aspect of our lives but being overly
clean isn't the best for us either.

Here is something else most of us learned while we were growing up; When in doubt, throw it out.

I will admit I didn't post a lot of links and the reason is there are as many different responses as there
are links and each one says something different. Many of the links suggested they are debunking myths
and that they are citing studies but most of them are just repeating information with no science to back them up.  The only link I found that actually used science was the one I included and here it is again just in case you missed it the first time.
LINK

Promises, Promises

I promise to get back to writing for this blog as soon as Christmas and New Years holiday is over.
 Seriously I am so busy I barely spend anytime on the computer for now.

What can you look forward to?
Cookbook Reviews
Product Reviews
New Recipes

I promise.

Please come back after the New Year, I've much to share with you.

Thank you for reading What the Food ~ Gluten Free

Gluten-Free Donuts, Oh Yeah! A Review

Do you miss donuts?  

Better question may be have you had donuts since going gluten-free?  I may have tried some but obviously they didn’t stand out because I can’t remember eating them, although I am certain I have. They must not have been something I’d eat twice. Ya know that’s my gold standard….

Would You Eat It Twice? That is THE question that always has to be answered when I try a new food.

To answer my own question I do miss donuts but no I haven’t really been eating them since I went gluten-free. Until now and yes I would eat them twice over and over and over again. 

Let’s be clear I don’t think I am a patsy, if I don’t like something I will tell you or maybe I just won’t tell you about it at all. There have been times I have tried to create a new recipe and it’s been a total and utter FAIL. I have not told you about those times, I’ve thought about it but heck I like to think I create the perfect recipe every time. hahahaha AHEM alright back to donuts….

If I receive a product to review would you trust me to give you an honest review? You should. Truth in food is rather important to me, gluten-free is expensive enough and why waste our money on products we don’t enjoy.  You all know I enjoy Luna gluten-free protein bars but if you check out the review you can see how I feel about some other bars and I don’t think I sugar-coat my reviews.

Back to donuts!!!
I haven’t been eating gluten-free donuts, really it’s been over 2 years since I even tried a gluten-free donut and I can’t remember what brand it was but I didn’t enjoy it. I think worse yet is that I haven’t tried any donuts since then because I didn’t want to waste my money. If I’m going to spend the money on a gluten-free dessert/snack type product I want to know I’m not wasting my money. I hate buying something with high expectations and then being disappointed and I’ve acquired the why bother attitude towards many of these foods.  That really isn’t such a great attitude to have as there are many really good gluten-free foods out there.

I have found a donut I can remember and I will eat it again.

Kinnikinnick has a gluten-free pumpkin spice donut and it rocked my donut world. But it is only available for a limited time – really limited - November 30th!

Here we go; this donut transported me back to Michigan at the orchard eating fresh, warm cider donuts with a cup of hot apple cider. 15 seconds in the microwave and I could’ve swore I was eating a freshly made donut. I tried this donut out on gluten eaters and those that are gluten-free, everyone wanted to eat more of them. Fine I was handing out small bites to sample because I didn’t want to share.  No really.

There is frosting on the donuts that I personally can live without but that’s because I am not as much of a sweet eater as I used to be, no one else seemed to think that way about the frosting though. An all around good donut, heck they are really good and I will be eating them again.  I should say the donuts have just enough – just enough spice, just enough tenderness, just enough flavor, just enough of everything I want a pumpkin spice donut to have.  I prefer them warmed slightly in the microwave, it softens them a bit and honestly it’s like eating a freshly made donut.

You should head on over to Kinnikinnick to try them out, after all they are in limited supply.

~Enjoy~