New Addiction: Choffe

So Choffe is kind of what it sounds like: a chocolaty-spin on coffee, specifically with ground cocoa beans instead of ground coffee beans. I’ve heard it called “Mormon coffee,” and people like me (Mormons who know in their hearts they would be coffee drinkers if it wasn’t for the WoW) are an obvious target. It brews just like coffee, and I’ve heard it works best in a French Press (since I don’t have one of those, I just let it soak it hot water in the microwave and pour it through a fine mesh strainer into my thermos). It claims to be supremely healthy but I’m a little skeptical of that claim –especially after I add good dose of sweetened coffee creamer, but I guess that it probably would beat out cookies or ice cream for a “healthy” late-night snack. It is wonderfully rich, earthy tasting stuff. The aroma alone is magnificent. And there’s not really any going back to regular hot chocolate after trying this. So you’ve been warned. If you want to risk becoming an addict too they sell it on Amazon and also at “Luv to Cook” in Logan.

Adventures in Snacking: Naturebox Review

Naturebox is a monthly subscription service that sends you an adorable little box full of five small snack bags for 20 dollars a month. My favorite part of the experience since signing up (which happened a few months ago after seeing an ad on Facebook) has been the excitement of opening the box and trying each of the five new snacks for the first ime. And they have been, overall, very tasty little snacks. My neighbor called them “froo froo” snacks and was a little hesitant to eat many since they are kind of fancy and expensive. Their big thing is that they are “healthier” (no high fructose corn syrup, no artificial colors, blah blah) which is great, but my biggest selling point has been the variety of flavors it’s been bringing to my pantry on a monthly basis. Except cross out “monthly” and replace it with “weekly” since that’s about how long they last (yes, with a family of only two adults and a toddler). They are just a little too yummy and the quantities a little too small to stretch very far into the month. (It’s also true that the idea of “healthy snacks” could arguably pose an oxymoron). I think we will cancel our subscription soon, but it has been fun while it lasted. Here’s a sample of what we’ve received.

July Box:

Bag 1: Big Island Pineapple Rings – delectable dried pineapple (really, better than Trader Joe’s) but also very small in quantity and gone by the third day

Bag 2: Sun Dried Tomato Almonds – good roasted almond flavor (reminded me of almonds I have bought in little tins in the past) with the crusted-on tomato spice giving a nice twist

Bag 3: Country Ranch Sunflower Seeds – a bit of a disappointment, perhaps because the second bag of straight nuts in one month. Also, the ranch flavor is pretty subtle. Tastes a lot like any bag of sunflower seeds I have tried in the past.

Bag 4: Blueberry Figgy Bars –These really are yummy and come with around six individually wrapped smallish bars. I have tried other fancy fig/granola bars and these are the best; Really hearty to bite into without any fake-y aftertaste. Peter loves them.

Bag 5: Lemon Tea Biscuits –adorable little  shortbread-type cookies that would go perfectly with a hot cup of Choffee. Also soft and bite-sized and easy for Peter to eat.

Other Things We’ve Gotten:

Granolas –mixed feelings here. I’ve definitely preferred the soft-cluster granola over the super-crunchy variety. The flavors have been very good (banana bread granola, cherry chocolate granola, etc.) but the bigger issue is what do you do with such a small portion of granola? Eat one bowl of it for breakfast? Spread it out by sprinkling on yogurt of couple of times? It’s just kind of an awkward snack for eating on it’s own.

Savory Cracker-type Things –Italian Bistro Pretzles, Sesame Stix, Toasted Cheddar Stix, Guacamole Stix, and other similar fare has been satisfying overall and can work well in place of croutons, crackers, or chips.

Trail Mixes –This has perhaps been my favorite type of item; I love the combinations and flavors naturebox comes up with! Both the Taj Mahal Snack Mix (wonderful with golden raisins and a curry flavor) and the Italian Trail Mix (dried tomatoes, robust herb-flavor) were delish.

Kettle Corns (AKA: Corn Nuts) –Mesquite, BBQ, or Honey Roasted, it still tastes a lot like Corn Nuts to me. A big complaint is that they are way too hard-crunchy to feed to Peter. But Dave and I must not be very hot on them either since we still have a couple of unfinished bags sitting in our cupboard.

So that should give a pretty good idea of what naturebox is all about. I guess they also try to “give back” by donating to organizations that help fight hunger, which sounds very cool, but I haven’t researched the company enough to know very much about that. For lots more info you can go to naturebox.com.