Share Our Strength Party Pack

Hickory Farms is offering a Party Planning gift pack for $40 where they donate $5 for each package to Share Our Strength. SOS fights hunger in America. As a part of the Foodbuzz Tastemakers program, I received my Party Planning gift pack today, and I must say - the presentation is really top notch. The package arrived in great shape, and I looked forward to opening it up to see what was inside!

I like to give food gifts - things that people don't buy themselves. Hickory Farms isn't what I would usually choose, but I must say, it's an afforable option which can be easily shipped. The added feature of supporting a great organization is a bonus in my book.

Tastemakers for Nature's Pride

The other day Rick and I came home from playing in the city, and a big brown box was sitting at the door. "What did I get you?" he asked. I replied "Hmmm...really not sure. Oh, it's from Foodbuzz. See you didn't have to pay a thing!"

I opened the box and found 2 loaves of Nature's Pride bread - one Honey Wheat and the other was Oatmeal. A carb conscious girl, the first thing I did was to look at the nutritional information. I just won't buy any pre-sliced bread that is more than 70 calories and that doesn't have at least 2 grams of fiber. Unless I am considering it a replacement for chocolate cake. So both loaves have 90 calories per slice. The honey wheat has "added fiber" (so they tossed some extra not naturally occurring stuff in to make it look good), and a total of 2 grams of fiber per slice. The oatmeal was only 1 gram of fiber per slice. So, without this program I would have never, ever purchased this bread.

We've now tried both flavors. They are both nice in texture, and not too heavy. The honey wheat has a light sweet flavor - I'm not sure I've ever purchased a honey sandwich bread before, but it was almost as sweet as a portuguese sweet white bread. The Oatmeal was decidedly sweet, half way between bread and dessert.

I'm sorry that I can't recommend this bread on any level, as Nature's Pride does work closely with Foodbuzz, and I do appreciate that. But I'm sure they can do better.

My favorite bread now is the Vermont Bread Company Soft Whole Wheat Bread. With 70 calories/slice, 3 grams of fiber and 4 grams of protien, it's a good one to try. I keep buying it because I like the flavor too!

Tastemakers! Kellogg's FiberPlus

We got a cool looking box in the mail when we got back from vacation, and I took out these 2 boxes of cereal from the Foodbuzz Tastemakers program. Interesting - high fiber cereal with interesting and yummy sounding names! Frankly I have to tell you that Rick tore through both boxes in less than a week. I got a nibble of both, but I will tell you that he would not have eaten them if they were not tasty. The bonus was that the high fiber cereal did what you buy high fiber cereal for! My favorite was the cinnamon flavor - very nice :)