Chilled granola bars

Sure comfortable shoes and cozy knits helped, but keeping our stomachs happy was truly the key to giving us the energy we needed to make it through the marathon of shows that Fashion Month entails. One of the snacks we had on hand throughout was Kraft MILKBITE Milk & Granola Bars in either chocolate or strawberry (or…both).

Meant to be kept in the fridge we’d take two or three with us in the morning and eat them throughout the day – trust that with the winter weather they stay chilled throughout… We initially thought the bars might have an ice cream-like consistency (think frozen Snickers), but they’re more like a rich take on your classic granola bar. Better yet unlike what you might think given that that they’re made by Kraft and not say, Kashi, they’re made with real milk and calcium to provide the same calcium as an 8 oz glass of milk and they’re free of high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors, colors or preservatives.

Honestly they’re delicious and sooth just about any sweet craving. The one downside [...]

Insight from remarkable runners

Written by Malcolm Anderson, The Messengers is a compilation of stories from long distance runners who have each completed one hundred marathons or ultra-marathons. 100! Can you imagine? Even if you ran one marathon a month that would take you nearly a decade to achieve – a fete even if it didn’t entail careful planning, lots of travel, and remarkable training. Needless to say the stories are truly inspirational and helped us question what we previously thought were our own personal physical and mental limits.

Anderson set out on quest to, as he says, find out why runners who have run 100 or more marathons and ultras keep doing it and what can we learn from them and to that end he interviewed more than a hundred of them. He refers to these runners as Messengers and after reading their inspiring stories we can’t help but [...]

A healthy way to enjoy chocolate</p>

Forget Milk Duds or Raisinettes because we’ve got something better and healthier – seriously. Called Figamajigs, the brand offers delectable fig bites covered in dark chocolate. They’ve also got candy coated ones (think a healthier version of M&Ms), and dark chocolate covered fig bars. All of Figamajigs’ products are natural, gluten-free, low fat, high in fiber, anti-oxidant rich, and free of trans fats and high fructose corn syrup.

No they’re not health-wise like eating an apple, but for a sweet indulgence this is about as guilt-free as it gets and with its bright packaging you’ll have zero trouble switching the kids over from other chewy snacks next time you have a family movie night.

Did we mention we’re not even big fig fans? Ya, that’s how good these – almost brownie-like – bites are [...]

No meat needed

We made the mistake of taking one of our little ones to the fish market where she saw a fish go from alive to, well, you know….Needless to say we now have a vegetarian on our hands. We’ve tried tofu, tempeh, seitan….none have held much appeal – no matter how much we marinate them – so we naturally grew worried about our little girl ending up with a protein deficiency, till we stumbled across The Protein Bakery that is.

The brand makes a slew of cookies, brownies, blondies, each of which satisfy a sweet carving while giving our little girl (unbeknownst to her!), a generous helping of protein. All of the brand’s products are gluten-free and, I’m sure as you can imagine from the images on their website, taste delicious. They pack 11-grams of whey protein, are 100% trans-fat free, and rich in essential acids. To boot, the hubbies have [...]

Teabags to go

We love loose leaf teas, but they typically involve more hassle than they’re worth so we tend to relegate ourselves to tea bags – well, that was the case until we discovered these fantastic tea bag filters. Created by DAVIDsTEA, the tea bag filters are far and away the easiest way to make high quality tea. Each pack comes with 20 unbleached, biodegradable tea sachets in a 100% biodegradable packet. All you do is take one of the disposable paper filters, scoop loose-leaf tea into it, hang it over the rim of a mug or teacup, and voila!

Large filters are also available if you’re looking to brew big pots of tea so, while you’re at it, why not pick out some teas from the Montreal-based loose leaf tea retailer as well? All of the brand’s teas are responsibly sourced with over 150 proprietary blends like The Skinny with ancient Chinese pu’ehr and ginger, and Coco Chili Chai with pieces of spicy dried chilis and cocoa nibs. Our favorite however [...]