Wholly Guacamole & Salsa

 

Thanks so much to my friends at Wholly Guacamole and Wholly Salsa! They sent me an awesome care package of their guacamole & salsa products for review!  Their Wholly Guacamole comes in 8 varieties including: 100 Calorie Packs, Classic, Spicy, Organic, Pico De Gallo, Guac Salsa, Simply Avo Pulp, and Simply Avo Halves.  I received the snack packs, the Classic, the Spicy, and the Organic varieties and was not disappointed in the least!  They come in plastic peel apart baggies, almost, incased in cardboard containers. 

 

Let’s talk about the health benefits of these bad boys   Did you know, avocados rank among the highest for magnesium, vitamin E and folic acid compared to other fruits? They are packed with more than 20 vitamins and minerals and have 60% more potassium than bananas. Not to mention, avocados are free of sodium, cholesterol and trans fats!  Sounds like a superfood?! It is!!  They’re also packed with tons of healthy fats like the kind found in olive oil and almonds, which is GREAT for overall heart health!  They’re also known to be an aide in lowering cholesterol!   

 Here are the nutritional stats:

Snack Pack Guac

Organic Guac

Spicy Guac

Now for the reallllllly cool part.  Both Wholly Guacamole & Wholly Salsa Products are FRESHERIZED! Fresherizing is a revolutionized use of Ultra-High Pressure food preservation  which is an all-natural process created with pressure and water.  The pressure is approximately 87,000 lbs. per square inch, equivalent to 5-6 times the pressure found at the bottom of the ocean!  The pressure kills naturally occuring pathogens which cause food deterioration and affect safety!  Most food preservation methods use heat, chemicals, or other processes that damage the natural flavors and nutritional content of food!  All of Wholly products are sold in the refrigerated section of the grocery store.  They were also awarded honors by the Industrial Schevement Award in significant advancement in food science and technology for good production! 

 

 

Wholly Guacamole’s products are also all-natural and preservative free!  Each package consists of purely 90% avocados and 10% spices.  Nothing else added!  They are also allergen and gluten-free, so they are not limited to certain diets, and they are certified kosher!

The only downside to Wholly Guacamole, is that since there are no preservatives in it, its shelf life is not very long.  Once you open the container, its best to consume within 1-3 days.  The good news it, Wholly Guacamole CAN be frozen!  After thawing, it tastes just as good !   Trust me, I’ve tried it

When it came to taste, the guacamole had a perfect blend of spices!  I like the fact that the garlic/onion taste was not overwhelming!  It was also very smooth with little textural surprises thrown in there.  I don’t care what anyone says, you can definitely tell a difference between products that are made of whole foods and ones that aren’t!  They don’t taste fake!  I made a grilled cheese sandwich with fat free cheese and added the Spicy Guacamole to it….ahhhmaaazingg.  Highly reccommended.  The 100 calorie packs were SO convenient.  I think they were my favorite because I’m always on the run.  I grabbed one, threw it into my lunch bag, and added it to my turkey sandwich when I got to work!  It was also pretty tasty as a dip with my Food Should Taste Good Lime chips! 

 

Wholly Salsa Family

Along with the guac, I got to try two of the Wholly Salsa varieties: Classic Mild & Classic Medium.  They also make a Classic Hot version, but I was really glad not to have received that one!  I thought the Medium was quite bitey enough for these taste buds!   These guys come in 12oz. trays with peel back film (for freshness) and a plastic lid.  The Mild was yummy even on its own!  I ate spoonfuls of this stuff!  And I also tried it on some Food Should Taste Good Lime chips as well, which really brought out the taste of the spices in this mix!  On the other hand, the Medium variety was a bit too hot for me.  I actually had to tame it down when I ate it with a bit of light sour cream and I also tried it mixed in with some Egg Beaters, which was a winning combo! 

 

Thanks again for the package, Wholly products!:)

Brother’s All-Natural Fruit Crisps!

Thanks to Brother’s All-Natural for sending me a sampler package of their yummy fruit crisps to review!  They come in 7 different flavors including Fuji Apple, Strawberry Banana, Asian Pear, Strawberry, White & Yellow Peach, Banana, and Pineapple.  The package that I received contained the first three varieties. 

Brothers ALL Natural Fruit Crisps

What I liked best about these products, were that they are such an easy grab-and-go way to get 1/2 serving of fruit!  They are all-natural, 100% freeze dried fruit snacks in easy-to-open, single serving packages.  Also, sometimes I worry about the fact that fruit snacks have lots of added, unnecessary sugar, but not-to-worry with these little baggies!  They are sweet enough all on their own and contain no added sugar, preservatives, or fat! 

Strawberry Banana Crisps

Also, for those of you with certain allergies, these products are safe for you!  They are processed at a facility that does not manufacture any products containing nuts, dairy, soy or wheat!

Now for the taste!  I’d have to say the Asian Pear were probably my favorite.  I swear I had to keep reminding myself that there is no added sugar to these guys because they were SO sweet!  The crunch of the fruit crisps were all delectable.  It was like eating a chip, almost! They also work well as toppings!  I crumbled up a bag of the Strawberry Banana and topped my greek yogurt in the morning!  It made an excellent stir-in and really added texture! 

Each bag only has about 40 calories in it, so you can eat them completely guilt-free!  They make great munching material, especially on days when I didn’t have time to pack fresh fruit for snacking at work or before the gym!

It’s About To Be A Girl’s Night!

Good morning!  I’m in an exceptionally good mood today.  I think it’s because I’m not feeling any pain in my back!  Thank you GOD!  Wednesday night and Thursday were kind of rough.  I think I twisted something the wrong way or pulled a muscle in my back.  Right between my left shoulder blade and my spine, I had an insane amount of tightness and pain.  When I took deep breaths, it almost knocked the wind out of me!  I hadn’t felt pain like that for a long time.  Wednesday night, before I went to bed I took 3 pain relievers, but Thursday morning when I woke up, I couldn’t get out of my bed.  I felt almost paralyzed in my back!  Like it had absolutely no strength.  Immediately, I called in to my supervisor to let her know I would be taking a sick day.  The longer I was awake, the better I started to feel, so I decided to get up and get myself moving.  I made it in to the office around 11:45.  I was still up in the air on whether I would be going to the gym after work or not, though.  I packed a bag just incase, and I’m glad I did because by 3:30, I was feeling like I could go for a run, so I went to the gym straight from work to get in a nice 5 miler and then I did the typical circuit on the machines.  Right before I left for home, I hit the elliptical for an additional 2 miles.  I hate to miss my workouts, not only because they make me feel good, but also because I’m currently part of the POTM Challenge that I heard about through Caitlin’s blog, the Healthy Tipping Point.  Basically you just track your mileage on a google spreadsheet for the month of November.  It’s seperated by weeks.  So far I’ve run a total of 100.5 miles!

 

Anyway, tonight I’m going to the gym after work, then home to get showered up and some eats in, but the real excitement is going to be around 10:00 tonight when my sisters, Mom, and I are going to see the new Twilight movie!   I ordered tickets Tuesday for all of us, and I’ve been looking forward to our girls’ night ever since!

 

Another exciting thing about today…Ryan is picking me up for a lunch date today at Simply Turkey   It’s nice to get out of the office every once in awhile for lunch.  It breaks up the day nicely.  Not to mention, Simply Turkey is so fresh and yummy.  I think I’ll probably order the “boss salad”, which is the one where you get to put on it whatever you want.  I typically order baby spinach for the base, with turkey for protein, broccoli, tomato, red/green peppers, and carrots for veggies, and then topped with mandarin oranges.  The raspberry vinaigrette that I order on the side is pretty yummy too!  I also ask them for a piece of rye bread on the side to even out my meal and give me some whole grains   It’s a great, nutritious meal!