Review and a Giveaway: Grace Island Baked Cheese Crisps

When I first heard about this tasty sounding new product called Grace Island's Baked Cheese Crisps, I'll admit to having high hopes. Having lived through the whole "low-carb craze" era, where every manufacturer and his dog were pushing their products as low-carb. I'll also admit to being skeptical. Many of those products were not truly low-carb, and some of them were down right nasty tasting. (Nasty as in maybe a dog really did come up with the product.)
With these conflicting emotions fighting for precious, but rare, real estate in my brain, I took a bite of the Baby Swiss flavor. I immediately sold all remaining land to Hope and gave Skepticism it's eviction papers.

I. Am. In. Love.



Not only do these awesome little crisps taste great, but they are also all natural. Grace Island's Baked Cheese Crisps are gluten-free, wheat-free, soy-free, sugar-free, corn-free and contain no MSG. Does it get any better than that? To quote Kalista Johnston, owner of Grace Island Specialty Foods Inc. and creator of the snack, "The really exciting thing about my crisps is that they are not the usual low-carb new product 'frankenfood'. They are just plain old fresh, wholesome ingredients that you probably have in your kitchen right now..."



Kalista being a low-carber herself, she knows just what we are looking for. With this in mind she created a product that is healthy, packaged for portion control and easy to take along anywhere - no cooler required! Let me also add that these little bites of heaven are filling and available in 4 great flavors: Romano & Black Peppercorn; Parmesan & Italian Herb; Baby Swiss and Asagio. One serving carried me over for quite a long time.


Nutritional info for the Asagio flavor:

NUTRITIONAL FACTS
Serving Size: 1 bag (29 g)
Servings Per Container: 3 bags

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 160
Calories from Fat: 120
Total Fat 13g
Saturated Fat 4g
Monounsaturated Fat 4.5g
Polyunsaturated Fat 3.5g
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 10mg
Sodium 200mg
Total Carbohydrate 4g
Dietary Fiber 3g
Sugars 0g
Protein 10g

Ingredients:
Cheese (milk, cheese cultures, rennet, calcium chloride, salt), egg white, sesame seed, garlic, onion, salt, spices, natural flavor

Allergen Alert:
Contains: Milk, egg

Processed in a grain-free kitchen

To learn more about this amazing product be sure to check out her website at www.graceislandfoods.com.

Don't run off just yet though! I have a fun surprise for you. Kalista has agreed to give two of my readers a sample pack of Grace Island's Baked Cheese Crisps. To enter your name in the giveaway you'll need to participate in a little scavenger hunt. Here's how it works. Simply visit www.graceislandfoods.com and find the answers to the following questions:

1. What state does the Grace Island Specialty Foods, Inc. reside in?
2. What page do you use to submit recipes for inclusion on the website?
3. What is the catchy little saying you'll find on every page of the website?

Send your full name, mailing address and the answers to these questions to me at healthylowcarbliving@gmail.com by March 29th. Be sure to put CHEESE CRISPS GIVEAWAY in your subject line so I can be sure it won't end up in my spam filter. If you find all the correct answers your name will be entered in a random drawing on March 30th. I'll announce the winners here on my blog, so be sure you check back on March 30th!

Win Sugerettes by Scott Olsen!

Only a few days left in the giveaway and yet so many prizes to tell you about! (As I type with a burnt index finger...)

I've had the opportunity to read some fantastic books in the past few months, despite what little time I seem to have. One of those books was Sugarettes by Scott Olsen. This was another one of those books I just couldn't put down.

Sugarettes - sugar plays the unassuming Villian
Reprint from Examiner.com



Sugar, the bane of our existence. Once considered a luxury, it can now be found in every food imaginable. Its many forms can be located in the ingredients list of edibles ranging from the expected, like ice cream, to the unexpected, like tomato sauce. (Why again do we need sugar in tomato sauce?) I call it a bane because it’s difficult to imagine life without it, and yet we’d be better off if we never touched the stuff. You may think this is just my personal opinion, but there are many people, not to mention studies, that agree. It’s a poison of sorts, but unlike arsenic, it kills us slowly. Sadly, too many of us don’t understand that and continue our addiction to a substance that is just as dangerous as any other drug available.

Dr. Scott Olson ND understands the sugar problem we have in our society and wrote a fantastic book on the subject. Sugarettes, Sugar Addiction and Your Health is a tidy little book with wonderful nuggets of information that will keep you interested and educated. The cover and title are clever and give you a real sense of what you’ll find inside. There are illustrations about cells, sugar, and insulin response which are a great aid for those who need to visualize the process. (That'd be me!) Not only does Scott explain how sugar destroys our health, but he includes some history behind the human diet, and gives us some ideas of ways to rid ourselves of this white poison for good.

If you have a sugar addict in your family, or are one yourself, I highly recommend this book. It would make a fantastic gift for anyone in your life that is concerned about staying healthy. You can learn more about the book and Dr. Olson by visiting his website. He’s also currently holding a 30 day sugar free challenge and invites anyone interested to join in.

This a great book and if you enter our Great Start Giveaway you will have the opportunity to win one of two copies we are giving away! Be sure to get your entry in by Feb. 1st or you'll miss out an all the great prizes we have to give out.

1-2-09 Update

Hey gang! I hope you all had a safe and fun New Years! I was so busy I didn't have time to post any New Years wishes, but I know you guys and gals understand.

I'm very optimistic about 2009. I can't say why, or even what I think will be great about this year, but I just have this gut feeling something wonderful is in store. We shall see....

I've mentioned in the past that I was planning to try a sweet-free challenge in conjunction with Scott Olsen's sugar-free challenge. My start date was to be yesterday. I've made some minor changes in my plans though and I want to explain.

I'm a diet soda addict. There. I admitted it. Diet soda is going to be hard for me to give up. Even the couple of weeks leading up to yesterday had me feeling a little unsettled at the thought of not having my daily fix. Some of you may remember I tried to give it up before - only to replace my sodas with eating everything in sight. It was bad. So this time I'm going to try to wean myself off. Starting yesterday, I am slowly replacing my sodas with water. My goal is that by the end of the month I will be drinking much more water than soda and can hopefully give up that last can for good. So my challenge will not be so much sweet-free as less-sweet. Make sense? Maybe by February I'll be ready to go totally sweet-free. (This may sound like a cop out, but I'm being totally honest here. I need to do this slowly...)

I started journaling my food again yesterday. I don't know if I'll get it posted here everyday, but I'll try. As some of you have expressed interest in my doing a photo food journal, I may try to start that soon as well. Anyhoo, here's yesterday:

Breakfast: 1 fried egg, 1 sausage patty, water, supplements

Lunch: (at Ryan's) 1 roasted chicken breast, 1 med sized salad with a sprinkling of sunflower seeds and ranch dressing, 1 cup green beans, 1/4 cup steamed cabbage, water

Dinner: 2 hamburger patties, 1 tbsp lc ketchup, 2 dill pickles

Snack: 1 cup popcorn (shouldn't have had this, but I did, so I'm fessin' up!)

Counts for Jan. 1st 2009:

Calories: 1,750
Carbs: 22 - 7 fiber = 15 net
Fat: 126 g
Protein: 131

This morning my scale showed me as 1 lb lighter. :) That's always good.

I spent the couple of weeks reworking my low-carb website. It has a little bit different look and I FINALLY finished that myths page I've been meaning to do forever. I'm really excited too, because we have some new success stories going up soon. Feel free to check it all out at
www.healthylowcarbliving.com and let me know what you think!

Ok, I have a lot to get done today. Be sure to check back on Monday Jan. 5th as we kick off our 2nd annual Great Start Giveaway! Should be lots of fun and I hope you'll join us!

Non-Sugary Halloween Treats

Please stop by my latest offering on Examiner and add to the ideas, if you have some. We are talking about how to give trick-or-treaters non-sugary treats this year for Halloween.

The best Halloween treats for little goblins.

Zevia Winners! Whoo Hoo!

My precious kiddos helped me pick the winners this morning for the Zevia giveaway! As you may remember, we had 5 mixed cases and 20 BOGO's to give to those of you who entered by Sept 11th.

So let's get on with it!

The Buy One Get One Free Winners are:

1. Michael A. from WA
2. Saira H. from MO
3. Kenneth F. from FL
4. Linda H. from MN
5. Casey S. from MA
6. Ginger K. from MN
7. Donna A. from NV
8. Hope B. from LA
9. Andrea F. from OH
10. Rochelle H. from VA
11. Staci R. from NY
12. Tracy J. from TX
13. Susan W. from CA
14. Joan S. from WI
15. Arlene C. from MA
16. Judy W. from IL
17. Hank L. from PA
18. Marnae W. from UT
19. Amy L. from VT
20. Kathy I. from TX


Now for the winners of the mixed cases of Zevia:

1. Ann D. from WA
2. Christina R. from Tx
3. Sharlene S. from TX
4. Dwayne P. from IN
5. Kathleen S. from OH

Congrats to everyone!!! I wish we could have given some to everyone who entered!

All the winners will be receiving an email from me soon, so be watching your inbox!

Zevia Giveaway - Today's the last day to enter!

Hey everyone! Don't forget that today is the last day to enter our Zevia giveaway. So be sure to get your full name and address sent to me at healthylowcarbliving@gmail.com before midnight(CT) tonight!

I'll be announcing the winners tomorrow, so be sure to check back then as well!

Product Review: Instone High Protein Pudding

I have two flavors, but have only tried the Milk Chocolate, which I'm reviewing here. I'm having a hard time describing this product. I think the word I'm looking for is...

YUCK

I really tried to like this pudding. I wanted to like it. I just can't force it down. The texture is right. Smooth and creamy.




But the taste.... I can taste the protein. Sorry. Pudding shouldn't taste like Pork Rinds. Chocolate pork rinds is all that comes to mind when I take a bite. *Just took another bite to confirm* Yep. Chocolate pork rinds. It's a weird aftertaste. But maybe I'm just one of those people with a sensitive palate.

Here's the nutrition info:



If you want to give this product a try for yourself, you might be able to find it at your local GNC or health food store. According to Netriton the company is currently in limbo and it's possible that the new owners may be manufacturing more soon. I can only hope they rework the taste as well.

I have the banana cream in my fridge as well, but I'm almost afraid to try it. I'll be sure to let you know if it's any better.

You Know You're A Low-Carber When....

Your wine rack is full of Sugar Free Davinci Syrups.

ChocoPerfection - The Name Says It All!

I'm a huge chocolate fan. I'm also very picky. When starting my low-carb lifestyle almost 7 years ago, I thought I'd have to give up my chocolate for good. You can only imagine my excitement when I learned there were sugar-free chocolates on the market that a low-carber like myself could enjoy without any guilt. These candies were made with a product called maltitol. I'd never heard of it before, but according to my LC mentors I didn't have to count it because it did not spike blood sugar levels.

I remember reading the labels and thinking "Wow, 26 carbs with 24 sugar alcohols - so only 2 net carbs. Not bad for chocolate!" While it tasted O.K. (better than nothing I figured) it sure wasn't what I had been anticipating. Then came the thunderstorm that raged in my gut. What discomfort! I learned the side effects of sugar alcohols were less than pleasant and I later found they didn't really help me with my weight loss.

I spent several years trying various candies hoping for the right taste but without the horrid stomach issues and stalling effects. I never found what I was looking for until almost 2 years ago. I had just entered Jimmy Moore's 1 year blog anniversary giveaway and won a 12 pack box of ChocoPerfection.

ChocoPerfection is aptly named! It is the perfect chocolate bar for low-carbers or anyone who is watching their sugar intake. The best part, besides the rich decadent taste, is the lack of maltitol, which has recently been proven to be high on the glycemic index. Sweetened with oligofructose and erithrytol (a non-gastric-distress sugar alcohol), ChocoPerfection has a luxurious creamy texture that it's competitors have yet to prefect. And oligofructose has benefits! According to a flyer I got about Chocoperfection, oligofructose has scientists proclaiming it as "part of a new breed of 'functional foods' that have a variety of properties to improve your health, including curing the body of infections and supporting weight loss." Want to hear more? They also tell us that oligofructose is derived from the chicory plant and is classified as a "prebiotic fiber" which means it will "take root in your digestive tract and support the growth of beneficial probiotic microflora."

Would you believe Mary Jo Kringas, creator of ChocoPerfection, lost over 100 lbs while eating three or four of these a day! Amazing! Who would have thought you could enjoy sinfully delicious chocolate, improve your digestive tract and lose weight?

Oh, and let me take a moment to speak on the subject of customer service. In an age when true customer care seems to be dead, Mary Jo is a breath of fresh air! After winning my box of ChocoPerfection from Jimmy Moore's giveaway, there was a slight mix-up with my address. My prize did not arrive in a timely fashion. Mary Jo quickly apologized for the confusion and sent me 2 boxes of ChocoPerfection to make up for the mistake. I didn't have to ask for a thing. She saw the mistake and made sure the customer was satisfied. I was floored by this kind of attitude. Rest assured if you do business with Mary Jo and Low-Carb Specialties, you will get outstanding service as well as the most delicious low-carb chocolate you've ever tried.


ChocoPerfection is by far the best tasting sugar-free chocolate available. With three flavors to choose from, you are bound to find a favorite! You can purchase these in Dark or Milk Chocolate directly from Low Carb Specialties, or you can purchase all three flavors, including the new Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Raspberry Dark Chocolate bar from retailers such as CarbSmart, Netrition, and the dark raspberry bar from Amazon.com.

Thanks to Mary Jo, three of my lucky readers will have a chance to win an assortment of these fantastic bars this week! If you haven't already entered the giveaway for a chance at one of these delicious prizes, do so today! Time is running out! We must have all entries by Midnight on Jan. 24th.