By blog team member, Kiran. To learn more about Kiran, check out our team page!
I recently attended a huge food trade show in L.A. called Natural Products Expo West. It first started in 1981 and attracts over 2,700 companies in the “natural” industry space along with over 70,000 attendees. Over 113 countries are represented at the show, and for most companies, it’s a time to unveil their new products and offerings that will be hitting store shelves soon.
I love this expo for so many reasons, and I always walk away seeing various trends. This year I saw cold brew coffee, cricket protein powder (yep, you read that right), probiotics in everything, and turmeric, turmeric, turmeric. And today I want to share with you some cool new products, including real food snacks, that will be coming to a store near you soon. Please note it may take some time for these products to be readily available, but be on the lookout in the upcoming months.
LÄRABAR Organic Bars
If you’ve spent any time around here, you know we love our LÄRABARs. They’re one of our go-to unprocessed bars (without any unnecessary additives) that are perfect for travel snacks, on-the-go hunger, or even as a supplement to school lunches. So we were pretty stoked to see they’re adding organic bars to their line! Can we get a woop-woop?! There will be 3 versions – one with kale, coconut, and cacao, another with hazelnut, hemp, and cacao, and the last with turmeric, ginger, and beet. Find them in April (and thereafter) at a store near you.
Wallaby Organic Purely Unsweetened Greek Yogurt
How many times have you yearned for an organic yogurt with fruit but without the added, refined sweeteners? We hear ya! And apparently the folks at Wallaby Organic did, too. New on shelves soon will be a Purely Unsweetened Whole Milk Greek Yogurt made with local milk and either unsweetened blueberries, mixed berries, peaches, or strawberries. Bonus: It’s certified organic and certified gluten-free.
Stonyfield 100% Grassfed Yogurt
Speaking of yogurt, an organic version that’s PCO 100% certified grassfed (meaning that cows eat only grass and nothing else, more on this topic in the months to come) is new from our friends at Stonyfield. Even though it comes in a few different flavors, plain is, of course, our flavor of choice.
Simple Mills Almond Flour Crackers
Got a hankering for a salty snack but sick of the refined grains and unnecessary additives? Well, look no further. The gals at Simple Mills have cracked the nut on this one with their simply deeelicious crackers (um, I had my fair share of these, and then some) made with almond flour. Eight simple (pardon the pun – again) ingredients round out the list on these snacks that come in 4 flavors: Farmhouse Cheddar, Sea Salt, Rosemary & Sea Salt, and Sundried Tomato & Basil.
Sprout Organic Pouches
New packaging on these pouches shows a list of real food ingredients on the front that exactly mirrors the ingredient list on the back! As many of us can be super sensitive about what we feed our little ones, knowing a pouch that touts organic blueberry, banana, and oatmeal will contain just that – blueberry, banana, and oatmeal – is music to our ears. Try one of the four new flavors that are just debuting: Apple Sweet Potato, Blueberry Banana Oatmeal, Mango, or Mango Apple Yogurt.
Applegate Dinner Sausages
It’s no secret we’re big fans of our long-time sponsor, Applegate, and their organic deli meats, hot dogs, and bacon (just to name a few). Their meat products are free of antibiotics, gluten, and casein, and they have no chemical nitrates or nitrites, fillers, or artificial ingredients. And although they did not have a booth at the expo this year, we are always excited to hear what new items they have in store for us. Coming soon is a new line of dinner sausages, which will marry simple, delicious ingredients with real natural meat that’s raised humanely without antibiotics for a match made in sausage heaven. Be on the lookout for these flavors: Natural Peach Jerk Sausage, Natural Chicken & Cheddar Sausage, and Natural Beer Bratwurst.
A Rule Breaker: Surf Sweets Organic Candies
Not necessarily new, but new to the Wholesome Sweet product line (after a recent acquisition) are treats that we’re pretty sweet on, occasionally that is! Organic jellybeans, jelly rings, fruity (think gummy) bears, and fruity hearts that are made with organic fruit juice, contain no artificial colors or flavors, are free of the 10 most common allergens, and are made in the USA. Now that’s helpful to have when a craving (or special holiday) strikes!
Which of these products are you most excited about? Please share with us in the comments!
Crispy Pork with a Cracker Crust
Lisa, I live in Madrid, Spain. I’ve never seen Lara Bars here, but just found this amazing bar, “Raw Bite” and it looks like it’s becoming available in the US. This seems right up your alley!
Wish you would have posted pics of nutritional information too. Apart from all the great things that are in them some of us need all the information like sodium content, trains fat, etc,,,
Has anyone reviewed the new jelly sweetened with only honey? Just wondering if this would actually qualify as a real food. :)
I would like to know this as well!
Lara bars are OK, but I would rather have a piece of fruit or bag of carrots for a healthy snack.
I am most excited to try the new Applegate sausages! I love their breakfast sausages, so I bet these new additions for dinner will be very tasty as well! Can’t wait to try them!
The Wallaby yogurt and the Lara bars! I had been a fan of kind bars until I started reading your blog and switched to Lara!! And I have said many times I wish I could find a yogurt with fruit that had no added sweeteners!!! Thanks so much for the great info!!!
Looks great! Thanks for posting. :-)
Thanks for the update! I’m excited about the yogurts & the Larabars :)
Wallaby yogurt sounds awesome!
I’m looking forward to trying the almond crackers. Am allergic to both wheat and rye.
Excited about the Wallaby yogurts!! That is was my kiddos miss the most. I have not been able to mix up my own (with plain yogurt, fruit and honey) that they like as much…any suggestions?
Hello. Have you tried: https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2011/05/03/recipe-berry-sauce/?
You can already buy the Wallaby and Stoneyfield Yoghurts in Wholefoods – they started selling them last month and they are as good as they sound!
The crackers sound interesting, my older two don’t care for ak-mak or triscuits. I have yet to find another acceptable cracker for them to eat. It would be great to have one to round out school lunch on occasion. Also, the yogurt sounds great to send with my kids when they go to Grandma’s, instead of the tub of yogurt I usually send. Curious to see how much salt is in the sausage. Whole Foods sells similar natural varieties, but usually the sodium is through the roof.
Have you tried Annie’s cheddar whole wheat bunnies? They’re organic AND whole grain (mostly), an oddly hard combo to find. They’re really tasty and not too salty, I get them by the case when they’re on sale at my coop, but they’re not easy to find in some parts of the country. Here’s a case at Amazon: http://amzn.to/1Y9Fg54.
Field Day Organic makes a pretty good wheat square also, on shelves for a few bucks each or at Amazon for quite a bit more: http://amzn.to/1Y9Fg54
Thank you for the healthy snack list! Do you also have easy snacks that can be sent in my daughter’s back pack to school? I’ve tried carrots in water, and strawberries.. She is so finicky! She prefers the carbs and I really do not want to give her too many!
I know this doesn’t answer your question but I felt the need to comment – I am a dietitian and I would caution against restricting carbs in a child unless there is a medical reason not to.
Thanks Suzie. The problem is that all she wants to eat is Carbs. I am not restricting carbs intake; I’m trying to get her to also eat vegs, fruit, and other healthy food items. I do appreciate your concern! :)
All sound great, but I’m most excited to try the grass fed yogurt!
YAY for almond flour crackers. My husband cannot do any grains.
Looking forward to trying the new Applegate products over a campfire this summer!
I’m so excited about the organic Larabars! And I love more yogurt options, that is great.
SO happy to hear Larabar’s introducing organic — I’ve mostly avoided them till now because they didn’t use organic ingredients.
And while I’m glad the food pouch industry has raised parents’ awareness of feeding their kids healthy food, pouches’ popularity raises two issues that should concern us all:
1) The tremendous environmental footprint of disposable convenience foods like these. We’re spewing a lot of unnecessary carbon into the atmosphere making these things, and then they’re added to our insanely bloated waste stream. What’s the point of raising these wonderfully healthy kids if we don’t also secure them a healthy planet to live on?
2) We’re all trying to reduce our kids’ exposure to plastics. How much chemical residue from these things do they wind up ingesting with their organic puree?
Here’s a REAL FOOD solution: Fill REUSABLE pouches with homemade or store- bought fruit sauces and smoothies. You’ll save a lot of money and can control the ingredients, as well as plastic exposure. I’m a huge fan of Squeasy Gear, which uses silicone instead of plastic. Super-easy to clean and holds more than those tiny pouches, too,
Agreed! I bought a set of reusable punches for this very reason. Unfortunately, I’ve had to toss 2/3 because I couldn’t get them clean enough. :(
Seriously, try the Squeasy ones — sooooo much better: http://amzn.to/1qo65Ie I got rid of everything but. Actually, there’s a giveaway till tomorrow:
http://www.healthygreensavvy.com/spring-giveaways/
(don’t mean to be spammy; just thought you should have a chance at a free one :)
Thanks so much!! I hope I get the freebies… Hubby won’t be excited if I suggest buying yet another brand of these. They look great though!!
I’m curious if anyone else can’t get past the taste of 100% grass-fed yogurt. I wholeheartedly support it and want to like it, but every time I’ve tried, it tastes too much like cow or barn or something. I can’t quite place it, but it’s definitely “farm-y,” and even adding honey and/or fruit can’t entirely mask it. I’ve tried both the Stoneyfield and a locally produced yogurt from my farmer’s market. My go-to staple yogurt remains Fage plain whole milk Greek, though I’m excited to try the Wallaby unsweetened yogurt with fruit!
Hi Jessica,
In all honesty, I’m lactose intolerant, so I can’t have either. However I was just coming on to update the post because we got the Wallaby yogurt this week and my kids LOVE it. One of my kids added a little maple syrup but 2 of the others liked it as is. Sorry I can’t help with the grass-fed taste …
Kiran