On the Go Snacks 3 – Reviews & Giveaway (GF/Vegan Edition!)

The winners have been selected for this giveaway – check the Rafflecopter to see if you won! Please support these awesome companies and try these snacks! And, come back soon for my next on the go snacks giveaway!

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Eating healthy on the go can be a big challenge. It is so easy to grab whatever is around. I find this is especially true for airplane flights/airports and long work meetings. And now since I am eliminating wheat, gluten and dairy for the short term, healthy snacks can be a bit tough to find on the go. I was fortunate to try some awesome new (to me) on the go snacks recently. Even better I have some giveaways so you can enter to win to try each of them, too!


I emailed Jim Simon, Jim of Jimmy Bar!, a local Chicago company to see if I could review his bars. He said “yes” and we met up in person to chat about his bars and his company. Jim is an entrepreneur and he became interested in “eating only real food” after seeing the documentary Food, Inc. and suffering an unexpected illness in 2009. With the help of his sister, the owner of Fillippo’s restaurant in Chicago, he created “all real food, energy bars” and started sharing them with friends and family.

jimmybar
The Super Hip Chocolate Chip did not stand a chance against me!

Now the bars are available in four flavors – How ‘Bout Dem Apples, No Bluffin’ Banana Muffin, Peanut Butter Clutter and Super Hip Chocolate Chip (and yes, he has a good sense of humor in person, too!)  These bars have “no empty calories, rice nectar, high fructose corn syrup, GMO glucose, or jacked-up protein levels.”  They contain real, recognizable, nutritious ingredients with no gluten or dairy (or eggs – yay for me!) His goal “a 4-year-old could read our ingredients. How many bars can say that?”

The bars are:

  • All-natural
  • Dairy-free
  • Gluten free
  • Vegan (Super Hip Chocolate Chip and No Bluffin’ Banana Muffin – our other bars don’t qualify simply because of honey)
  • No added sugars or sweeteners
  • Non-GMO (Genetically Modified Organism)
  • No preservatives, no additives…“no ingredients that require a PhD to understand”

So how do they taste? They are delicious. The bars are very fresh and you can see the pieces of peanuts, chocolate chips and apples in them. I love being able to see the food pieces in the bar – in fact, it is all recognizable as food! I broke into the Super Hip Chocolate Chip first and it was my favorite – no surprise for me here. A close second for me was the How ‘Bout Dem Apples and then Peanut Butter.  I am not a fan of the Banana Muffin, but I don’t care for banana flavored things – only bananas. That said, I shared the banana and the peanut butter flavors with my friends Meryl and Maureen and they both liked the banana (and peanut butter) a lot. Lindsay says the banana is her favorite, too.

Don’t take my word for it! Jim gave me a bunch of bars to give away. I will send 3 lucky winner 4 bars each. Please use the Rafflecopter at the bottom of the post to enter.


I also saw Squarebars written up somewhere and… well you know the drill. I emailed and asked for a sample to review. They said yes! I love the nutrition profile of Squarebars. Like Jimmy Bars, their taglines are “ingredients matter most” and “made with real food.” Like Jim, Sarah from Squarebar suffered from asthma and found that she had inflammation from gluten, dairy and soy. She and her husband created Squarebars using real food and nuritionally dense ingredients. They all have 12 grams of protein, too!

Started with the cocoa crunch!
Started with the cocoa crunch!

The bars are:

  • Organic & Non-GMO Project Verified
  • 12g of Complete Protein
  • Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Soy-Free, Peanut-Free, Corn-Free, Rectangle-Free
  • Coconut Nectar Sweetened (Low Glycemic)
  • No Added “Natural Flavors”
  • Real Chocolate Coated
  • Vegan

 The flavors are Cocoa Almond, Cocoa Coconut and Cocoa Crunch.  I tried the Cocoa Crunch first and I expected it to be sweeter (and crunchier – maybe more like a wafer). That said, I liked it – especially when I realized it was not unnaturally sweet. [A confession: As a former milk chocolate addict, it takes a bit of time for me to get used to cocoa/dark chocolate.] I liked the Cocoa Coconut texture better and the coconut was subtle and added a nice flavor. My favorite was the Cocoa Almond. The almond flavors were light and gave it a marzipan-y flavor that I liked, but like the others it was not too sweet. This is a great healthy, all natural treat. I will definitely add this to my stable of foods now and after the elimination diet it completed. I would probably not eat these in the morning before a run, but definitely would eat them in the afternoon or as an after dinner treat.

Squarebars are carried at Vitamin Shoppe stores. I will send 2 lucky readers one of each flavor to try. Please use the Rafflecopter at the bottom of the post to enter.


Stacy and I went to Cleveland to run Kim’s first post partum half marathon in 2011 and we were introduced to Good Greens bars. I did not realize that these were also gluten free until I saw the Good Greens folks at the Rock and Roll Half Expo. I got a box of 12 and shared with my co-workers and have some more to share with you!

These bars are:

  • Gluten Free
  • Vegan
  • Low Glycemic Index
  • Organic
  • Raw and 100% fruits and vegetables
  • Contain Omega 3s, Antioxidants, Probiotics and a proprietary Superfood Powder (greens)
bar_lineup
Good Greens – good stuff!

The flavors are Chocolate Peanut Butter, Chocolate Mint, Chocolate Chunk, Chocolate Raspberry, Chocolate Coconut, Wildberry and new (soy) greek yogurt flavors Blueberry Bliss, Banana Nut, Pumpkin Spice and Apple Crumb. When we met Good Greens in 2011, we tried all of the non-greek (soy) yogurt flavors and my favorite was (and still is) the Chocolate Coconut followed by Chocolate Mint and Chocolate Peanut Butter. Stacy’s fave is  Chocolate Peanut Butter – she asks “how could that combo ever be bad?” Of the new set, I tried Pumpkin Spice and Apple Spice and both are winners in my book. (I am a huge fan of all things pumpkin and apple.) I have a Blueberry Bliss but I have not tried it yet.

Good Greens are now carried at many supermarket chains including Jewel in Chicago. I will send 2 lucky readers a sampler of 3 flavors each (not all flavors available from me). Please use the Rafflecopter at the bottom of the post to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Please don’t forget to click the green button on each entry you choose. If you already like my page on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter, click that button on the Rafflecopter and get credit! The giveaway is open through the end of the day on Wednesday, August 14th. I will select and notify winners on Thursday, August 15th. One prize per winner – winner selects prize from available options in order of draw. Only valid for participants in the US at this time.

Please Note: All products for review and giveaways were provided by the vendors except the Good Greens bars which were purchased by me. All opinions and comments are my own or those of my friends.

PS. Don’t forget to check out our awesome Honey’s Runners raffle to support the American Cancer Society. Only $5 to enter, 100% match to $2500 and GREAT prizes (1st 2 winners to be drawn 8.8!) and there is still time to win a one year membership to Green Polka Dot Box ($50 value) if you add a comment on this post and please follow my blog with Bloglovin, too!