CLIF Kid Organic Zbars: Product Review

Well hello and happy Monday morning! How was your weekend? Ours was lovely and a nice balance of family time, errands and fun. I would have preferred, of course, if it hadn't been so hot! Summer is close to being over, so already the start of school is looming, which means packing lunches and snacks. If you are a parent, then you are probably always on the lookout for healthy snacks for your kids. If so, you may want to check out these Zbars from CLIF.

We've known about these bars for years since we found them in the U.S., but they're new to Canada. The girls have always loved them, so when they offered to send some samples, I jumped at the opportunity.

We got one of each flavour being offered here: Chocolate Chip, Iced Oatmeal Cookie, and Chocolate Brownie, which was perfect, because the girls hadn't tried these varieties.

Big A's favorite was the Chocolate Brownie, while Little A favoured the Iced Oatmeal Cookie. Both felt it was hard to detect the chocolate chips in the Chocolate Chip bar, and said it was a bit bland. Little A thought the Iced Oatmeal Cookie tasted the most like the grown-up kind of CLIF bar.

The bars are 140 calories, with a few grams each of fat, fibre and protein. I like that they only use whole grains and are organic, but, of course don't love the 12g of sugar that comes from several added sweeteners. I've noticed that companies are scared to make products for kids with sugar alternatives, even the natural ones like xylitol or stevia, because a lot of parents thing 'natural sugar' is the best option. Its not, by the way. Anyhow, even coconut sugar would be preferable in my mind.

Compared to Quaker Chewy Chocolate Chip granola bars, the Zbar is a bit bigger (36g versus 24g), but also is higher in calories (140 versus 100) and sugar (12g versus 7g). The Quaker bars, however, have less fibre, are not organic and contain corn syrup. So overall, I would chose these over a standard granola bar.

The girls used to have to wait until we travelled to the U.S. to get these, so they are pretty happy they are now in Canada!

Disclosure: We were sent the bars for free, but all opinions on this blog are our own.

Comments

Japanese 7-Spice Kelp Noodles

I love trying new spices and seasonings, so I am very excited that the President's Choice Black Label line now has a bunch of new spice blends available. My most recent find: Shichimi Togarashi, or Japanese 7-Spice blend. It's a combination of crushed red chili flakes, sea salt, Szechiuan peppercorns, black and white sesame seeds, poppy seeds, orange zest, wasabi powder and nori seaweed flakes. I make Japanese-inspired dishes all the time, but resort to the same old flavours most of the time: miso, soy, sesame, ginger and garlic. I was so excited to be able to liven things up a bit. This dish is easy and tasty, although be warned that this seasoning packs punch. I used 1 tsp, which ended up being too spicy for me, and I have a high tolerance for heat! I recommend 1/4-1/2 tsp, or, if you don't like heat at all, make your own at home and omit the red chili flakes. You'll get all the flavour without the heat. I served these noodles with a mix of seafood (

Book Review: The A to Z of Children's Health

Hey there, welcome to Monday! We had a delightful, relatively quiet weekend. How was yours? Hopefully no one in your home was sick...there is a lot of nasty stuff going around these days. If you're a parent, than you have probably spent far more time that you would like to desperately searching Google and/or parenting books trying to figure out if your child's rash, cough or fever warrants a trip to the doctor or if there is something that can be done to treat it. It's hard not to worry that it could be something more ominous that just an every day infection and while you'd make yourself (and everyone around you) nuts if you panicked every time your kid has the sniffles, as a parent, you naturally want to do everything in your power to prevent your child from harm. Recently I was sent The A to Z of Children's Health , written by doctors Jeremy Friedman, Natasha Saunders, and Norman Saunders, of Toronto's very own Hospital for Sick Children . One of th

How to Look Like a Celebrity

Okay, I know you're going to be interested in this post! I am sure virtually every woman in North America has wondered how Hollywood celebrities achieve such 'perfect' bodies. Well, at CAN FIT PRO last week, one of Hollywood's top fitness trainers, Eric the Trainer , was there to tell us fitness professionals the secrets! Eric the Trainer, gave several presentations, and I caught the one on Celebrity Secrets, and it was most interesting!!! I also found some of what he said rather disturbing. First off, he was very upfront about the fact that celebrities come to him for improve their appearance. Not to improve their health or athletic performance. To look their best. He admitted that his approach then, is entirely dedicated to that end. Male and female celebrities are trained in completely different ways because Hollywood wants women to be lithe and thin and in his words, "look like they dropped out of heaven looking this way without every having ste

Healthy Life Lessons

Search This Blog