Somersaults!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with friends and family.  I enjoyed spending the weekend with family in Wisconsin where there was a beautiful dusting of snow. 

I recently received a package of Somersaults to review, and I am very excited to share this snack company with you!  Somersaults "are the result of our quest to create healthy, tasty snacks for people who want more than just empty nutrition."  They use absolutely nothing artificial in their snacks, "staying far away from trans fats, hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup, so you can feel as good sharing Somersaults with your family." 

Here are my reviews of the various flavors:

Santa Fe Salsa: 10 of 10. Hot and spicy, but not too salty. Very flavorful and satisfying.

Pacific Sea Salt: 9 of 10. Thick, crunchy, and lots of delicious seeds.  It was a bit too salty for my liking, but packed full of flavor and slightly addictive.

Dutch Cocoa: 9 of 10. Rich, deep chocolate flavor and slightly sweet.  Crunchy and crispy outside.  This makes for a great dessert snack, though it could have been even sweeter for me.

Salty Pepper: 9.5 of 10.  A bit too salty, but a great, full flavor with pepper and other spices like garlic and onion.  It was like a flavor shot for my mouth.

Cinnamon Crunch: 10 of 10.  Sweet, rich cinnamon flavor.  A great dessert that was like mini cookies.

I loved these!!  They are such a tasty and healthy snack.  You do have to watch your portion size (around 140 calories for 14 pieces), but they are so good. ^_^

Pumpkin Bread AND Winter Break!!

Fall semester is over!  I turned in my last final project yesterday and can finally breathe again.  Winter break is such a blessing, and I will definitely miss it once I'm working full time.  I have to say I'm still extremely pleased with my new home state of Illinois.  While we did get a dusting of snow a couple days ago, we have yet to truly experience winter, and it's already mid-December!  Back in Iowa that is most definitely not the case. 

The lack of snow and reasonable temps in the 30s have also allowed me to keep biking to class and work!  I'm trying to hold out longer than I did last semester, and so far I am succeeding!  Once the ice and snow arrive though, I'll resign and take public transportation again.

I baked some pumpkin bread recently too.  I decided to try a lower sugar and fat recipe, and it actually turned out to be quite delcious.  Here it is:

Ingredients (Makes 10 servings)

1/2c. sugar
3tbsp. olive oil
1/4c. applesauce, unsweetened
1 egg
3/4tsp. cinnamon
1/4tsp. nutmeg
1tsp. vanilla
1c. pumpkin
1tsp. baking soda
1/4tsp. salt
1 2/3c. flour
1/3c. water

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Cream sugar, oil and applesauce together. Add egg and mix well. Add spices, vanilla and pumpkin. Mix flour, baking soda and salt. Alternately add flour mixture and water and mix well. Pour into 3 greased small bread loaf pans or 1 greased large bread pan. Bake at 350F degrees for 30 minutes for smaller loaves or 45-55 minutes for large loaf.

Enjoy!!

I hope everyone else is having a wonderful holiday season so far with good food and minimal stress.  Take care!