Cara Rennie – Page 11 – Paleo Protein Bar Reviews & Deals

Paleo Angel Power Balls – What Makes them Different?

One unique aspect to these paleo balls is the grass fed collagen. Most bars don’t contain this gut-healing ingredient.

However, we’ve seen lots of attention towards incorporating collagen and bone broth in a healthy diet.

The Benefits of Collagen:

In addition to healing leaky gut, collagen helps to fight infection, reduces inflammation and is great for growing healthy bone, hair, skin and nails. Plus, it helps to promote good sleep.

The downside of making fresh bone broth (in my opinion) is that it takes time, requires washing dishes and it can smell up the house.

Although I don’t mind the scent of bone broth, I don’t want my house smelling like it all the time.

Purchasing collagen instead can provide a hassle-free alternative. Having it mixed in with my protein bars (or balls) is even easier!

Additionally, collagen offers a source of protein for people who want extra protein – but don’t necessarily want it to come from whey, egg or plants.

What These Power Balls Don’t Have:

Speaking of avoiding certain ingredients, Paleo Angel Power Balls don’t contain gluten, dairy, eggs or tree nuts.

4 Paleo Angel Power Balls Flavors:

Carob (rich)
Vanilla (creamy)
Lemon Cream (fresh & tangy)
Orange Cranberry (sweet & tart)

Lemon Power Balls from Paleo Angel Power Balls give you a nice change from the traditional rectangular-shaped protein bar. Therefore, if you decide to have one for breakfast, you don’t have to feel like you are eating a pre-packaged snack.

Paleo Angel Power Balls actually look like mini cakes that you’d pick up at your local bakery. In addition, they provide more nutrition than many breakfast foods, and they are easy to take with you on-the-go.

The company Paleo Angel was founded with the idea of providing great tasting food for those following paleo, gluten-free or autoimmune diets. In addition to creating nutritious snacks that anyone can enjoy, the company has set out to educate people autoimmune disorders and how to nourish the body through food.

Of course, you can make your own power balls at home. They don’t require baking, and you can customize the ingredients to your liking. Below, Lizabeth Lopez, health and fitness expert show how she makes homemade power balls, one of her favorite healthy snacks…

Get the Recipe Here

About the Author: Cara Rennie is a paleo cooking chef, writer and advocate for healthy living. With over a decade of experience in the culinary industry, Cara has established herself as an expert in the paleo lifestyle, emphasizing the use of natural ingredients that promote a balanced and sustainable lifestyle. She firmly believes in the power of food to transform people's lives, while helping others discover the joys of paleo eating. Facebook | Pinterest

8 Easy Paleo Snack Ideas

As the popularity in living a paleo lifestyle grows, so do the questions about the right foods to eat. Some food choices are obvious, while others not so much.

Of course, there are also many of us “wishful thinkers” who want to eat certain foods we know are not paleo – so we try to figure out a way we can make them OK to eat…

This comes up a lot with snacks.

We want something easy and convenient when we don’t have time to cook or we don’t have access to a kitchen. We could be traveling, working long hours or need a quick re-fuel after a workout.

Having some ready-made healthy paleo snacks that you can just grab-and-go make it a lot easier to stick to a paleo diet because you don’t have to think about meal prep all the time. They can be really easy, convenient and tasty as long as you know what your options are and where you can get pre-made snacks.

Some paleo snack foods you can buy, others require some preparation. I don’t especially like to cook, so I find that preparing large batches of snacks makes the job a lot easier and less time consuming.

Something to think about when putting together snack is that you want them to be filling. Plain celery sticks usually wan’t cut it. High protein or high fat snacks can work really well here (as long as they contain healthy fats).

1. Jerky

Jerky includes all meat types like beef, turkey, buffalo, etc.. You can buy natural organic jerky online or at your local store. You can also make your own by cutting the meat into thin strips and baking it for several hours in an oven on low heat (no less than 165 degrees). You can season your jerky with spices or other paleo marinades.

2. Nuts

Raw almonds are a good healthy paleo snack, but there are several other varieties that work as well, like macadamia nuts. Although I am a big fan of almonds, I find that if I eat them all the time, I get bored, so keep that in mind if you are making snack packs for yourself.

3. Seasoned Chicken Strips

Cook up some chicken breasts and season them for full flavor. This can be a really satisfying and filling snack – plus you can now pick up pre-cooked chicken breast strips at many grocery stores.

While plan chicken strips are healthy, they don’t travel so well unrefrigerated for long periods of time. You’re better off with jerky if that’s the case.

4. Hard Boiled Eggs

basket of eggs

Hard boiled eggs are so easy to prepare, some people may not really even consider it cooking. If you are short on time in the morning, or a high-protein low-carb snack during the day, this is a great option.

If you want to make your eggs a little more exciting, try a few different spice mixes like pizza or taco seasoning.

5. Dried Seaweed Snacks

I’ve started seeing these seaweed snack packs in stores. They may not be as filling, but if you just need a salt fix and don’t have access to a pickle nearby, these items are really easy to carry with you and don’t need refrigeration.

6. Sunflower Sesame Crackers

Crackers can be an easy, convenient snack, but they usually aren’t paleo. I recently found a recipe, however, for sunflower sesame crackers that you can make at home with seeds – and they are paleo.

Also more time-consuming to make and not as convenient as some of the other options, this snack can be a good choice for people who need a cracker fix.

7. Veggie Sticks with Nut Butter

One of my favorites here is celery sticks with almond butter, but you can dip lots of vegetables in nut butter. They don’t even need to be sticks. The fiber in the vegetables combined with the healthy fats in nuts can be very filling, not to mention nutritious.

8. Paleo Snack Bars

Of course, the easiest option is buying your snacks pre-made. There are a variety of different paleo snack bars and protein bars that can help you keep your snacks interesting while still being easy and convenient.

These are only a few of the many paleo snack ideas out there. There are lots of free recipes online and also many in downloadable books like paleo cookbooks.

What is Paleo Fudge?

I recently tried the new Paleo Fudge Nutrition Bar, and my favorite part surprised me: the consistency. From the label, I expected a tougher, denser texture, but to me it was like a soft cookie. In two words, it was really good.

Just to give you some background on myself, I am not a cookie eater. In fact, I’d much rather have a salty crunchy chip than a cookie. However, the Paleo Fudge really made an impression on me, and it’s not too sweet.

First, let’s have a look at the ingredients:

Organic Almond Butter
Extra Dark Chocolate Chips, 69% Cacao (unsweetened chocolate, cane sugar)
Egg White Protein
Organic Clover Honey
Cherries
Apricots
Organic Cranberries (organic cranberries, organic sugar, organic sunflower oil)
Organic Raisins
Organic Dates
Organic Coconut Oil
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Organic Ginger

Protein: 7 Grams, Fat: 10 Grams, Net Sugar: 16 grams, Fiber 3.5 Grams

The Good Stuff:

This paleo bar could easily pass for a dessert. In fact, if you are looking for a dessert alternative that will satiate you and prevent you from snacking on cookies, cakes or brownies, I think you’ve met your paleo bar.

Like I mentioned above, it has more of a cookie texture, but it’s really moist. I don’t know if I could get away with eating for breakfast because I would feel like I was eating a dessert. =)

Although it tastes mainly like chocolate, the fruit and spices add another dimension to the flavor, which is good. I frequently add cinnamon and ginger to my coffee and other foods for their anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties (and, of course, their flavor), so I think it’s great that they are both included in Paleo Fudge.

The Not So Good:

As some bars tend to do in warm weather, the Paleo Fudge had melted a little in the package before I opened it. I was afraid that this would be a messy eating experiment, but I was actually able to eat the bar right out of the package without i having to touch my fingers. It turned out that it was do, if you don’t mind eating it this way.

For some reason, I wasn’t able to tear open the package. I had to use a pair of scissors. I’m not sure if all wrappers are like this, or maybe I have become weak in my age. In any case, I’m glad I had a pair of scissors on hand.

Overall:

As you can see, I had to stretch to find complaints about this bar. The consistency won me over on my first bite, and after that, there was no going back. I’m glad I did not judge this paleo bar by it’s cover, because it was darn good. These bars run about $3 apiece ($36 for a box of 12) and you get them here.