25 Days of Giveaways: Day 18 from Essential Eating

The winner of Day 16 - a signed copy of The Book Monster by Emily Waisanen is Leana B.!  Congrats!  She is donating the book to the daycare that she works at.  We hope your kids enjoy it, Leana!

Core Planners, this one's for you!  I have recently learned about today's company, Essential Eating.  They make the best tasting sprouted whole wheat pasta, cereal, and pretzels I have ever tasted!  Someone from Essential Eating contacted me about reviewing their products a few months ago.  I gave their website a look over and was impressed with their mission, ingredients, and product selection.  They offered to send me a variety box to sample some of their items.  I said sure, I'm always looking for good quality and pure sprouted cereal and pasta sources.  (We talked about this before, that I am eating sprouted grains right now while I am still breast feeding my son as my body responds well to carbs to produce the milk he needs.)

Essential Eating sent me this little exercpt, which I could rewrite and reworded, but I don't think I could say it any better than they already have:

“Essential Eating Sprouted Foods is the gold standard of sprouted foods - organic and kosher.  Our sprouting process unlocks the nutrients within the grain, which then yields a guilt-free carbohydrate that digests as a vegetable and allows your body to digest the grain more efficiently.  These one-of-a-kind products are 100% organic whole grain fiber, high in protein, heart-healthy, kosher, vegan, diabetic-friendly and naturally free of cholesterol, lactose, added sugars and trans fats.  Essential Eating Sprouted Products are creating a new avenue of cuisine for both those sensitive to traditional flours and those who simply want to eat better.  It is your delicious, digestible and nutritious alternative. Try it. You’re worth it!”   -- Essential Eating Sprouted Foods

That's the beautiful thing about sprouting your grains.  They'll digest so much more easily in your body and you can fully absorb the nutrients and antioxidants locked within.  That's why you can have sprouted grains on the Core Nutrition Plan.

Now, on to the review!  Essential Eating sent me four of their products to sample: Sprouted Whole Wheat Cereal, Sprouted Whole Wheat Pasta Elbows, Sprouted Whole Wheal Linguini Pasta, and Sprouted Whole Wheat Pretzel Puffs.  I stated it at the beginning, and I'll say it again.  All four of these products have been the best tasting and textured sprouted wheat products I have ever tasted!  Even my husband is wowed by the taste!

First I checked the ingredients.  Essential Eating Sprouted Foods is not only a Certified Organic and Kosher company, but also a non-GMO.  That's a HUGE PLUS for me and my family as we only choose non-GMO foods!  The pastas and cereal only use 100% sprouted whole wheat.  The pretzels use 100% sprouted whole wheat, water, olive oil, salt, yeast, and soda.  Clean by my standards.

You may remember I mentioned I was addicted to my morning bowl of oatmeal ever since Austin was born a year and a half ago...  Well I think that Essential Eating's Sprouted Wheat Cereal just took the top spot.  It reminds me of cream of wheat, which I happily ate a lot of growing up.  But it's also a little chunky like steal cut oats.  It has a really pleasant taste, and is a nice switch from the norm for me.  This would be a great option for all you moms out there emailing me with "what can I feed my children for breakfast?" questions.  : )

The pastas are really yummy, too.  I did the sprouted elbows with a tomato sauce and ground beef, traditional.  They were really tasty!  And the for the sprouted linguini, I did a creamy cashew-pesto sauce with sauteed zucchini and onion.  Again, really yummy!  Both pastas balanced the flavor of the sauce and pasta well.  Neither overpowered the dish.  I like the little bite or chewiness that the noodles have when perfectly cooked.  It's different than white flour pasta, so be prepared for that if your family is new to eating whole foods.

And now, to my favorite product from Essential Eating -- their sprouted pretzel puffs.  Oh my goodness you guys!  We ate through the bag in two days!  That's saying a lot, because we aren't big snackers.  These pretzels are THE BEST sprouted whole wheat snack I have tried.  Ever.  They have the perfect amount of sweet to salt taste, and the beauty is you don't feel sick or tired after eating them because they are sprouted!  Note: they do use yeast in the production of the pretzels, so be aware if that's something you need to avoid.  I happened to have a fresh jar of Puckerbutt Pepper's Smokin' Hot Mustard ready for me to dive in to... These sprouted pretzels were the perfect pairing.  I couldn't wait until Austin's nap that day.  Mom's snack time was the highlight of my day!

Prior to moving to Greensboro last month, I hadn't seen Essential Eating's products in our local grocery stores.  But here in Greensboro they do carry at least the pretzels and pastas at our local health food store and the co-op.  I'm really pleased about that!  Check for them at stores near you, buy from their website, or on Amazon.com.

Now, you can win the same package of sprouted wheat goodness that Essential Eating sent to me.  One lucky USA winner will receive 1 package each of Sprouted Whole Wheat Cereal, Sprouted Whole Wheat Pasta Elbows, Sprouted Whole Wheal Linguini Pasta, and Sprouted Whole Wheat Pretzel Puffs!  Enter below, and good luck!

GIVEAWAY RULES

Enter to win a 4-pack of sprouted 100% whole wheat products from Essential Eating Sprouted Foods!  This giveaway will last 24 hours, from midnight EST on Monday December 17th until 11:59pm EST the same day.  Entering is easy!  Simply follow the various options below in the Rafflecopter widget window.  This Essential Eating Sprouted Foods giveaway is open to continental U.S.A. residents only.  There will be one winner.  The winner will be contacted and confirmed within 48 hours after the giveaway ends.  All entries are verified via Rafflecopter.

Be sure to come back tomorrow and EVERY DAY through December for a chance to win a new prize!  You can win multiple times, so please don't be shy to come back!
 a Rafflecopter giveaway