We want our family to eat healthy foods. However, I have to admit it, we all have a taste for sweets too. For that matter I really enjoy sweets on occasion. Eating sweets should not have to mean that we have to give up our goals of avoiding high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors and artificial flavors. We try to incorporate as many organic and all natural options into our eating habits as we can manage.
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| Newman’s Ginger-O Cookie |
I recognize that many people who share these healthy eating goals also feel it’s important to make as much food and snacks from scratch as possible. We have posted recipes for some of our favorites including vegan & soy-free chocolate cake with buttercream icing and healthier chocolate chip cookies. Unfortunately, cooking all treats from scratch isn’t always practical for everyone. Between work, children, blogging and various volunteer activities, which right now includes lots of election campaigning, making homemade treats is a rare and special event in our house.
This is why I was so glad to discover Newman’s Own Organics (NOO) cookies and candies. Interestingly, NOO is a “spin-off” company from the well known brand Newman’s Own. This line was started by his children with some seed money from Newman’s Own and has been so successful that it is now an independent thriving company.
“Great tasting products that happen to be organic is our slogan,” says Nell. “It really says a lot about us. We’ve seen in recent years that people want to know more about the food they eat, not just how many calories a product contains. It’s becoming more important to them how ingredients are grown and processed on the way to their grocers’ shelf. Once people see how much organic foods have improved since the early days of packaged `health’ foods, we feel they’ll seek them out.”
Newman’s Own Organics sent me a variety box of their products to try out and review for the blog. Many of their products are familiar styles cookies and candies made with all natural, organic ingredients. Others are unique to the NOO line. Some of their familiar items include Newman-O’s (Oreos), licorice twists, chocolate bars, peppermint patties and chocolate chip cookies. Some of the more unusual items include Ginger-O’s, Carmel patties and sour fruit flavored licorice.
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| Ginger-O’s package with Nell & “Pa” Newman |
My favorites were the Ginger-O’s and the Family Recipe Chocolate Chip Cookies. Ginger-O’s are ginger cookies with a cream filling. The ginger flavor is very strong and authentic tasting. The cream is like having icing stuffed between them. They were great! Family Recipe Chocolate Chip Cookies were a surprise contender for first place. The chocolate is excellent and the tiny cookies are just the right size to eat several. I usually only like homemade chocolate chip cookies, so I was fairly surprised to find how much I like this one.
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| Newman’s Own Organics Dark Chocolate Peppermint Cups |
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| Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups |
I really loved the Dark Chocolate Peppermint Cups and the Carmel and Peanut Butter Cups. I have always loved these combos with chocolate and NOO got them right! The only drawback is that the are fairly expensive, with one package containing two or three cups often running almost $2. NOO pays a premium above market to ensure that all the workers in the cocoa plantations are paid a decent wage, and all of their Chocolate Cups are Rainforest Alliance Certified as well.
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| Organic Sour Apple Licorice Twists |
We tried the licorice twists in about six different flavors. I’m not really a fan of sour or licorice, but others thought they were good. I have to give a shout out to the pretzels, as that was the first product that the NOO line carried. They were good snacking pretzels, certain to please.
Newman’s Own Organics has a huge variety of cookies and candies, including chocolates, mints and licorice. However, they also make dried fruit, olive oil, vinegar, coffee, tea and even pet food.
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| Ginger Mints |
Thanks to the generosity of the Newman’s Own Organics Company, in a few weeks we will have a giveaway so one of our lucky readers will get to try some of their snacks themselves! Subscribe to our posts via email to make sure you don’t miss the giveaway! (Near the top of the left hand column, be sure to click on the confirmation email to activate your subscription!)
Happy Greening!
Alicia
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