Primal Strips - GIVEAWAY!

Quite awhile ago I was approached by Primal Strips to give their product a go. Primal Strips are a vegan, meat-free jerky made from soy, seitan, and shitake mushroom. Primal Strips all have around 100 calories packed with protein (~10g each) and little fat (97% fat-free). They also do not contain any artificial coloring, no MSG, no preservatives, and are kosher! I have seen these in Whole Foods before, but I normally don't go for vegan jerky. I find that they are all so high in sodium and lack a chewy, pliable texture. But Primal Strips have only 300mg of sodium and have an amazing rich texture that is what you should expect from a jerky.

The 6 flavors:
-Thai Peanut: [Seitan] This was one of my favorites. A very peanut filled taste. Not fake peanut taste, but a true natural, peanut taste. The peanut is paired with basil and spices that make it a great treat in your mouth. Although, it was a tad messier to eat than the others.
-Mesquite Lime: [Seitan] A sweet, light flavor with a little added chili and dill for a nice umph. I flavor left in my mouth was such a nice tang and not over powering.
-Texas BBQ: [Soy - Gluten-free] Sweet and tangy bbq sauce taste, richly spiced. I really enjoyed this flavor and it really was true to a bbq style jerky.
-Teriyaki: [Seitan] A nice asian-infused flavor with soy sauce. It tasted like you were eating a piece of meat flavored with teriyaki sauce. It was delicious
-Hickory Smoked [Soy - Gluten-free] Tasting pretty similar to the texas bbq flavor it did have a nice added smoke that brought it to the next level.
-Hot & Spicy [Shitake Mushrooms] It was hot and spicy. It was mellowed out with seaweed extract and licorice root. I personally did not like this flavor, not because of the heat, but more so because of the seaweed and the texture was a bit different than the others as it was made with my "favorite" food ever, mushrooms. It was less saucy though, so it was easier to eat.


I tended to eat Primal Strips between back-to-back classes that  cut into lunch hours. I was completely satisfied after eating just one strip and felt refreshed to tackle more lecture and notes. My only issue with the Strips were that the packaging was a bit harder to open and sometimes eating them could be messy with the sauce getting all over my fingers. If the company started using the tear back one side of the packaging style that many meat jerky's have, I would be buying these babies left and right for my on-the-go needs.

Delicious flavors, cheap price, high protein, low fat. There is nothing better.


GIVEAWAY: Giving away a set of the 6 flavors to one lucky reader.

• Post what on-the-go location you would eat your Primal Strips
• by Friday May 7th 12pm (noon, CST time)

Enter more than once by posting a link to this post on your twitter, tumblr, facebook, etc. Just post a second entry with the link to the location. (no limit to extra entries, only one link per media)

I will pick a winner by a random number generator and post the winner that same weekend.
Good Luck!

Apples to Apples

Other than Apples to Apples being the best game ever to play with friends, apples in general are pretty sweet. Apples have always been one of my favorite fruits, but I am highly picky with them. A little mushy, a little grainy, not gonna do it for me. Buying apples becomes an absolute pain that I end up not enjoying them. My favorite apples are Gala and Jazz apples both from New Zealand, they are crisp and dense with a sweet juicy flavor.

Whenever the apples dont live up to my standards of eating fresh I tend to want to make some sort of desert with them instead of just throwing them out. So I decided to make apple pancakes. Using Isa's pancake recipe from VwaV I just added cinnamon and slices of apples. A perfect treat for a lazy weekend day. I normally only ever think of putting berries or sweet bits in my pancakes. These were a refreshing change.

The second apple dish I made was Apple Pie Coffee Cake by VeganYumYum. Although, the apples used were not fresh, and instead were from a can of apple pie mix. This was the first time I've ever bought apple pie mix, but it seemed worth it if it meant no messy attempt to core, peel, cut, and making a syrupy mixture. The cake was made of just flour, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. It was a very sweet and easy dough to mold. The bottom of the cake was covered in the apple pie mix and then pieces of dough were placed on top of the mixture with a cinnamon sugar mixture topping the delicious cake. It baked for 90 minutes and made my entire house smell of sinister goodness. I really enjoyed this cake. Little clean up, a nice sweet flavor, and a thick cakey dough. I could see making this for my family if I needed to make a coffee cake. Simple is the way to go in the morning