I’ve reviewed Enjoy Life Foods a couple times on the Daily Dish. Their semi-sweet chocolate chips taste just like the “real” thing while their granola is packed full of vitamins, whole grains and taste. That’s not easy to do considering Enjoy Life Foods’ products are free of eight of the most common allergens: wheat/gluten, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, fish and shellfish. Yet their products are consistently delicious, which is why there are so dang popular!

The company sent me two of their newest products: Perk’s Crunchy Rice cereal and Perk’s Crunchy Flax cereal. The cereals are made with all natural ingredients and sweetened with fruit juice and honey—and look like a smoother version of one of my all-time favorites, Grape-Nuts. Knowing how healthy yet yummy Enjoy Life Foods’ samples have been in the past, and knowing how much I love breakfast cereal, I was anxious to give them a try.

I started with Perk’s Crunchy Rice cereal since it did sound a bit more appealing than Crunchy Flax. This cereal is 100% natural, low in fat and low in sodium and the ingredients list is impressive if you consider short impressive (and I do when it comes to cereal): rice flour, rice bran, raisin juice concentrate, honey and salt. The first bite was a bit crunchy but after a little soaking in some milk (reminiscent of those Grape-Nuts), they were perfect! They probably would’ve been sweet enough on their own but I couldn’t resist a touch of Splenda. The only think I didn’t like was the serving size, but that’s true of a lot of healthy cereals like bite-size shredded wheat, low-fat granola, etc. I finished off the box before anyone else in the family had a chance to grab a bowl, but who says I have to share all my product samples?

Then I tested Perk’s Crunchy Flax cereal, which was similar in size and texture but definitely different in taste. This cereal is a bit more impressive than the rice, boasting 50g of whole grain, 425mg of Omega-3s and 6g of fiber per serving. Perhaps that’s why the Crunchy Flax tasted a whole lot “healthier” to me. It needed an extra spoonful of Splenda, but then again, I’m as big a fan of Apple Jacks as I am of Grape-Nuts and love slathering jam on my toast. (Can you tell I have a bit of a breakfast sweet tooth?) I haven’t yet finished the box but I promise I will! I know what’s good for me, trust me.

Though Perk’s Crunchy Flax cereal wasn’t my favorite, Perk’s Crunchy Rice was a nice alternative to what’s usually in our pantry. A little bit (okay, I usually poured myself a serving and a half) did go a long way to keeping me full until lunch time and it felt good to fuel my body with something all-natural and packed with nutrients. Enjoy Life Foods never ceases to amaze me with the full-flavored products they offer their allergen-sensitive customers and their new cereals are no exception!—Emily

*** Giveaway! Enjoy Life Foods is giving away one set of their new cereals plus some fabulous coupons to two (2) Daily Dish readers! ***

Here’s how to enter. You can do as many of these as you’d like. Each one is worth one entry into our giveaway; please leave a comment for each one you do:

•   Visit EnjoyLifeFoods.com and leave a comment telling us your favorite product.
•   Become a fan of Enjoy Life Foods on Facebook and leave a comment telling us you’re their newest fan.
•   Follow Enjoy Life Foods on Twitter and leave a comment telling is you’re their newest follower.
•   Tweet about this giveaway and leave a comment with the URL of your tweet.
•   Blog about this giveaway and leave a comment with the URL to your blog post.

Include a valid email address for our drawing. We’ll draw the winners from the comments and contact them via email. Deadline: February 2, 2010 (midnight). The winner will have 24 hours to claim her prize or a new winner will be chosen.

• Congratulations to Kelly T., the winner of the Enjoy Life Foods giveaway! Thank you to everyone who took the time to read the review and add a comment. Keep reading the Daily Dish for your chance to participate in more giveaways!

tags cereal, Enjoy Life Foods, food allergies, gluten

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 at 1:00 am and is filed under Daily Dish. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.