Hu Kitchen: The Natural Way to Snack (and the yummiest Chocolate chips!)

HU Kitchen: The Natural Way to Snack

It’s no secret that what I put into my body is super important to me. In saying that, I definitely have a little bit of a sweet tooth when it comes to snacks! When picking a healthy snack not only for myself, but for my growing kiddos, its important that we have a high quality snack.

Recently we were introduced to Hu snacks and we haven’t looked back-they’re now a staple in our house. A lot of times when I have a sweet tooth after a big day of activity, I’m craving chocolate (or after a long day with the kids LOL). If you want to know what Hu is about, have a look at their slogan first- “Get back to human.” This is Hu in a nutshell. Co-founders Jordan Brown & Jason and Jessica Karp immersed themselves in the gut-brain connection, the causes of systemic inflammation, and the impacts of certain foods and additives in our health, immunity and performance. They were incredibly motivated to create a food brand that removed industrial ingredients with simple, healthier ones brought life to their human centric philosophy.

Hu offers several different products which we love- Hu Chocolate chips (our current favorite) which are made with 3 simple ingredients: organic house ground cacao, organic cocoa butter, and organic unrefined coconut sugar. We love to add these to oatmeal, granola, cookies, or even a trail mix! The boys love them!

Hu also offers super yummy chocolate bars which come in several flavors like Vanilla Crunch, Hazelnut butter, Almond Crunch, Salty Dark Chocolate, Hazelnut Coffee, and Simple Dark Chocolate. These bars are awesome because there is no sicky sweet, artificial flavor to them! I love how the ingredient list is short- it gives me reassurance that even though I’m eating something sweet, it is as natural as possible! The size of the bars are also perfect. Not too big or small.

If you love to snack on nuts, HU also offers Hunks in several different flavors. You can check them out here. They also offer cookies and crackers. As you can see, they offer something for everyone. Like I said, Hu is a family favorite.

Hu is Vegan, Paleo, Organic, and has no refined sugars, cane sugar, sugar alcohols, or palm oil. On top of that, they don’t use Dairy or soy, Erythritol, or lecithins and emulsifiers. Hu is a brand that is very committed to offering the best quality for their customers, and I am sure once you taste their product you won’t look back just like us!

If you want to try out some of their products, you can use my code ALEX20 to save on your order! Check HU out here!

Thanks to HU for sponsoring this post. As always, thoughts and opinions are my own.

xo,

Alex

Meal Plan Monday & snacks I'm loving

Anyone else have a sunshine hangover? Can we all just skip work today and celebrate SPRING and no more snow?! Kidding...{kind of} Hope you all had a great weekend and are ready to get after this week!

Today I'm sharing a unique recipe... Pork is not something I have in my usual meal rotation but this meal is actually super tasty, healthy, and even kids like it because its more sweet than spicy. The Hoisin sauce I use to flavor this meal is pretty low in sugar and carbs which makes me love this recipe even more.

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Pork Stir fry with Snow Peas

Pork Tenderloin, cut into cubes
4 cloves garlic
1 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled & minced (2 tablespoons)
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
2/3 pound Snow Peas
1/2 Red & Green Pepper, chopped
Mushrooms
3 tablespoons Hoisin sauce
1/4 cup water
Rice

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1. Toss the pork with half the garlic, half the ginger, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Marinate at room temperature for 15 minutes. 
2. While pork is marinating, start cooking the rice. Heat a skillet over high heat and add olive oil.  Add the remaining garlic and ginger until fragrant. Add mushrooms and peppers. When mushrooms begin to sautee/peppers soften (3-4 mins), add sugar snap peas. Cook for 2-3 mins. Remove into a separate bowl to cool. 
3. Heat the same skillet used for the vegetables and cook the Pork mixture. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Return the vegetable mixture to the skillet when Pork is nearly cooked through. Add the hoison sauce and soy sauce to taste, cook until juices thicken. I like to add 1/4 cup of water as the juice thickens- I think it makes it perfect to spread over the rice! Totally up to you though. 
4. Serve over rice and enjoy!! 

Snacks I'm loving

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Also, I wanted to share a few snacks that I've been loving for me...and a few for the kids. My boys love the Nature's Bakery fig bars. I just saw today that they have an Organic Oat and Honey option so I snagged it and they LOVE them. I like how there is no high fructose corn syrup, that they're organic, and not too messy!

Strangely enough,  Neither of my boys like cow's milk. I don't really force it because I'm not super sold on cow's milk anyway...so we try to get their dairy through almond milk in their oatmeal, yogurt (Seb really isn't feeling it at the moment..hopefully that changes!) and various cheeses. These Horizon cheese stars are Max's favorites. I think he likes the taste as much as the different shapes :) These I have only been able to find at Target. Just what I need, another reason to "force" me to go into target..ha. 

I've completely overhauled my diet the last 3 weeks and cut out all sweets so finding alternatives for my sweet tooth has been a challenge to say the least. I've been loving the thinkthin Cake pops lately though. My favorite flavor definitely has to be the chocolate. Low sugar and it hits the spot after dinner when I crave something sweet!

Last but not least... is this Buff Bake Peanut Butter spread. GUYS. This is so freakin good. Not nearly as good as Nutella, or Peanut Butter Company  {{these are clearly off limits at the moment}},  but it certainly satisfies and packs some extra protein. Beggars can't be choosers at the moment so I'll take what I can get,  I love how these two treats are somewhat guilt free and help me satisfy that sweet tooth that never seems to disappear! 

Have a great week everyone! 

xo

Alex