Of all the companies at Expo West, I think I was most excited to meet Maddy (and Alex) of Love Grown Foods.
Not only had I seen their delicious granola around the blogosphere, but I was familiar with their story – and both made me want to support their mission and help spread the love.
As the wife of a start-up company that’s still in it’s infancy, I’m a big fan of the way they dedicated themselves to their business and created success without compromising either the taste of their product or their principles.
The fact that Love Grown Foods is focused on a bigger mission – to bring healthy food options to schools and youth programs – makes me so happy.
I can’t think of a better cause than educating children and parents. Education is seriously lacking in this area, and as a result so many kids grow up without the knowledge about how to eat well to properly fuel their bodies. Yet these are life tools that help them grow up to be health adults. In the words of Love Grown Foods, “it is so much harder to reverse illnesses (ie type II onset diabetes and obesity), so we must ensure kids learn healthy habits that they will keep for life.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Thank goodness there are passionate leaders like these two. We need individuals with such unyielding efforts to help push the movement and change the world. [I know it sounds cheesy, but it really is the truth]
After lunch, I immediately made my way to the LOVE GROWN booth to meet Maddy and the rest of the team. Not surprisingly, she was just as sweet as ever, and I couldn’t help but be completely caught up in the excitement over their business success.
Did I mention there were samples involved in this meet up? Feeling the love!
Don’t mind if I do…
When I was making breakfast back home on Sunday, there was really only one choice.
Like any normal human, I opted to try the Oat Clusters & Love Cocoa Goodness flavor first. Who wouldn’t?
Gluten free toasted oats with delicious clusters coated in cocoa powder with dark chocolate chips…uhhhh…yeah.
See how big the clusters are?!
To be perfectly honest, I never ate chocolate cereal as a kid, but I’d imagine this is what it would taste like…with one MAJOR difference. Love Grown makes it healthy! Chocolate that doesn’t send your blood sugar surging through the roof? Yes, it is in fact possible – with only pure, wholesome, REAL ingredients and none of the sh!t in Count Chocula that makes your milk turn brown and your stomach turn ill (or fat).
Free of:
- Refined Sugar
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Trans Fats
- Hydrogenated Oils
- Artificial Flavors
- Preservatives
- Gluten
- Genetically Modified Ingredients
My first bowl was au natural – with nothing more than almond milk.
Chocolate chips? Clusters? Crunch? Yes, yes, and yes! We all know I’m picky about my friggin’ granola; so I’d say I’m a pretty good judge when it comes to these things.
I liked the first bite all the way to the last bite. The texture only softened a little bit while soaking in the milk and maintained every bit of it’s clustery crunch.
Flavor wise it was sweet but not in a make-your-head-ring kind of way. After finishing it I was neither bouncing off the walls, nor stuck in the couch cushions. That’s what I’d call a successful balance of sweetness. Somehow this flavor managed to pull off simplicity without being boring, which was most likely due to the chocolate chips. They were like hidden gems and it made the cocoa granola seem like a special treat.
For my second serving of granola, I heated it up for a few seconds. This slightly melted the chocolate chips (YUM!) and softened up the crunch. Then I added sliced strawberries on top.
Chocolate and strawberries are about as decadent as it gets. Right?
I’d be willing to bet Love Grown Foods makes it big time in 2011. I’m a major fan of their Oat Clusters & Love line. And I can’t wait to try all the rest of the flavors…Raisin Almond Crunch, Apple Walnut Delight, Sweet Cranberry Pecan, and Simply Oats…
Talk about feeling the love. 🙂
I wanna be part of the team that helps spread the LOVE! Educating people on how to live a full and healthy life has never been so delicious.
Were you allowed to eat sugar cereals growing up? My mom definitely didn’t buy us any, but even when we were free to choose our own (ie at a friends house, on vacation, etc.) I still wasn’t a fan of fake foods that dyed my milk. I much preferred Crispix, Grape Nuts, Raisin Bran and Quakers oats.
I loved Clusters as a kid. Yummmmy!
I’ve seen this stuff on a couple of blogs, and the chocolate kind looks freaking delicious. We never had sweet cereals unless it was a birthday, and then once the special day passed we had to mix the remaining stuff 1/4 cup at a time with something like Cheerios or Raisin Bran. Such a dissapointment…though now I LOVE Cheerios!!
I loved sugary cereals as a kid- cinnamon toast crunch was my fav! Now I’m more about these kinds, though:)
LOVE that they’re spreading the love to schools AND parents. I think education is the most important thing we can do to break the current trends and patterns.
My mom had a rule where we couldn’t get cereals with more than 9g of sugar. We were allowed ‘sweet’ and ‘fun’ cereals when we went away on vacation though!
My sister and I weren’t really allowed to have sugar cereals growing up. I remember eating Kix, cherrios, chex, grape nuts and raisin bran (I picked the raisins out lol) My sister always begged my mom to buy captain crunch and trix but I was never a big fan of sugary cereals . I REALLY REALLY want to try the Oat Clusters and Love! Where can I find this!??
we weren’t really allowed to eat sugar cereals growing up. If we got a box of lucky charms or anything it was usually b/c we got good grades on our report cards. lol
I was a cheerios girl, but every Wednesday growing up we had “junk cereal day” and I’d go for honey nut cheerios. I also LOVED cinnamon toast crunch too which we had at my dad’s house.
Never tried Love Grown but it looks delicious!! And love their mission.
My mom never made any hard and fast rule about cereals. I just remember knowing never to ask for anything like Cocoa Puffs. (I wonder what I thought would happen. :D)
We would have Cinnamon Toast Crunch on occasion but for the most part we had things like Life (a lot) and Cherrios.
My mom never bought us sugar cereals when we were younger either. We used to get one Christmas present a year where we each picked out our own cereal box to give to one of our other siblings…and my little brother always picked out plain, unsweetened cheerios. Hahaha Anyway, this company sounds so cool, and I’m going to check out the website right now. It’s not so much the granola that is interesting me (I’m not that big of a granola girl), but their ethics and principles really stand out. I’m currently working with a company whose principles are quite literally the exact same: using food to prevent illness and educate children to live longer, healthier and happier lives. The nutrition avaliable to kids in most schools is extremely limited, and I’m working towards getting my school (and later, other schools in the area and US in general…) to supply healthier products to our kids. Kids don’t eat bad food because that’s the only thing they like; they eat bad foods because that is all that’s avaliable to them!
I hope this comment didn’t bore you to death and that you just skimmed through it; I’m genuinely really interested in Love Grown Foods morals, and I can’t wait to learn more about their company. Thanks for linking me over, and feel free to email me or whatever if you have any tips/questions/suggestions or whatever it might be for me. 🙂 I’d love to hear from you!
ive seen this granola on blogs before- must be popular!!! sounds delicious! my mom would buy us sugary cereals on occasion. or we had o mix a sugary one with a healthy one.. ahha it was always a big deal!
I recall a LOT of cinnamon toast crunch in my childhood, so I’d have to say yes. I’d love for my mom to try that granola. She eats granola every morning, but a terrible store brand kind with NO CLUMPS!
thanks olivia. i definitely appreciate your comment. as ive bogged about before, i, too, am very passionate about educating others about diet and the role food has in health and wellness…my nursing career fortunately allows me a greater platform for this, but the blog is a nice place for me to meet another audience. thank you for doing what you do, it is SOOO important for us to share our knowledge in a friendly, inviting (aka non-condescending) way.
no clumps!!! the tragedy!
soooo good! ask your local health foods stores to carry their products!
oooo chex! that was another good one i loved.
Mmmmm that cocoa granola looks SO good! Kudos to you for letting us all know about this awesome company!
I ate sugary cereals growing up because my parents had me young and barely fed themselves, we were so poor.
Allie
I love hearing about companies like this! And that granola looks like it needs to be in my mouth. And yes, I ate boxes on end of Fruity Pebbles when I was a kid. But I also ate KIX–come on, it is kid tested and mother approved.
i had a tshirt that said “im a kix kid” on the front with “kid tested mother approved” on the back, haha.
ah! i’m so jealous of your love grown samples! they look so delightful and I can actually eat them!
I would have gone for the cocoa first too, it looks great. Love Grown Foods sounds wonderful, an awesome cause. Growing up we had some sweet cereals, but not much and usually Honey Nut Cheerios at most.
What a timely post–I went grocery shopping today, and when I was perusing the granolas, I saw Love Grown, remembered your post, and decided to try it. For the record, the Raisin Almond Crunch variety is pretty excellent, too. 😉
nice! thats next on my to-try for sure. mmmm…
Your posts have been A+ work lately dude. Thought I would let you know. I was into my honey’d bunches of oats when I was a kid. I loved them. But mainly toast was my best friend for a few years. I love plain whole wheat toast dipped in plain tomato sauce. I would come home from football practice and destroy half a loaf with ease. I was a weird kid… I also enjoyed a box of r-bran every now and then until they started putting like 900 raisins in each box… Dried fruit overload. + I realized that I would rather eat my whole foods for breakfast that weren’t coated in partially-hydrogenated oils and such. I am sure our philosophies match up now 🙂
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Thanks buddy! I loved the raisins so I was definitely a fan of the “2 scoops”
I have probably eaten every sugary cereal under the sun due to my childhood, however, was never truly satisfied for any. Was never a huge cereal person.. still am not. I prefer yogurt/fruit or oatmeal. 🙂
Chocolate cereals…hmmm. Do you remember when we were on vacation when you were young and we gave in and let the three of you choose one sugary cereal? You picked these chocolate basketballs and thought they tasted horrible. We lucked out on that one. Ha!
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yes!! that stuff was GROSS.
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My parents were the same way. We only got sugary cereal once in a blue moon, and even then we could only have it for dessert. I’d usually pass and choose the Breyer’s ice cream over coco puffs.
Also, the earthquake ziplocks…great memories. I always had gushers, fruit-by-the-foot, and those disgusting cheese-dip and bread-stick things. Only got to eat them once a year.
I LOVED Grape Nuts as a kid! Funny thing is, I had to beg my mom to buy them. She only bought sugary cereals and made up brownies and chocolate-covered rice crispy treats for breakfast. She has a major sweet tooth and I guess assumed we did too.
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