Natural foods highlights & trends

Soooo, I racked up 🙂

Poor Kyle could hardly eat breakfast as I sorted through my loot from Expo.

He said I was like a pirate laying out my prized possessions captured goods.

I think it’s safe to say, I have a lot of lunches ready made.

I couldn’t even fit all of it on our dining table.

I have more than piles of “health” food to show you though.  I actually did go to the Natural Products Show with a purpose (beyond hoarding).

[Browsing the booths before the show opened to the public]

Since there were thousands of exhibitors, I will stick to my favorites.

Hippie Highlights:

• Tees – this vegan cheese made Kyle mmmm forever, which means Daiya has competition in the melting department.  I can’t wait to cook with the stuff!  Vegan mac ‘n cheese anyone?
• Squarebars – I’m thrilled for this brand spankin’ new company to get off the ground.  After trying the cocoa coconut bar I’m 100% sold.  Pure fudge bliss.  All three flavors are vegan, soy free, gluten free and packed with pure wholesome ingredients, including brown rice protein.  Dessert and nutrition together.
• Earth Balance coconut peanut spread – I sampled mine on Glutino bread with banana – yummmmy!!!
• Simply Sprouted Way Better Snacks – GF and GMO free with a totally clean ingredient list.
• The Cookie Department – Berkley based with fun names (chocolate chip nookie) and unique ingredients (maca & sweet potatoes).
• Temptation ice cream – I thought I had died and gone to soft serve heaven with this one.  You Chicagoans are lucky lucky people to have this soydairy.
• Daiya – I was like a hovercraft when they started grilling quesadillas and grilled cheese.  Kyle and I are both obsessed so we made several trips to the booth.
• Love Grown – Maddy is always so upbeat and sweet.  I couldn’t be more thrilled for this company’s success.  Oh, and they make some damn delicious granola too!

 

Enjoy Life.    Zilks.

PB & Co.

Clif & Co.    Reed’s.

Earthbound Farms.    Daiya.

Saffron Road.    Sunland.

The Republic of Tea.    Udi’s.

Chocolove.    Endangered Species.

SunRidge Farms.

Larabar.   RW Garcia.

  

FSTG.   Kettle.   Zevia.

The Ginger People.   Bob’s Red Mill.

New arrivals:

Clif Bar – in honor of the company’s 20th anniversary they are debuting a limited edition bar called Gary’s Panforte Clif Bar which draws inspiration from a traditional Italian Panforte.  They’re also rolling out the red carpet for Luna Fiber bars and Kit’s Organic. Kit’s Organic will come in 4 flavors, including Berry Almond, Cashew, Chocolate Almond Coconut and Peanut Butter. The bars are gluten, soy and dairy free with an ingredient list awfully similar to that of a Larabar (simply nuts and dried fruit).

Larabar – they had their new uber bars at the show, with dessert-esque names like bananas foster, apple turnover, cherry cobbler, and roasted nut roll.  Unlike their predecessors, these bars are not vegan due to the honey.

Enjoy Life – plentils (lentil chips) are the latest product from this allergen free company, with a variety of flavors including marguerita pizza, garlic & parmesan, dill & sour cream, light sea salt, etc.

Udi’s – in an effort to include even more baked goods, this GF company is now expanding their product line to muffin tops and frozen pizzas.  They are also adding another bread flavor (Omega Flax & Fiber) and brownie bite (Dark Chocolate).  Sadly the pizzas have dairy cheese, so I couldn’t try them, but they are available in three varieties – Margherita, Three Cheese, and Pepperoni).  The muffin tops are available in Blueberry Oat & Chocolate Chia.  I couldn’t help but think of VitaTops a bit when I saw them.

Earth Balance – in my eyes, this company has nothing but stellar products, so it was no surprise to my taste buds when I tried the brand new coconut peanut spread (offered in both crunchy and creamy).  One word: love.  As an FYI, they are sweetened with agave, which means portion control for fructose sensitive people like me.

PopChips – same delicious chip, more fantastic flavors, including Chili Lime, Sweet Potato and Thai Sweet Potato.

Follow Your Heart – although I don’t typically use vegan mayo, I do love Vegenaise.  Now they are launching Vegenaise Gourmet with flavors like Barbecue, Pesto, Roasted Garlic, and Chipotle.  As before, the line is vegan, gluten free, & non GMO.

Chocolove – what more do I need to say about this company aside from the newest flavors?  Salted Peanut in Milk Chocolate, Pretzel in Milk Chocolate, Peach & Pecan in Milk Chocolate, Cherries in Fair Trade Organic Dark Chocolate, 73% Dark Fair Trade Organic Chocolate, Currants & Almonds in Fair Trade Organic Dark Chocolate.  Eat your heart out.

Blue Diamond – from almond milk to almond crackers, they are now offering gluten free nut chips that are almond and brown rice based.  The first line has flavors like nacho, sea salt, and sour cream & chive.  Baked, not fried, they are essentially a thin cracker that crunches like a chip.

So Delicious – this dairy free company is expanding beyond coconut milk into a line of almond milk based desserts with mini vanilla ice cream sandwiches and mini bars in almond fudge and vanilla.  Guess what else?  Almond milk vanilla ice cream.  They are all soy free and sweetened with organic tapioca syrup.  Hooray!  Another newbie to hit the market is Almond Plus almond milk with 5 g of protein (per cup).

NuNaturals – lemon flavored stevia sounded odd to me at first, but then I added a few drops to my water bottle and voila! instant lemonade with zero calories.  So smart.

Food Should Taste Good – now with sweet potato chips (in lots of flavors)

Bakery On Main – I’m not a huge fan of their granola, but Kyle loves their bars.  Now they have TrueBars in six exotic flavors, as well as instant oatmeal with chia, flax, amaranth, and quinoa available in three flavors – Apple Pie, Strawberry Shortcake, and Maple Multigrain Muffin.

Manitoba Harvest – two new items in the hemp hearts line, including hemp seed mini packets that you can sprinkle on oats and salads on-the-go.

Zevia – this stevia sweetened soda is now available in a HUGE array of flavors, including strawberry, cherry cola, and lime cola.  I’m still hooked on the ginger ale flavor, but the strawberry intrigues me.

Zevia.

So Delicious.   Once Again.

 

Angie’s Artisan Treats.   Pure organic.

KIND.   Bobo’s Oat Bars.

Kyle tagged along with me because he wanted to take in the show from a marketing angle, but what I was most interested in checking out was which food trends would be hitting the shelves in 2012.

Themes:

• gluten free is still the dominant dietary trend, but awareness of other food allergies does seems to be growing
• non-potato chips (like last year there was no shortage of corn/rice chips at this year’s EXPO…everywhere you turned there was a new “healthier potato chip” option – baked, popped, kettled, etc.)
• lentil/bean based chips (like the previous point, legumes were a popular base for snack foods, boasting higher protein, lower fat, and [of course] gluten free stats)
• kale chips (so many kale chips!!)
• non-agave sweetened products (stevia, brown rice syrup, and tapioca syrup were way more present this year)
• sunflower seed butter
• kombucha (either in bottled form or bag form, this tea was all over the place)
• non-GMO (talk about a hot button issue)

Of course this is just a sampling.  I was focused on checking out as many new companies as I could, so I didn’t hang around a lot of the big boys like Nature’s Path, Stonyfield, Bob’s Red Mill, Silk, or Food For Life for much time.  Still, I did check out Clif and Co. so hopefully you can see what’s set to arrive at your local natural foods grocer soon.

As shocking as it may seem, after hours straight of doing nothing but sampling we were still hungry for dinner.

 

We went to Fashion Island (Newport Beach) for a mellow dinner at True Food Kitchen.

Having been to the Santa Monica location a few times, I knew what I wanted before we were seated.

Kale salad.

Brown rice teriyaki bowl with tofu.

Yes, I ordered two entrees.  Judge away.

Kyle ordered the curry dish with tofu.

After we finished we went back to Newport Beach to say hi and bye to my G-ma.  She was in the middle of dinner but stopped to sample a Nature’s Path bar I brought her.

She’s made it pretty clear that she’s expecting more goodies from me though – in the form of dark chocolate and coconut.  Luckily I have a Luna bar with her name on it…I just have to find it first…

Any food trends you wished would catch on? 

Have you ever attended a food show?