Hi Everyone! I hope you had a great weekend. Yesterday was completely perfect and I will be back with some highlights soon, but first I wanted to tell you about a delicious giveaway!!!!!!

Have you ever been eating a bar and thought, “I could do better than this?” We all think we could make the best bar, and now you can!!!!

I recently received some samples from Element Bars, a company that allows you to build your own bar with whatever ingredients you want!

allows you to build your own energy bar out of high quality ingredients. In fact, Element Bars have a strict policy about ingredients:

You get to choose your base – chewy, oaty, crispy or datey; various fruits, nuts and seeds; sweeteners such as agave and brown rice syrup; and extras like whey or soy protein, omega 3s and extra fiber. You can even take a “quiz” and have a bar recommended to you based on your answers and search for ingredients based on health and food . As you build your bar, the nutrition information is calculated for you. Or, if you are not feeling creative, there is a list of popular bars to choose from.

Element Bars sent me a Dr. Clyde Cherry Chcolate Bar and Dr. Clyde Berry Bar.

First, I tried the Dr. Clyde Berry Bar, which was awesome! It tasted delicious and wholesome! It was the “chewy” base, so it was soft and had giant berry and nut chunks in it! I loved the texture and how it wasn’t sickengly sweet. I also like how most of the ingredients are organic.

Next, I tried the Dr. Clyde Cherry Bar.

This bar also started with the delicious chewy base and contained large cherries and pieces of walnuts and soy nuts. I loved how the tart cherries contrasted with the soft and sweet chocolate chips! These bars are 2 oz. and about 5 inches long and 3 inches wide.

Giveaway Rules

Element Bars wants to send you a few of their favorite bar flavors. Here’s how to earn an entry.

1. Go to ElementBars.com, build your perfect bar and leave a comment here detailing your creation.
2. If you have a blog, please link to this post to spread the word about this yummy contest (make sure your link back shows up as a comment on this post and email me if it does not).
3. Send an email with the subject line “FAQ” to HangryPants@gmail.com with a question for me and/or Mark for our soon to debut FAQ page.

Contest is for U.S. residents and closes on Thursday, May 28th at 11:59 EST when I will randomly select a winner. Good luck!!!!

Hi Everyone!

As I mentioned last night I went to a Beam Green event at Tavern on The Green. It was wonderfully thought provoking. I loved being in a room with women who enjoyed talking about the same things as me. Although my own lifestyle is slightly different, I learned a lot and and I’ve been thinking about it all day.

Last night Natalia Rose was speaking about what to feed babies, with an emphasis on breast milk and then transitioning to solid foods. She gave an awesome recipe for “Baby Shakes,” which I admit I want myself – it’s 1 part green veggie, 1 part fruit and 1 part fat. It makes sense to give babies the most easily digestible cleanest food possible. I hope I have the integrity to do that someday.

One interesting thing Natalia said was in reference to comments she gets from people about giving babies and children “real food,” meaning animal protein. She explained an incident when her children only wanted fresh, crisp watermelon for dinner, which was fine with her. Her husband was a bit skeptical and said that wasn’t food. So, she questioned when fruit became something other than real food. Fruits and vegetables are considered rabbit food or filler, but food is protein.

Sometimes, especially when photographing my food for the blog, I take care to eat in a “balanced” way; but truthfully there are times when all I want is a big bowl of fruit or something similar. Aren’t there worse things than having a watermelon dinner every once in awhile? She stopped short of saying we have been brainwashed into thinking otherwise, but her point was that we should question why we eat certain things and embrace more natural and clean foods. 

I am wondering what you think about all this. Both in terms of your own diet and feeding children, where do you get your ideas for what constitutes food and what you choose to eat? The FDA? A diet book? If you want watermelon for dinner, but you choose something more “balance” because you think you are supposed to, aren’t you ignoring your own cravings and voice? Also, and this is a much bigger issue, what message does it send to your child if they want watermelon for dinner, but you make them eat something more balanced? Aren’t you teaching them their own cravings and voices can’t be trusted? 

I am not sure I know the answers. Like I said, sometimes I add an element to my food simply because I think I should, not necessarily because I want it. I am not sure what I am worried about. I know missing some protein or even some veggies one day is not going to harm me. I am not a mother, but hope one day to be. When that day comes I hope to teach my children to love and respect themselves and food. I wouldn’t want to make a huge deal about eating a certain amount or certain things. I doubt letting my children eat watermelon for dinner will cause them to be malnourished. These are my thoughts now, but I guess that could change when I have my own children.

Anyway, that’s just one thing I’ve been thinking about today. Interestingly, I was able to start my day in a cleaner way! I was out of milk and therefore coffee was not an option for me. I chose instead Iced Green Tea. Although I complained for the first 10 minutes about how I needed my caffeine, I was good to go after this.

All morning I munched on fruits and veggies – red peppers, strawberries and blackberries and drank this liqueteria All Greens juice. I sipped on this all morning long and didn’t really feel hungry. I liked the flavor too. It was similar to my own attempts at making juice and smoothies out of spinach. I could have done without the ginger, which was very strong at the end of each sip.

For a PM snack I was lucky enough to try some customizable bars from ElementBars.com. ElementBars allows you to build your own energy bar out of high quality ingredients. You get to choose your base – chewy, oaty, crispy or datey; various fruits, nuts and seeds; sweeteners such as agave and brown rice syrup; and extras like whey or soy protein, omega 3s and extra fiber. You can even take a “quiz” and have a bar recommended to you based on your answers. They sent me a Dr. Clyde Cherry Chcolate Bar and Dr. Clyde Berry Bar.

I tried the Dr. Clyde Berry Bar, which was awesome! It tasted delicious and wholesome! It was the “chewy” base, so it was soft and had giant berry and nut chunks in it! I loved the texture and how it wasn’t sickengly sweet. I also like how most of the ingredients are organic and it’s sweetened with

I can’t wait to try the other flavor!