Favorite Frozen Treats 2014 Edition

If you’re familiar with Foodtrainers you know that it’s not enough for us to look at a label and tell you a food is “healthy”. We need to know what it tastes like. Every summer we pick a day for our Annual Ice Cream Test. There are many great flavors and brands we’ve tried in the past and we really like to bring you new ideas. First, we put the word out to our Twitter, Facebook and Insta friends asking for suggestions. Next, we scheduled an ice cream meeting to be sure we have scoured the city for the best pints, pops and shops. We narrowed down our list and devised a schedule for ice cream acquisition. The contenders were assembled on my desk. And of course we have secret ballots. Each flavor is rated on a scale of 1 to 10 cones. We didn’t share our conclusions until every flavor had been tasted.

For the most part, we agreed. Some flavors tasted “vegany”. Others were “too sweet” or even “too salty.” We fell in love with the texture of the stringy goat’s milk ice cream from Lezzetli. In the end there were three frozen standouts.

Culture Plain (9 cones)

I’m not typically a froyo fan. Part of it has to do with the cease and desist letter I received from a prominent company when I blogged about portion sizes. The other part is that, as I said earlier, if healthy involves sacrificing taste I’m out. Culture has great flavors but the original was our favorite. Culture takes both their ingredients and probiotics seriously and so do we. “There are absolutely no preservatives or additives.” Their product is made onsite from strained yogurt. They have both a Manhattan and Brooklyn locations. We found their kiddie size perfect.

Van Leeuwan Artisan Ice Cream Earl Grey (8 cones) 

This Earl Grey Van Leeuwan flavor elicited wows from us although, if I’m being hones,t our intern did say, “I thought it was weird” which is probably what we liked. It is unique and smoky and not overly sweet. And this is real deal ice cream but it’s made with organic ingredients. This is a treat we endorse and will probably indulge in again before the summer ends. 

Jolly Llama Banana Coconut (8 cones) 

We know our readers hail from many places outside NYC. So it would be pretty rude to make this all NY-centric.  And it just so happens Jolly Llama topped our taste test.These nouveau push pops are 80 to 100 calories, gluten free, dairy free and non-GMO and kosher. Though they are called sorbet pops we tried the banana coconut flavor which, thanks to the coconut, tasted creamy and indulgent.

What's your favorite frozen treat? Have you tried any of our winners? Which would you want to try?

*certain contenders didn't make our final list because of ingredients or sweeteners we don't endorse. For more info on what to avoid in allegedly healthy treats you can read this.

I’ll say thank you with my favorite new product

Thank you. On Monday, I floated it out there that I needed help deciding on the cover for my book The Little Book of Thin (I received a few emails that I had not mentioned the book enough, just wait). Your comments came in via the blog and Facebook and I was overwhelmed by the detail of your descriptions. The cover decision has been made and I think you’ll like it. As a display of my gratitude, I thought had to say thank you with food and tell you about my favorite new product Chia Pods from the Chia Co.

When I asked you to judge my book by its cover, I confessed to being a sucker for packaging…on anything. Today’s product totally measures up. At first glance the pods are adorable but there’s more to them than cuteness. The containers are also made with 30% recycled content and they’ve included a travel spoon. When our samples arrived at the office, Carolyn snapped the photo above with “A+ for creativity” as the caption, agreed. But as much as I love good design and pretty packages, is there anything worse that something subpar wrapped up beautifully?

Often we look at products and there’s a but, this is great but too much sugar or this is great but not gluten free or it’s a pity this isn’t single serving. There’s no but here. These pods are gluten free, non-GMO, made with a few quality ingredients and no added sugar, vegan, kosher and…incredibly tasty. There are no nasty secrets lurking in the pod.

In case you and chia, the main ingredient in the pods, haven’t spent a lot of time together let me explain why that should change. Chia is a seed that looks similar to a sesame seed. Chia seeds contain good fats (both omega 3 and omega 6); it’s high in fiber or, as Chia Co. says “aids regularity” and it’s great for athletes both for an energy boost and joint health. When chia is digested it absorbs 16 times its weight in water, this makes chia a natural appetite suppressant.

The Chia Pods combine chia, coconut milk and fruit- that’s it. Perhaps you’re familiar with chia pudding? This is ready-to-eat chia pudding made by the largest producers of premium quality chia. They're made  in four flavors, banana, mango, vanilla bean cinnamon and blueberry. It’s a new breakfast option or a cold and creamy (but creamless) snack or, if you’re desserty, it’s that too. I’m excited because it’s not just a new product; it’s really a whole new concept. I know you have high standards and I promise these pods will measure up. Let’s hope my book does too.

Have you seen these at Whole Foods Market? Do you “chia”? What do you do with it?

If You Really Want Healthy Chocolate

The regular readers of this blog are a savvy bunch. You may already know, when it comes to healthy chocolate, dark beats milk (duh), white chocolate is misnomer and you really want to go for 70% or higher cocoa content. After all, the more cocoa the less sugar, milk solids and other fillers involved. All that is true but that’s not where the chocolate story ends.

If chocolate is like skiing, milk chocolate is a green/easy run; it’s not too intense and most people can do it. Dark chocolate, maybe 50%, is a blue run, a little bit of a step up but your heart will not pound. Serious dark chocolate 70, 80% is black diamond a challenge and an adrenaline rush with more interesting terrain. If you’re a highly skilled skier you may want more, you may ski through the trees or heli ski.

If you’re a fervent fan of chocolate and want the tree skiing equivalent, you really want your chocolate to be raw. Most chocolate is roasted and when cacao is cooked it looses some of its punch. Raw cacao is a more powerful antioxidant than red wine or green tea. Raw chocolate has vitamin C and fiber, it’s also much higher in phenylethylamines which are the reason chocolate has an aphrodisiac reputation. So if you’re thinking of chocolate for Valentines Day, I’d select raw, just saying.

To take the plunge, some great raw options are:

Fearless Chocolate

My friend Jen Goodman Linn’s blog was YouFearless.com and her mantra was "be fearless". I sent this chocolate to Jen when she was sick, I’m not sure she ate it but she told me her husband Dave chowed down after a day of bad news. My team for Cycle for Survival received this chocolate with their team shirts. We’ll cycle fearlessly.

Fearless chocolate comes in a Super Seed flavor with flax and chia seed. I’m excited to try both Exploding Coconuts and Matcha Peppermint flavors. All chocolate is raw, organic and kosher;  it pretty much fits all criteria. If Marc wants to get me a present the “Eat Me Subscription” for monthly chocolate (I reworded that many times and it sounds wrong in any order) would be perfect.

Raaka

One of our local favorites is Brooklyn based Raaka. Raaka calls its products “virgin chocolate”, these chocolate makers seem to have dirty minds. My favorite Raaka flavor is Vanilla Rooibos. Their packaging is beautiful and I’m eyeing the heartbreaker set: Café Grumpy coffee and Raaka chocolate, can’t get better.

And there are times when you don’t want to go full throttle (and I get that). We don’t need to ski in the trees every day. For a chocolate fix that all about comfort, yet still black diamond, there’s

Newtree. 

This is pretty much healthy nutella, It’s a 70% dark chocolate spread that’s low in calories and has some fiber. Have it on fruit or on crackers or on a spoon with walnut or pistachio butter. Heaven.

Do you prefer skiing or chocolate? What’s your favorite brand or variety? Are you a raw chocolate/tree skiing type?
GIVEAWAY- to be eligible for a Newtree jar and Fearless bar comment, tweet about it @foodtrainers, like us on facebook and dance fearlessly