This month I was asked to review a snack box by Vegan Cuts and I was beyond excited to see what goodies they have to offer. You can read my review below and don’t forget to check out the delicious sunflower chunk cookie recipe (here) I made with one of the ingredients I found inside! For more information or to get your own VeganCuts box check them out at vegancuts.com  

Now on to the post!

Snacks…. vegan snacks! Those 2 words actually scare me a little. As a family of 5 we consume a LOT of snacks, especially my school aged boys. Things were much simpler when they were younger and were happy to snack on fruit and veggies. But as they get older, started public school, and became exposed to the snacks other kids were bring they started to protest for their own ‘snacky’ things. Now don’t get me wrong my boys still get tons of fresh fruit and veggies in their lunchboxes, but I always try and incorporate some kind of snack or goodie for them to try, because balance right!

Now to confess something, I have actually debated with myself over our snack situation for a while, for many reasons. Unfortunately, as many of us do, I let certain influencers on social media influence my life a little to much. I mean seeing beautiful footage of gorgeous healthy children only consuming whole fresh fruits and veggies and never eating a grain of sugar or ANY packaged item is appealing right! So for a while I also tried to raise my kids that way. But then I realized that our situation is very different from the highlight real I was seeing online! My kids are not home schooled, we don’t have a large close community of other like minded people and we live in a big city with access and exposure to a wide variety of foods.. which is a GOOD thing!  So I let go of this ‘ideal’ I was trying to obtain and focused instead on providing my kids with a good, healthy foundation to nourish their relationship with food. So for us that means they get store bought snacks and occasionally a treat to take to school… wonderful right! But now I faced another problem, what do I by them. What snack products are ‘healthy’, minimally processed, vegan AND gluten free!! So I found myself buying the same 3 items every week at the store.

Sooo, I was so excited when VeganCuts asked me to review their snack box! Mostly to help increase my exposure to new vegan brands and products.  The experts over at VeganCuts take that time themselves to search for new vegan items, review the ingredients, and put together vegan treats and snacks that check off all those boxes. The best part is that they do this work for you, and anything that saves this mama time is something that I am interested in! Now if snacks are not your thing they also have clean beauty and makeup boxes and even sell some lifestyle products (resuable pantyliners, straws, chickpea magazine and cookbooks) as well! Definitely a fun way to expose yourself to new vegan brands and products!I was extra excited because these types of snacks are not always available at our local grocery or health food stores, or they are super pricey! So you can imagine that it was like Christmas day here when my boys got to open the box of goodies!

OK so now for the what we found inside! In our VeganCuts box we found A LOT of stuff, 12 goodies to be exact plus a little beauty bag for yours truly!! My boys went nuts for the peanut brittle by Sweetsmith and they LOVE mints so they were excited to see a bag of the tangerine mint from Pur! They asked to devour the cashew butter cups first of course and we discovered a new energy bar that everyone agreed was so delicious (which we never would have tried, so thank you VeganCuts!). And I was impressed with the ingredient list from every one! You can tell they put thought and effort to source their products. Micah even got to try a delicious fruit pouch and an instant oatmeal (another time saver) by Avelina . And my husband was super excited for the Serrano hot sauce by Yellowbird! As you can tell I was a big fan of their box! Which surprised me a bit because I did not expect to see so many wonderful and new products to try!

Now for my only concern or comment. We buy snacks in larger portions or in bulk to reduce our footprint and overall waste. However,  most items found inside are single servings and individually wrapped. So in terms of waste this box would obviously not fit into the low waste category.  In addition, as a family of 5 this box is an amazing way to source and find new brands but it is a sampler. A great way to expose us to new items but not enough to provide us with snacks for the month, unless you are a smaller or single family. BUT I still feel like this box is a win because it is accomplishing two very important things. First, it creates awareness and exposure for vegan products and fills a much needed demand. And second, it is supporting small businesses and companies that are adhering to this demand for more vegan and gluten free snacks, beauty items and fashion accessories.

SO, would I subscribe. Yes I would for those two reasons I mentioned above. I felt like this is was a great way to increase my exposure and awareness for other types of vegan snacks! To provide my boys with healthy items to bring to school and to have fun with food!