Product: The Foods of Athenry Blondie Cookie Shots – $4.50+
I know what you’re thinking…
“MORE COOKIES??”
And yes…it does seem like I’m eating my weight in cookies these days. But…I’m not. I portion everything out perfectly…and each container is split with another person. So, yeah…change that way of thinking to…
“MORE COOKIES!!”
Truth be told…I’m a cookie monster regardless. There is nothing quite as perfect as a delicious cookie. Whether you like them chewy and moist or crispy and crumbly…there is no right or wrong way to make, eat, or devour a cookie. And while homemade cookies are, by far, the best…I don’t have much time to mess with recipes and convert them…and then bake them.
So, sometimes, getting a small sack of cookies from the grocery store is a nice enough treat. And trust me, despite what you think, this doesn’t happen often. It was my birthday a couple of weeks back and I was treated to a shopping spree at Jungle Jim’s International Market. And while I was determined to get foods that weren’t all snacks and junk (and I actually did manage)…I did pick up a few treats and have been working my way through them.
I love perusing the various countries and their foods while I’m at Jungle Jim’s. But…I normally don’t get much in there due to my food allergies. I do visit Ireland to pick up the tea I got hooked on while visiting there back in 2010. It just so happened, that while I was just browsing the shelves…I spotted little pouches of cookie-like goodness. There were like…four different varieties and they were all vegan friendly and gluten free.
HELLO!!
The hard part was narrowing it down.
The company is The Foods of Athenry from The Lawless Family Bakery. I love the brand name. It’s clever. And I love clever things. The Foods of Athenry was born in 2004 when, an uncertain future in agriculture and childhood health problems, which influenced a lifelong interest in the relationship of food vs health, brought the Lawless family to set up a bakery business in which no artificial food additives were used. They sold their cows and moved the bakery into the empty milking parlor. With a tradition in baking (the Lawless grandparents owned one of the largest bakeries in the West of Ireland almost a hundred years ago), and a passion and love of good food, the Lawless’ set out to promote one of their primary beliefs: “Good food promotes good health.” With that in mind, they took great care in preparing their own breakfasts, lunchbox snacks and treats. And when this way of life turned into a business, the same simple rule applied to all of the products they produced, be they vegan, gluten free, dairy free…or not. And it’s worked. They have won numerous food awards that sing high accolades for the products that The Foods of Athenry produces and sells.
When I was inside the Ireland section of Jungle Jim’s International Market, I had quite the decision to make. In the Gluten Free Pouch Packs…four different varieties are available…and all four were there for me to choose from. I thought about grabbing them all, but there was way more to explore and a shrinking budget. The Gluten Free Pouch Packs come in: Just Oats Flapjacks Mini Bites, The Works Flapjacks Mini Bites, Blondie Cookie Shots, and Brownie Cookie Shots. As it is hard for me to make decisions regarding sweet treats, I asked my roommate for her opinion. And she decided the Blondie Cookie Shots were the way to go. And so…they came home with me.
Tonight, after dinner, I pulled them out to enjoy for our dessert. The pouch was cut open and I actually dumped out a handful. These are definitely small bite-size cookie treats that looked a lot like shortbread cookies. They are about the size between a dime and nickle. So, tiny little morsels of cookie joy. Easy to pop and snack on and indulge a little. I just served up a handful to Cathy and then I did the same for me. I popped the first one as I was storing the pouch back in the pantry.
Crunchy, delicious, popping-fresh cookies. That’s what these are. They have this fantastic vanilla flavor to them. I was in love with the flavor. The texture was definitely reminiscent of a shortbread cookie. It was buttery and sweet and crunchy and amazing. I was in love. In fact, I popped the rest of the cookies I had dished up for myself in no time. Not mindlessly…but savoring while enjoying. These cookies were totally made for that. Love does come in bite-size pieces.
Let’s discuss ingredients, shall we? The Foods of Athenry Blondie Cookie Shots are made from gluten free and wheat free flour (maize, rice, potato, tapioca, and buckwheat), 100% vegetable non-hydrogenated margarine, sugar, concentrated fruit juice (grape, apple, pear), natural vanilla, raising agents, (mono calcium phosphate, sodium bicarbonate), and xanthan gum. The cookies do not contain any gluten, wheat, dairy, GMOs, eggs, yeast, hydrogenated fats, artificial colors, flavors of preservatives.
And you are going to love the nutritional facts for The Foods of Athenry Blondie Cookie Shots! Each cookie is 4 grams and each cookie contains only 18 calories. Yes…18 calories. One cookie. 18 calories. So…in the sense that you are popping one single cookie…you would be taking in: 18 calories, less than 1 gram of fat, less than 1 gram saturated fat, 2.46 grams carbohydrates, and under 1 gram of the following: sugar, fiber, protein and sodium.
LOVE LOVE LOVE!!
These cookies are pretty much guilt-free and are a great companion for tea, coffee, chocolate milk, or whatever. They made a great choice for a dessert tonight. Amazing food brought all the way from Ireland. I’m hooked. I need to get back to Jungle Jim’s and soon!
The Celiathlete 