Here at FMFP, Dani & I don’t hide the fact that we like to cook. Give us an afternoon of free time and you’ll find us both in the kitchen trying out a new recipe or bulk cooking for the week ahead. The recipes on our blog are recipes we use to feed our families. Our goal is to not only give you easy & delicious recipes but we want to inspire you to cook for your family. Cooking in bulk and freezing leftovers is kinda what we do…it’s our thing. But we know that not everyone has the time or the inclination to make everything from scratch. Sometime you just need convenience foods-foods that are already made & packaged but are healthy and don’t contain ingredients that sound like you’re sitting in chemistry class. I can’t count how many times my kids have been invited to a party last-minute and I don’t have time to make their favorite gluten-free Reeseio Bars. Sure I could make a huge batch and keep them in the freezer to have on hand but the reality is that I don’t bulk cook treats. I bulk cook meals & soups for my family. There is an entire section on this blog devoted to recipes that are freezer friendly; meaning when you cook, cook in bulk & freeze leftovers to have at a later date so you don’t need to resort to take-out. Wouldn’t it be great if we could have something on hand for party emergencies that were actually healthy enough to put in our kids’ school lunch?
I was contacted by Chris of WB Kitchen to see if I would sample his gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free, preservative-free, and refined sugar-free fruit & nut bars. Dani & I get a decent amount of emails from companies looking for us to review their products. I’m not going to lie, we turn 95% of them down; especially when it comes to food or supplements. I have very strict nutritional standards that need to be met. If I don’t like an ingredient or what the product does or stands for (meaning I will NOT endorse anything that looks remotely like a fad diet supplement) I turn it down. Remember that I am a public school teacher and I know that some of my students read this blog. There is no way that I would EVER compromise my professional integrity to them or to you to get some free samples. So having said that, if I am endorsing a product than you know it’s because I stand behind it. I thought these bars were so great I even contacted the food service director at my school to see if we could get these sold at the snack bar. The government has strict regulations as to what can be sold in public schools and some of these bars meet the guidelines. These bars would be a huge improvement over some of the choices that are available to kids in school.
What I love about WB Kitchen besides that the products are made with recognizable ingredients & are tasty, but that the company is owned by a husband & wife team named Chris & Anna.
Chris & Anna
They started WB Kitchen because they brought their cookies to parties & all their friends told them they were so good they should sell them. So that’s exactly what they did. All of their products, except the Maple Pecan cookie, are GAPS and SCD friendly. The maple pecan cookie has maple syrup in it and that is the only conflict. I used to buy Lara Bars all the time until they were bought by General Mills. Here is a direct quote from the FAQ page on the Lara Bar website:
LÄRABAR® was acquired by the Natural and Organic Division of General Mills called Small Planet Foods in June 2008. Cascadian Farm, Muir Glen, and Food Should Taste Good complete the Small Planet Foods division. View a letter from Lara regarding the acquisition.
Cascadian Farm, Larabar and Muir Glen are owned by General Mills, which has put more than half a million dollars into the effort to block Proposition 37 which would mandate the labeling of genetically-engineered foods. (source) This brings up a really good question. What is GM hiding that they are willing to spend that kind of money to block the labeling of GMO’s? Personally I would rather give my money to privately owned business over some huge conglomerate with something to hide.
How do they taste?
I’m happy to report that not only are these bars clean, but they taste great too! My entire family tried all the varieties we voted using a made-up likert scale: gross, ok, good, & excellent. I am happy to report that none of the goodies received a gross report, even from my pickiest little 5 year-old 
We all had bites & I asked everyone (including the hubby) what they rated it. Then I asked the kids if they would consider it an acceptable treat at a birthday party (and if they would eat it in their lunch.) Three of the 8 variety got excellent from all 4 of us:
Maple Pecan Cookie, Coconut Shortbread, & Honey Nut Bar
These really did taste like cookies & I was glad that my kids liked them. Knowing that there are healthy options to have on hand is relief. As far as the other bars go, I personally liked them all. The lowest rating I gave any bar was good, but there were definitely some I like better than others and if I had to buy them would stick to the 3 above because everyone in my family would eat them.
The other one everyone liked was the Peanut Butter Cookie. It received excellent from everyone except my 5 year-old daughter. She rated it good.
So what do you think? Are you looking for some bars & treats that have clean ingredients from a small business? I plan to buy the 3 that my entire family loved. I’ll keep a few in the freezer as my emergency stash, but the rest will go in their lunch. The cookies come 2 in a pack so I plan to give them each 1 in their lunch to start. These little guys are filling because instead of being made with refined flour like regular cookies, they are made with whole foods like coconut & almonds which contain protein & fat. I’m sure you remember from this post that protein & fat are the 2 macronutrients that help to fill you up.
So Chris is offering all FMFP readers 15% off on any purchases made through March 15, 2015. All you need to do is go to wbkitchen.com and enter coupon code FITMOMS at checkout.
Let me know if you end up getting any and what you think. I hope you guys like them as much as we did.
Disclosure Policy: I received samples from WB Kitchen to review but all opinions in this post are my own. All photos are courtesy of WB Kitchen.
