New Products from the September President’s Choice Insider’s Report

Being a blogger can be pretty fantastic, and I have to say one of my favourite things about this job is getting mystery packages in the mail!  For the last year or two I’ve been fortunate enough to get boxes from President’s Choice each season as a new Insider’s Report comes out full of new products to try.  

The way to Suzi’s heart is through her stomach, so whenever one of these boxes arrives I’m just like a kid at Christmas.

Ollie quite likes them too 😉

Back in September I got this latest shipment and I’ve been happily eating my way through it ever since.  There are still a couple products I haven’t had a chance to try yet, but as my half marathon is coming up in a week and a half I can’t try anything else until I get back.  One of the golden rules of marathon training is as this junction in training you don’t try anything (and I mean anything) new, so I will have to wait until I get back from San Fran before getting a chance to try those last few products.

But in the mean time I wanted to tell you about the products I did try and what I thought of them – so let’s get to it!

The barley blend on the left is one of the items I’ve yet to try, but I’m looking forward to trying it after my HM, so far I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve ever tried from the Black Label collection, so I have high hopes for this!  

The Greek Yogurt Bars were tasty, they reminded me of some other brand bars I’ve had in the past.  These are great for grabbing as I’m running out the door to a class for a quick snack en route, as are the Apple Cinnamon Fruit & Nut Bars.  The Fruit and Nut bars reminded me a lot of Lara Bars, so if you are a fan of that brand I would certainly suggest giving these a try.  

These Wild Berry Fruit Twists I’d had before, and as a 4 year old trapped in a 31 year old’s body, I love them.  They were the first thing gone out of my box for sure!

Please ignore the crazy look 😉 that’s the, “I can’t wait to eat this” look 😀

The Breakfast Biscuits were okay, not my favourite but if someone gave me one I wouldn’t turn it down.  There was just something about the cookie consistency that I didn’t love.

And then there was this pasta sauce…

Holy. Yum.  You know how most store bought pasta sauces are pretty much the same?  Tomato puree, a few spices and that’s about it?  Well not this Black Label (didn’t I tell you Black Label products are usually awesome??) Arugula pasta sauce.  As soon as I opened the jar I could tell it was different.  It was chunky and gorgeous and the arugula adds a lovely bite and hint of greenery to your dish.  

Voila!

So yummy.  I think it would make an awesome pizza sauce too (though I’ve yet to try it on pizza).

One of the items I was really interested to try was their new gluten free chocolate cake mix

While I’m not gluten free, I know many people are so I was interested to see how this mix measured up.  My experience with gluten free baked goods is that they tend to be dry and chewy.  That was not the case with this mix.  I made the mix into cupcakes, and the end result was moist and the texture was just what you would expect from a regular cupcake.  It still tasted gluten free to me (and J) but let me tell you this, if I were a gluten free person, I’m pretty sure this cake mix would make me uber happy.  However, I’m not a gluten free person, so I’ll probably stick with my own chocolate cake recipe in the future.

In the box they also sent me a jar of the new Chocolate Chip Cookie Spread (talk about dangerous!)

So once I made my cupcakes I topped one with a generous spread of happiness – I mean spread – and suddenly the gluten free cupcake tasted a bit more exciting 😉

The spread itself is pretty much addictive.  I’ve managed to keep my paws out of it (miraculously) but I can see how it would be easy to just dive head first into it.  If you’re wondering what it tastes like, I’ll preface this by saying I’ve never eaten Nutella so I don’t know how it compares to that.  What I can tell you is as soon as I tasted it Dunkaroos came immediately to mind.  The chocolate base of the spread tastes just like chocolate Dunckaroos icing (or at least how I remember it tasting from elementary school!) with little bits of chocolate chip cookie mixed in with it.  Yum city.

I’m planning to make some brownies and use this for the frosting.  I have a feeling it’s going to be epic.  In fact I might have to do that this afternoon…

Besides the barley blend I haven’t yet tried, I also have a box of gluten free pasta to try, and the most intriguing item in the whole box (yes even most intriguing than chocolate chip cookie spread) this Nero De Seppia pasta.  It’s pasta coloured with cuttle fish ink to make it black. 

 I’ve got a plan for it, but I have to wait until after San Francisco when I can “try new things” again to go for it – so stay tuned, I’ll be sharing my black pasta adventures in the next few weeks!

Final Thoughts: 

If you were only going to try one item that I talked about in today’s post I would urge you to pick up the arugula pasta sauce, it really is the show stopper of the box for me.  Though the chocolate chip cookie spread is right up there too 😉

Question:

I do have a recipe in mind for the Nero Di Seppia pasta, but what do YOU think I should make with it?  I’d love to hear your ideas in case they are better than my own!

Disclosure: President’s Choice sent me all of these items free of charge, as always all opinions are 100% my own.