Special thanks to Newhope 360 for the press pass to the Natural Products Expo West 2014! I had a blast sampling and learning about new natural food brands from Friday-Sunday and came home with a ton of goodies! Below are my top picks from this year’s expo as well as photos from my adventure!
1. Vega One Nutritional Shake
Fav Flav: Vanilla Chai
The 411: Vegan, non-soy, 15 g protein. 6 g fiber, 1.5 g omega-3, antioxidants,includes probiotics, greens, and 50% daily intake of vitamins and minerals. Vega One features their signature, broad-spectrum, plant-based protein blend, with all essential amino acids in ideal balance. Vega One’s Complete Protein Blend includes: Pea protein, SaviSeed™ (sacha inchi) protein, Hemp seed protein, Sprouted whole grain brown rice protein
My Take: 15g of plant-based protein… how can you go wrong?! I love that this is a non-soy vegan protein powder! Vanilla Chai is a twist on the usual vanilla protein powder with vanilla, chai, nutmeg, and cinnamon, YUM!
2. I heart Keenwah – Quinoa Clusters
Fav Flav: Chocolate Sea Salt
The 411: All natural and gluten free, I heart Keenwah “Quinoa Clusters” are made with the ancient grain quinoa, which is a complete protein.
My Take: These crunchy little guys are pretty addicting, but they’re a snack with a purpose and offer complete protein that will keep you full between meals.
3. Credible Cravings
Best Selling Flav: Oatmeal Cranberry
The 411: CredibleCravings is the first organic snack bar carefully formulated with Obstetricians, Nutritionists, and Midwives to support the nutritional needs of pregnant and breastfeeding women and their developing children. CredibleCravings uses only high quality, natural ingredients amd probiotics, that serve the specific nutritional needs of mom and baby. No artificial preservatives, artificial sweeteners, or chemicals.
My Take: I love that this is geared towards pregnant & breastfeeding moms! They use natural ingredients like ginger to sooth upset tummies! Even if you aren’t a momma-to-be, these are all natural and super healthy for everyone!
4. Mr. Cheese O’s
Fav Flav: Tuscan Herb
The 411: Tuscan These crunchy little O’s are made from quinoa, oat bran, organic brown rice, and real cheese!
My Take: They’re just as addicting as Cheez-Its, but they’re made of 100% natural ingredients, and they’re gluten free! Mr. Cheese O’s launched at Expo, and I cannot wait for them to hit stores! They’re to die for!
5. Dang Coconut Chips
Fav Flav: Caramel Sea Salt
The 411: Vegan, gluten free, non-GMO, no cholesterol, good source of fiber, high in lauric acid. Only 3 ingredients, coconut, coconut sugar, and sea salt.
My Take: Simple addicting. Delicious on it’s own for a little snack, or on top of yogurt, oatmeal, or in trail mix or cereal!
6. Go Lo Foods Dark Hazelnut Spread
The 411: It’s sugar free, gluten free, dairy free, Paleo, Vegan, low sodium, and Kosher. It’s only 65 calories per Tablespoon and contains 5.5g fiber and only 1 net carb.
My Take: I like to call this “healthy Nutella.” It doesn’t taste identical to Nutella, but I almost prefer it now. It has a stronger hazelnut flavor along with dark chocolate!
7. Go Lo Foods [36 Calorie] Cookies
The 411: They contain 0g fat, less than 1/4g of sugar, and only 36 calories per cookie with a whopping 13g fiber, 7g of protein, and only 2 net carbs PER COOKIE (and they’re big!)!
My Take: These cookies are insane. You may think these delicacies are too good to be true, but I promise that with one bite, these soft and chewy cookies will cure your sweet tooth! They’re totally my new secret weapon for my late night snacking and sweet tooth! 1 cookie and a glass of water and I’m good to go!
8. cruncha ma-me
Fav Flav: Onion & Chive
The 411: cruncha ma-me is an all natural, high protein, non-GMO Verified, gluten-free and vegan, freeze-dried edamame veggie snack.
My Take: Perfect for snacking on the go, cruncha ma-me edamame snacks come in six delicious flavors and are rich in plant-based protein from non-GMO soybeans.
9. Dole Fruit Squish’ems
Fav Flav: Apple
The 411: BPA free packaging, non-GMO, gluten free, kosher, only 60 calories, 100% fruit, no sugar added.
My Take: They’re easy to grab and go for healthy snacking on busy days. Plus you don’t need a spoon! These aren’t just for kids, I eat them in the car al the time!
10. The Scoopie™
The 411: Made the same standard size as the scooper provided in most protein powders/supplement jars, The Scoopie™ has an added funnel with a spout smaller than the circumference of a water bottle opening for accurate pouring. With The Scoopie™, you simply scoop the protein or liquid, snap on the attached funnel, flip and pour into the water bottle without the mess of powder or liquid spilling on you.
My Take: This little tool is genius! So simple! Just scoop, snap, flip & pour! I’m waiting for all protein powder companies to start including these in their jars! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve scooped something and attempted to pour it into a bottle and watched it pour all over my counter! Never again!
11. Slow Food For Fast Lives Savory Bars
Fav Flav: Savory Thai
The 411: Savory, not sweet ,health food bars.
My Take: These are awesome! There is nothing like these bars on the market! They’re made of vegetables, spices, brown rice, nuts and or seeds to create a savory granola style bar. I’ve never had anything like this, and they are super good! I tried so many sweet bars at expo that this savory veggie bar was a breathe of fresh air!
12. Rise Protein+ Bar
Fav Flav: Sunflower Cinnamon
The 411: Gluten free, non-GMO, dairy free, preservative free, vegan, 15g plant-based pea protein.
My Take: This bar is so ooey gooey good, I can’t believe it’s a protein bar! This particular flavor is nut free (made with sunflower seed butter) and contains only 5 ingredients, awesome!
13. The Chia Co. Chia Pod
Fav Flav: Mango
The 411: Each dairy free and vegan Chia Pod® provides 100% of your recommended daily intake of Omega 3 and 25% of your fiber.
My Take: I love the convenience of these little pods, they have a spoon built in, and are completely recyclable. They’re also made of only 3 ingredients!
Super cute guerrilla marketing for Bare Snacks.
The adorable Boom Chicka Pop girls passing out samples on their super cute scooters!
Loved this #kindawesome marketing for Kind. They handed out roses to all attendees walking in!
Close up of one of my fav new products, The Scoopie™ (read more in #10, above).
Scoopies on Scoopies on Scoopies! I went home with carrot orange : )
Hanging out with The Chia Co’s gigantic Chia Pods! I had the pleasure of meeting their founder and CEO John Foss! He’s a great guy! Both their product and packaging are exceptional.
Actual size Chia Pod that I snacked on at Expo. Banana was amaze, definitely my second fav flav.
Brad’s Raw Foods wins for my fav takeaway bag! Because Kale is Kool, DUH!
On day 2 of Expo, I stumbled upon this gigantic bag of The Chia Co Chia Seeds! Hilarious and so amazing!
Of course I had to stop and take a photo with Barbara’s famous Puffin! Guys, did you know he’s nameless? NAMELESS! He needs a cute name ASAP! Barbara, name your puffin! Their Cinnamon Puffins are one of my fav cereals, but as I’ve said before, I rarely buy cereal because I’ll literally eat the entire box in one day #problems! haha.
I stopped by the Dole booth to sample their new Shakers! Now made with fruit AND VEGGIES, and Greek yogurt! All you do is add fresh fruit juice, and shake. No blender required!
Of course it wouldn’t be Expo West without some excellent fashion! Above are the Sunfood girls “daring to go bare!”
Three Twins Ice Cream custom pants with their packaging all over… AMAZING! I need RFFMBT carrot print workout pants!
Super adorable veggie headpieces for Slow Food For Fast Lives.
How cute are the Chobani Chef Coats? Love the evil eye embroidered on. My Armenian family is REALLY into the evil eye, but we call it Char Atchk!
The Chobani booth was set up to be like their restaurant in Soho! They even made some of their original recipes from Chobani Soho for us to sample at Expo. Loved their ideas, I’m definitely remaking some of these at home! I have to visit Cho Soho one day! AHH!
After hanging out with the Chobani crew for a little, I grabbed a Key Lime Flip and browsed some more booths. Next stop Vega!
The Vega group was hysterical! I had the most fun at this booth! Every once in a while, the entire team did sets of burpees next to their booth and got everyone all riled up. They have SO much energy!!! It must be the Vega! They’re also super knowledgable about nutrition. I must’ve sampled every product and flavor they had and asked 10 million questions.
I fell in love with the “Suja Beach House!” Their booth was fabulous and I loved sipping on the new Suja Essentials and chatting with their Co-Founder Annie!
I got to hangout with my new friends at Go Lo Foods and snacked on their delish 36 calories cookies!
I also got to have a little fiesta with the Cabo Chips team and their owner Christian! Their booth looked like an authentic cantina, complete with Photo Booth and sombreros! Olé!
And now for my favorite part, I totally stalked the Annie’s Homegrown booth because obviously I’m obsessed with their bunnies (as seen in the background of my blog)!
I saw these adorable custom bandanas with their bunny “Bernie” all over them as part of their decoration. Every time I walked by their booth, I stared at them with envy, and on the last day of Expo, a member of the Annie’s team grabbed a bandana from underneath their product, handed it to me, and said, “here, you need this!!!” BEST. DAY. EVER.!!!!! I folded it up and wore it as a headband for the rest of the day!
Thank you Annie’s Homegrown for my favorite new accessory!
I hope you little bunnies had a great weekend!
Let me know if you try any of my picks from Expo West!
Health & Happiness
xo Catherine
These gift with purchase Victoria’s Secret duffles are the best weekend bags!
My go to travel snacks:
Half of us on our way to Big Bear for the weekend. Guess who drove? Yours truly!
View from our cabin.
Off to go skiing the next morning!
Kat, Beth, & Jessica getting ready to walk to the mountain.
Julio and his sweet Dr. Pepper board.
Chiristia and her natural swagger.
About to take the GoPro down the slopes!
Josh and I on the lift. We were the only 2 skiers out of 11 people. I’d like to say that we are WAY cooler than the rest of the gang. jkjk. But really, skiers are so much better!!! hahaha. “Skies for life” -Johnny Tsunami
Christia & Corey gearing up.
Corey, Beth, Josh, & Steph taking a ski break.
Steph & Charity getting their grub on.
Jess getting pumped up for snowboarding.
Christia and I being snow bunnies. This was right before my skis were stolen. As you can see, they are right behind me in this photo. The short little white ones to the left of my head!!! Ughhhh. Everyone stayed at our table while Steph & I left the group for 10 minutes, came back, and my skis were gone and replaced with someone else’s! Rrrrr! I was actually pretty calm but bummed more than anything because all I wanted to do was ski! I went to the Bear Mountain Rental Shop and they actually loaned me a free pair of skis for the rest of the day! Thanks Bear!!! You saved my day!
Christia, Corey & I on the chairlift.
Packing the car up at the end of the weekend to head home. We had so much shiz you would’ve thought we were going on a 2 week trip haha.
Last month Natural Delights asked me if I would be a guest judge for the recipe contest at the Annual Yuma Medjool Date Festival! Me, a guest judge? WHATTT?! So cool! I love everyone at Natural Delights and I loveeee dates, so I was really excited to visit Yuma again for the festival. Brett (my lovely bunny model) also came along for the festival!
The trip started off with necessary bathroom mirror selfies (should I say us-ie?). We’re such girls.
Then we boarded the plane and prepared for takeoff.
Unfortunately our plane had different plans as our right engine started smoking! Sooooo we deplaned waited for a new aircraft.
I don’t know if I have talked about my bad luck with planes before, but I am literally always delayed, cancelled, or end up with a broken plane!
After our new plane arrived we were off to Yuma, AZ!
First cactus sighting at the airport!
The next morning, Brett and I woke up to a gorgeous Arizona sunrise and enjoyed coffee and breakfast at our hotel before heading to the festival.
We got to meet Miss Medjool! SO FREAKING AWESOME!
Brett and I had some free time to roam around the festivals so for our first stop, we explored the gallery where they had gorgeous photos of the Medjool date growers from Natural Delights.
They even had Medjool date art created by local kids! Seriously too cute for words!
Had to take a photo with the giant fork in downtown Yuma, because Im cool like that.
Brett and I made our way to the 
Our shakes were to die for! We downed them within minutes.
Standing with the recipe contest sign! Eeeeeeek!
Then it was time for the main event; the recipe contest. Look at the excitement on my face, it just screams “DATESSSSSS!”
We got to try so many incredible recipes submitted by local date enthusiasts.
And the winner wasssssss: the most incredible salty sweet cheese loaf with date and nut coating. The judges and I couldn’t get enough!
All of the Judges and the winner of the 2013 Recipe Contest!
To end an already amazing day, I did an on camera interview speaking about using dates for natural healthy sweetener in lightened up recipes! Brett and I had so much fun sampling dates from all of the vendors and getting to hangout with the Natural Delights team. It’s always a tasty and fun time visiting Natural Delights!
In attendance were these fineeeee bloggers:
I arrived in Yuma to sunny skies at a warm 103 degrees and tons of Natural Delights goodies in my air conditioned hotel room!
Night one started with a happy hour full of Medjool date appetizers like mascarpone stuffed dates, and sweet Medjool date salsa.
After happy hour we made our way to Glen Vandervoort’s house for a beautiful dinner with other Bard Valley Medjool Date growers and their families. The Medjool date appetizers continued with prosciutto wrapped dates, and an olive date tapenade that was to die for. Just think, salty sweet deliciousness. I will be sharing the original recipe with you this week!
I came home from dinner to turndown and a box of Bard Date Company chocolate covered dates from Dave & Debbie Mansheim’s shop 
The next morning, we all met in the conference room for breakfast, history of Natural Delights Medjool Dates, and a rundown of their current and upcoming products.
Natural Delights is now offering Snack Packs of Medjool dates and their super popular date rolls. I love the convenience of these mini bags. They make for a great healthy on the go snack! I actually wish these would be in the check out lines at Whole Foods and other grocery stores. I would definitely grab mini bags of fresh Medjool dates versus a bag of candy any day!
Glen Vandervoort brought us freshly harvested medjool dates straight off of his tree for us to try during breakfast. Words cannot even describe how divine fresh dates are. They literally taste like caramel. For the rest of the day, all we (the bloggers) could talk about was how insanely amazing the fresh dates were!
After breakfast we visited the medjool date gardens!
We had the opportunity to go up in the cherry picker and harvest dates from a 30ft tree.
Safety First! Andrew Costanza: Bard Valley Medjool Date Growers Association’s Director of Compliance and Standards got us in our sweet harnesses before going up in the trees. How fab do Alyssa (
When dates are growing, they are covered in cloth bags to prevent birds from eating them, and any from falling to the ground. In order to harvest dates we shook the bags, untied the string holding the bag together at the bottom, and then let the ripened dates fall out of the bag and onto a tray.
Once the dates fall onto the trays, they are checked and sorted depending on their ripeness. As you can see the yellow date closest to the front is not yet ripe, the date in the center is only partly ripe, and the last one is just perfect.
Theresa (
Beth from 
“The Big Six”
Me standing with one of “The Big Six” Medjool date trees. As you can tell, they are soooo tallll!
After frolicking in the date gardens, we arrived at 
Health and safety required us to wear these super chic hairnets and visitor passes while inside. #lunchladychic
While at Datepac, we watched the dates make their way from being washed to sealed up in their packages.
After being washed, the dates go one by one down a conveyer belt which takes individual photos of each date with a fancy shmancy state of the art camera. Once the computer system receives each image, it determines the date’s size. A brief puff of air then blows each date onto next next conveyer belt according to it’s size. So high tech!
The packing grade scale doesn’t just go by size. It actually goes from highest quality and largest date, down to lowest quality and smallest date. The quality is determined by how tight or puffy the skin of the date is.
It was amazing to see how much of the process was actually done by hand. In order to sort the dates, it must be done by (extremely clean) bare hands to feel the skin’s texture.
We even got a chance to sort the dates and see if we could tell the difference between jumbo, large, extra fancy, fancy, mini, and confection.
After dates are sorted, they go to the packaging area.
Dates on dates on dates.
Another fun part of Datepac that we got to explore was the Date Roll area! We watched them make some fresh pistachio date rolls. The lower quality (not so pretty, but still tasty) dates are ground up (kind of like sausage), rolled in their topping, and then sliced up and packaged.
After our tour of Datepac, we had a beautful lunch at 
Once we got back to the hotel from lunch, we had a social media break for a couple of hours before our next event. Andrew (Director of Compliance and Standards) asked if any of us wanted to go on a spontaneous trip to the sand dunes in California. Funny because we were staying in Arizona! Five of us we’re up for the adventure, and away we went!
The sand dunes were absolutely gorgeous.
On our little adventure, we also made a quick stop in Mexico. Just kidding! Kind of…
We were so close to the border. No joke! We were in Arizona, California, and Mexico all within 15 minutes! Andrew dared us to go and poke our fingers between the border fence, but none of us took the dare, haha! The sign was a bit intimidating!
Kim from 
Cynthia (
After our trip to Mexico (ha) it was time for a Date Shake Competition! All of the bloggers were randomly paired into groups of two and we had a huge variety of ingredients to use. Nicole (
After our wild adventure to Mexico and Date Shake Competition, we had our final fiesta at 
The next morning a few of us who had later flights went on a tour of the 
First day of orders!
Day two of orders!
After I landed, Luc picked me up at the airport and we took the train home to surprise Tammy. I wish we filmed her reaction, it was priceless and something I will never forget! I walked into her house and she was photographing her sugar flowers and started SCREAMING! It was sooooo cute. I totally bawled my eyes out since I hadn’t seen her for an entire year!Reunited and it feels so goooood!
I woke up in Holland to flowers and a gift from Tammy!
About 5 lbs of Haribo gummies from The Netherlands! The flavors are sooo much better than the American Haribo bears! Trust me, I’m a gummy expert haha.
This morning, Tammy and I walked to breakfast in Breda, Holland.
Birthday massage from a Dutch stranger! There was a group of students from a Physical Therapy school who were offering shoulder massages for practice hours. I suggest they do this everyday!
I thought this was hilarious! Luckily Tammy can translate menus for me!
Birthday matcha green tea latte with soy milk!
Birthday bagel: Sun dried tomato bagel with pesto and sun dried tomato cream cheese. omg. I. love. tomatoes. Favorite fruitveggie! I have to learn how to make this spread!
On our way home from breakfast, Tammy and I stopped by the grocery store and guess what? I found Dutch almond milk! SCORE!
Tammy is the owner of