We had quite the summer around here. Actually, it wasn’t really “around here”. As you saw, I went to Puerto Rico in June, to the GIG Conference in Florida in July, and hit Maryland while I was at it. I was home for a whopping 2 days, then packed my kids and my mom in my car, and took off on a 19-day road trip. We visited the Petrified Forest, the Grand Canyon, Sacramento, Redwood National Park, Salt Lake City, Arches National Park, Mesa Verde National Park, the Four Corners Monument, and a whole bunch of other stuff along the way.
We ate a LOT of snacks in the car. My mom and I aren’t that big on eating out, especially when I only get 14 miles to the gallon. :/ But we followed our usual travel tips and did great. If you’re wondering about the children, they did an awesome job! The last two days, driving home, got to be a little annoying, but otherwise I couldn’t have asked for better children in my car. 🙂
August, however, has been a pain in my rear. We’re getting settled, back into a good rhythm, with both boys in school all day, and a shelf full of stuff to review.
One of those things is El’s Gluten-Free snacks.
I was super excited when they emailed me. I mean, how often do you hear about gluten-free bagel chips? Not very, unless it’s someone complaining that they can’t find any.
El’s Bagel Snaps 
are very crunchy, and pretty thinly sliced. They have a very slight sweetness to them, but also a hint of spicy, which gets you more after-the-fact (but not bad). It’s an interesting flavor combination (a good interesting), though not very powerful, so it should easily integrate with whatever you are adding it to.
You could make Chex mix with bagel chips! Honestly, I think that’s about the only kind of thing I ever remember bagel chips in.
Corice loves eating them by themselves. The little spicy/sweet flavor has her all excited. The dark spots you see are flaxseeds. That makes them healthy, right? Well, they’re not too bad for you. Just a little less than a third of the calories are from fat. It’s a lot of carbs, but you get 2g fiber and 1g protein in a serving, more than you would probably expect from bagels.
El’s gluten free Medleys is “a zesty mix” of pretzels, bagel chips, corn nuts, flaxseed corn chips, and potato chips, giving you 2g protein, 2g fiber, a lot of carbs, and a little over a third of your calories from fat.
The spiciest part of this mix is the potato chips. If you’re not a spicy person, and you eat them on their own, they might just get you. But with the rest of the mix, you should be fine. 🙂
I’m spicy (that’s right, I said it), so this mix just seems like no big deal to me. (It’s definitely less than I had in my lettuce wrap “tacos” at lunch.) The corn nuts are not an addition you often see to snack mixes, and there are no real nuts to be found. It tastes good, has a nice crunch, and each piece has its own level of crunchiness. All in all, a good, fun snack.
I can’t get Corice away from them.
El’s gluten free Medleys and Snaps are tested to ensure that they do not exceed 5ppm gluten. If you’re wondering what that really means, the FDA’s proposed limit is currently set to 20, so it is lower than that. They also have no dairy products, nuts, eggs, trans-fats, hydrogenated oil, high fructose corn syrup, preservatives, artificial flavors, or cholesterol.
So give El’s a try, especially if you are one of those people who has been craving bagel chips!