18 Rabbits!

Isn’t that the cutest name ever??? That’s what I thought when I went to the website and their graphics are cute too very modern Alice in Wonderland 🙂 So I just had to try their product….oh packaging how you draw me in like a 3 year old child to candy. So I ordered it online and a few days later I received this

Even the box is cute!!!! And I immediately received a delivery confirmation email, nice touch. And this was what was inside….its keeps getting better! my husband (JQ) was probably very confused as to why I was so excited but it was just SO CuTe!!! O.o

So they have granola, granola bars and jr granola bars. I decided I wanted to try the granola. The three flavors they have are:

Veritas Granola-Hazelnut, Walnut, Cacao Nibs, & flaxseed (wheat free)
Gracious Granola-Pecans, Almonds, Maple, Coconut (wheat free)
Felicitas Granola-Chia, Sunflower Seed, Honey, Bing Cherries (wheat & nut free)

Okay so a warning for those that have actual nut or gluten allergies this product was made in a plant that processed wheat, peanuts, and tree nuts….so beware. That would be my first comment on something they could change but since I am none of the three I just dug in 🙂

The only one that blew me over was the Gracious Granola. That had a really nice coconut flavor. I shared some with a few different friends at different times and they all really liked it too.

I neither saw nor tasted cacao nibs in the Veritas or cherries in the Felicitas so I was a bit disappointed. Also with these two they were a bit tasteless and left a residue in your mouth. Also the clusters could have been bigger for eating by the handful. One last complaint the walnuts in Veritas where too big (or clusters too small) it was too much of a contrast. But the walnuts did have a nice sweet coating on them which I discovered when I fished them out so that I could go onto the next step of my review process.

18 ways to enjoy

Since I didn’t really enjoy Veritas and Felicitas straight from the bag I decided to try and find a way I would enjoy them and score!!!

I really liked eating Felicitas (pink bag) on a parfait. I spooned unsweetened whole fat yogurt onto a cup and topped it with cooked down peaches and a healthy shake of the granola and it was delicious much better then it would have been with just the cooked peaches. The contrast was perfect and it was nice that it wasn’t too sweet. Did I remember to take a picture? No. Did I remember to devour it…yes.

I decided to use Veritas to make granola bars. Like I said I had to fish out the walnuts, they were too big to use with the recipe especially since I wanted JQ to try it and he doesn’t like large chunks of nuts. I decided to try to make a chocolate chip granola bar since I thought the Veritas would have chocolate undertones since it supposedly has cacao nibs in it.

No bake (18 rabbit) Chocolate Chip Granola Bar

1/2 stick butter/coconut oil
1/2 cup brown sugar/honey/agave
3/4 cup almond meal
1/4 cup flax seed
2 1/2 cup granola (18 rabbit)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Melt butter/coconut oil. If using brown sugar add at this point and cook until sugar crystals are dissolved. If not using sugar as soon as the butter is melted remove from heat and stir in honey or agave. Next stir in almond meal, flax seed, granola, and cinnamon into oil/sweetener mixture off the heat. Then stir in chocolate chips. Press evenly into an 8×8 sprayed baking dish. Chill in refrigerator. After a few hours cut up into 9 squares. Enjoy!

I used brown sugar this time in the recipe since I ran out of honey (and money to buy more) it didn’t stick together as well as I liked so the bars had to be cut bigger to keep it from crumbling apart. Also it was a bit sweeter than I liked (JQ liked it fine) so I have to figure out how to get it to stick together better but with less sweetener….any tips?

*FYI I did get this product for free but the review is based on how it actually tasted in my mouth not on the lack of impact on my pocket*