Lucky Smart Snax Review and Giveaway!

** The giveaway is now closed. The winner will be announced and contacted shortly**

It's been a really interesting experience going back to study after 13 years. First time around was straight after high school when I lived on campus and did all the usual sorts of things uni students do! I did well academically but I could have (and should have) done a lot more work.

I remember long nights cramming for exams fuelled by lots of caffeine and sugary snacks. There was a 24 hour convenience store a short walk from my building and I used to go for midnight walks with friends to stock up on Sara Lee Ultra Choc ice cream!

This time around I am in my 30s and the mum of 3 young children. Needless to say it's been an entirely different experience! These days I study whenever I get a spare moment - waking up at 5am to get an hour of reading time before anyone else is up. Working feverishly during my baby's nap time to get as much done as possible before he wakes up. 10pm is about as late as I can stay up at night both in terms of being able to concentrate and to ensure I get enough sleep and not feel like a zombie the next day.

My study snacks have also changed. Definitely no more chocolate ice cream for me seeing as I avoid both sugar and dairy these days!

My go-to snack for the past year or so has been nuts. I've been buying them in bulk from a local organic food store and making up snack mixes, bliss balls, biscuits and toasted muesli with them. They are filling, packed with nutrients and good fats and best of all they keep me going when I don't always have time to eat a proper meal.

So when I was offered the chance to review the new range of Lucky Smart Snax thanks to Product Talk by Nuffnang I was so excited! I am already a big fan of the Lucky brand and in fact I reviewed their range of nuts for Christmas baking last year which you can find here.

So what are Lucky Smart Snax? They are a range of 6 snack mixes of nuts, seeds and dried fruit with each mix designed to meet the specific needs of individual bodies. Some have just nuts, some have nuts and seeds, some have dried fruit and one even has a little chocolate!

Lucky Smart Snax Digestive – Oven Roasted Almonds, Peanuts, Hazelnuts, Cranberries, Sunflower Kernels and Pepitas. The dietary fibre in this blend will help maintain a healthy digestive system.

Lucky Smart Snax Recovery – Oven Roasted Almonds, Peanuts, Cashews and Pepitas. This blend is a good source of protein which is vital for growth, muscle development and recovery from exercise.

Lucky Smart Snax Womens – Cashews, Almonds, Brazil Nuts and Walnuts. This blend is a souce of  Vitamin E, iron and monounsaturated fat, as well as calcium, folate and selenium.

Lucky Smart Snax Cardio – Almonds, Sultanas, Cranberries and Blueberries. This is a sweet and very high energy blend to help keep you pumping through the day.

Lucky Smart Snax Power – Oven Roasted Peanuts, Almonds, Walnuts, Hazelnuts and Dark Chocolate. This sweet and toasty blend gives a boost of natural energy.

Lucky Smart Snax Low Carb – Brazil Nuts, Peanuts, Pepitas, Almonds and Walnuts. This tasty blend of nuts and seeds is naturally low in carbohydrates and a great snack option.

I love that these are not only delicious but also the real deal in terms of healthy snacks -the nuts are all either raw or oven roasted with no extra oil added, they are not too heavy on the dried fruit so are mostly low in sugar, and as nuts and seeds are packed with goodness they are a nutrient dense snack that actually fills you up. My personal favourite has been the Digestive blend which is oven roasted and has just a little sweetness from the dried cranberries.

I've had a bag of Smart Snax to graze on at nearly every morning study session since I received them, as well as a bag stashed in my handbag for when I'm out. I have to say they have also been a lifesaver at exam time when I didn't really feel like eating (too many butterflies in my tummy) but needed something light and nutritious to get me through a 2 hour science exam.

The new range of Lucky Smart Snax are available in the dried fruit and nut aisle of Coles, Woolworths and independant grocers, near the baking products and they retail for $4.99 per pack.

Giveaway!


I am really excited that I have a Lucky Smart Snax hamper to give away which includes all 6 products in the range. This giveway is open to Australian residents only and to enter, just leave a comment below answering the question:

Which Lucky Smart Snax is your favourite and why?

The competition closes in 1 week on  Friday 21st November at 5pm so make sure you get in quick! To find out more about Lucky Smart Snax you can visit their website or get to your local supermarket and grab a pack for yourself.

Good luck!!!

* This is not a sponsored post. I received product for review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

MyProsperity (Review)

Recently I was approached by Nuffnang to review an online personal finance platform called MyProsperity, as part of their Nuffnang Product Talk. Now I know at first glance finance has very little to do with a mostly food-based blog but bear with me!

As a stay at home mum of 2 little boys and (spoiler alert!) with bub #3 due in October, life is very busy! It's all too easy to rely on takeaways and cut corners to make things a little easier. However, I have found all those little things cost money and can add up very quickly. My solution has simply been to become more organised.

Over the past 12 months we have made lots of positive changes that are already having a great impact on our financial situation. Things like buying some of our basic food items from Aldi, making my own laundry powder and other cleaning products and cutting out most the processed (and pricey) food that we used to eat.

The bottom line is I want to be able to stay home with my kids, at least for the next few years, and keeping track of our money is a crucial part of that. MyProsperity is a free, simple and secure way to handle your finances.

So how does it work?

You visit the MyProsperity website and sign up for free, which only takes a few minutes. The hardest part was coming up with a complicated enough password (which is actually very reassuring as I know it will be secure).

You link up all your existing bank accounts, credit cards, loans, shares, super and property. The program finds your accounts, gathers all your transactions and even values your car and house to give you an up to date picture of your net worth.

What is especially useful for us is seeing exactly where we are spending our money.

Despite having made a budget some time ago, it required a fair bit of work to open up the spreadsheet and manually enter our purchases. MyProsperity does all of this automatically and even categorises your spending as groceries, petrol, entertainment, travel etc. I did find some of my purchases were wrongly categorised. Anything I purchased online for example, was listed under online services rather than clothing or healthcare. It took about 10 minutes to go through and correct these categories so they are ready for next time.

Will we stick with it?

Definitely. I feel like we have only just scratched the surface of what MyProsperity can do for us but already I am loving having all of our information in one place and being able to see at a glance where our money is going. Seeing it all laid out is a great incentive to try and spend less!

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My top 3 tips for spending less on food:

1. Make your own

Lots of basic foods can be so easily made at home - pizza bases, stewed fruit, granola, cakes/muffins/biscuits and even almond milk - all at a fraction of the price you will find them at the supermarket and much better for you too.

2. Plan your meals

We have started shopping fortnightly and writing out a complete meal plan for that time. I do mine in Excel but you can just write on a piece of paper if that's easier. I choose a main meal for each night, making sure there will be enough leftover for my husband to take for lunch the next day. I then check the freezer and pantry and list out any ingredients we will need to buy. I add in anything we need for breakfast, kindy lunches and to stock the pantry with essentials and then I'm done. I print the list and head off shopping. At the end of the fortnight the fridge is practically empty and we haven't wasted a thing.

3. Cut out the crap

As I have mentioned before, we have made a real effort to cut out snack, junky and processed foods. I am very proud of the fact that Oscar's kindy lunchbox has never contained anything in a packet. I buy yoghurt in 1kg tubs (and planning on switching to homemade soon) and spoon it into his own little container, I make wraps and sandwiches, cut up fruit and vegetable sticks, add a homemade treat like a muffin or just some rice cakes with cream cheese. I did a review of the lunchbox we chose for him here and it has been working brilliantly with no need for any extra packaging or even gladwrap.

Full disclosure - I received a $50 Myer giftcard for my time in reviewing MyProsperity. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I have published this review in good faith.

Christmas Baking with Lucky Nuts

Recently I received a lovely gift bag of nuts from Lucky courtesy of Product Talk by Nuffnang. Just look at that haul! As a baker it made me very, very happy especially in the lead-up to Christmas which is the time of year when I cook with nuts.

I grew up watching my mum use Lucky nuts in her Christmas baking and they are what I turn to for special occasion baking too. I didn't actually realise it but Lucky almonds are all grown in Australia and in fact Lucky is the leading cooking nut brand in Australia, so they are definitely doing something right!

In case you can't see well enough I received a bag each of blanched, slivered and flaked almonds, walnuts, pine nuts, almond and hazelnut meals and 2 new products which I was very excited about.

Firstly was a bag of Easy Chef Oven Roasted Almond Meal, which as the packet says it basically a cheesecake base in a bag. So of course I had to make a cheesecake!

Secondly was a bag of Easy Chef Almond Crumble which is a mix of almond meal, flaked and slivered almonds with oats and again as the packet says, is a crumble topping in a bag. Perfect.

The walnuts didn't make it into my baking but I enjoyed them as a tasty mid-morning snack during the week. The pine nuts are set aside for pesto and the almond meal will be used in a gluten free almond shortbread recipe I am working on for Christmas. The blanched almonds will of course be decorating the tops of my Christmas cakes which aren't ready to bake yet.

I ended up making 4 desserts, perfect for Christmas for anytime really - some moist Choc Hazelnut Cakes, a Panforte Ice Cream, Almond Cheesecake and Blueberry Crumble Pie.I'm trying to cut back on sugar so some of my recipes use Natvia.

I hope you enjoy these recipes and if you would like to try any Lucky products for yourself, the full range is available in Coles with a smaller range available in Woolies and independent grocery stores.

Almond Cheesecake

Adapted from Lucky

For the crust
125g unsalted butter, melted
250g packet Lucky Oven Roasted Almond Meal
1 tbs Natvia for Baking (or 2tbs brown sugar)

For the filling
500g cream cheese
3 eggs
3/4 cup Natvia for Baking (or 3/4 cup caster sugar)
2 ts vanilla extract
1/2 cup pure cream
1/2 cup Lucky Flaked Almonds, toasted*

Lightly grease and line the base of a 23cm springform pan.

Mix together the Lucky Oven Roasted Almond Meal with the melted butter and Natvia. Spoon into the prepared tin and press over the base and up the sides. Place in the freezer to chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius (160 degrees fan-forced).

In a food processor or electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese and Natvia until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla and cream and beat for 3 minutes. Pour the mixture into the prepared base and bake for 35-40 minutes or until cheesecake is lightly golden and just set in the middle.

Remove and allow to cool to room temperature before chilling in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Decorate with toasted almonds. Serves 8-10.

Panforte Ice Cream

Adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz, p68

1 cup full cream milk
1/3 cup Natvia for Baking (or white sugar)
1/2 ts cinnamon
1/4 ts ground cloves
1/4 ts ground nutmeg
Zest of 1 orange
2 cups pure cream
4 large egg yolks
1 x 110g pack Lucky Slivered Almonds, toasted*

Warm the milk, Natvia/sugar, spices and orange zest in a medium saucepan. Remove the pan from the heat, cover and leave to steep for 30 minutes. Add the cream and rewarm the mixture.

In another large bowl whisk the egg yolks.

Pour the warm milk/cream over the yolks, whisking constantly, then pour the mixture back into the saucepan. Cook the custard over medium heat, stirring with a heatproof spatula, until it thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer into the cream. Mix thoroughly.

Place the bowl into an ice bath and stir the custard until it is cool.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the fridge before churning in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. Add the toasted almonds in the last few minutes of churning.

* To toast almonds place them on a large ungreased oven tray and bake at 170 degrees celsius for 10-12 minutes, stirring several times. Leave to cool    

Makes approx 1 litre.


Moist Choc Hazelnut Cakes

Adapted from Curtis Stone

90g Lucky hazelnut meal
125g dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa)
125g butter
pinch of salt
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
65g caster sugar
Plain flour for dusting (can use gluten free flour)
Butter for greasing
Raspberries for serve

Place a baking tray in the oven and preheat to 180 degrees celsius fan forced. Grease the inside of 6 metal dariole molds with butter and dust with flour. Set aside.

Melt the chocolate in a small bowl over a pan of simmering water, making sure the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl. Stir in the butter and remove from the heat.

Place the whole eggs, egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer for 5-7 minutes or until light, pale and foamy. Fold the melted chocolate into the eggs and then the hazelnut meal, mixing gently until well combined.

Spoon evenly into the prepared molds, place on the baking tray and bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 1-2 minutes, before turning out onto serving plates. Dust each one with icing sugar and serve with fresh raspberries. Makes 6.


Blueberry Crumble Pie

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Double Crusted Blueberry Pie in Baking from My Home to Yours, p361

Crust
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbs sugar
280g salted butter, very cold and cut into tablespoon size pieces
68g coconut oil, cold
About 1/2 cup ice water

Put the flour and sugar in a food processor and pulse just to combine the ingredients. Add the butter and coconut oil and pulse only until the butter and coconut oil are cut into the flour. Gradually add the water, a few tablespoons at a time, until the dough is moist and clumpy. You want to see some pieces of butter. Check to see if the dough will stick together if pinched, and keep pulsing until it does.

Tip the dough out onto a piece of cling wrap, bring it together into a disc and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before rolling out.

Roll out the dough on a floured work surface or in between 2 pieces of baking paper. Lay the dough out into a greased 9 inch pie pan and trim the edges. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Blind bake the pastry shell for 20 minutes, then remove the lining and bake for a further 5 minutes.

Filling
1 x 500g pack frozen blueberries
2 tbs sugar
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 tbs cornflour mixed with 2 tbs water

Place the blueberries, sugar and lemon zest and juice in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until the blueberries have thawed. Add the cornflour and water and cook for a further few minutes until the liquid has thickened and is clear and syrupy. Remove from the heat and cool for 10 minutes.

Crumble
1 pack Lucky Almond Crumble
80g unsalted butter
2 tbs raw sugar
1/2 ts ground cinnamon

In a medium bowl mix together the Almond Crumble, sugar and cinnamon. Rub in the butter using your fingertips until well combined..

To assemble
Spoon the filling into the prepared pie shell. Sprinkle over the crumble topping evenly over the filling leaving a small gap around the edges to show the gorgeous colour of the blueberries.

Bake in a preheated 180 degree oven (160 degrees fan forced) for approx 20 minutes until the topping is golden brown and the filling is bubbling.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving with a big dollop of cream.

This recipe makes 1 large 9 inch pie or 4 smaller pies.

Note - this is not a sponsored post however I did receive product for consideration. For more information see Product Talk by Nuffnang.