Tag Archives: dried fruit

RIND It Up

Posted on by 3 comments
RIND Orchard Blend (front) with big pieces of persimmon with their rinds, of course.

RIND Orchard Blend (front) with big pieces of persimmon with their rinds, of course.

 

Did you know that rinds are gold — containing more fiber and a higher concentration of nutrients than the flesh of the fruits themselves?

Matt Weiss knows, as did his great-grandmother who had her own health food store in Michigan back in the 1920s that sold bulk natural foods. Following in her footsteps, Weiss has come up with RIND, dried fruit with skins intact.

The fruit snack is just that — simply fruit, with no added sugar, sulfites or additives.

Read more

Fruit to Take Along Anywhere

Posted on by 9 comments
(Front to back) Tangerine, cantaloupe and Asian pear -- freeze-dried.

(Front to back) Tangerine, cantaloupe and Asian pear — freeze-dried.

 

That’s exactly what Crispy Green is.

The New Jersey company takes fresh fruit and freeze dries them before packaging them in convenient pouches that you can throw in your purse or backpack or stash in a desk drawer or car glove box.

Crispy Green offers seven different fruits: apple, mango, Asian pears, banana, cantaloupe, pineapple and tangerine.

You have to love an ingredients label that includes only one thing. What’s in the freeze-dried Asian pears? Only Asian pears.

Read more

Fruit and Nothing But the Fruit — Plus A Food Gal Giveaway

Posted on by 8 comments

Peeled Snacks' "Paradise found'' variety with organic bananas, mangoes and pineapple.

In this day and age with ingredients lists a mile long on food packaging, you have to hand it to the “Much-ado-about-mango” one.

Its ingredient list?

Organic mangoes.

That’s it.

Peeled Snacks of Brooklyn makes conveniently packaged dried, organic fruit that has no added sugar, no preservatives, no sulfites and no gluten.

As a result, this dried fruit actually tastes like real fruit and not a souped-up sweetened version of it.

The resealable snack pouches come in 10 varieties, from “Cherry-go-round” (organic cherries) to “Farmer’s Market Trio” (organic raisins, apples and cherries).

Recently, I had a chance to try some sample bags.

Although the fruit is dried, it still has a nice soft texture. I can’t get over how vibrant the fruit tastes when it’s not masked by sugar, as is the case with so many other dried fruit products.

I especially liked the “Paradise found” with its thick, tender chunks of dried banana (none of those thin, hard chips here), along with pieces of mango and bits of pineapple. Call me a purist, but my favorite was probably the “Much-ado-about-mango,” which is just big shards of mango the color of a sunset and the taste of the tropics.

Just mango.

One serving has about 120-130 calories, depending upon the variety.

Tuck a bag into your child’s lunch. Or toss one into your purse, workout bag or carry-on luggage.

A 4.4-ounce bag is $3.49 and is available at select Whole Foods, CVS and Starbucks stores.

Available in resealable bags.

Contest: Two lucky Food Gal readers will get a chance to try a free variety-sampler pack of Peeled Snacks (a $25 value). Entries, limited to those in the continental United States, will be accepted through midnight PST Sept. 8. Winners will be announced Sept. 10.

How to win?

Read more