In my last post, I touched on Happy Planet’s new products and flavours at the Gluten-Free Expo.

In this post, I’m going a little deeper – having had the opportunity of tasting most of them now! And at different moments throughout the week which helped me test out how convenient they really can be.

Fresh Soups to Go

The variety of these soups is great. They come in 5 different flavours – 3 being organic!

I have to admit, I don’t own a microwave so when it was time to give one of these soups a try in the comfort of my own home I was a little out of luck.

I first played with the idea of pouring it in a pot and stir but figured, that’s not really grab-and-go so I did the next best thing from a microwave (which I SO don’t recommend!). I put it in my toaster oven!

Yeah, BAD idea! The containers are most definitely made for a microwave.

I was pleased with the taste and texture of the Organic French Lentil Soup that I enjoyed with a slice of whole wheat toast – toasted right in that same toaster oven :) It looks homemade. It has little chunks of cauliflower, red pepper and thyme.

The next day, I gave the Organic Portuguese Kale and White Bean Soup a go. It’s hearty and so tasty when it’s warm on a rainy, cold afternoon. I think this one could really go well with a little teaspoon of sour cream!

The last, but definitely not least, I took with me the West African Squash & Cashew Soup to work. Just the name makes my mouth water! It was pretty great waking up in the morning and grabbing one of these containers and putting it in my bag. Once lunchtime hit, I removed the seal and voilá!

I like that they’re single serve so that you can customize it depending on how you feel on that particular day. A little bit of grated cheese for a richer feel or warm it up as is for a little something simple!

Nut Smoothies

Smoothies are my thang – I can’t get away with saying ‘thang’, can I? Anyway, they’re what I do and love to live on!

So when I saw these new additions to the Happy Planet family, I was a curious.

They’re made with almonds and cashews – dairy AND soy free.

The flavours are: chocolate (which I couldn’t personally taste – I’m allergic to chocolate!), coffee (which I just had), vanilla chai (need I say more?), and salted caramel (yuh huh!).

I’ve enjoyed them solo as well as in my smoothie recipes.

My favorite has got to be the Salted Caramel. It has this defining hint of caramel that’s not too overpowering. It’s SO good on its own!

The mix I made with it was adding two stems of kale, a banana, and little protein powder for a fuller feel.

The second of my faves would be the Vanilla Chai. I like chai in general so I was pretty happy to learn about this flavour – you can really taste the chai.

With this one, I added a few frozen blueberries and blended it all together!

The other two landed in third for me – but again, I’m allergic to one so I didn’t get the chance to taste it myself.

Though a friendly neighbour gave it thumbs up!

I’m happy with Happy Planet’s new additions. I really am. At first, I thought I’d taste too much sugar in the smoothies but no, not really. I mean, you can taste they’re sweet but not yucky sweet – if you know what I mean.

And the soups, they do taste homemade!

Give them a go – they are available now at retailers throughout the Lower Mainland.