Graze Box Review - Salsa Mexicanos & Berry Compote

What with holidays and changing my Graze deliveries to twice a month, it’s been a while since my last review. So this week I’ve got three exciting new snacks to talk about. These were delivered in three separate weeks during July, August and September.

Graze have been coming up with lots more new and interesting snacks, which are all, of course, bursting with healthy nutrients. Each Graze box is accompanied by a leaflet which provides a nutritional breakdown of each snack and a list of ingredients. And the latest leaflet gives a sneak preview of a whole new type of snack coming soon.

Here’s a look at the new snacks received during my last three deliveries.

Graze Box Delivery Date: 27 July 2012

This week’s Graze box included previous favourites: ‘White Chocolate and Raspberry Cheesecake’, Fruit and Seed Flapjack’ and ‘Green Olives with Chilli and Garlic’.

New this week was:

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Salsa Mexicanos

This is a fantastic option for slimmers with just over 50 calories for the entire snack. This means it has a snack rating of ‘Extra Light’. Salsa Mexicanos or ‘Tomato salsa fresca with mexicanos’ is basically a small punnet of light rice cakes accompanied by a portion of dipping salsa.

There are eight crispy rice cakes which have a mild, cheesy tomato flavour. They’re so tasty on their own I had to ensure I left some to dip into the salsa. Salsa is nearly always a good option for dieters because it’s tomato based which generally keeps the calories low.

This tomato salsa fresco contains red peppers, tomatoes, onion, tomato paste, lime juice, chilli puree and coriander leaf. This has to be one of the best salsa dips I’ve ever tasted. Although there’s chilli in the ingredients, it’s not at all hot and it goes perfectly with the Mexicanos (rice cakes). I just wish I could buy this in a shop.

I definitely want to see this snack again so it gets a rating of LOVE.

Calories for the punnet: 50.7.

Graze Box Delivery Date: 10 August 2012

This week’s Graze box included previous favourites: ‘Jaffa Cake’, Hickory Smoked Nuts and Seeds’, and ‘Korai Chutney’.

New this week was:

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Summer Berry Compote

This snack is timed perfectly to make the most of those abundant gorgeous summer fruits. Summer Berry Compote is another dipping snack but this time it’s a sweet snack rather than savoury one. The dipping part is the berry compote made with raspberries, strawberries and blackcurrants. And the dippers are three pieces of wholemeal shortbread.

I loved this snack and was surprised, considering there were shortbread nibbles, to see it has a Graze rating of ‘Light’. It also has a ‘Fibre’ symbol meaning it’s a good source of fibre.

This whole snack is an absolute delight. Peeling back the top you instantly smell the sweet berry mix. But just as strong is the buttery smell of shortbread. I rarely touch shortbread considering it’s one of the highest calorie biscuits. But this snack has only 77 calories (according to the nutrition booklet) so I was happy to tuck in.

I have to say these shortbread biscuits are perfect. They’re all buttery and crumbly with a lovely wholegrain crunchiness. I honestly didn’t want to dip them into the berry compote at all. As it was, I left most of the compote (which was very sweet and delicious) as the biscuits were just too good on their own and didn’t need anything extra.

Naturally, this snack gets a rating of LOVE.

NOTE: (The Graze website is showing this snack as having 97 calories, 20 calories more than the nutrition booklet. Sadly, I suspect the booklet is a printing mistake as 97 sounds more reasonable for a shortbread snack.)

Calories for the punnet: 77.4.

Graze Box Delivery Date: 7 September 2012

Having been away and postponed a snack, it was eagerly awaiting my Friday Graze box. Friday came and went, but no Graze box. Saturday and Monday also passed by and still no Graze delivery.

After all these months, not one has ever missed its delivery date. I was sure it wouldn’t be down to Graze, but more likely the post office. Still, I sent an email to Graze. They got back to me very fast to say the box had been posted on time but they credited my account half the cost of the box.

As luck would have it, the next day it did turn up. Unfortunately, the one new snack in there was one of their ‘Eat me I’m fresh’ snacks. It was supposed to have been consumed by the 8th but didn’t arrive until the 11th. Nevertheless, I still gave it a try.

This week’s Graze box also included previous favourites: ‘Love Mix’, ‘Apple and Cinnamon Flapjack’, and ‘Tom Yum Yum’.

And the new snack this week was:

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Cherry Tomato, Basil and Puglian Pesto Focaccia

Inside this punnet was a rectangular shaped piece of focaccia bread. It’s made with wholemeal and white wheat flour, topped with sundried tomatoes with pesto and some gorgeous smelling herbs including basil and oregano.

I squeezed it a bit and it still seemed soft so I felt tempted to try some. The bread has a delicious tomatoey flavour with some lovely crunchy bits inside. Reading the ingredients list it says it contains cracked wheat and sunflower seeds. I love these types of bread but don’t normally eat them myself since they’re usually high in calories.

But this snack, which has a ‘Graze Light’ rating as well as the ‘Fibre’ symbol has 141 calories which really wasn’t too bad. I ended up eating most of it, despite it being past the best before date. It also gets my third rating of LOVE.

Calories for the punnet: 141.

This week the nutrition booklet provides a preview to a new type of snack ‘under 100 calories’ which is coming soon called Healthy Popping Corn.

It says:

‘Introducing our new Healthy Popping Corn… Naturally low in calories and high in fibre, it’s simply a maize-ing!’

Since they say it’s hot and fresh from your microwave, it seems like we get to pop our own corn at home. They supply the corn kernels and flavouring and we make when we want it. What a great idea and I can’t wait to try it out.

If you want to try out a Graze box for yourself, you can do so for free by visiting Graze and using this code: 9HZTPXFD.

Simply browse through the selection and choose your favourite four items. Enter the code (9HZTPXFD). and you’ll get your first box at no cost.

Don’t worry, you’re not signing up for any long term contract. If you don’t want any more, you just cancel. And if you want to keep receiving Graze boxes, you can choose as many of as few deliveries as you want.

Happy grazing!

For more Graze snack reviews click HERE.

© Diets and Calories 2012