Garden Lites: Because Life is Flying and I Need Veggies to Fly With Me.

I can’t handle reviewing a product without telling you the story of how things really went down.

I was about to leave for a workout when FedEx pulled in my driveway. The deliveryman handed me the box. I jogged inside to put the items in the freezer as instructed.

Once inside I decided it was a good time to tell my husband not to eat the muffins and superfood veggie cakes. I needed to be around to take pictures of my kids enjoying the delicious morsels of gluten, dairy, and nut free goodness. That was my plan.

In my mind, I imagined myself having a nice little photo shoot and jotting down the descriptions of what my kids were saying about these muffins as they ate them. Then I pictured myself enjoying one of these muffins in the morning with a cup of coffee. I’d have my Bible open and sun streaming through the window. It was a beautiful daydream.

Instead, I am able to offer you something a little more raw and accurate. We gave these Garden Lites® (a company currently offering muffins, snacks and entrees.) a comprehensive test in the most authentic of circumstances at our house.

The day we received our Garden Lite shipment was the day of our oldest daughter’s first cross-country meet. She is in 6th grade. This is the only sport the school offers for 6th graders so we encouraged her to go for it. The only problem is, my husband and I know nothing about cross-country.

I was trying to be a prepared mom so I loaded up a cute little basket with pita chips, hummus, oranges and blueberry oat muffins from Garden Lites! I was pretty pumped that there were 4 muffins in the box and I have 4 kids, so you know, it was all working out great.

We arrived at the cross-country meet, headed to the start line and carried our food with us. Here was where things got interesting. No other parent or onlooker was carrying food. As soon as the race started, the large herd of people moved from one spot to the next. No one was sitting.

There we were, looking at everyone and wondering what was going on. I guess there really is no such thing as a spectator in this sport. I don’t know, I’m still learning. I’ll have to tell you how the next meet goes.

Our other three kids were so hungry, since we drove to the meet directly after school, that we just decided to come back to the car and have a picnic on the grass.

Everyone ate their blueberry oat muffins and they kindly saved the last one for Braelynn, the daughter who was running in the meet.

When Braelynn finished the race, we met her with some water and a cute, individually wrapped muffin. She smiled and seemed pleased to try something new.

In this particular test run with the muffins, I took note of a few key elements:

• My kids ate them and were glad to have their very own muffin.
• These were convenient and easy to grab. Zero food prep.
• They were nutritious!
• It was a fun, new thing for our family to taste.

By the weekend, we took the chocolate muffins and the superfood veggie cakes on the road with us!

This picture is a true depiction of snacks on the road. It is nice knowing that zucchini and carrot are listed as the first two ingredients. It is quite impressive that vegetables are always one of the first three ingredients in all Garden Lites products. I don’t know how they do it because the chocolate muffins tasted like chocolate, not something trying to taste like chocolate.

Again, I appreciated the individually wrapped factor. Because of this, I was able to put two in my purse for later emergency needs. You never know when a handy chocolate muffin full of veggies might be needed.

My favorite of all the items that showed up at our door were the superfood veggie cakes! I packed them for a lunch at great grandma and great grandpa’s house. We were going over to their new duplex for the first time and I didn’t want to bring anything that would make a mess or be too much trouble. I wanted something that was easy for the kids, but would also sustain them until dinner that evening at a family gathering.

These veggie cakes are A+.

In order to be completely honest, only one of my kids ate their whole veggie cake. However, I was shocked because these veggie cakes were ridiculously good, my kids need a few more tries and they will be one step close to #hookedonveggies! They were moist, flavorful, perfectly salted and savory. My mom and I ate two each and then my grandpa had three. After the kids were done, we had one left for Gram.

While we were finishing lunch, my mom and I were talking about how and where to buy an ample stash of these dynamos. Here is a link that will take you to a store locator where Garden Lite products are sold.

Check out that link to find a place near you to purchase.

In the meantime, we will continue awkwardly adjusting to our new status as cross-country parents. Thanks to Garden Lites, we now know what to bring with us on our next visit to great grandma and great grandpa’s house! I also know what the kids will enjoy eating on the road or when they come home from school. But most of all, I’m thankful for that one last chocolate muffin  waiting to meet me in a quiet coffee moment.

Call me prepared,

Lindsey Feldpausch 

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Garden Lites. The opinions and text are all mine.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Garden Lites. The opinions and text are all mine.