Foodiepages Feb 2017 box is here!

Hope everyone had a good new year and holidays!
Finally, I am able to get online more easily-I had computer issues, then Internet provider issues.
Bought a new modem from Amazon and managed to figure out the installation!

I ordered the Feb 2017 Foodiepages box as soon as I saw it was for sale, but had no idea at all what would be in the box.....
This was quite fun to open!

Unopened Foodiepages Box!!!

When I opened my box the first thing I saw was:

Product Card and Crinkle Paper. 

Under all the paper shreds were my food products, they were all very well wrapped up.

Every item was wrapped in bubble packaging.

Now, finally I will try some of the foods I received.
It is quite later here, so the seasonings will have to wait until later.
The first item I tried was Nuba Tisane.This is a hibiscus tea and comes in a 355ml glass bottle. The tea I received was a sugar free version.
The tea or herbal tea is very tart and refreshing, very similar to cranberry in tartness.
The hibiscus flowers for this tea are grown in Egypt and the tea is brewed from the whole dried flowers to provide more benefits.
As far as I know there is no caffeine in this drink and it should be ok for most people (check with a doctor or nutritionist if you are not sure).
I also like that this tisane has no calories and it would be nice to use in a drink or mixed with sparkling water.

1

Nuba Tisane Cold and Refreshing.

Nutrition Info!

The rest of my review is coming soon.

The next item I tried was the Pea Pops made by Three Farmers.
Sample size 28g, value $1.70/ Reg size 90g cost $4.99
The flavour is DILL PICKLE POW and the title does live up to its name. The dill flavour was quite strong and tart- but in a good way.
I did find there was quite a bit of salt for a small portion- 28g has 150mg of salt, 240mg potassium (some people need to watch that, nice to see it listed), 5g protein and 10 of your daily iron.

Overall I would say this is a great snack to bring to school, esp if you are not allowed nuts.
The sample size was good to get a taste of the product and would be good for a lunch on the go if you do not want a large portion.
I do have a small issue with the product- it would have been nice to try one of the other flavors too, especially since the sample bag was just enough for one person or serving.
The only other thing I would like to see, if possible is the same pea snack, but with a more plain seasoning-like just sea salt and pepper or maybe even unsalted.
I do not always want to be hit in the face (or taste buds) with such a strong flavour.

There was quite a few things I did like about the Pea Pops snack- it is roasted instead of fried. The peas were still extremely crunchy due to this.
The pea snack can be traced by the product number on the back of the bag.
This is also a vegan product and made in Canada!

So Much Dill!!

Info from Back of Package.

Cheese Plate served on slate board!

To try out the Spicy Tomato Jam made by Salt Spring Kitchen Co, I put together a cheese plate.
Almost any kind of savory cracker, nuts, vegetables would be great with the tomato jam.
Also, I'm glad the jam was not overly spicy-so for people like me who avoid very spicy food I had no problems eating this jam.

Actually it was hard to put the jar down, it was so good!

Cheese Plate!

I also made a delicious grilled cheese sandwich using fresh grain bread from Whole Foods and some Brie.
Pretty much any type of cheese or even just grilled vegetables in a sandwich with the tomato jam would be great for the non-cheese eaters.

Grilled cheese (Brie and Tomato Jam)

*This is what the inside of the sandwich looked like:

Inside of sandwich!

There was also a Wild Leek Vinegar made by Wild Muskoka Botanicals.
The bottle was a 60ml size and had a value of $4.50.
I used the vinegar on a salad and it added some nice extra flavour, but was not overpowering.
The product card from Foodiepages states the vinegar is made from Ontario organic apple cider vinegar that is infused with wild leek and to use this as a dressing, marinade or finisher on savory dishes.
I thought my mother would like the vinegar and gave her the rest to use in her food, I keep on forgetting to ask her what she used it in.

Salad with Wild Leek Vinegar

Finally got around to trying the Caribbean Jerk Marinade made by Saha Cuisine!
The jar is a 250ml size and cost around $8.
I used the marinade as a sauce to top my veggie burger-the sauce was extremely spicy for me, so I barely needed any.
For me, this marinade is almost too spicy, I am going to have to only use a very tiny bit for a big batch of tofu or chicken.
I think this marinade or sauce would be great in a dish with coconut milk or maybe on some roast potato that I cook in the oven.
The weather here has been quite bad, so for now I have not had a chance to get to the grocery store to pick up items to make any dishes.
(My freezer is mostly frozen fruit, bread and ice cream at the moment).

Jerk Marinade close-up on spoon.

Jerk Marinade on veggie burger!

The picture above is a veggie burger with Caribbean Jerk Marinade by Saha Cuisine as a sauce.
I did not use much of the marinade- just a few small drops, as for me it is very spicy.
Yes, I did try the marinade before putting it on my food and used a very tiny amount. But because the veggie burger is a similar colour, it looks like a lot more.

Overall I enjoyed the Feb 2017 FoodiePages tasting box and am trying to get one every month.
There are only 50 boxes for sale each month, so you need to check their website quite quickly to get a box.
This box was fun to try and I have never heard of any of these items before.
It would have been nice to get more than one bag of the roasted peas, as the portion was very small.
I do plan on getting more from all these companies in the future

Foodiepages Tasting Box Review Jan 2016!

 Finally!
My box was a little late getting here and I was happy my box was not lost or taken off my front steps!
Everything in the box looked amazing and it was hard not to eat everything as soon as the box was opened.

It looks like there is a new box design for the FoodiePages boxes.
My earlier boxes always came in a plain brown box- this makes the box look much more fancy and very visible.

The New Packaging!

This is what I saw as soon as I opened my box.
They are always well packed with shredded paper and an info card.

Opening My FoodiePages Box!

Here are the tasty items that were sent in the January 2016 FoodiePages.ca tasting box:

Jan 2016 Tasting Box!

The first item I tried from this box was the Sapsucker Maple Tree Filtered Water!I was not familiar with this brand, but have bought some bottled maple water from the market in Montreal. It is very refreshing with a light maple taste- so I was looking forwards to trying this.
The Sapsucker packaging is much more practical to send by mail and not likely to break, as it is in a carton like the fruit juices that are shelf stable.
There is a small amount of natural sugar in this product and also some minerals that are good for you.
The maple taste is extremely light if you were to compare this to maple syrup- this is what they boil to get your maple syrup in the bottle. Except that with maple syrup it is much more concentrated.
I read that Whole Foods carries this product,I will look for it next time I am there and will surely buy a couple cartons for myself and gifts!

Maple Water in my Cup!

This is what the maple water looked like in my cup- pretty much like water!
When this is chilled, it is so refreshing!


**The rest of my tasting notes will be up shortly. I need to catch some sleep before continuing....

Foodiepages April 2014 Tasting Box Review!

 The Foodiepages.ca April tasting box is fairly new to me.
So far I have been lucky to order March and April's box and by "accident" also got the Feb box.
By accident, I mean I placed an order thinking it was for the March box a second time (was going to be a surprise gift...not for myself) and when I opened my box saw it was the Feb 2014 items.
That is not a problem as I had never tried those items!
How the Foodiepages box works is that at the beginning of the month you must be one of the first 50 people to order the box and it is first come first served. It is not a subscription, but a one time purchase. The cost is $14.95 and shipping is around $7 extra.
Previously shipping was included and it seems at the lower price point the boxes were flying out the door and I could never manage to order one.
So far the value of the boxes I've gotten has been around $23 or so which is not a very high value for a subscription kind of box, but I do enjoy trying new handmade foods and find it is still a worthwhile purchase for me.
I am always looking for some new handmade Canadian foods for gifts as most people I know do not want "stuff" from the mall and would rather have some new food item to try!
If you are interested in ordering anything from Foodiepages, I will post my referal link where I can get a credit towards future orders. It would be appreciated if you could click on that :)


http://www.foodiepages.ca/popup/P1F7vt


I forgot to take a picture of all the April 2014 tasting box items together, but do have some of the pictures of what the actual food items were.
The box comes with a card describing the items and what part of Canada the producer is based in.

APRIL 2014 FOODIEPAGES INFO CARD!

Kimberley's Own Nibscotti and Batch Sweet Kitchen Popcorn

Batch Sweet Kitchen Salted Caramel Popcorn: The sample size was around 50 grams if I recall and the value is around $4.00. I ate quite a bit of it before taking the picture, but did weigh it on my electronic scale.
The salted caramel corn has a rich toffee taste and you could also taste the sea salt quite well. There was also some pecans in the mix. I kind of wish I had a bigger bag of this as it was delicious!

kimberley's own Nibscotti: This is a product that is so new, it has not yet been listed for sale on the Kimberley's Own website (when I checked a couple weeks ago). What was sent out was a sampler of the product- I have no idea yet on how many will be in a regular bag or if these will only be mini biscotti bites.
The three Nibscotti were around 3" in height and not too thick.
This is an interesting version of biscotti, as it is made with the Kimberley's Own gluten-free granola and shaped like cute biscotti!
In Italian biscotti means that something is baked twice, so what seems to be done here is the granola was first made, then shaped and baked to retain the biscotti shape.

Now I'm sure you want to know how these Nibscotti tasted?
I was very reminded of granola bars, as these were made with oats, ground almonds, chia, honey. These did not taste gluten-free and I think if you enjoy crunchy snacks this would be a good product to try.
Also before I forget, the nutrition for these is quite good too- with the three Nibscotti coming in at 120 calories, 6 grams of fat, 15 grams carbs and 4 grams for protein!
These would definitely make a good snack for people who are into health and fitness too!

Louise Prete Sugo Pomodoro all'Amatriciana tomato sauce!

Louise Prete Fine Foods Sugo Pomodoro all'Amatriciana pasta sauce: This was a full size jar of the sauce and a 737 gram jar with a value of $9.99.

This is quite a heavy item to ship, so I feel the price of the tasting box is quite fair.
The tomato sauce was delicious and was also a bit spicy. There is also the addition of some bacon that comes from a local farmer and this made the sauce even more "fancy" and tasty- even though I'm sure just the other sauces are great too!
In the picture above I did not add anything to the sauce and I used some vegetable pasta for this trial.
I found you do not need to add anything extra to the sauce, but I did add some fresh parmesan and that was tasty also!

My overall impression of the April 2014 Foodiepages box:

I thought this box had a good mix of sweet and savory items!

It is nice to see a box that focuses on more than just snacks and bars. Everything in the box was very tasty amd it is hard to pick a favorite item when you like them all.
The value of the box was not that high with a total of around $16.oo. This is because I have no idea how to price the Nibscotti and did not add that in my total.
While the value may not have been that great, I know it is expensive to ship a heavy glass jar of pasta sauce, as well as the tomato jam was in a glass jar too.
I still think the box is worth getting as you do save on shipping and get to try items from other parts of Canada that you might not know about.
I'm looking forwards to seeing what new items will be in future boxes!

Have you tried any of these items and what was your favorite one?
What would you try the pasta sauce with? curious to hear some suggestions....




http://www.foodiepages.ca/popup/P1F7vt