Healthy Surprise!

I'm a snacker. I rigidly plan all of my meals (I can tell you what I'll be eating for dinner on Friday or lunch on Saturday!) because I'm OCD as hell, but I like to keep my snacks a little spontaneous. I mean, I have planned snacking times (11 a.m.-ish and 2 to 4-ish), but I like to have choices when those times arrive. So maybe that's not totally spontaneous, but for me, that's pretty wild.

I keep a variety of snacks — vegan Chex Mix, almonds, crackers, nut mixes, etc. — on my desk at work since that's generally where I am at when snack time comes. So imagine my joy when Healthy Surprise, a vegan company that mails monthly boxes filled with healthy snacks to their subscribers, offered me a review box! Normally, Healthy Surprise sells subscriptions in varying amounts for different sized monthly snack boxes. The size I was offered — the Healthy size — goes for $66 a month and feeds two to six people, but a smaller option — the Starter — is available for $33 a month and feeds one to three people.

It took a few days to arrive, but I eagerly ripped it open when it finally got here. As you can see, Mr. Akasha was also excited to see the box's surprise contents:

Now, I knew the contents would be healthy snacks, but I wasn't prepared for just how healthy they'd be. I figured there'd be lots of "healthy" vegan snacks, stuff like all-natural chips or seitan jerky. I love that stuff, but it's really not health food. Instead, the Healthy Surprise sampler was loaded with mostly raw snacks! There were only two cooked snacks, and the rest were totally raw! Check it out:

There's two bags each of Gone Nuts! Raw and Sprouted Nut Blends in Thai Lemon Curry and Pesto Spinach, one bag of Hail Merry Raw Orange Rosemary Pecans, a bag of Go Raw Pizza Flax Snax, a Two Moms in the Raw Cranberry Nut Bar, an Oskri Coconut Cherry Bar, a package of Happy Hemp seeds, a package of Bare Fruits Dried Granny Smith Apples, a bag of Skinny Crisps baked Cinnamon Crisps, and two little bags of Home Free Mini Crunchy Vanilla Cookies.

I've had the box for over a week now, and I'm slowly working my way through. I'm also a snack hoarder, so I like to hold on to things as long as I can. That means I'll only open one package at a time. I first tried the Pizza Flax Snax, a crispy raw cracker that really tastes like pizza. Look how cute!

Then I tore into the Two Moms in the Raw Cranberry Nut Bar, which made the perfect fruity, nutty snack before my morning run one day. I love a bar that's only sweetened with fruit and no added sugars:

One afternoon, I brought along a bag of the Home Free Vanilla Cookies on a car ride across town. They were like crispy little shortbread cookies, sweetened with only evaporated cane juice and fruit juice. I've been keeping a bag of the Gone Nuts! Spinach Pesto Nuts in my purse for emergency snacking. The salty, savory nuts are generously coated in pesto seasoning, and they have saved me from hunger more than a few times already.

I'd love to be able to afford my own monthly subscription, but I can't even afford cable! But for those of you who have a little extra cash to plop down on monthly snacks, this box is so worth it. Raw snacks are not cheap. That's just common vegan knowledge. Had I purchased these items online individually, the total would probably be more than $66. If you'd like to subscribe, Healthy Surprise is offering a special deal to Vegan Crunk readers. Head over to their website to subscribe and enter the code "VEGANCRUNK" (all one word) at checkout to receive a $5 off discount off every Healthy Surprise purchase!