Product Review for You Bars

From the You Bar Website:

After years of being enthusiastic consumers of commercially available nutrition bars, L.A. mom Ava and her USC business student son Anthony got fed up with buying mass-produced bars that reflected generic tastes. Ava wanted bars that weren't too sweet with loads of protein to fuel her days teaching snowboarding and bellydancing. Anthony, a marathon-running athlete, needed high carbs and no milk products (he's allergic). The nutrition bar craze went wild at the beginning of the new millennium, but the number of commercial bars Anthony and Ava (that's us!) could eat actually decreased....So we took the bar by the horns and began making our own nutrition bars at home. It was as though we'd died and gone to heaven, except for the dishes we had to clean! We finally had nutrition bars with the exact ingredients that we wanted free from preservatives and corn syrup, freshly made and as delicious as Mom Ava's fluffy wholegrain pancakes. And they never got boring either: smooth, crunchy, chewy, sweet and savoury to suit any mood!We began making customized nutrition bars for the rest of our family and friends' the response was great. (Dad didn't even mind the messy kitchen!) We learned we weren't the only ones fed up with eating mass produced bars. Almost everyone we knew lit up at the possibility of creating bars tailored to their own tastes and dietary dreams. And so You Bar was born.We've been making our own nutrition bars for over two years and now you can too. Try creating your own nutrition bar it's fun, easy, fresh and most importantly tastes like you want it to with the nutritional content that you choose. You are what you eat (as Nana used to say), so choose!

So, finally my review of the You Bars and shakes- Joel from You Bar sent me samples of both the shakes and the bars. I have to say that my favorite shake was the strawberry- I added some frozen strawberries, organic 1% milk and some of Suzanne Specialties organic agave nectar- it tasted like a strawberry milkshake! I also really liked the vanilla shake, because then I could just add strawberries and sweetener and it also ended up tasting like a strawberry milkshake. The chocolate was my least favorite (I know surprising! lol) but I think it was because I was trying to make it like a cappucino and added some organic coffee, then I also added strawberries and it gave it a funny after taste- but it was still good, I will leave the coffee out next time! The great thing about the shakes is that I would make a batch and it would make about 2.5 glasses so I would save 1 glass for a breakfast smoothie, so it really ends up being 2 for 1, which is a great deal. I also liked that the smoothies gave me so much energy, I would have one in the afternoon before power walking so it replaced my coffee (which is great because I really need to cut back on the coffee and have something more nutritious like a shake). Also, it helped me cut back on dinner because I was full from the shake- believe me, I could use more of that! lol

Now, on to the bars- I liked all of the bars, but my favorite was the honey cashew, I had it for breakfast one morning along with my pink grapefruit and bananas mixed w/agave nectar. I also liked the other two bars- chewy but sweet, great for a pick me up in the middle of the day when I normally get snacky at work. What is also very alluring is the fact that young celebs like Anna McCord from 90210 like the You bars too- especially since they have to keep that hollywood figure- I also like knowing that I am eating something healthy and not just eating junk calories.

If you like You Bars or would like to try them out, go to www.youbars.com and type in the code "fabulous" to get 5% off of your You Bar order! You can build your own bar or build your own shake- so go on over and check it out!