Mary's Gone Crackers Review & Giveaway

~~~THIS GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED~~~

I just can't believe how many food allergies there are nowadays! I hear about so many people who have a wheat or gluten sensitivity. I know my husband is among one of the gluten sensitive ones, but he is the type who lives with it and will probably never do anything about it. Frustrating for me, yes! As I am finding out more about wheat and gluten sensitivity I realize so many foods have these hidden allergens. This can be frustrating to those who have to totally cut out all of sources in foods that cause flair ups. There has been an increase of ready made gluten free, wheat free foods for those with sensitivities.  These ready made foods and snacks make it much simpler for those with allergies when the packaging clearly states they are free from these ingredients. Mary's Gone Crackers is a company that manufactures strictly wheat free, gluten free products in a variety of sweet and salty snacks.

Mary's Story!

Information from website.

In 1994, I discovered that my lifelong battle with digestive pain and fatigue had been caused by an inability to digest gluten--a protein found in wheat, barley, rye and most oats. Once I eliminated those grains from my diet, the symptoms I had struggled with disappeared. (My son was found to have the same intolerance). As excited as I was to have found the source of my pain, I was also faced with the difficulty of finding things to eat in a culture that bases much of its food on the grains I couldn't eat. Having been a creative baker my whole life, I started experimenting in my kitchen. I knew I could live without bread, but the thought of not having my brownies was intolerable. I played with the alternative flours--rice, corn, garbanzo bean, tapioca, potato starch and potato flour, and others--until I was able to reproduce my brownies to my satisfaction. Pancakes, waffles, muffins, cookies and other essentials soon followed. I got better and better at blending the different flours into something that resembled the texture and consistency of wheat flour and produced different, but delicious results.

Going out in the world was a different matter. While my friends sat in restaurants filling up with warm sour dough bread slathered with sweet butter, I sat hungry. When I went to parties with tables full of cheeses and dips, there wasn't a cracker or bread stick that I could eat. I got an idea for a base for baked goods using brown rice. I played with it in my head for months and then started working with it in my kitchen. I tried it in a variety of forms before I hit on the cracker. That took many tries as well before I eventually developed the recipe for my unique rice cracker--brown rice, quinoa, flax seeds, sesame seeds, salt and wheat free tamari. I made them in small batches for myself, took them in little bags when I went to restaurants and parties, and felt less deprived. Then I watched as others started eating them. Everyone, from finicky teens to young children, to adults with a range of palates, loved them. I had to make more, so that when I went out, there was enough for everyone, not just me.

Soon I was making ovens full, buying sealable bags and giving them away. I took them with me everywhere and never brought any back home. They tasted great and stayed fresh for a long time. And there was nothing like them on the market. In 2000, I decided that these crackers needed to be mass produced. I think it was after I had taken a big batch with me on a trip to the Caribbean. My friend told me not to bother because everything gets stale and soggy in the warm, humid tropical air. I brought them anyway, hoping that they would withstand the environment and they did! One night while I was there we invited a few people from my friend's new neighborhood to have hors d'oeuvres and wine and I put out my crackers. Once again I watched as a room full of adults (from all over the world) tasted my crackers for the first time. A quizzical look would cross their faces as they took their first bite, and then they would look at the cracker and say, "wow, these crackers are delicious, where did you get them?."

We now have nationwide distribution and are reaching new fans every day. (We are also distributed in Canada under the name "Mary's Organic Crackers.") I am VERY happy not to be making them in my kitchen anymore! I'm looking forward to bringing you my other delicious, organic, gluten-free baked goods also developed in my home kitchen.

Our Mary's Gone Crackers Experience! 

We were sent a sampling of various Mary's Gone Crackers products. All of Mary's Gone Crackers products are certified organic and contain all healthy ingredients with no hydrogenated oils added. Since toddlers love to snack, Mary's Gone Crackers were great products to try out. I knew that Ethan was eating healthy food and not junk food. 

Ethan and I tasted the Chocolate Chip Cookies,  Ginger Snap Cookies, and N'Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.

I loved the cookies or I should say WE loved the cookies! My favorite flavor was the Ginger Snap Cookies because I love ginger cookies. Ethan liked them all because he just has a big sweet tooth and 1 was not enough for him ;-) 

Next we tried our variety of Sticks & Twigs. Wow, these are so good and different too! Sticks & Twigs are made with a unique blend of seeds and whole grains. They are super crunchy, but since I love really hard thick pretzels these were right up my alley. I was worried they may be too hard for Ethan to eat, but he did just fine and he really loved them. Our favorite flavor was the Curry. I have never had curry before so I was a little skeptical about this flavor. It's so spicy and yummy that our little bag was gone in no time. Ethan appears to like spicy food and I thought it would be too much for him, however, he loved it!

We really enjoyed Mary's Gone Crackers products and look forward to purchasing more (especially the Curry Sticks & Twigs!).

BUY IT! You can order directly from Mary's Gone Crackers or find a retailer near you.

WIN IT! Mary's Gone Crackers is giving away 1 prize pack to a Take Time to Smell the Rose reader! The prize pack includes a full sized box of the Original Crackers, Sea Salt Sticks & Twigs, and Chocolate Chip Cookies. 

You have the chance to enter several entries by the doing the following. Each one counts as 1 entry unless otherwise specified. I am now making it a requirement to follow my blog publicly on Google Friend Connect to enter my giveaways.

• MANDATORY ENTRY(You also must be following my blog publicly on Google Friend Connect)-counts as 1: AND Look around at Mary's Gone Crackers and tell me something you learned about the company or products that I did not mention in my review.

• Subscribe to my blog via email with Feedburner (on right side bar).
  

• Blog about my giveaway before Aug 3rd, linking back to this giveaway. Leave the URL where you blogged.

• Did you earn the extra 10 entries for blogging & adding my button? Read here for details. Leave a comment for each entry below as "Qualified for 10 extra entries #1", "Qualified for 10 extra entries #2", etc. 

• Grab my  Take Time to Smell the Rose button. Leave URL where it is posted.

• Grab my Take Time to Share Your Giveaway Sunday button. Leave URL where it is posted.

• Grab my Healthy Living Event button. Leave URL where it is posted.  

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• Follow Smell_the_Rose AND GoneCrackers on Twitter AND tweet about this giveaway. After initial "tweet" you may gain an extra entry each day. Limit 1 tweet a day.  Leave URL where you tweeted in your comment. 

•  'Like' Mary's Gone Crackers on Facebook and leave a message on their wall that I sent you. 3 entries!

• Make a comment on any non-giveaway Healthy Living Event post. (one comment per post- but unlimited posts). Click here to see the list of posts. There will be lots of non-giveaway posts throughout the month! One comment on a post can qualify for all giveaways.

Please copy and paste this for your tweets: 


Marys Gone Crackers Prize Pack from @GoneCrackers & @Smell_the_Rose. #organic #glutenfree #HealthyLivingEvent #giveaway http://bit.ly/9Uxz1e

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Giveaway ends Wednesday, August 11, 2010 at 9:00 p.m.(CST) Winner will be drawn by the random number generator at Random.org and will be notified by email. Winner will also be announced on this blog. Winner will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be drawn.

This giveaway is open to USA & Canadian residents ONLY . Must be 18 years old or older to win.

Thank you to the Company or/and PR firm who provided me with the products mentioned in the review. The thoughts and opinions expressed on my blog are my own and are not swayed by any monetary or product compensation. My personal health experiences may not be a typical result for others. The information I share on my blog may not be the views of the sponsors participating in my Healthy Living Event. 
 

~~~THIS GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED~~~