Shrewd Food

Snacks.  I love them.  I'm a snacker.  Mid-morning, afternoon, and night.  I love my snacks.  While sometimes I feel inspired to snack healthy (fruits, veggies, nuts, etc), most of the time ... I'm all for the crispy, crunchy, munchable, packaged products, and you know I adore my popcorn.  

"We are a family of snackers who want to share our nutritious and delicious snacks with the world. We are a family of creators who have developed the crunchiest, healthiest, shrewdest snacks around. We are a family of friends who honestly care about you and your mindful decision to snack more nutritiously for your benefit. You’ll love our high protein low carb snacks. We are your Shrewd Food family. We are here for you."

Shrewd Foods thus appeals pretty well to me - adding some protein into my snacking sounds great.  Shrewd Foods makes 5 lines of products, ranging from their original product, protein puffs, to their newest line, Keto dippers, with cookies and croutons somewhere in-between.  All are perfectly munchable items, and free from #allTheThings (soy-free, nut-free, egg-free, gluten-free, etc, etc).

Protein Puffs

The first product I tried is their original offering, protein puffs.  These are sorta like a a puffy chip.  Chips are a particular category of snack, and strangely, I rarely want them in-between meals, but I love them paired with my lunch.  Which is exactly why the protein puffs appealed to me - replace my chips and add protein?

"Are you following a gluten free, peanut free, tree nut free, soy free or egg free diet? You’re safe to snack on our protein Puffs. Our Puffs are also free from corn syrup, artificial flavors, colors and preservatives for a guilt free snack. 

WE LIKE TO CALL THIS OUR 3, 2, 1 GO! 3g of fat, 2g of Carbs and 1g of Sugar with plenty of Go from 14g of Protein. Get baked guilt-free!"

Like all the products, the signature Protein Puffs are high protein, low carb, gluten-free, low calorie, etc, etc.  They are made from ...  milk protein isolate, shaped into balls, baked, and then coated in seasonings.

Protein Puffs come in 7 flavors, mostly savory and cheese focused (e.g. cheese puffs): baked cheddar, brick oven pizza, nacho cheese, sriracha cheddar, and sour cream & onion, plus two sweet versions: strawberries & cream and cookies & cream.

I was able to try two kinds of savory, and one sweet.

Individual Bags.

The protein puffs come in handy single serve bags, each containing a few handfuls of puffs (not quite as full as the bag kinda looks), but plenty to make up a good snack. I found I didn't ever want more by the end of a bag.  They also offer some varieties in family size bags.

Each individual bag has only 90 calories, quite decent for snack food, yet has 14 grams of protein.  They seem ... kinda awesome, if that kind of macro tracking maters to you.

The first flavor I tried was the "Brick Oven Pizza", which had quite a tasty looking pizza on the front.  The packaging was kinda funny to me, with such a stunning pizza (which wouldn't that make health focused folks look away?) but also it looked a lot like, well, a health food, with "PROTEIN PUFFS" in such huge letters.  They kinda look like trying to catch the eyes of two very different demographics, and I'm curious how well that works.

Brick Oven Pizza.

"Imagine if pizza was the healthiest snack you could eat. Well… now it is! Our Brick Oven Pizza Protein Puffs to deliver that great cheesy flavor, crisp crunch, and rich Italian pizza spices!"

They did, indeed, look like cheese balls.

The first flavor I tried was the "Brick Oven Pizza", the milk protein isolate based balls, coated in "natural pizza seasoning", a mix of cheddar cheese powder, tomato, onion, and garlic powders, salt, sugar, and paprika.  Well, basically pizza although who uses cheddar on their pizza?

I'll admit they were not nearly as bad as I feared.  The crunch factor was good.  The popular cheese ball shape was fun.  The texture didn't quite melt in your mouth and wasn't as airy as normal cheese puffs, but it wasn't bad.

But I wasn't really into the pizza flavor, as I expected.  Much like "nacho cheese" and other similar items, just, not what I really like.  It was zesty, it was savory, it was ... slightly cheesy, fairly tomato-y.

If you do like the flavor, I think they'd work as standard finger food snack, but also perhaps as a salad topping, or perhaps even sprinkled on top of tomato soup?

Baked Cheddar.

"Our protein puffs deliver super cheesy flavor and crispy crunch."

Next I went for the *actual* cheese balls.

I didn't hate the flavor at least, they were, uh, "fake cheesy", but otherwise were the same puffy kinda odd milk protein isolate balls that I can't say are particularly delightful - they are close, crispy, almost nice, but, they kinda crunch in a strange way.

Better flavor for me, and nice to have a protein filled snack but ... they still fall short from something I'd want to purchase.

Cookies & Cream.

"Craving something sweet and chocolatey? Our Cookies & Cream Puffs are sure to satisfy your sweet tooth and the crunch you desire, while providing 14g of protein and only 90 calories."

And finally, a ... dessert flavor?  I was extremely skeptical, but the idea of incorporating some protein into my numerous daily desserts was certainly appealing.  I'm a *responsible* indulger after all ...

The first time I tried them was actually with my breakfast.  I was making a platter of a warm maple glazed buttermilk donut, some fresh fruit, dark chocolate ... and I felt a bit guilty for not having any protein on my plate.   Rather than add some yogurt and granola to my fruit, or get some nuts, etc, I thought, "hey, why not try those chocolate protein puffs ..."

And they were actually pretty decent as part of my breakfast platter.  They really weren't that bad.  And they *did* taste like cookies & cream ... the milk protein isolate that makes the base finally found a proper pairing: chocolate!  Yes, they were light, fluffy, Oreo balls.  Decently munchable.

I tried some a few days later as cereal, which, uh, I made with chocolate milk.  Now that was fun too, and shockingly, they didn't really get soft, at all.  Super crispy Oreo cereal in chocolate milk, that is high protein and decently healthy? Topped with some strawberries and I felt, well, quite pleased with myself.

I won't go out to buy them myself, but, the cookies and cream flavor was there, and they had a nice crunch.  I'll gladly finish off the bag.  I appreciated that the bag had ~3 servings, 32 puffs each, and each serving was a full 14g of protein.

Still that strange form factor of course.

Croutons

Another product line is croutons.  However, only one variety exists.  Rather than a side snack, these are intended to be used like, well, croutons.  Tossed onto a salad, mostly, but the packaging also suggests crumbling and using on top of mac and cheese, casseroles, and the like.

Protein Croutons.

They come in a resealable bag, with 5 servings per bag (suggested).

Like the protein puffs, they use a milk protein base, are high protein, low carb, gluten free, low calorie, keto friendly, etc, etc, etc.

Parmesan Herb Croutons.

"We’ve reinvented the crouton! Our protein croutons deliver big time tasty flavor and crispy crunch without all the carbs, calories and fat. This is the crunch your salad has been missing."

My first reaction, as I opened the bag of protein croutons, was surprise.  They ... were definitely not what I was expecting to see.  They look ... the same as the puffs.   I was expecting  to see something more standard crouton-shaped.  I actually double checked the package to make sure I had grabbed the right bag from the pantry, a bit confused.

Once I got past the form factor though, I was pleasantly surprised.  They actually are fine.  The base texture and flavor is identical to the puffs, which makes sense, they are the same thing.  The parmesan herb flavor to these was actually really good, quite strong, very savory, very herby.  Nice seasoning, a mix of parmesan cheese, garlic powder, spices, and, lol, powdered sugar?!  Very flavorful croutons.  You could just snack on them too I suppose, if you wanted a savory snack of that flavor.

They did have the same mouthfeel as the puffs, and ate in the same way, which was not exactly the same as a regular crouton, but the airy crunch worked.  They held up well against dressing, even with time, retaining crunch and absorbing a touch of dressing.

I'm always throwing extra protein into my salads (nuts, seeds, crispy quinoa, etc) and I always throw extra crunchy things in (rarely actual croutons, but often wonton strips, flavored chex mixes, flavored pretzels, wasabi peas, corn nuts, etc, etc), so these are a product I have a ton of use use for.  With as much protein per serving as a pretty standard salad size serve of things like tofu, beans, and the like, or 3 eggs, 40 almonds, etc, they really are nice to have on hand instead, as, well, I don't like those other things :)

I'd probably get these again.