GARBANZO BEANS

Hope everyone had a great Holiday with their family and friends.  We had a houseful - fun times.  I was a cooking machine.  Kept plenty of Chocobanzo and Hummus in the refrigerator for healthy snacking!

This has been another busy and exciting week.  My jars/lids (packaging) arrives tomorrow!  Picked up my business cards today and have almost finished my business plan.  More and more people are interested and placing orders.  I wanted to share an article I found on Whole Foods website regarding the health benefits of Garbanzo beans.  Remember.....Get Real, Get Raw and Spread it!  Does your food have benefits?  Happy 2012!

Garbanzo beans (chickpeas)

What's New and Beneficial about Garbanzo Beans

• There's now direct evidence about garbanzo beans and appetite! Participants in a recent study reported more satisfaction with their diet when garbanzo beans were included, and they consumed fewer processed food snacks during test weeks in the study when garbanzo beans were consumed. They also consumed less food overall when the diet was supplemented with garbanzo beans.

SNOW + UPDATES

Another exciting day!  I have ordered my packaging - finally.  This has been the hardest part of this entire process.  A truck with a big pallet will soon be heading down the street to deliver my packaging.  The recipe has been sent to the lab for nutritional testing/labeling.  As soon as the packaging comes in, the dip can be tested for shelf life, nut, dairy and gluten free testing.  Once this is all done, I can present to the grocery stores and start selling to the consumers.  More local orders coming in.  Website is getting closer to being finished.  Starting to enjoy writing blogs (not so intimidating).  Love READING blogs, so much great information out there.  


Family came in from out of town and they love Chocobanzo!  My mother in law is getting a kick out of seeing the progress.  She’s a sweet lady that grew up on a farm in Kansas and now lives in Nebraska.  I think she’s fascinated by the entire process and that I’m taking this to the next level.  TIme to go shovel again - we got a foot of snow.

FOOD WITH BENEFITS

My advertising has begun, what does any mom do - she does to what she knows best.  Word of mouth to family, friends and then some.  I have been bringing Chocobanzo to lacrosse and football games/ practices - passing out samples.  Bringing it to Open House’s, cocktail parties, dinner invites, workouts and teacher gifts,.  I give it to friends as a hostess gift or just because.  Kids are texting me, telling me “it’s amazing, Mrs. B”. The parents are happy the kids are getting protein!  I alway let people know that it is dairy, gluten and nut free.  When they find out that Chocobanzo is made with quality, healthy ingredients, they begin to devour it.   More people inform me of a child, friend, sister, brother, etc that is nut, dairy or gluten free.  “Where and when can we buy it”?  I left a holiday party last night with orders hand written on a sheet of paper.

A BEGINNING

Always being known for my Hummus with many people requesting that I sell it, once you’ve had Christine’s Hummus, you can’t eat the store brands.”  I seriously thought about selling it, until I walked into numerous grocery stores and saw it was not a battle I wanted to join!  Life got in the way and that was the end or was it……..

In the summer of 2011, I found out my 12 year old son was allergic to dairy.  I have always made or bought healthy food for my family, but this was a challenge.  So many products have dairy in them or call for dairy.

One day I was playing around with ingredients and recipes and came up with a healthy concoction.  It needed some revisions. Hating to throw out all those organic ingredients, I put it in the refrigerator and figured I’d come back to it later to make some changes.

A few days later, my boys had some of their buddies over and as usual they were hungry.  They asked if they could eat the “chocolate stuff” in the refrigerator. I laughed at my son's curiosity to try the “chocolate stuff” with his friends, a hungry group of lacrosse players. But to everyone's liking, they couldn't get enough of it, dipping the concoction into whatever they could find.  Funny part is, the day I was making it, I was throwing away the packaging from the ingredients, before anyone in the family could see what I was using.  If all those boys liked it, I found something good!