Manitoba Harvest HempHearts Product Review

This month I've had the opportunity to try Manitoba Harvest Hemp Hearts!  These nutty little crunchers found their way into several of my kitchen creations over the past couple weeks, and I am happy to report that they are DELICIOUS!

Hemp Hearts are packed with protein and omega nutriets - 10 grams of each per 30 gram serving!  That's more than chia or flax seeds, which also have more carbohydrates in each serving.  Hemp Hearts are so easy to incorporate into your cooking, too!  I just tossed a handful into whatever I was making, and boom!  Instant flavor.  Manitoba Harvest also makes protein powder and oil made from hemp, which would be interesting to try sometime as well.

My first Hemp Hearts experience was pretty simple: I sprinkled them in my sauce on a bowl of Thai beef stir fry.  They added a nice crunchy texture to the dish, and definitely didn't overwhelm the rest of the ingredients.  My biggest problem here was that I just used too much sauce, and everything was swimming.  Still very tasty despite the heavy sauce hand, and gave me the courage to try incorporating my Hemp Hearts into some other types of dishes.

So I mixed up some Hemp Heart pancakes!  I actually made several batches on a few occasions, with slightly different ingredient combinations, all off a buttermilk base.  The first batch suffered from too much cinnamon (I'm not a huge fan) and not enough Hemp Hearts, but was still edible.  My husband didn't seem to notice much difference between my original pancakes and the altered batch, so I went a slightly different route the next time I made them: nutmeg and vanilla!  This batch was SO TASTY!  And hubby loved them, he said he really enjoyed the nutmeg with the subtle crunch of the Hemp Hearts, and that they came together nicely.  I totally agreed - and proceeded to make another batch of nutmeg and vanilla the next weekend.

My final Hemp Hearts experiment was a smoothie.  As fall tightens its grip on Chicago, I've been craving that pumpkin pie taste - so I figured I'd try my hand at a pumpkin smoothie!  Long story short: I didn't follow any recipe and I failed miserably.  BUT!  I had used the Hemp Hearts both in the actual smoothie blend, and as a garnish, and they were by far the tastiest part!  I wouldn't even have finished the smoothie if the Hearts hadn't saved the flavor.

So there you have it: three different takes on the Hemp Hearty goodness!  If I'd had some more to use (maybe instead of making so many pancakes) I would also have liked to try them in blonde brownies...  Maybe next time!

Now it's YOUR turn!  Have a recipe in mind that might benefit from some Hemp Hearts?  Enter below to WIN your own pack!  Or, if you just can't WAIT to try 'em, you can take 20% off your order of Hemp Hearts right now with discount code HHSweatPink14!  So what are you waiting for?!  Go try some!

Giveaway open only to residents of the US and Canada only!  Please only enter if you are able to receive the prize.

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