These Snacks Might Be Able To Replace Traditional Protein Bars

There is a portion of this world that likes to be super active, whether it’s going on a hike, climbing Mt. Everest, or just gettin’ down ‘n dirty in the gym every day. With my 2-3 gentle yoga classes per week and a total lack of stamina when it comes to most anything else, I wouldn’t even dare to place myself within this pristine group of humans, but I appreciate what they do. I like to show my support by being a cheerleader or by taking on the responsibility of making sure everyone gets fed – two things I excel at on a daily basis.

While I may be a gym noob, I do know the most important part of working out is what you eat afterwards to replenish your nutrients. Here’s where Caveman Foods comes in. This company, co-founded by the dude who made Muscle Milk, strives to create delicious snacks packed with protein to give you that perfect post-workout or post-scaling-Mount-Everest fuel.

Caveman Foods has three main products: Primal Bars, Bites, and Jerky. Most of these snacks are not for the faint of heart, and by faint of heart I mean vegans/vegetarians. All three of these products use chicken meat as their base, which provides for a high protein and low fat snack. However, while they aren’t advertised as much as these baseline products, Caveman Foods does make nutrition bars that are nut-based and meat-free.

Let’s talk about these meat snacks for a second, though. In all honesty, eating meat in this format was a new thing for me. I’m usually an eat-steak-hot-off-the-grill kind of gal, but I found myself getting into this. Here’s my rundown of the products:

Chicken Bites: These are such a great idea. First of all, they’re portable and bite-sized, which makes everything better in my book. Also, it’s pretty incredible that these have 10 grams of protein per serving. Second of all, they come in interesting flavors, like habanero & green chili, sun dried tomato & kale and applewood smoked BBQ. The BBQ was definitely my favorite, as its smokiness really shined through. The habanero and green chili, on the other hand, was super spicy. I could definitely imagine it being a good pick-me-up after the gym.

Primal Bars: The primal bars are essentially the chicken bites but in a larger format, except they have 18 grams of protein instead of *just* ten. If you ask me, this format is probably the most efficient way to regain what you lost at the gym. If you’re a fan of fruit flavors with your meat (weird thing to say, but some people aren’t), you’ll definitely be into the sweet cherry flavor. I would say it’s more tangy than sweet, which was a good flavor combo with the chicken. The smoked jalapeño was a winner. What can I say, I love smoked meats. The texture of these bars are somewhat precarious, since the chicken is cooked and then chopped and formed into the bars. It was just a new texture for me since I’ve never eaten anything like this before.

Jerky: I’ve been eating jerky for as long as I can remember. It was always my dad’s go-to snack whenever we were on the road. Caveman Foods has a pretty dope take on this classic snack. Again, their jerky is made with chicken, which provides you the most protein with the least amount of fat. The texture of this snack is what you’d expect with a good jerky. I was pretty sold on this, especially because I tried the buffalo flavor. I am obsessed with buffalo to the point where you could probably douse anything in buffalo sauce and I will eat it. Please don’t take that as a challenge because I will probably lose.

Nutrition Bars: Okay, these were LIT. I would eat one of these every single day if I could. These come in almond cashew and maple nut flavors, of which the maple nut was definitely my favorite. This bar kind of tasted like those Nature’s Valley sweet & salty peanut bars but a million times better (and better for you). A lot of nut bars can be difficult to eat because they’re overly chewy or the nuts aren’t roasted and sweetened enough, but there were none of those issues here. Each bite was deliciously chewy and sweet, but not overly so. Totally a home run on this one.

Long story short, Caveman Foods is one of the good guys out there. For those of you with dietary restrictions, most of their products are gluten-free, milk-free, peanut-free, and many are 100% paleo. They also use only all-natural chicken and refuse to put nitrates in any of their products. If you’re looking for the perfect snack to refuel, Caveman Foods has got your back.

Photos by: Analiese Trimber