truvia - Nature's Calorie-Free Sweetener {REVIEW & GIVEAWAY} (Closed)

Being an owner of a fitness center, I am very conscious of what I put into my body.  Way back before I met my husband I decided I was going to change my eating habits so that I had more energy.  After doing much research on different eating plans, I decided to start following the Zone Diet and it worked!  I had so much more energy and even lost weight.  It was on a message board related to the Zone that I found out about the stevia plant which is a natural plant used to sweeten foods without adding calories.  I was never very fond of using Stevia in my cooking and baking because it was so concentrated and I could never figure out the correct conversion with sugar.  Over the past 10 years, more and more people have begun to use stevia and recipes are now widely available.

When I was approached by truvia to review their calorie-free sweetener that is made from the stevia plant, I took the opportunity right away!  You can learn about how truvia is made by going to their website and reading about the process.  They basically steep the plant, sort of like tea, then purify it and make it into a powder that you and I can use in our coffee!

I love to bake and my hubby loves to eat however neither of us have fast metabolisms so we have to be very careful not to overeat baked goods.  I instantly started looking up recipes, in fact truvia has recipes on their website that were created by "celebrity chef" Marisa Churchill.  Check them out here.  I was impressed with the variety of recipes from cheesecake to chocolate chip cookies.  I decided to make Raspberry Oatmeal Bars and Chocolate Chip Cookies with the box of truvia that I received.

They were both very tasty!  I have tried to bake with artificial sweeteners in the past and they end up creating a strange texture and bad aftertaste.  I was pleasantly surprised when the food had very similar texture to recipes that use sugar with no chemical aftertaste at all!  My family is still enjoying them!

How you can buy it:

truvia is available at Whole Foods, Walmart and most major supermarkets.  Click here to find your closest retailer!

How you can win it:


truvia has offered to give five (5) of my lucky readers a prize pack including a canvas tote, gardening gloves and a 40 count box of truvia!

Mandatory Entry:

Head over to truvia's website and tell me which recipe you would like to make.  Leave a comment below and make sure that you either leave a valid email address in the comment or that your email address is visible in your profile.

Optional entries (make sure to comment separately for each entry):

3 entries - Become a follower of my blog through Google Friend Connect.
3 entries - Grab my button and post it on your blog. Don't forget your blog address so I can go see it!
3 entries - Blog about this giveaway linking back to this post. Leave the link to your blog post in your comment.
2 entries - Become an email subscriber. Check your email and verify your address to gain these entries!
1 entry - Subscribe to my RSS feed.
1 entry - Fav this blog on Technorati.
1 entry - Follow me on Twitter.
1 entry (1x daily) - Tweet this giveaway. Feel free to use this tweet: "Enter to win one of 5 awesome prize packs from Truvia! @curlyq776 http://bit.ly/cevF8L Ends 4/9"

This giveaway will close on April 9th at 11:59 pm PDT. This giveaway is open to US residents only. The winner will be chosen via random.org, announced on this blog and notified by email. If the winner does not respond within 48 hours, another winner will be chosen and notified.

Disclosure: I was not paid for this review. I was given a product sample for my honest feedback.