Healthy Snacking with Livia’s Kitchen *

I’ve been on Slimming World for just under a month and I’m now just over half a stone down. It’s not as much as I had wanted but I’ve lots of events and a holiday thrown into that so I’m dead chuffed that I did lose that amount.

For me, I’m such a snacker and I thought being on Slimming World would leave me hungry, wanting sugar and craving all the naughty stuff that I love, but it really doesn’t. They have their own range of chocolates and snacks but I’m not here to talk about those today, I’ve found something even better; Livia’s Kitchen.

So Livia is a Neuroscientist who was diagnosed with a sugar intolerance and began to make snacks to suit her needs. It all started with an Apple Crumble. She became winner of UCL’s Entrepreneurship programme with Livia’s Crumbles where she had to pitch her idea to a set of judges and was up against 40 other candidates. This was a huge turning point for Livia as it was validation of her idea and the grant she won allowed her to really get going with the business she was eager to create.

Her first ever stockist was Selfridges which is quite a big deal really! It took a lot of gift boxes and lots of chasing but the effort was obviously well worth it. Her first batch were even delivered in her little Mini by the lady herself. As the demand grew, Livia took over her family’s kitchen and more hands to help her create her crumbles.

Whilst she was baking away Livia also wrote a blog and book and was thinking of more ways to bring her fabulous foods to the masses. This brought the birth of the first ever ‘Cream-Free Cream Tea’ that became a monthly event.

But after some problems with creating fresh products with a short shelf-life the crumble came to a sad end. This didn’t mean the end of Livia’s Kitchen though as along came the Raw Range launching in Feb 2016. From then the range has gone from strength to strength with a grab and go range, more products in the pipeline and now being stocked in Waitrose! So a lovely little success story for hard work lass!

Her Raw Range are so tasty, coming in Salted Date Caramel, Almond and Raisin and Chocolate Orange flavours. I have tried them all, even when on Slimming World as it works out that each cube is only 2 syns each. Great for when you want you want something a little naughty but without actually being naughty! They use coconut sugar instead of granulated to keep the naughtiness down.

I highly recommend all three flavours, but my firm favourite is the Salted Date Caramel! Go stock up, seriously.