Hello, all! Did you know that it’s Oatmeal Cookie Day? We’re wild about oatmeal cookies, and bake them often as a treat for our friends and family.

We have a couple of standard recipes that we rely on when we bake oatmeal cookies. Of course, we love this classic recipe for Quaker’s Best Oatmeal Cookies. If we’re in the mood for something a bit healthier, we enjoy whipping up a batch of Awesome Oatmeal Cookies, which contain whole-wheat flour and unsweetened applesauce. However, no matter which recipe we go with, we always like to include 1 cup of a little something special or surprising in the batter. Here’s a list of some of our favorite oatmeal cookie mix-ins.

1)      Raisins: What could be better in a spicy oatmeal cookie than plump, delicious raisins? One of our favorite varieties to use in baked goods is our jumbo golden raisins. They really lock in the moisture of the cookie and give it a subtle sweetness. We also like mixing in chocolate raisins and yogurt raisins. So delish!

2)      Peanuts: Peanuts add a fantastic flavor element to just about any oatmeal cookie recipe. One of our standard fallbacks is our roasted Virginia peanuts. They have just the right amount of salt and richness. We also really enjoy stirring in some chocolate peanuts. We’ve found that flavor combination to be a big hit with those who enjoy the combination of peanut butter and chocolate! Finally, honey roasted peanuts add a surprising hint of sweet saltiness to the cookies that we think is really enjoyable.

3)      Butterscotch: Oatmeal cookies and butterscotch were made for each other, and we love pairing them whenever possible! Butterscotch crunch gives the cookies a bit of a different texture than butterscotch chips, but we just love its rich flavor. Butterscotch pecan mix, with its white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and pecans, turns your average oatmeal cookie into a decadent dessert.

4)      Chocolate chips: Just about any kind of white, milk or dark chocolate chips will give oatmeal cookies a boost, but we really like the flavor combination that comes from our assorted chocolate chips. This mixture of raspberry, peanut butter, white chocolate, milk chocolate and dark chocolate chips will give you a surprise in every nibble!

5)      Cookie drop mix: Just can’t decide whether you want candy, chocolate chips or another yummy treat in your oatmeal cookies? We have the solution! Our fun flavor cookie drop mix contains a mixture of white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, dark chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips and candy-coated chocolate pieces. To make it extra special, add some chopped peanuts to the mix!

What are some of your favorite cookie mix-ins? Do you have an amazing oatmeal cookie recipe that you’re just dying to share? We’d love to hear all about it!

Is it springtime yet?

After this long and chilly winter, it sure seems like sunny days should be just around the corner. While we were dreaming of barbecues, frolicking in the park and playing baseball with friends, we started thinking about some of our favorite snacks for springtime. Here’s a list of yummy treats we love to munch while we’re out enjoying the fine weather, in no particular order!

1)      Fruit chips: These crunchy, sweet chips have no added sugar and contain a mix of tropical tastes. Papaya, mango, melon, banana and pineapple make up this yummy mix. It’s great for an on-the-go snack or as an alternative to potato chips with a sandwich!

2)      Roasted sunflower seeds: These seeds in the shell are a classic springtime food, excellent for enjoying during baseball games. They’re perfectly salted and delicious!

3)      Power Mix: We love all of our yummy trail mixes, but in the springtime, the Power Mix really takes the cake. It’s packed with protein-laden goodies like roasted peanuts and roasted soybeans, and dried strawberries, raisins, cherries and cranberries sweeten the deal.

4)      Simply Fruit Cocktail: This unique mixture of freeze-dried fruit is a sweet, melt-in-your-mouth treat with no added sugar. We can’t get enough of the crunchy grapes, bananas, pears, strawberries, apples and peaches.

5)      Jumbo roasted peanuts: These peanuts in the shell are roasted to perfection and are rich in good fat. When we crack into one, we’re reminded of attending ball games as kids. They’re the perfect snack to take you down memory lane.

What are some of your favorite springtime snacks?

There’s just nothing like the sweet, salty taste of peanut butter. We’ll take any chance we get to celebrate one of our favorite treats, so you’d better believe that we jumped for joy when we found out that today is National Peanut Butter Lovers Day!

We offer a variety of peanut-buttery treats that are just so rich and scrumptious. For us, the ultimate peanut butter treat is peanut butter cups. Our milk chocolate peanut butter cups and dark chocolate peanut butter cups are packed with premium ingredients. They’re truly special!

Other sweets that we fancy include our chocolate peanut butter fudge, our chocolate covered peanut butter cookie dough and our peanut butter malted milk balls. We also enjoy the salty-sweet flavor of our chocolate peanut butter pretzel bites, peanut butter covered pretzels and chocolate covered peanut butter filled pretzels.

If peanut butter in its purest form is your idea of heaven, then you must be sure to check out our huge selection of delicious and unique nut butters. Our organic crunchy peanut butter and organic smooth peanut butter really take the cake. For those of you with a sweet tooth, our caramel peanut butter and organic dark chocolate peanut butter give you a way to work dessert into your sandwich or fruit dip.

Are you nuts for peanut butter? Tell us some of your favorites!

We’ve recently added some new varieties of rice to our offerings at NutsOnline. We love these yummy grains in all their many forms, and look forward to including them in soups, side dishes, casseroles and even desserts! Yes sir, it’s mighty fantastic that something so delicious can also be so good for you.

Arborio rice is perfect for use in risotto, and we can see why. The short, starchy grains cook up creamy and slightly firm, leaving you with a rich and immensely satisfying dish. Besides risotto, another yummy dish in which to use Arborio rice is rice pudding. We love this recipe. It’s a little sweet, a little spicy and not too rich. It’s the perfect light dessert to round out a yummy Italian meal.

Northern wild rice is also always a hit on our dinner table. These unique, dark and chewy grains are perfect cooked up and topped with a little butter, or mixed into more complex pilaf-style dishes. We think this recipe for almond wild rice really hits the spot on chilly fall and winter days. It’s great paired with chicken, fish and even your Thanksgiving turkey! If you’re a vegetarian, we’ve also found this recipe to be quite yummy with cooked seasoned beans, such as chili beans or red beans.

Parboiled rice is a pretty special grain. The rice has been boiled in the husk, which drives the bran’s essential nutrients (including thiamine) into the grain. It has the consistency and appearance of white rice, but many of the nutritional benefits of brown rice. We tried using parboiled rice in Cooking Light’s Almost Classic Pork Fried Rice recipe and really liked the results. Though the recipe calls for brown rice, parboiled rice is a nice substitute if you have picky eaters in your family.

What are some of your favorite rice dishes?

Hip hip hooray! It’s almost Valentine’s Day! We love to take this holiday to remind everyone we love just how special they are to us. Do you have a present in mind for your sweetheart? We’ve found that the gift of goodies goes a long way!

Our everyday treats sure are awesome, but we like to whip up a little something special for this holiday. We have quite a few Valentine’s Day baskets, tins and products that are sure to bring a smile to the recipient’s face.

If your honey is nuts for chocolate, we’ve got just the thing. Our Chocolate Supreme Tin contains milk-chocolate-drenched cashews, almonds, pecans and raisins. Our Valentine’s Passion Gift Tin is packed with passion chocolate strawberries, milk chocolate cashews, passion chocolate cherries and milk chocolate almonds. The Chocolate Valentine tin comes chock-full of our famous chocolate-covered pretzels.

If you’re dreaming big, never fear! We also have a selection of gifts that cater to those with a taste for variety. The True Love Box is filled with seven of our most popular products, including dark chocolate cherries and cinnamon cashews. The Sweetheart Box is for the lover in all of us, with treats such as the Aphrodisiac Mix and dark chocolate-covered gummy bears. The Indulgent Valentine gift basket is overflowing with more than five pounds of delightful nibbles, like deluxe pastel berry mix, mint-favored dark chocolate sticks and butter toffee almonds.

Of course, we also offer a selection of traditional Valentine’s Day treats by the pound. Our conversation hearts are particularly popular this time of year. We also like to keep a batch of smooth, rich truffles on hand.

What will you give your honey this year?

Here at NutsOnline, we’re always on the lookout for new and exciting foods. A couple of months ago, we found a doozy! Sacha Inchi are one of the newest superfoods to hit the scene, and we’re incredibly impressed with the benefits this tasty snack offers.

Also known as Inca peanuts, Sacha Inchi are grown in the Andes Mountains of Peru. These small nuts are touted by TV personality Dr. Oz as a top superfood for weight loss. We can see why! They’re packed with the good stuff that’ll leave you satisfied, but not overly full.

Sacha Inchi contain quite a bit of vitamin E, and are incredibly high in omega-3 fatty acids. In fact, they offer up three times more omega-3s than walnuts. Additionally, 1 oz. of these yummy nuts has 5 grams of fiber. Though they are quite high in fat, this healthy, unsaturated fat can promote satiety and weight loss in small amounts. (Dr. Oz recommends eating up to 1 oz. per day.) Sounds like a pretty good deal!

Sacha Inchi are actually more similar to a seed than a true nut, and taste similar to a dark roasted peanut. They’re yummy to munch as-is for a snack, or on top of salads and in granola and trail mix. We also like to toss 1 oz. with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of sea salt or our favorite seasoning blend for an extra punch of flavor.

Have you ever tried Sacha Inchi?

It’s National Pistachio Day! Sweet! We’re sure that you know by now that our enthusiasm for our products extends to pistachios in their many scrumptious forms. What we really like about these nuts, besides their addictively delicious flavor, is their amazing health benefits. These perks make it that much easier to incorporate this guilt-free snack into our daily diet.

First of all, pistachios are a pretty filling snack. An ounce of pistachios is equal to about 49 nuts, which is a fairly large serving. These yummy nuts are also a rich source of plant protein, with 6 grams in a serving. Heart-healthy monounsaturated fat makes up the majority of the fat in pistachios. A diet that contains healthy fat will keep you satisfied and energized.

Pistachios offer up good doses of vitamin B-6, thiamin, fiber, phosphorus and copper. They’re also rich in phytosterols, which have been shown to lower cholesterol levels and may provide protection against certain types of cancer. For such small nuts, they sure are mighty!

At NutsOnline, we offer quite a few different products that can help your get your pistachio fix. You can start out with some roasted in-shell pistachios or roasted shelled pistachios. Dry roasted pistachios and raw shelled pistachios also help curb our cravings. Old-fashioned red pistachios may remind you of your childhood, and Turkish Siirt pistachios and Turkish Antep pistachios give the snack a gourmet touch.

If flavored nuts are your cup of tea, you’re in luck! If you think spice is nice, give our habanero pistachios, chili lemon pistachios or chili lime pistachios a whirl. Garlic onion pistachios, and salt and pepper pistachios also have a nice kick.

Can’t decide which pistachios to order? Our Pistachio Galore Tray makes a great gift for the pistachio lover in your life! The tray includes our California pistachios, red pistachios, Turkish Antep pistachios, habanero pistachios, chocolate toffee pistachios and salted no shell pistachios. Something for everyone!

What are your favorite pistachios to snack on? Do you have a delicious recipe featuring pistachios that you just can’t get enough of? We’d love to hear about them!

Do you like your snacks with a little pop? Well, it’s your lucky day. Today’s National Popcorn Day!

We offer a wide variety of popcorn to satisfy just about any snacker. For the purists, we have a variety of popcorn kernels that are perfect for popping on your stove or in your air popper. Our regular popcorn kernels and white popcorn kernels pop up light and fluffy, and organic popcorn kernels are perfect for those who prefer to consume all-natural, organic foods. Blue popcorn kernels and red popcorn kernels can be a fun switch from your usual variety. We also offer specialty popcorn kernels. Ladyfinger popcorn kernels pop into much smaller morsels than most other varieties of popcorn, making them more delicate and easier to chew. Mushroom popcorn kernels, on the other hand, explode into huge, mushroom-shaped pieces. They’re a true treat!

Of course, some folks like to treat themselves to something a bit fancier, and we’re here to help! If you have a home theater-style popcorn machine, we have premium all-in-one popcorn kits that are designed to get your kettle overflowing. Each kit contains the kernels, oil and seasoning necessary for use in a 6-oz. or 8-oz. kettle. We even offer 8-inch paper popcorn bags to give your popcorn that authentic movie theater touch!

Spicing up your plain popcorn can be as easy as sprinkling on one of our flavorful seasoning blends. Butter-flavored popcorn salt gives your snack that classic flavor, and cheddar cheese powder makes it as tasty as popcorn you buy in the store! Many people also enjoy our wasabi seasoning, BBQ seasoning and ranch seasoning on their popcorn.

If you have a sweet tooth, you may want to check out our selection of caramel and chocolate-coated popcorns. They’re all unique treats with a twist, ready to be eaten straight from the bag.

What are some of your favorite types of popcorn?

Looking for a quick snack to munch at your desk or in the car? We think sunflower seeds are a fine choice! Sunflower seeds are packed with healthful benefits, and a handful will quell your hunger without killing your appetite.

Sunflower seeds are loaded with vitamin E, which is your body’s primary fat-soluble antioxidant. They are also an excellent source of magnesium and selenium, and the phytosterols in the seeds have been shown to lower cholesterol in some cases.

We love to munch on roasted sunflower seeds in the shell and homestyle sunflower seeds when we’re out on a walk or at a picnic. We also really enjoy roasted, shelled sunflower seeds and honey roasted sunflower seeds when we’re on the go. Other popular options include organic tamari roasted sunflower seeds, sprouted sunflower seeds, ranch sunflower seeds and sweet chocolate covered sunflower seeds.

What are some of your favorite ways to eat sunflower seeds? Though we may find ourselves sprinkling them on salads and mixing them in ice cream from time-to-time, we think the best way to enjoy their yummy goodness is by the handful!

January is National Prune Breakfast Month and, boy, are we excited! (No, really!) Prunes offer up plentiful dietary benefits, but that’s not all. They’re also quite delicious!

Prunes, which are whole dried plums, are fantastic for your health. One serving of five prunes contains 3 grams of dietary fiber. They also offer up 26 grams of carbohydrates, mainly due to the naturally occurring fructose, glucose and sorbitol that gives them their sweet flavor. They are also fat-free and high in potassium. All-in-all, prunes are a great dietary investment!

Of course, not matter how good something is for us, we just don’t like eating it if it isn’t tasty as well. We’re happy to report that prunes also have that area firmly covered! Our dried plums, jumbo dried plums and organic jumbo dried plums are plump, moist and delicious. They’re great in baked goods, on cereal and oatmeal, and even on their own as a quick treat to help you kick candy cravings. They also contain no added sugar or sweeteners.

Do you like prunes? What are some of your favorite ways to consume this tasty dried fruit?