Jackson’s Honest chips are our new family-favorite snack from the New Hope Network Blogger Box. I decided to serve the three sample varieties at Heather’s birthday dinner because Heather is gluten free and so are the chips! But the reason I will keep serving them is the quality. All three of my samples—Purple Heirloom Potato Chips, Sweet Potato Chips and Yellow Corn Tortilla Chips really scored on flavor, texture and nutrition. We loved them!
But that’s only part of the story and only part of the reason I think this product deserves praise. Jackson’s Honest snack foods are named for a little boy, Jackson Reamer. He passed away last year unexpectedly after a short life of great physical struggle. But through those years he was with us, he was surrounded by the love of his family and supported by a determined set of parents who would not give up on him. During his life, Jackson deeply impacted everyone around him. He made the world a better place. The story of Jackson’s Honest is really the story of a miracle.
For Scott and Megan Reamer, what started out as a way to try to save their son or at least make his life comfortable, eventually transformed into a company and a charitable organization that has as its highest intention helping children like Jackson, who suffer from rare and difficult-to-diagnose diseases, lead better, happier lives. Their mission reads:
The mission of the Jackson’s Honest Charitable Foundation is to make a profound and positive difference in the lives of children afflicted by rare diseases. From funding primary research or managing these diseases with compassionate care to providing school- and home-based programs to improve their quality of life, our goal is to support the kids and families whose daily courage, strength, and perseverance are so inspirational. We want these children and their families to understand their burden is not theirs alone to carry; that together we can make significant contributions to how the challenge of a rare disease is managed.
So it’s not just the good ingredients and great taste that puts Jackson’s Honest foods on my table… it’s Jackson and the miracle his time on Earth has brought to others.
I could not serve these delicious chips without a new Green Gal dip, so I decided to take some of the nutritional wisdom that goes into Jackson’s Honest products and incorporate them into a warm sweet potato dip that went well with all the varieties we sampled.
Ingredients
- Two medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed and pierced
- One-half cup good-quality natural peach jam (homemade or market-made, if you have it)
- One-half cup green pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
- A pinch red pepper flakes
- A pinch sea salt
- One-half teaspoon ground cumin
- One-half teaspoon garlic powder
- One tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- One tablespoon non-GMO Liquid Amino Acid such as Bragg (You can also use Tamari sauce.)
Instructions
- Start by roasting your sweet potatoes at 450 degrees until very soft. Scoop out the flesh and reserve.
- Next, toast your pumpkin seeds until they are slightly browned and begin to pop. Cool and grind to powder in a spice or coffee grinder. You can toast the pumpkin seeds while you roast the sweet potatoes, but the seeds will need a careful eye, as they can burn easily at 450 degrees. Reserve
- Place all your ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and puree. You want a very smooth consistency. If your dip is a little thick, add a teaspoon or two more of lemon juice.
- You can serve at room temperature, but we liked it slightly reheated.
Notes
Note that the prep time refers to the time it will take to roast the sweet potatoes and pumpkin seeds to prepare them for the food processor. Once all ingredients are in the processor, the dip comes together in a matter of minutes.
You can find a full line of Jackson’s Honest snacks on their website, along with a handy store locator to find out where you can buy them. Now that I have sampled them, read the story of how this business started, seen the good work being done through their charitable organization and come to know this miracle-boy named Jackson, I’m sure these snacks will be at my future parties, in the picnic basket this summer and enjoyed as a no-guilt go-to snack. Honest!
Are you curious about the diet the Reamers used to improve the quality of their son’s life? It sounded a lot like the old Atkins diet to me when I first read their story. But it is really not. It does support the practice of high fat to low carb eating, but it’s much more selective and precise than the infamous Atkins diet. Jackson’s mom is convinced that “healthy fats saved Jackson’s life by altering the course of his disease for the better and mitigating the most extreme of his symptoms.” But the key word here is “healthy”. What this diet is most like is an up-and-coming nutritional lifestyle called Keto. You may even have read about the Keto Diet in relation to the Paleo diet, which is similar but not the same.
If you are contemplating trying a Keto-focused diet to see if it would benefit you, I suggest you give the informative and easy-to-understand article from Delicious Living Magazine a good read. I think it is the best explanation and clearest set of guidelines for a Keto diet that I’ve seen so far. If you give this a try, be sure to let us know how it’s going.
