Ryvita review and mini pizza recipe

Snap them, crunch them, chomp them - since starting to eat healthier and lose weight crackers have become quite a staple in my diet. I often replace bread with crackers, they're lighter, don't lie as heavy in my stomach and are usually lower in calories. So when Ryvita contacted me and asked if I'd like to try some of their products I jumped at the chance.

Ryvita crackers are versatile, they're great to dip in soups, have alongside salads or top with spreads, dips, fruits or veggies.

Does anyone remember the Ryvita advert where Fearne Britton eats a bag of Ryvita minis and then zips on a fat suit? Always made me smile.

The company kindly sent me four boxes to sample; wholegrain crackerbread, multiseed thins, plus two of their new crispbread flavours, hint of chilli and Mediterranean herbs. They also sent me some recipes to try, including mini pizzas.

The Mediterranean herbs have a subtle flavour and made a great accompaniment to my salads, as well as making the base for these Ryvita Mini Pizzas...

You will need...

[makes 8 pizzas]

8 Ryvita crispbreads or crispbreads
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 cherry tomatoes
1 ball mozzarella
2 tbsp cut fresh basil
Black pepper

It's pizza time, baby...

Sprinkle the olive oil on top of the the crispbread. Slice the mozzarella into thin slices and arrange on top of the cracker, slice a few cherry tomatoes and add them on top as well. Pop them in the oven at 225C for a couple of minutes until the cheese melts. Chop the basil and sprinkle on top - I didn't have any fresh basil so just used dried instead - with the black pepper.

Then you get lovely crispy little pizzas with gooey mozzarella and sweet tomatoes. I thought this was a really cute idea for making healthier pizzas. You don't have to give up the food you love, just get more creative at making them better for you. They'd make great little nibbles for a party. Next time I think I would dollop tomato puree on the Ryvita crackers first before adding the oil and toppings. I would also add different veggies for variety.

There is more than a hint of chilli in the hot crackerbreads but I loved the intense heat after taking a few mouthfuls. I think I preferred them to the herbed crackerbreads because the flavour is stronger.

I really enjoyed topping them with lots of different yummy things for my lunches, as well as packing them up with my salads for work. They were delicious topped with turkey slices and hard boiled eggs.

The crackerbreads are crunchy and flavourful, I think the crispiness of them makes them feel more substantial because you have to chew them. They're not flimsy crackers like some low calorie ones can be.

On the nutrition front, I feel the crackerbreads can be incorporated into a healthy diet, they're low in calories, fat and sugar. The crispbreads are made with wholegrain rye flour, which means the fibre content is quite good at 2g for the chilli and 1.4g for the herbed ones. They come in at 42 calories and 0.2g fat for the hint of chilli slices and 47 calories with 0.2g fat for the Medetraean herbs. There is no added sugar in either of them, there is however, a little added salt but per slice there is only 0.7g to 0.12g in the crackerbreads.

The wholegrain crackerbreads make great snacks. They're super yummy smothered with almond butter and  very tasty with honey and banana, as Ryvita suggested in the recipes they sent me.

There is only 19 calories and 0.2g fat per crackerbread, they however contain sugar but it is only 0.03g per slice, and added salt, which again is small amount with 0.06g per one.

The multiseed thins are delicious. The little flatbreads are so crunchy and flavoursome, unfortunately I seem to have managed to smash every cracker in the box. They're great from dipping in houmous or guacamole, they're also lovely dunked in soup or broken up as croutons in soups and salads.

A big thank you to Ryvita for sending me some of their products to review and giving me some delicious recipe ideas. I really enjoyed munching and crunching their crackers.