NTR Show Podcast - Honest Review of our Gluten Free and Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

March 2023 - Emily Austin

The Chelsea Approved team is excited to announce our first Podcast appearance! Also local to Vermont, we connected with a couple of friends over at the NTR Show Podcast (No Thought Required). These guys run a super fun and casual podcast focused on daily life in Vermont and endless shenanigans! We baked up a batch of gluten-free and vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies for the guys to try, and surprised them with some baking mix “goodie bags” so they can try the mixes at home. We had so much fun listening to their honest review of our Chelsea Approved Chocolate Chip Cookies, which they featured in their “Legit or Sh*t” segment (spoiler alert, they are LEGIT!). Afterwards, co-founder Emily got to join the conversation to answer some questions! Listen along to the segments, read the transcript, or visit their website to check out the full episode (links below). A huge thank you to Pauly V, Rev, and the NTR team for connecting with us!

Note : recordings contain some jovial profanity :)

Quick-Links:

Website: https://www.ntrshow.com/

Episode 83 (feat. Chelsea Approved): https://www.ntrshow.com/episodes/episode-83

Podcast Apps: Search “NTR Show”

Podcast Transcript

Note: Transcripts were typed by Chelsea Approved and edited for clarity.

Recording #1: NTR Honest Review

Start of Recording #1: 

We have Chelsea Approved here. They made us some cookies, but we also have some packages of them. It’s called Chelsea Approved and they’re gluten free and vegan cookie mixes.

The two in this one bag are the chocolate chip cookie mix and a snickerdoodle cookie mix. At the top is says “just add oil, water, and vanilla.” Really nice packaging, they look decent and professional. They made us some chocolate chip cookies.

So here’s my thought: Pauly, I’m pretty sure you’re as scared as I am with the gluten free and vegan. Are they going to be good, or are they going to be good for gluten free and vegan?

Ya, exactly, are they good and acceptable for people that are eating in that lifestyle, and to us will they just be a dry and tasteless thing, like a scone… I’m not a scone fan [haha].

But ya, I’m questioning, you know, the flavor. You can already tell they are chocolate chip cookies, but they have a very pale color.

Nice, if I knew there were going to be cookies, I wouldn’t have had breakfast! [haha]

Just picking them up, they smell good, they have very good density… definitely heavy… they have some weight to them, and feel legit. Smells very… delish! [haha].

Alright, are these legit or shit?

I feel pressured to say these are legit because they’re friends of the show! [haha].

Alright here we go… [group starts eating the cookies]

There’re moist, they’re not dry…

Those are good, they’re sweet..

These are really good!

Like, wow! Bro, those are good!

These are great, these are really good cookies! Gluten free, vegan, whatever, we’re definitely not just saying that.

Ya, these guys are not paid sponsors, it’s a friend of mine I worked with at the phone company, and it’s his kids that do it.

So this is a product of the mix right?

Ya, we have the mixes right here… we got some take-home stuff, it’s cool packaging.

Before the show, I told Pauly, I’m like you know, they aren’t a paid sponsor, so if it really sucks we’re going to have to say it sucks, if it’s meh or ok we’ll pad it a little heavier. But these are 100% legit, these are good cookies!

Legit or Sh*t: “These are 100% Legit, these are good cookies!”

And they’re healthy right? It’s like eating a salad or something? [haha]

I don’t think it works like that…

I can feel the weight just coming right off, I’m like 10lb lighter and I’ve only had a couple bites [haha]

I have a feeling there’s still some carbs involved, and some sugar… Just a little!

That’s the thing with vegan, my daughter, who turns 21 tomorrow coincidentally, is vegan, or was vegan for a substantial amount of time. The amount of food you can get away with calling vegan, like Oreo cookies, it’s ridiculous.

And milk chocolate’s not vegan, right? But this chocolate’s pretty good!

Ya, how does that work? That’s a question we’ll have to ask.

It tastes like normal chocolate to me.

This is legit. These are actually better than normal choclate chips because they’re almost melty in consistency. They didn’t solidify again like cookies that sit for a while after they’ve been baked.

You know, my favourite way to eat any cookie is warm, right out of the oven when they just literally fall apart, that’s my favourite way to eat them. But these have a great consistency!

What’s great about these is they actually have that fresh out-of-the-oven consistency, they’re just not warm. Like if you threw that in the microwave for maybe 5 seconds it’d be like one that came right out of the oven.

[skip about 1 minute of banter]

Those are really good, this is a great cookie! I didn’t finish mine just because I’m not in the mood for a cookie right now, but I ate half of it and will eat the other half later. I’m more of a night time sweets guy than early morning.

I don’t think I’ve ever not been in the mood for a cookie! [haha]

So I’m assuming that they have a gluten allergy or that they’re vegan… somebody must be.

100% I’d love to try the snickerdoodle one now.

Does anyone have dibs on the pancakes, because we actually make pancakes at home.

So I would be curious if they do any baking or bread. We’ve had customers at the Puppy asking us about our gluten free bread options. That’s a very popular ask among those that are intolerant of gluten.

The banana bread mix is the one I couldn’t think of. Gluten free and vegan Banana Bread Mix… I LOVE banana bread.

There’s two pancake mixes, you want one?

So this is mfg in Savannah NY, so they have a partnership with a commercial kitchen it looks like, so they don’t do it out of their home.

Alright, awesome, lets get Emily on the call.

End of Recording #1

Recording #2: NTR Interview with co-founder Emily

Start of Recording #2

Emily: Hello?

NTR: Hey Emily, it’s Rev, your on the air! I have Pauly and Eric here too.

Emily: Awesome, hey guys!

NTR: Hello, Hello.

NTR: So, we just tried the cookies, and so to be honest we were going to set the bar pretty low and we were like “Are they going to be good for vegan or gluten free or are they going to be good”? And we said you aren’t a paid sponsor so we are going to be 100% transparent, and we LOVED them, they were amazing. We even played them in the Legit or Sh*t segment, and we all agreed that they are Legit. So good!

Emily: Yay!

NTR: Like, without even quantifying it for the gluten free option, like no, they were 100%, they were great. So we do have some questions. So Chelsea Approved, was it your sister’s brain child?

Emily: Ya, so the name Chelsea Approved did come from my sister Chelsea. She was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in 2014 and…

NTR: Which autoimmune disease, can we say? Is that public?

Emily: Ya, it’s called Crohn’s Disease, it’s a gastrointestinal disease that causes severe inflammation thought your digestive track, and if it goes unchecked, there’s a lot of people that have had part of their colon and intestines removed because of it, so it’s super important to get under check, which she has done a lot through diet being gluten free and dairy free and things like that.

NTR: How old was she when she got diagnosed?

Emily: She was a freshman in college, so she was 18 when she got diagnosed.

NTR: Now, is that typical? Can it happen at any age, or is it typically something that happens to older people?

Emily: Oh that’s a great question! I think it is pretty much any age, but I think it’s typically in teens and adults, I don’t think it’s very common for younger kids to get diagnosed with it. Sometimes it just happens, and sometimes it’s caused by stress or other external factors. Usually you’re pre-dispositioned to get it, and then there’s an event that happens that triggers it.

NTR: I do have to say that when Eric had a question he raised his hand [haha]. “I’ve got a question, pick on me!”

NTR (Eric): I also have an autoimmune disease, so I was very curious as to what it was.

NTR: And he was just showing off that he can still lift his arm [haha]

NTR (Eric): Exactly, exactly.

NTR: So how did this come to fruition? Something like “I’m gluten free and vegan and there’s no good cookies on the market for me”? How did this come about? And did it start with the cookies, because we saw there’s banana bread, pancakes, and other mixes.

Emily: Yes, it did start with the cookies! We grew up with chocolate chip cookies being out favorite. That was always the treat, we would make the nestle tollhouse chocolate chip cookies with my dad, so we grew up with those. Since Chelsea was diagnosed, we’ve had to do alternative cookies. There’s a bunch of brands on the market, but they are all meh.

NTR: Ya totally, they’re ok for gluten free, they’ll do in a pinch, but they’re like eating flavored cardboard [haha]

Emily: Exactly, there’s always the plate labeled “gluten free” and only the gluten free folks ever eat it. So Chelsea is gluten free and dairy free primarily, and my boyfriend Adam and I are vegan and so when we went vegan we started having 3 plates on the dessert table: one plate for everyone else, one plate for Chelsea, and one for me and Adam. And so, we were like “We all love chocolate chip cookies, let’s try to make one that everyone’s going to enjoy and actually want to eat.” So back in 2020, we started doing some little experiments just for the family.

NTR: Do you think Covid prompted it?

Emily: A little bit, yeah, we had so much time at home to do more baking, so we were just like “let’s make cookies all the time”! So we did a bunch of chocolate chip cookie baking and would bring batches to my parents and to Chelsea to try them out. And they stated getting pretty good, and people started joking “Oh these are so good, you should try and sell them!” And at first we just waved it off and were like “Oh ya, that would be fun, but probably not.” And then they started getting really good, and you guys got to try them this morning, and we were like “you know, this might work.” So we jumped right into it, and my parents got suspicious when we would drop off 3 dozen cookies at a time, and they were like “hmmm what’s going on here”? [haha]. In the background we talked to my sister, and we were like “Chels, we could make this work!” And it immediately came to us to name it after her because of her journey and she was the inspiration for trying to make these cookies. And so the 3 of us were working on it in the background, and officially announced it to our parents, and started with the chocolate chip cookies. Adam drove that development, and the 3 other skis followed, and we have a couple other mixes in the background we’ve been working on too.

NTR: That’s awesome! So where can people find this?

Emily: Right now we are selling online on our website, we’re at chelseaapproved.com , so we have that all setup with ecommerce. You can order them and we will ship them out and fulfill those, so you can get them all online. And Chelsea has also been at some farmers markets, so she will be at the Shelburne Winter Farmers market down at the Teddy Bear Factory this coming Saturday, so you can buy bags and baked goods from her as well.

NTR: Very cool. So, so far it’s been received well?

Emily: Ya, absolutely! People have been loving it. My parents are our biggest advocates, so every couple of days my mom will call me and be like “I just gave some bags to a co-worker, her son is gluten free” or “This coworker is dairy free.” The goal was for this product to be easy to share, we want people to make them, share them, and have friends and family eat them. Everyone knows someone that’s avoiding some type of food, whether it’s gluten, dairy, or eggs.

NTR: No no, Rev doesn’t avoid any food, if you’ve met Rev [haha]

NTR: No, she said I know someone that does [haha], and luckily it’s not contagious so I can still eat whatever I want.

NTR: I’ve actually been avoiding buying eggs, you guys seem like you have an upper hand here because you don’t have eggs in these cookies.

Emily: Definitely, the mixes work great with pretty much any cooking oil: vegetable oil, canola oil, avocado oil. It’s a super flexible recipe so kind of whatever high heat baking oil you have will work great.

NTR: Where does the chocolate come from? Doesn’t chocolate usually have dairy in it?

Emily: It does, ya. There’s only a couple brands on the market that have a certified gluten free and vegan chocolate chip that they sell. One of them is enjoy life, you can usually buy that at the grocery store. Ours is one we haven’t found at the grocery store, but they sell it online, and that’s a trade secret for how good our chocolate chips are.

NTR: Ya totally, I was just going to say they’re amazing. The cookies are good too, but I tried just the chocolate, and we all were like “that’s some good stuff right there.” I wouldn’t tell anyone about that either [haha]

NTR: The one thing I noticed about the chocolate was that it almost has a fresh out-of-the-oven consistency like it’s still melty, it’s not re-solidified or re-hardened from getting cooled down. And actually the entire cookie itself has a texture that’s just like being fresh out of the oven.

NTR: Were these made last night?

Emily: No, I made them this morning.

NTR: Oh ok, that makes sense because they definitely tasted really fresh.

Emily: Ya they are only a couple hours old, so they are really fresh [haha]

NTR: So I’m checking out your instagram right now, @chelseaapproved, and I think this is a pretty interesting thing to note is that Chelsea is actually a Registered Dietitian, so there’s some obvious study behind what she’s gone into and put herself through to produce these products as well. This isn’t just someone that’s living an autoimmunide disease life, she’s gone through this education and obviously wants to help people as well.

Emily: Ya, 100%. Chelsea’s journey with food brought her to her dietitian career and she works at the local hospital as a dietitian now. She brings a whole bunch of value to the team, and she’s running our social media, which has been amazing. She’s been having a blast, and it’s been really fun all around.

NTR: How many people are hands-on with this operation?

Emily: Ya, we’ve got 3 people, us co-founders. Myself, my boyfriend Adam, and Chelsea. Chelsea does all the social media, marketing, market research, and all of the nutrition consultation for the products. I do the finances, designed and managed the website, and do all the online fulfillment. Adam is our supply chain and consumer packaged goods expert, so he does all the quality, manages our supply chain and where everything’s coming from.

NTR: So Chelsea works elsewhere, is this any of your full-time job? Or do you all have full time jobs that pay the bills and you’re working on making this happen?

Emily: That’s a great questions. Chelsea works full time, as does Adam. I worked full time up until this past December, when I actually got laid off from my day job. It was definitely a bummer and unplanned, but…

NTR: Maybe a blessing in disguise?

Emily: It absolutely has been, ya! The last few months have been a blast being able to put full time effort into the business, drive it forward, and work on projects we hadn’t been able to before. It’s definitely accelerated having me be able to work on it full time. It’s been a lot of fun

NTR: That’s awesome. The logos great the product’s fantastic. We can only attest to the cookies right now.

NTR: I’m going to make the banana bread mix with my kids at home later this afternoon!

NTR: We do pancakes a lot at my house, so I’m going to be trying those out.

NTR: Ya, and if they suck, we’re going to destroy you guys [haha]

Emily: Oh no! [haha]. I have full faith in all of the baking mies, you guys are going to love them.

NTR: I talked to your dad, and he’s roughing it in st. Maartin right now, but we’d love to have you or Chelsea or you dad come into the studio and hand out. It would probably be less of an interview and just partaking in our shenanigans,

NTR: Bring your check book! [haha]

NTR: Can I put in a request to start research on a gluten free and vegan friendly pizza crust mix? Because that is just not hitting on the market these days. If you can make cookies taste this good, I have faith that you can do a pizza mix too.

NTR: You can use the chocolate chip cookie mix as a pizza dough, it’ll be beautiful! [haha]

Emily: We have high hopes for more products in the future. Pizza mix will definitely get some experimenting in the future, but I haven’t done any testing with yeasted doughs yet, so we we’ll see how that goes!

NTR: Thank you very much Emily! Thanks for the cookies and for taking the time to chat with us.

NTR: Wait, there’s more cookies in that bag right? Can I have another one?

Emily: There’s also a discount code for you guys, people can get 10% off with the NTR10 code.

NTR: Our first discount code you guys! We hit the big time! [haha]

Emily: Love it! So feel free to share…

NTR: Are you sure your website can handle this?? [haha]

Emily: We’re totally ready!

NTR: It’s chelseaapproved.com with the discount code NTR10

NTR: Thank you very much Emily, this was great!

Emily: Absolutely, thank you guys!

End of Recording #2 

Grab a bag of Chelsea Approved Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix today!