Want Healthy Vegan Snacks for Work? Meet Rule Breaker

In 2014, Nancy Kalish started a quest. She set out to make vegan, allergy-friendly brownies out of chickpeas—and get them to actually taste good. 

“I kept working at it and kept torturing my family and friends with different recipes,” she told The FruitGuys, cracking up at the memory. “… I must have tweaked it well over 100 times. You can imagine how happy my husband and daughter were!” 

The early recipes were “really bad,” but eventually Nancy began to turn the flavor tide. After a year of recipe-testing her healthy vegan snacks, she came up with a brownie that was delicious and nutritious. In fact, it inspired her to create an entire company: Rule Breaker Snacks, a FruitGuys snack partner.

Why Bake Bean Brownies?

Nancy’s quest to make a better-for-you brownie started with her own sweet tooth. As a health journalist, certified health coach, and cookbook editor, she knew what she was supposed to eat to stay healthy—but avoiding sugary, processed snacks was easier said than done. 

“I lived right across the street from an amazing healthy food store [in Brooklyn, New York] and yet they really fell down when it came to snacks and treats I found satisfying,” Nancy said. “I’d go in there and spend twenty bucks to pick up all of the stuff, and excitedly rip open these cookies and candy cars that were supposed to be better for you. But I never found anything that really hit the spot for me. It drove me back to wanting regular sweets.”

So, Nancy decided to make her own healthy vegan snacks. Starting a business wasn’t part of the plan. But when her friends and family urged her to sell her brownies she thought, “Why not?” 

It was June of 2014, so Nancy booked a booth at the Natural Products Expo West trade show in March 2015. That date became her deadline: She had nine months to find a bakery and turn her homemade brownies into a commercially viable snack. 

The Trade Show Scramble

Finding the right bakery was a challenge, even in New York City. Nancy is vegan, and her brownies are vegan, gluten-free, kosher, non-GMO, and free from the top eleven allergens. She wanted to avoid cross-contamination, which meant finding a bakery with those same restrictions.

“As a health journalist, I had learned that a lot of people have food sensitivities and allergies and dietary preferences that are really important to them, and sometimes absolutely vital to their health,” Nancy explained. “So I decided kind of naively that I would try to fulfill all of those things or as many as I possibly could. I didn’t realize how hard that was going to be.”

Nancy eventually found a bakery that fit all of her needs. Then, she scrambled to develop a second recipe—this time for Chocolate Chip Blondies—just in time for the tradeshow. It worked. 

“I took orders, and suddenly we were in the food business!” she said. 

Starting Over

The tradeshow went well, but there was one big problem: Nancy’s Rule Breaker Snacks (which break the baking rules by skipping wheat flour, butter, and eggs) weren’t shelf-stable. So only health food stores were interested in buying them. 

“I had to come up with a new recipe,” Nancy said. 

She enlisted the help of food scientists and went back to the kitchen. At the next Natural Products Expo West, Rule Breaker took home the NEXTY Award—which recognizes “the most progressive, innovative, inspiring and trustworthy products in the natural products industry.” 

But it wasn’t enough. Retailers loved the product, but they told Nancy it needed a longer shelf life before they’d stock it. 

“I’d say, ‘How long?’ and they’d say, ‘At least nine months.’ I was thinking, ‘Oh my god, that’s impossible,’” Nancy said. “… It took another couple of years to figure out how to make our products have a long shelf life with zero preservatives, zero crap, and chickpeas as the first ingredient.” 

Ingredient Obsession

Today, Rule Breaker’s brownies, cookies, and bites are shelf stable for more than a year. The recipe development process was grueling. But Nancy told The FruitGuys that even when she felt frustrated, she never considered compromising her standards for her healthy vegan snacks. Not only are Nancy’s treats vegan, free from the top eleven allergens, and certified gluten-free, kosher, and non-GMO, they fit those labels down to the tiniest detail. 

“I go above and beyond looking at exactly how every ingredient is produced and making sure it’s free of any animal products,” she said. “Like the sugar in our chocolate chips. If you’re a vegan, you’ll be concerned about it being treated with bone char. Even though that doesn’t have to go on the label, I make sure all of our chocolate chips contain a little bit of brown sugar and don’t use sugar treated with bone char.” 

Rule Breaker also avoids natural flavors containing propylene glycol and uses only responsibly sourced palm oil. The rainbow sprinkles on its Birthday Cake Blondies are even dyed with plants. 

“Believe me, plenty of people have told me your life would be much easier if you’d just allow there to be soy in your product or have it made at a bakery that also processes nuts. No way! I don’t care if it’s hard—I’m going to do it because it’s right,” Nancy said. 

Exciting Next Steps

Rule Breaker Snacks began as a one-woman operation. Ten years later, it’s a tiny but mighty certified women-owned company with ten employees. Oscar—Nancy’s 12-year-old Goldendoodle—also helps out by keeping her company while she works. 

Exciting things are on the horizon as Rule Breaker grows. Nancy is sourcing more organic ingredients than ever for her healthy vegan snacks. She plans to make the company’s plant-based commitment official with a vegan certification and an organic certification as the company’s budget allows. 

Get Healthy Vegan Snacks for Your Office

Here at The FruitGuys, we’re thrilled to help Nancy on her journey! This November, we’re featuring Rule Breaker’s Chocolate Chip Blondies, Chocolate Brownies, Birthday Cake Blondies, and P’nutter Chocolate Chip Blondies as our Snacks of the Month for World Vegan Month. We’ll include at least one flavor in all of our Thoughtful Snack Boxes, and they’re also available by the case for office celebrations. 

If you’d like to celebrate World Vegan Month with a vegan snack bar, vegan lunch and learn, or other plant-based activity, level it up by grabbing a case of Rule Breaker treats.