Mary's secret ingredients Offers Culinary Inspiration While Fighting Hunger Plus BBQ Pulled Pork Recipe #Sponsored

***Disclosure: I received complimentary samples to facilitate my review. No other compensation has been provided, and all opinions are 100% honest and have not been influenced in any way.***

Do you love to get creative in the kitchen? I sure do! One of my favorite ways to relax is through cooking, and I am always experimenting with new ingredients and flavor profiles. After all, I like to keep my family's taste buds happy! 

One way to try out new ingredients is by trying out different subscription boxes. These offer endless opportunities to try ingredients that you may not have ever heard of before!

One of my favorites is MARY’s secret ingredients. This is a surprise culinary subscription box created by Mary, author of the blog LOVE- the secret ingredient.

With LOVE – the secret ingredient, Mary shares her expertise, passion and her all-time favorite recipes with 32,000+ followers. As a passionate cook, Mary always looks for new inspiration and interesting flavor combinations and she knows that other foodies are the same. So she wanted to share her favorite new ingredients with others, provide support to food manufacturers and producers, as well as use her passion and the popularity of her blog to give back to combat hunger.

This is why, in 2014, Mary launched her surprise subscription box service, MARY's secret ingredients (MSI) uniting all of her goals. MSI helps natural food manufacturers introduce new products and works to eliminate childhood hunger worldwide alongside the global initiative Feed The Children.

MARY’s secret ingredients is a limited edition culinary surprise subscription box service. Seasonally themed, only a limited number of boxes are available each quarter. The boxes are filled with a surprise assortment of unique, gourmet, artisanal products and small kitchen tools to inspire home cooks to create wonderful tasting food.

We received the Mary's secret ingredients July Box to check out for ourselves. It arrived quickly, and had an absolutely gorgeous presentation. As you can see, the contents are wrapped in tissue paper and finished with pretty blue ribbon. Also included is a personal, handwritten note from Mary herself, as well as info about the included products. 

Good looks aside, though, the real treat was the contents. I have to admit, I had never heard of ANY of these products before my box arrived! I couldn't wait to try them out! 

Here's what was included:

• Chipz Happen in Cinnful Sweet Heat
  

• Delta Blues Rice-Rice Grits
  

• Love Grown Foods-Chocolate Power O's Cereal 
  

• Rufus Teague-Touch O' Heat BBQ Sauce

• SpeegeeCo-Spatula 
  

• Villa de Patos-Maguey Sweet Sap

We have had a great time experimenting with these wonderful, nutritious ingredients. Unfortunately, my kids tore right into the Chipz Happen Cinnful Sweet Heat chips and the Chocolate Power O's. Any culinary inspiration I had regarding these items were quickly dashed, since children definitely love to sneak and eat Mommy's special ingredients! They did, however, love them, and gave their immediate seal of approval. 

I DID hit the jackpot using the Rufus Teague Touch O' Heat BBQ Sauce and the Maguey Sweet Sap. These ingredients made an absolutely crave-worthy pulled pork, perfect for summer cookouts and get-togethers! 

I made my pulled pork in the slow cooker, and I have to say, the smell of it simmering away all day was almost too much to bear. This cooks in a "bath" of root beer and a few tablespoons of Maguey Sweet Sap. This has an interesting, earthy, almost herbal flavor to it, and it is definitely a nice sweetener. 

Once the pork was nice and tender, I shredded it and then added the Rufus Teague Touch O' Heat. Now don't let the name fool you, folks. While this does have a nice little bite to it, it is not overwhelmingly spicy at all. My 4 and 5 year olds were able to gobble it up with absolutely no issues or milk-runs. 

Want my recipe? It only takes 5 simple ingredients, and makes one exceptional BBQ'ed pulled pork! 

Here's what you will need: 

• 1 (2 pound) pork tenderloin
  
• 12 oz. root beer
• 3 tablespoons Maguey Sweet Sap
  

• 1 bottle Rufus Teague Touch O' Heat BBQ Sauce 
  
• 8 hamburger buns, split and lightly toasted
  

Directions: 
-Place the pork tenderloin in a slow cooker
-Pour the root beer and Maguey Sweet Sap over the meat. 
-Cover and cook on low until well cooked and the pork shreds easily, about 8 hours. Drain well. 
-Stir in barbecue sauce. 
-Serve on toasted hamburger buns.
-Enjoy!


Overall, we are definitely very pleased with our Mary's secret ingredients experience. The variety of products were definitely inspired and unique, and perfect for lazy summer meals with family and friends. I also loved the inclusion of the spatula. Let me tell you, that has come in handy about a million different times so far! 


If you're interested in checking out new ways to shine in the kitchen all while helping to fight hunger, I would definitely recommend checking out what Mary's secret ingredients has to offer. 

How to Connect With Mary's Secret Ingredients: 

You can check out the awesomeness of Mary's secret ingredients on their website. 

You can also connect on Facebook and on twitter for cooking tips, recipes, and of course, more info on these great boxes!