Fiber One Oats & Caramel4 stars
I have tried a variety of granola bars over the last few months, and while this is more than likely a large contributing factor as to why I am blogging again, this bar may be good enough reason alone.
Cinnamon Harvest Kashi CerealI have been having way to much oatmeal lately, so I decided to mix it up and buy some good, crunchy, flavorful cereal. And boy did I. This cereal is delicious, I would definitely recommend it. It definitely reminds me of Shredded Wheat with a hint of cinnamon.
First of all it is always nice to read the ingredients for a cereal and see this: Organic Whole Wheat, Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Organic Cinnamon, Natural Cinnamon Flavor. How simple is that? Of course, it is Organic, so simple ingredients are expected. After you eat it though you’ll wonder why other companies put so much other crap in their cereal when the goal is the same- yummyness.
The only thing I didn’t like was that despite the fact that there are 9 g of sugar in the cereal, it just wasn’t sweet enough for me. I added a packet of sweetener and I was good to go though. It didn’t get soggy to quickly and has definitely put me in the mood for Autumn and Harvests… to bad I live in Texas ; )
Hey guys sorry I know it has been a while, but I have been moving into my apartment and getting into college this semester. But I’m back! So here is a yummy recipe that is perfectly suited for the fall. My boyfriend and I made this the other night and that I think you should try. I got it from Rachel Ray and then adapted it more to my tastes. The recipe made nine very large meatballs, which were practically meal in them selves but we also included about two servings of linguine, just to add some umph. So here is the recipe.
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Ingredients |
Directions |
| 10 wheat crackers, ground 1 egg, beaten 1/2 can spinach drained and dry 3/4 lb lean ground turkey 1 T minced garlic |
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Another hungry night and another Lean Cuisine to satisfy me. This meal was awesome! I would give this meal six stars if my rating system went that high. Then again, hey I make the rules, you know what it gets six stars! Maybe it was only because I was craving a pasta and chicken dish after servig it to other people all night, but this meal really hit the spot and was tasty to boot! And the cinnamon apples definitely earned this meal even more bonus points… as well as sugar.
The meal includes penne pasta and chicken ( of course) as well as broccoli, carrots, and a couple of tomato specks. All of which is coated in a garlic herb sauce. Supposedly this had parmesan cheese on it but I added a little low fat mozzarella for an added touch. I really enjoyed the sauce and the noodles were delightfully al dente.
I’ve never tried the Lean Cuisine deserts, not on purpose but only because I haven’t been intrigued by a meal that included the treat. The cinnamon apples were good but I would proubably buy the meal without them if I had the choice. I have a feeling that it accounts for a large amount of the fat ans sugar in this meal, and to me they really weren’t worth it, although overall I would say they were yummy.
Here is what other reviewers have said about the meal:
- I.Ate.A.Pie.net gave the meal 4 out of 5 points, and they seem to share my opinion about the apples.
- Heat.Eat.Review gave the meal 4 out of 5 stars and features a great picture of the product.
Okay so I guess I am the only one who gave the meal an outstanding number of stars… you should definitely try it though!
So I was starved after working from 4:30-9:30, at Chili’s no less- not exactly the best place to be starving : ) It is kinda hard to be ravenously hungry and handing other people great smelling food. But we’ve all been there, anyway, this is the dinner I came home to and it was well worth the wait and yummy. I loved the mushrooms and the sauce in this meal but was a little upset by the veggies.
Like I said, I was a little disappointed with the veggie serving in this meal. Chicken Tuscan is part of the 30% more group Lean Cuisine line. Well, I guess the extra 30% must have been in the pasta and chicken portion because it was most definitely not in the veggies! I only got three or four measly pieces of broccoli and some carrot shreds… yea, it was pretty sparse.
The sauce on the noodles and chicken with the great mushrooms really made up for it though: ) The “Tuscan” chicken was typically Lean Cuisine tender and very well seasoned. I added some low fat Parmesan cheese to mine, but it would have been great either way.
Here is what some other reviewers have said about the meal:
- Heat.Eat.Review gave the meal 4 out of 5 stars and from the look of their picture they got waaay more veggies than I did.
If you liked this meal then you might give the Chicken Tuscan Panini a try, I know I will : )
Luna Bars Part Deux- Chocolate Peppermint StickYummy! This bar was sooo good, and was by far my absolute favorite Luna Bar as of date. I know I still have a bunch of flavors to try, but I can’t help it, this one was amazing. There is a delicious chocolaty coating on the bottom of it and the top pepper-minty part is refreshing and the perfect compliment to its chocolaty lower layer.
I especially love that the peppermint flavors in the bar are not to strong. The Lemon Zest Luna bar was just so overpowering with lemony flavor to me that it wasn’t even enjoyable : ( But this bar got it just right
A must for anyone who loves peppermint/chocolate and needs a handy and durable snack for on the go! Here’s a tip: Freeze it first ! I froze mine and that way even when I had it in my back pocket for ten minutes it was still delightfully firm : )
Here is what other reviewers have though about the bar
- Apparently these bars are wheat and dairy free because over at wheatfree.org they gave the bar five out of five stars, they give a slightly more detailed description of its appearance, so you should check that out.
- Fitsugar.com has a LunaBar diary, and they gave this bar four out of five stars. Their favorite is Dulce de Leche which i am definitely gonna have to try.
Have you tried this bar and loved it/hated it? Let me know… and hey what bar should I try next?
Simple Harvest Apple Cinnamon – Quaker OatmealSo I pretty much consider myself to be a pretty boring and a really predictable eater. And most mornings, unless I am feeling wild and crazy ( or my mom offers to make me a yummy omelet) I have some kind of oatmeal for breakfast. The only problem is that once you have oatmeal everyday for a couple of months it can get kind of boring… so when I saw the new “Simple Harvest” line from Quaker I jumped at the chance to mix up my oatmeal routine with a new and inventive, as well as healthy, option. Although the flavor was a little different than the average Quaker oatmeal, all in all it left me a little under whelmed.
The packaging for this oatmeal is very unique, and I give it two bigs thumbs up. The outside box lies flat, long ways and features a viewing section where you can see the ” all natural” ingredients. Which besides some distinctive chunks of barley really do not look that much different than the standard Quaker oatmeal contents. The individual oatmeal packages also feature a clear back feature that is different than the usual brown bagged Quaker packs. I like this alot because the bags seem less permeable and easy to damage.
As far as taste goes the “Simple Harvest” Apple Cinnamon was good, but not any better tasting to me than the regular Quaker Apples and Cinnamon. It definitely had a slightly more “Kashi-ish” look to it, with the whole grains etc, but unlike with Kashi, I didn’t feel like it really contributed at all to the overall taste.
I have not found any other reviews of this product so let me know what you think!
Roasted Garlic Chicken Pizza Lean CuisineI am soooo sick of the pizza that my parents buy every single Friday. Most days I enjoy posing the question around three or four o’clock, ” Hey Mom, what’s for dinner today?” But Fridays, I honestly don’t even bother. Fridays are pizza day. So while at Walmart today I picked up the Roasted Garlic Chicken Lean Cuisine pizza to spice up the night and give it a little variety, TGIF. And boy was it a nice change! Maybe this pizza is just riding the tailcoats of my escape from monotony, but I really enjoyed it!
First off, this pizza is huge! I was amazed at how long it took me to eat it. In fact, in the time that it took me to eat this delightful low cal pizza I could have easily eaten two or three pieces of regular horribly fattening and hi-cal pizza. The crust was crispy, although I think I should proubably have microwaved mine a little bit longer. The box suggests microwaving it in thirty second intervals after the initial microwave time to increase the crispy. The main reason I have given this pizza four stars instead of five lies in the chicken. It was eh. There were really only a couple of pizza and they were just stuck to the top haphazardly… not exactly amazing if you ask me.
I proubably wouldn’t recommend this pizza as an every night kind of dinner. Of other Lean Cuisine’s it is slightly higher in calories and fat, and carbohydrates for sure. But if you know that other people in your family having pizza is going to be to much to bear ( while you sit nibbling away it your wild greens salad) then I would definitly reccomend this as an alternative.
BUT only if you like garlic, you can see chunks of garlic in the cheese. I am a huge fan of garlic and I loved it. Bring a tic tac or some gum though because the aroma is definitly only going to be pleasing to someone who gets to enjoy the pizza. Proubably not so much for the next person who talks to you… : )
Here is what some other reviewers have said about the pizza:
- Heat.Eat.Review. gave the pizza four out of five stars and said that it was ” better than most Lean Cuisine pizzas” and that those around them were “seriously impressed” with the aroma.
- The ladies over at KVUE in Dallas gave this pizza five out of five lunch bags. Apparently Lean Cuisine has changed their evaluation of the number of calories though because according to this site the pizza only has 290.
- I.Ate.A.Pie.net gave the pizza three out of five stars, they said that they liked that there was a lot of cheese but they didn’t like the sauce.
Overall a yummy dinner. I paired it with a salad and had a great time escaping the mundane : )
Dulce de Leche : a milk based syrup found as both a sauce and a caramel like candy….
and it is oh so yummy! In fact, there are few words to describe how much I enjoyed this delicious treat from Jello Sugar Free and Fat Free Pudding. Sixty calories, and sugar free AND fat free- you’ll have no idea. As contrived as it might be for me to say it- well eating this treat definitely “feels like cheating”. Although according to one site I looked at if you are familiar with real “dulce de leche”, which I am not, but if you are, then apparently you won’t be impressed? But hey, it is still yummy…
Unfortunately I couldn’t find a picture of what the package looks like, but I found my pack over in the refrigerated section near the other Jello/Cozy Shack puddings at my local Super Walmart.
If you enjoy the flavor try these other Dulce de Leche hits:
If you enjoy caramel and pudding ( and who doesn’t?) then you should definitely try this as a fun snack for on the go. Although as a whole the pudding snack isn’t really very filling it’s nice to be able to taste something so unique and sweet.
So as of this morning I was an energy bar virgin. I had never in my life ever eaten an entire energy bar. Okay I admit it, I had taken a nibble or two in high school w/ my tennis playing buddies, but I had never bought one. All that changed last night when I was at Walmart and stumbled into a display for Luna, and picked one up.I was a little scared at first and kept putting off eating it. Part of me really really wanted it to be good. Who wouldn’t love to have a 180 calorie delicious snack that they can count on? Another part of me dreaded the chalky taste I hadn’t gotten during my high school experimentation.
This bar lived up to both of my expectations. Was it disgusting no? Did it taste chalky? Heck no. Was it delicious? …eh Did the chocolate taste fake? Heck yes! While I actually ended up needing the Luna bar conveniently held away in my purse after dinner was delayed a little. Unfortunately, the bar had melted a little after being melted in the Texas sun. I ate about half and stuffed it back in my purse.
When I got home I stuck the bar in the freezer, which ended up being a really good decision! I tasted great frozen. A bar that might have taken me just a minute to eat ended up taking me about ten because it was frozen solid. It tasted great though, AND for some reason fake chocolate when frozen doesn’t taste quite so weird.
UPDATE: So I tried to Lemon Zest bar… what a headache! Is it just me or is this bar super money? And super sweet? Good thing I waited until after my work out to try this because Iwouldn’t have made it ten seconds on the elliptical after this. Everyone seems to enjoy it though according to other posts… am I completely alone on this one?
Ultimately though I wasn’t really very impressed with the bar. I do plan on trying other Luna bars in the future though, any suggestions?
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