Another Builder’s Bar review! This time, the S’mores flavor. Who could really ever resist a S’more? Chocolate? Marshmallow? Graham crackers? All warm and gooey…

Ok I’ll stop now, before day dreaming turns into my actually going out to buy ingredients to make S’mores….

Insert Clif Builder’s S’mores Protein Bar, made with natural ingredients, organic ingredients, and still some muscle-loving protein. I liked the chocolate chip one I had a few days ago, and bought a whole bunch more.

Upon first bite, I REALLY liked it. It was sweeter than the Chocolate Chip flavor, and more flavorful. The top part was soft and chewy and dense, and the bottom part of the bar was “crunchier”, and together it was a really complimenting texture.

The flavor I would say was a predominant sweet chocolate, with a good bit of marshmallow flavor. I did get the sense that the bar contained a “toasted” flavor, kind of like a graham cracker would provide. As with the other bar, or any protein bar really, I needed some water to drink with this. (Hey, some milk if you feel like adding even more protein!) It had that salty/sweet combination going on, and water fit the bill quite nicely.

Overall, yum! Love the high protein, and that it’s low glycemic according to the wrapper. I also like how it doesn’t taste chalky like some protein bars can. It is a bit high in sugar/sodium and low in fiber, so overall, 4 stars

Will buy again!

I’m not a meat eater. Good for my cholesterol levels, bad for my protein levels- especially since I’m a total gym bunny. So I often try to find high protein foods to supplement the protein I lack when I don’t eat that cheeseburger or steak (which, mind you, hasn’t been done since 7th grade! Wow….such a long time!)

I also am quite fond of protein bars. Weird? Nah. I just think you have to find the right ones! Some can be a bit chalky, or others pounded with sugar and fat, but if you find a good bar with a good amount of protein I think it’’s perfect as a  light meal or alongside some fruit for a light meal.

So, what took me so long to finally try these Clif Builder’s Bars? No clue. What’s WRONG with me!? Maybe I was blinded to the protein bar section in CVS or Whole Foods that contained the Clif Builder’s Bars. But, the other day I picked up one of every flavor from Whole Foods, hoping they would be a success.

Not going to lie, already had 2 of them (two thumbs up!!) before I thought to review one. Well DUH on my part, seeing as  I have a health food blog that reviews new products I eat and all…. =P

The bar was actually quite good. It was a soft chew, with a crunchier inside very similar to the “crispie” part in the Luna bars. It did have that infamous “soy” flavor, but not overpoweringly so. The softer  part on top was chewy, dense, and almost had a vanilla flavor. The crunchier “Luna-like” part on the bottom was chocolately in flavor, but not really super flavorful. All together, I got almost a light caramel/chocolate malt flavor. It was weird…but it was good. I liked it.

I can’t say this SCREAMED chocolate chip flavor, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it. It was more of a chocolate malt flavor, or chocolate in general. It had that kind of flavor that made me crave some water, but was sweet as well. I would most likely buy this one, especially since it had no sugar alcohols and no artificial ingredients, which often accompany protein bars.

Overall, 4 stars. I had this for lunch with a giant fruit cup and was quite satisfied. Its high in saturated fat and sugar, but also high in protein and with a low glycemic index. Perfect for a diabetic like me! =)

WHAT’S your favorite protein bar brand/name? Let me know! =)

Something new- Plentils by Enjoy Life Foods! But what exactly is a plentil? They are crunchy lentil chips! Wait but where did the “P” come from.

Um….

Not sure. Moving on.

I got a few free bags of the chips from Enjoy Life Foods to try for free. First one up for review, Margherita Pizza. Why? Because it was 11pm, I wanted pizza, but did NOT feel like leaving the house. I was hoping these chips would suffice a pizza craving, as well as be delicious on their own!

First of all, these chips are soooo crunchy! I really liked that, as nothing’s worse than when a chip is more oily than crunch (you know what I’m talking about!) or the chip falls apart the second it hits your mouth (also not cool…). Nope! These were light and crisp, not oily at all, and almost had a toasty-crunchy feel to them.

They were very yummy and flavorful, and surprisingly, did remind me of pizza! The pentils had a saucy and cheesy flavor to them, with undertones of basil, garlic and onion. They also had a salty flavor that was really quite good.

Overall, I like these! Don’t forget these are gluten free as well! 4 stars

Cereal is a staple for me. Every day, every morning, a bowl of the stuff with some almond milk, and usually a sliced banana. It’s delicious, and light enough to let me go to the gym after without weighing me down or feeling sick. So, needing a change from my usual (love you, Cinnamon Pecan Special K <3) I wanted something to channel my inner child. Something sugary, something chocolatey, something new.

What fit the bill? New Krave cereal!

I’ll admit. The whole “K” in place of “C” kind of bothered me. A lot. I always have this internal resentment when companies spell things wrong on purposely, whether it’s supposed to be cute or creative or not. It bothers me, because I’m nuts about spelling, and when people spell things incorrectly. It happens. And…I bought it anyway.

In the ride home, I grabbed a handful. I almost always try a new product right when I get it. Why I couldn’t wait for the drive home beats me, but hey, I was also hungry.

First I looked at the size. Tinier than I expected. For some reason I had mini-wheat sized squares oozing with chocolate filling in my head. What I got? Not so much. More of the size of my fingertip, with a very slight chocolate filling (aka barely any).

However, just because the inside wasn’t oozing, didn’t mean the chocolate flavor wasn’t there. These little guys were crunchy, sweet, and had a milk chocolate flavor.

In fact….I felt like I’ve eaten this before. WHAT did this taste like? I ate more and more trying to figure it out, but couldn’t. It wasn’t until I threw the box to my brother and had him try some that he said “these taste like Cookie Crisp” that the lightbulb went off in my head.

A-HA!!!! COOKIE CRISP! So if you are a fan of that cereal, you’ll love this one. Chocolatey, yet hint of vanilla, and that salty sweet flavor going on as well. I think they are WAY too sweet for a morning cereal (I tried, and instantly put it back in my pantry) but for snacking, they are delicious! I didn’t even need milk, and I just ate them straight from the box.

I know what you’re thinking. Surely this cereal is full of fillers and yuck and yadda yadda this and yadda yadda that. WRONG! I hope you are pleasantly surprised. The ingredients aren’t half bad!

YES, sugar is listed before whole grain oat flour which is a bit of a letdown, but I’ll let it slide….for now.

So, all in all, 4 stars. Yum!

And the nutritionals…

I dont know about you, but I LOVE cranberry juice. Tart, yet sweet, and just delicious. One thing about juice? Super easy to drink, and full of calories. Which is good if it’s 100% fruit juice and your only having a glass every now and then, but if leaves me feeling unsatisfied (still hungry!!) and I always want more!

So, I was contacted to see if I wanted to try Cranberry Naturals Cranberry Apple and Cranberry Grape Juice Cocktails for free. According to the bottles, these are reduced calorie juice cocktails that are sweetened with truvia. They also have no HFCS (yay!) and have “no artificial colors, flavors or sweeteners”.

Sounds good to me!

I tried the Cranberry Apple flavor first.

It had a yummy apple juice smell to it, with just a hint of cranberry.  It definitely tasted like a hybrid of apple and cranberry juice. The sweetness of the apple blended with the tartness of the cranberry. It wasn’t as sweet as usual and had a more milder flavor, but was still pretty good. I actually really liked it!

Next up, the Cranberry Grape flavor.

I liked this one even more! I could certainly taste more of the grape flavor, but since it wasn’t super sweet it took on more of a white grape juice flavor. The cranberry flavor got a little bit lost, but there was still a mild tartness to it that I enjoyed.

Overall, these are delicious! I honestly could not really tell it was a reduced calorie drink, because the sweetness and flavor were both present in each flavor. I would love to buy these in the future and introduce them to you guys!

(Scroll down for a giveaway!)

4 stars

SO, want to try them for yourself?!

One winner (United States only) will win 4 coupons for free bottles of the juice cocktail!

How to enter:
*MANDATORY*

1. What’s your favorite type of juice? If you don’t drink juice, why not?

OPTIONAL but encouraged )

2. Add me to your blog roll!
3. Follow me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway, mentioning my name@Lisaaaa_xox AND the link to this giveaway in the tweet! Each tweet equals one entry.
4. Leave a comment on any of my reviews- must be a new comment.

Giveaway ends March 8th, 12 PM. Good luck!

New product alert! I was contacted to see if I wanted to try some new bars for free from Kraft! They are the MilkBite Milk & Granola Bars, that come in two flavors, Chocolate and Strawberry.

What’s different about these bars? You have to refrigerate them! As the box indicated, they are “made with real milk”, so it’s best to “store in the fridge!” And….gotta love that they have as much calcium as a glass of milk! (8 oz)

I opened up the boxes of the Chocolate and Strawberry MilkBite bars and noticed they were standard sized granola bars. Not too big, not too small, about the size of my hand. Here’s what they looked like unwrapped

I tried the chocolate one first (for obvious reasons). Upon first bite….love! It was chewy yet still dense, and really good. It reminded me of cookie dough upon my first bite- like the little pieces you get in ice cream. So yummy! It didn’t have an overpowering chocolate flavor, but more like accented with chocolate flavor. It also reminded me of those Chocolate Chip Chewy Bars by Quaker. It was sweet, but not too sweet, and really quite enjoyable.  I mean really…what’s not to love about a granola bar that provides calcium and tastes like cookie dough!?

Next up, the strawberry flavor. This one was also good, but definitely sweeter. It had that tangy yet sweet strawberry flavor, and a white drizzle on top of the bar that reminded me of white chocolate. The dried pieces of strawberry in the bar added a nice touch. I noticed that this bar was softer than the chocolate flavored one, and a bit more chewy.

Overall, both are winners, and both are unique. I think they are good to eat before the gym, which is probably what I will do since I dont want the bar sitting my in my bag all day if it should be refrigerated. I think it depends on my mood for which one I want to eat. Chocolate and more savory? Chocolate flavor! If I want more of a fruity and fresh flavor, and perhaps a bit more sweet, strawberry flavor! These were a bit high in saturated fat and sugar, but not too bad. Overall, 4 stars.

Red= strawberry nutrition, Brown= chocolate nutrition

Well…..don’t. Especially if it’s this one, Zico Premium Chocolate Coconut Water. It’s SO GOOD!

I picked it up at the store after I felt like I needed a little boost. It was one of those days. Those slept through my alarm clock, couldn’t find the appropriate outfit to wear, and walked too close to the edge of the sidewalk so a car came and splashed a puddle on me days.

*sigh*

What I really needed was a giant cookie (and maybe a hug), but for some reason, this gem called my name.

It reminded me a lot of chocolate milk. Sweet but not overly sweet, but with a yummy chocolate flavor, but I can tell it was dark chocolate. However, I’m not a big dark chocolate fan at ALL, and I was really happy drinking this, as it was a mild “dark” flavor. I didn’t really taste any coconut, which I dont know if I was supposed to or not since it’s water from coconut. It was thinner in consistency than milk would be, but still had a creamy taste.

Overall, I really liked it! I would definitely buy it again. Unique, and delicious . And look at those health benefits!

4 stars

I ordered something so out of my element. Turkey. Sausage. Normally if I eat out, I’ll get the vegetarian option of a sandwich, but this time I wanted to try something different. (WHO am I? And what have I done with myself?)

So, alongside a medium coffee (caffeine addict right here), I ordered a Turkey Sausage Flatbread Sandwich from Dunkin’ Donuts. It was made fresh, and was steaming hot when I got it, so I was quite content with that.

Another weird quirk of mine, I never eat sandwiches whole. I eat them piece by piece. So first I ate one side of the flatbread, then the egg/sausage component, and then the other side of the flatbread with cheese. I can’t help it, I just like to eat sandwiches this way. Although I did also try a bite of the sandwich all together and it was quite delicious.

And here’s a closeup of the sandwich.

The flatbread itself was chewy and doughy on the inside, and then the outer edges had a slight crisp/crunchiness to it. It was rather bland in flavor by itself, but went well with the egg and cheese component when I ate it together.

The egg part was really delicious, and had a fluffy consistency which surprised me that it wasn’t rubbery at all. It had some green pieces in it which I’m assuming would be spinach, along with pieces of turkey sausage. The turkey sausage was really good, and had a bit of spice to it. I haven’t had sausage of any kind in the longest time, but the turkey sausage (from what I remember) tasted very similar to regular sausage.

The cheese on the other piece of flatbread melted well, but really didn’t add too much to the sandwich. The flavors of the egg and sausage part overpowered the flavor of the cheese.

Overall, I enjoyed this. It was kind of small, maybe about the size of my hand with extended fingers. It had a lot of flavor and was really quite good. I would buy it again for sure, and it wasn’t terribly high in sodium, fat or calories. It had 280 calories, 8 grams of fat, and 770 mg of sodium. I would give it 4 stars.

Full nutritional information can be found here . Although after looking at that ingredient list, I don’t think I will be buying this very often. Too long!

What’s your favorite thing to order at Dunkin? I used to love the cinnamon roll donuts :’)

Peanut butter + pretzels + chocolate? Need there be another reason to  buy these? I didn’t think so. I also didn’t care that my wallet currently has 5 singles in it and I spent a few of those on these Dips. Oh salty sweet snacks, why must you tempt me so?

These little Dips were two pretzels, with peanut butter in the middle, then dipped in yummy  chocolate. I had to restrain myself in the car ride home not to eat them. (Lies- I totally ate 3 of them on the car ride home but I have to make it sound like I at least have some self control).

So much self control I actually ripped the bag down the middle. Ooooooops.

Anyway, after scoping out the ingredients (pretty good), looking at the nutrition facts (ehh…), buying these and finally getting them home, I had more and set myself to review them. Overall, these Dips were pretty good! And sweet! There was a milk chocolate tasting chocolate on the outside, with crunchy and fresh tasting pretzels on the inside.

Hmm. Problem. Where’s the peanut butter? I thought. The first bite was misleading- hardly any peanut butter flavor. But the second bite I tasted some. I do wish there was more, since I’m in love with peanut butter and will never turn it down : )

These were pretty much the epitome of a salty sweet snack. Smooth chocolate, crunchy salty pretzels and then a bit of peanut butter flavor. All together, they reminded me of a Reeses peanut butter cup in flavor, but with pretzel flavor as well. (Actually a Reeses peanut butter cup with pretzels in it sounds amazing!)

Overall, a yummy snack. However, very caloric, and high in saturated fat. 4 sandwiches have 4 grams of saturated fat and 150 calories, and these are HARD not to eat more than 4 of. In fact, the bag was gone in a day (not from me!!) but I left them on the kitchen table and later discovered an empty bag (that’s what happens when you live with hungry guys in the house!). So, given that and the peanut butter issue (lack there-of issue), these get 4 stars.

I’m all about homemade baking. I’d much rather bake chocolate chip cookies from scratch than buy the prepared versions. Something about the flavor, and the, ahem, love, that goes along with a homemade cookie. However, every now and then, a prepared version suffices. I spotted Trader Joe’s Spiced Apple Bread Mix at the store and couldn’t resist. Being the apple and carb fanatic I am (oh carbs…how I love thee) I figured this would be beyond delicious

So, I preheated the oven and got mixing.

Here’s the goods! It needed 2 eggs, milk (I used skim), butter, and the mix.

See the bumps?! Don't blame my mixing skills....it's actual dried apple pieces!

*insert baking time in oven here*

And…. fresh outta the oven!

Finished product. Everything is better with powdered sugar….

So….looks pretty. How’s it taste?

It was actually pretty good! It has a very deep flavor, and I could really taste the spices. All spice and cinnamon were the most predominant flavors, and there was almost a bit of a caramel flavor as well. The bread really reminded me of pumpkin too, for the dark color and the spiced flavor. The bread was sweet, but not over the top, so I think it’s acceptable to put the powdered sugar on for some added sweetness after I was suggested to do so.

It was soft and fluffy, with crispier edges, with dried apple pieces for added texture. I didn’t think it was super apple-y in flavor, but it still was an enjoyable bread. I think I’ll eat it again with a smear of peanut butter or butter after warming it up in the toaster oven.

It also lacked fiber and was a bit high in sugar, so this bread gets a total rating of 4 stars. Trader Joe’s really never disappoints me with their products, and I hope they never do!!

What about you? Do you make mostly homemade or store-bough/semi-prepared products? What are your favorites?!

And the nutritional facts. It was kind of high in sugar.