Categories: Country Choice

29 Aug 2010, Comments (5)

Country Choice Organic Fit Kids Instant Oatmeal Chocolate Chip and Cinnamon Toast

Author: Healthnuttxo

Oatmeal! While I love a good bowl of home-made rolled oats in the morning, there are times when instant oatmeal hits the spot. It’s often much faster/easier to make (quicker clean-up, too!) and often has tasty flavors!

Country Choice Organic sent me some of their instant oatmeal from the Fit Kids line, like the Chocolate Chip and Cinnamon Toast flavors. Yes- Chocolate Chip and Cinnamon Toast! I was SO excited to try these- they sounded like dessert for breakfast!

I tried the Chocolate Chip flavor first. At first I was a bit disappointed- there were only a few chocolate chips, maybe 3 or 4? in my packet. I was sort of hoping for more. After cooking it, I noticed it didn’t really thicen up like I’m used to with rolled oats, and was sort of loose (on another note- I noticed if you Microwave it instead of using hot water- it thickened up much better!) After cooking, the chocolate chips also sort of melted. I wish that the chocolate chips were on the side as a mix-in once the oatmeal was cooked. As for the taste? It really wasn’t that sweet, and sort of tasted like a hot cocoa flavored oatmeal. I did add some mix-ins, like crushed pretzels and sliced bananas, which made it more heartier and more filling for me, as well as a bit of stevia to sweeten it up a bit. 3 stars

Cinnamon Toast- this one I decided to cook in the microwave, and it had a much better texture. It cooked and sort of puffed up quite nicely! However, I was a bit disappointed again. It just wasn’t really that sweet tasting! It really kind of reminded me of plain oatmeal, with just a hint of cinnamon. I decided to add some maple syrup and sliced banana again, and found it much better. 3 stars

Overall, I do like that these are all natural, have 3 grams of fiber per packet, but they just aren’t sweet enough for my preferences as is. However, I found with a little bit of stevia to sweeten it, and some mixins like fruit, these were actually quite good!

*Do you have a favorite flavor of oatmeal? Or, what’s your favorite oatmeal mix-in?* Please leave a comment below if you’d like to answer! =)

1 packet ranges from 130-150 calories, 1.5-2.5 grams of fat, 26-28 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 11-13 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein.

31 Mar 2010, Comments (2)

Country Choice Organic Fit Kids Snackin’ Grahams

Author: Healthnuttxo

Country Choice Organic is a great brand with a lot to offer, in both taste and nutrition. They make organic snacks, cookies, and breakfast foods, like oatmeal. According to the website, “Our hot cereals, snacks and cookies are made with simple ingredients and maintain strict USDA organic standards.” As an added bonus, “all of Country Choice Organic products are made with a minimum of 95% organic ingredients, qualifying for the USDA Organic seal.”

Finally- products you can feel good about eating, and are good for you!

I was lucky enough to get to try something from the Fit Kids line- the Snackin’ Grahams in both chocolate and cinnamon toast flavors. Their Fit Kids’ line is designed to provide nutritious and delicious foods to fuel kids who live active lifestyles.

First off, the snackin’ grahams come in adorable shapes. They have roller skates, footballs, baseball mits, soccerballs (hey- are you feeling a bit biased here? What? No ballet slippers? 😉 ). Each one is actually a nice size, about the size of a quarter (aside from the roller-skate), and are actually pretty thick, too.

chocolate- Nice and crunchy, these went perfectly with my caramel Oikos yogurt, and also went great with a glass of milk (although, straight out of the bag is also a reccommended option 🙂 ). They had a good chocolatey flavor, and reminded me of chocolate flavored Teddy Grahams, or those graham crackers that come in squares and you have to break off into pieces. They weren’t overly sweet, but just right. They were addictive, my hand definietely went in the bag multiple times 🙂

Cinnamon Toast- Not sure why they called it Cinnamon “toast”, but there definietely is cinnamon! They reminded me of an old favorite, Annie’s Cinnamon Bunny Grahams (I can devour a box of those in, 2 days 2 hours). These grahams combined a nice flavor of cinnamon and sugar, and had just a wee bit of vanilla flavoring as well. These went perfect with an ice cold glass of milk, as they were a bit dry on their own. I relived childhood as I dropped soccer ball shaped grahams in my glass of milk. 8)

Overall, I’m giving these 4  stars. They were very satisfying, nutritious, and had some healthy benefits. They provide 10% of daily calcium need, 2 grams of fiber (which “graham” snacks often lack), and 4 grams of whole grans (not a lot, but some is better than non!). What I didn’t like was the fact that the 1st ingredient was just wheat flour instead of whole wheat flour (boo!), followed by the 2nd ingredient, sugar (couldn’t we have used a less refined sweetener?). However, I love the fact that these are organic, delicious, and have more to offer than traditional graham cracker snacks at the store. I will  be buying these again when my bag runs out (which, will be soon! 🙁 )

18 pieces is 110-120 calories,  2.5-3 grams of fat, 20-21 carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, and 2 grams of protein.

Chocolate-Organic Wheat Four, Organic Sugar, Organic Whole Wheat Flour, Organic Cocoa Processed with Alkali, Organic Palm Oil, Organic Cane Syrup, Organic Oat Fiber, Organic High Oleic Sunflower Oil, Calcium Carbonate, Natural Flavors, Baking Soda, Sea Salt, Organic Vanilla Extract, Organic Malted Barley Extract, Soy Lecithin, Cream of Tartar.

Cinnamon Toast-Organic Wheat Flour, Organic Sugar, Organic Whole Wheat Flour, Organic Palm Oil, Organic Cane Syrup, Organic Oat Fiber, Organic High Oleic Sunflower Oil, Organic Cinnamon, Calcium Carbonate, Organic Vanilla Extract, Sea Salt, Natural Flavors, Baking Soda, Soy Lecithin, Cream of Tartar.

20 Sep 2009, Comments (4)

Country Choice Soft Baked Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie

Author: healthnuttxo

choice

Who doesn’t love cooooookies!? Especially chocolate chip. Especially soft baked chocolate chip cookies. I’m drooling thinking about them… 🙂
What we don’t love? That Mom’s home-made cookies are often heart attacks disguised in cute little circles, or that store bought deli cookies have a TON of fat, OR that the cookies you would  buy in store have more ingredients than you can pronounce or should even have to eat.

Never fear, that’s why IM here! I found Country Choice organic soft baked cookies. They claim to have a “homemade taste”, are “soft and chewy”, and have no trans fats and are whole grain. These can’t possible be tasty you say? WRONG. They come in 5 flavors, Oatmeal Raisin, Old Fashioned Oatmeal, Oatmeal Cranberry, Double Fudge Brownie, and the one I picked, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip.
So how does it taste? Well it sure is soft. And, well, chewy! It’s really good. And i hate to sound like an ad for the cookie, but they do taste homemade! It’s normal cookie size, about the width of a jar lid of peanut butter or mayo. The cookie breaks and falls apart easily. They come in individual packages (THANK GOD- i would totally eat the whole box if they didn’t!), and i left one in my bag and needless to say it turned to cookie crumbs. *oops!* That’s okay, i just sprinkled it on some vanilla fro-yo for an extra treat! 🙂 The cookie part has a slight cinnamon/honey taste, and has that “just came out of an oven” taste to it as well. My favorite part was the dark chocolate chips. They were REALLY good, and sweet!
Overall, i like these. My only complaints is that although whole grain, they only had 1 gram of fiber, and they also contained refined sugar. But, you win some , you lose some. I’d pick these over chips ahoy or my mom’s (sorry ma!) any day!

1 cookie is 100 calories (yay!), 4 grams of fat, 15 carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, and 1 gram of protein. These are also wheat free (yay again!!)

Organic Whole Grain Rolled Oats, Organic Sugar, Organic Dark Chocolate Chips (Organic Sugar, Organic Chocolate Liquor, Organic Cocoa Butter, Soy Lecithin and Organic Vanilla Extract. May Contain Traces of Milk.), Water, Organic High Oleic Sunflower and/or Safflower Oil, Organic Honey, Organic Brown Rice Flour, Organic Cane Syrup, Organic Whole Grain Oat Flour, Organic Whole Eggs, Leavening (Baking Soda, Monocalcium Phosphate), Corn Starch, Sea Salt, Organic Vanilla Extract, Guar Gum, Soy Lecithin, Organic Cinnamon.
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