Review: I Heart Keenwah Snacks

Brand:  I Heart Keenwah

Flavor:  Ginger Peanut Quinoa Clusters

Where to get it: here @ Abe's Market

                Peanut brittle has fallen a bit out of fashion, in my opinion, but there are a handful of specialty companies bringing brittle back, baby! I Heart Keenwah is doing a pretty good job of keeping the old-fashioned taste for dying in a cut glass candy bowl on your grandmother’s end table. The ginger in these makes them exceptional, and I LOVE that they come in tiny snack bags. If you’re at all a fan of peanut brittle, you won’t be able to put these down.

               

Tastes like:  Peanut brittle, without the stickiness

Taste rating:  8/10

Qualities:  Gluten-free

What’s in it:

Review: Tealish Dessert Teas

Brand:  Tealish

Flavor:  Toasty Almond & Dulce de Leche

Where to get it: here @ Tealish

                Oolong, now that’s my jam. Black tea is my other jam. Herbal tea…is not really my jam. That being said, I was pleasantly surprised that I liked the Tealish (herbal) Toasty Almond as much as I did. Hit it with just a little bit of milk (pick a milk, any milk), put on your favorite pair of slipper socks, and sit your tired butt down. The Dulce de Leche variety is an oolong, and I loved it as much as I expected I would. Subtly sweet, but not syrupy, I wish someone could make cupcake frosting this light and subtle. They have an expansive line of other dessert flavors, as well as non-dessert teas, and a simply delightful website.

               

Tastes like:  A light caramel whipped cream cloud

Taste rating:  8/10

What’s in it:

Toasty Almond:  INGREDIENTS: Apple pieces, almond slivers, cinnamon pieces, flavoring, beetroot pieces.

Dulce de Leche:  INGREDIENTS: Oolong teas, caramel pieces (sugar, milk), flavoring, marigold petals.

Juice Cleanse Final Day (!!) Recap

Day 3 - I made it! Not a carrot, not an egg white, not a single piece of solid food passed my lips in 3 days. I can't believe it, it seems very surreal to me. I think the overall experience was a good one. If I did it again with Jus by Julie, I would select my juices ala carte next time. It's REALLY hard if you hate a particular juice, and it's on the menu all 3 days.

It also kind of bothers me that services like this are advertised as ways to "kickstart" a healthy lifestyle. If me, version 1.5 years ago had tried this, I wouldn't have made it through the first afternoon. I feel like if you've made peace with self-deprivation already, you will have a much better chance of being able to do a program like this. I ended up losing 7 lbs over the course of the 3 days, but I'm not going to weigh myself again for another few days to see how much of it is "real". Hopefully, my brain has gotten a much-needed reset and this plateau is dead on the floor.

Day 3 Intake:

Morning Glory – NOPE

Spicy Lemonade

Sweet Spin

Acai Blend – (10/10, 150 calories) YUM! My favorite juice of the cleanse. Banana is prominent flavor, but it’s perfectly tempered with the other ingredients.

Island Coconut – (10/10, 200 calories) This was also SO YUM! I would rather drink this than a milkshake. Not even lying.

Xtreme Greens

Nutritional Breakdown:

Total Calories:  730

Carbs:  162g

Fat:  14g

Protein:  12g

Day 2 of the juice fast!

Day 2, made it with no solid food intake AND no hypoglycemic episodes! Glory! I felt a lot better too, no headache and not as sleepy in the afternoon. I found myself abstractly hungry, I missed the actual process of eating food. Well, no one said it would be easy, did they? I also skipped the first juice because the thought of having to choke down more Morning Glory made me want to quit on the spot.

Day 2 intake:

Morning Glory - NOPE

Spicy Pome-Nade - (8/10, 100 calories) Tasted a lot like pink lemonade, seemed to have less of a kick than the Spicy Lemonade

Sweet Spin

Chia Berry

Not So Chunky - (4/10, 210 calories) I had high hopes for this, but it tasted more like unripe bananas mixed with peanut butter. It was pretty bitter and it kind of broke my heart.

Xtreme Greens

Nutritional breakdown:

Total Calories:  750

Carbs:  153g

Fat:  16g

Protein:  18g

Juice Cleanse, Day 1 Recap

Well, I made it. Not a morsel of solid food on day 1. Egg whites and a "moderate" amount of raw or steamed veggies are allowed, but I really wanted to make it at least 1 day on the juice alone.

I did pretty well, hunger-wise, until around 7pm. Then the drive-thru fantasies set in, and fierce. But I fought them off with all kinds of guilty pleasure E! shows that I had on the DVR. I think I peed 50 times throughout the day (not exaggerating), and I drank a lot of tea. Blood sugar-levels were good throughout the day, but dipped a little at night, which I corrected with a 100-calorie chocolate milk. I had a low-grade headache for most of the afternoon, but that could be due to not being able to have my first-thing-in-the-morning Diet Coke. I missed it a lot more than I thought I would, which might be a good thing to consider. Addicted, much?? I slept like poo though.

Here's the day 1 intake rundown:

Morning Glory – (0/10, 120 calories) This tasted like a lettuce/celery/dirt milkshake to me. I had to hold my nose to get it down, and chase each swallow with tea. I am not kidding. I couldn’t taste the fruits in here at all.

Spicy Lemonade – (10/10, 70 calories) A lot like Crystal Light lemonade with a kick. The amount of cayenne was just perfect.

Sweet Spin – (6/10, 160 calories) MUCH better than the first green of the day. Heavy on the banana flavor up front with the spinach in the aftertaste, and I tasted zero dirt.

Chia Berry – (8/10, 130 calories) I really liked this one. Perfect balance of tart & sweet, really a pleasant juice.

Choco-Nana – (8/10, 150 calories) I was really hungry when I drank this, and it quieted my desire for solid food a lot more than I thought it would. The addition of strawberries in this juice give it a less-sweet flavor that’s really nice.

X-Treme Greens – (4/10, 150 calories) I would put this one right in the middle of the other 2 green juices that I had today. It tasted a little perfume-y to me. I didn't love it, but it didn't need a chaser, at least.

Nutritional breakdown:

Total calories:  780

Carbs: 182g

Fat:  14g

Protein:  14g

Have mercy on my soul, I'm doing a 3-day juice fast!

I hit a weight-loss plateau about 3 months ago, and I’ve tried a lot of things to bust through it – to largely no avail. I read this article about a lovely gal from Britain who is also a type 1 diabetic, and she had a very successful and fulfilling 3-day juice fast. The company she used is overseas from me, so I set out to find an affordable alternative in America. I actually found Jus by Julie because there was a Groupon for it. This led me to their website, which is awesome. They also have a ton of good Yelp reviews, so I decided this was the way to go.

I’ve never done something like this before, and I’m pretty nervous. I had dreams about it all last night, and slept like poo. I’m not really sure why I have so much anxiety, I chose to do this, no one’s making me, and I can quit on it if I really want to. But still. The most challenging this is going to be balancing my insulin intake, because a few hypoglycemic incidents WILL sabotage this in a hurry. Wish me luck!

Review: Biena Chickpea Snacks

Brand:  Biena

Flavor:  Honey Roasted

Where to get it: here @ Biena

                When I was little, I went to church every Sunday with my grandparents and great-grandparents. This mostly entailed crawling around on the floor under the pews, and getting scolded for pulling my dress over my head during the service. One of my most beloved childhood memories are getting the little treat bags that my great-grandma would give to me every Sunday morning, in hopes to distract me long enough to get through the sermon, I assume. One of the things that were ALWAYS in the treat bag, was a small baggie of Honey Nut Cheerios. This snack is so reminiscent of that cereal that I was in love at first bite. I’m a repeat orderer of these.

               

Tastes like:  Honey Nut Cheerios, but bean-y

Taste rating:  10/10

What’s in it:

Review: Yuki No Yado Snow Senbei

Brand:  Yuki No Yado Senbei

Flavor:  Cream Frosted

Where to get it: here @ Yahiro Mart

                “Healthy” is a very subjective word. Sometimes, it just means low-calorie…and that’s the excuse I’m using to review these here on my “healthy snacks blog”.  It’s okay if you disagree with me, I still love you.  I do. I also love these senbei.  I ate a package of these “by accident” because it came in one of my monthly subscription snack boxes.  I swiftly scoured the internet for somewhere that would sell me mass quantities of these magical little Japanese crackers. They really don’t have any nutritional value, AND there is MSG in them to boot (boo!), BUT they really hit the spot during that lull after lunch where I just HAVE to have something that’s quasi-junk food. At only 73 calories for the whole package (2 pieces), I deem these guilt free!

Tastes like:  Salty, crunchy, sweet corn

Taste rating:  10/10

What’s in it:

Review: Smartfood White Cheddar & Kettle Corn Popcorn

Brand:  Smart Food

Flavor:  White Cheddar and Kettle Corn

Where to get it:  here @ FreshDirect.com (I had some trouble finding the box with both kinds online, check your local grocery store)

                Popcorn is a dangerous snack.  Do it wrong, and it’s worse than chips.  Do it right, and it usually tastes like garbage. I was excited to come across these little bags at the store, only 90-100 calories each! It’s hard to moderate with the *scary horror music* BIG BAG of this stuff, and I usually find myself in “Doing It Wrong!” territory before the first commercial break. With these smaller sizes, you can’t do it wrong…accidentally. When the bag is empty, it’s empty. There are significantly more kernels in the white cheddar bags, but I still really like the kettle corn bags as well. Both make great snacks.

Tastes like:  Popcorn that won’t make you hate yourself

Taste rating:  10/10

What’s in it:

Review: Kirkland Signature Freeze-Dried Fuji Apple Slices

Brand:  Kirkland Signature

Flavor:  Fuji Apple Slices

Where to get it: here @ Costco.com, or in stores 

                The difference between dried and freeze-dried (aside from the obvious textural difference), is sweetness, in my opinion. Sometimes I don’t want a super sweet snack, but I’m a true Washington girl, and I love that apple flavor. These are a little bit tart, but not Granny Smith levels of tart. They also come in cinnamon, and those are just as delicious. The calories basically don’t even exist…if you put down 3 bags of these in a day, you’d still be kicking fat’s fat ass.

Tastes like:  Dry, crunchy apples (in a good way)

Taste rating:  9/10
Qualities:  Vegan

What’s in it:

Review: The Daily Crave Veggie Sticks

Brand:  The Daily Crave

Flavor:  Veggie Sticks

Where to get it: here @ Soap.com

                Potatoes are a vegetable. Sadly, that's the "veggie" in this veggie sticks. Due to the packaging and the name, I think I was expecting these not to only taste like potatoes. I don’t know what I wanted them to taste like, something unique and different, I suppose. Once I got over the fact that I wasn’t consuming magical carrot-beet-turnip sticks, these were pretty good. Lots of salt, which I find absolutely crucial in some of these healthy snacks – otherwise they end up tasting a lot like Styrofoam. If you’re craving a salty potato snack, these won’t break your diet. If you’re craving something new and different, maybe try Googling a recipe for homemade magical carrot-beet-turnip sticks instead.

Tastes like:  Salted puffy potatoes

Taste rating:  5/10

What’s in it:

Review: Peeled Snacks Pine-4-Pineapple

Brand:  Peeled Snacks

Flavor:  Pine-4-Pineapple

Where to get it: here @ Abe's Market

                One thing that I’ve learned while whacking my way through the man-eating jungle o’healthy snacks, is that not all dried fruit snacks are created equal. There’s not a lot I can say about the pineapple offering from Peeled Snacks except that IT’S PERFECTION. The texture is perfect, the taste is perfect, I even like the color of the package. It’s just 100% organic pineapple. This is the best thing you can get, next to standing in a rainstorm and eating it fresh in Hawaii. Buy it by the box.

Tastes like:  Sweet pineapple

Taste rating:  10/10

Qualities:  Organic, Vegan, Gluten-free, Non-GMO, All natural

What’s in it:

Review: Quest Nutrition Protein Bars, Cookies & Cream

Brand:  Quest

Flavor:  Cookies & Cream

Where to get it: here @ Bodybuilding.com

                If you’re into cookies & cream protein powder, you’re gonna dig this flavor of Quest protein bars hardcore. The taste is spot-on, and the bar texture is really nice. This bar really hit the spot for me when I was thinking about checking to see if I had any leftover Halloween candy lying around. In July. Don't judge me, dieting tends to make a person a little crazy, once in awhile. I have a bunch of other flavors of this bar that I haven’t tried yet, and I must say that testing this one out has made me quite excited to do so. I will still review the other flavors, because I’m particular like that. I feel like you can love one product from the same line, and then try another one and have it just crap the kitchen. Plus this way, I get to eat more for the sake of science. You can’t argue with science.

Tastes like:  Cookies & Cream protein powder

Taste rating:  7/10
Qualities:  Gluten-free

What’s in it:

Review: Power Crunch Protein Bar

Brand:  Power Crunch

Flavor:  French Vanilla Creme

Where to get it: here @ PowerCrunch.com

                I really like that these bars have the thin, crispy wafers in them like those cookies we’ve all had, I haven’t found a lot of protein bars that do. I also like that they are SO VANILLA. So. Vanilla. Even the vanilla smell is really strong. If you like vanilla protein powder, you will really like these bars. My only complaint/piece of advice is – make sure you have a bottle of water when you’re eating this bar. It was kind of like the saltine challenge at times, as soon as I broke through the outer coating, all the saliva in my mouth just went POOF! I also found that the wafers stuck to my teeth sort of weirdly, but it wasn’t terrible.

Tastes like:  Vanilla crème wafer cookies crossed with unsalted saltine crackers

Taste rating:  7/10

What’s in it:

Review: Skinny Girl Banana Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Bars

Brand:  Skinny Girl

Flavor:  Banana Oatmeal Dark Chocolate

Where to get it: here @ Drugstore.com

                I LOVE all things banana. Unfortunately, it’s one of the WORST artificial flavors ever invented. When banana-flavored things are bad, they are OMG-GET-THIS-AWAY-FROM-MY-FACE-DO-YOU-HAVE –ANY-DIRT-I-CAN-CLEANSE-MY-PALATE-WITH bad. In this particular product, they do it the right way. I didn’t have high expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised. The chocolate isn’t too bitter or overpowering, the banana flavor comes through, but not in a slap-your-mama kind of way, and the bars are really soft and oat-y. A bit high on the calorie side (180) for me to pound these as snacks on a daily basis, but if you’re under your calorie threshold, or just worked out super hard, this is a great treat.

Tastes like:  The perfect balance I’m always trying to find between chocolate and banana

Taste rating:  8/10

What’s in it:

Review: Jif Whips Peanut Butter

Brand:  Jif

Flavor:  Whips (original)

Where to get it: here @Walmart.com

                You see that picture at the top of this review? Yes, the not-very-good one, like the ones I start all of my reviews with - just to prove that I had the product in my hot little hands (that’s why I don’t just grab a pretty one off the internet, FYI). The tub is empty. EMPTY. Because it lasted about 3 days before I consumed it all with the passion and fire of 1,000 suns. I could blame my lack of self-control around all things peanut butter on being a woman, or whatever…but does it really matter? THIS STUFF IS DELICIOUS. 1 tub lasts me about 6 large Fuji apples. The package says 18 servings…but I choose to instead think of all that wonderful protein I’m getting while I roll around on the break room floor at lunch time, sucking it off apple slices. And it’s much better (caloric-ly speaking) than standard peanut butter. (Comes in chocolate peanut butter too, if you’re into that sort of thing.)

Tastes like:  All the peanut butter taste you love, with none of the thwackyness

Taste rating:  10/10

Qualities:  Kosher, Vegetarian

What’s in it:

Review: Pop Rings Mediterranean Herbs

Brand:  Pop Rings

Flavor:  Mediterranean Herbs

Where to get it: here @ Amazon.com

                If you’re looking for something to satisfy a craving for something crunchy, these little rings will probably hit the spot. If what you REALLY want are potato chips, you might be left wanting a bit. It’s alright with me that there’s none of that luscious grease you get with traditional potato chips, hence the much lower caloric count. I just found myself wishing they were saltier. Saltier to make the herby flavor pop (no pun intended) a bit more, and saltier to trick my brain into thinking that I was actually eating junk food. That’s really my only complaint about this snack, they really are a great swap when you get a chip craving.

Tastes like:  Dehydrated herby puffed potatoes

Taste rating:  6/10

What’s in it:

Review: Explore Asian Mung Bean Fettuccine

Brand:  Explore Asian

Flavor:  Mung Bean Fettuccine

Where to buy:  here @ Netrition.com

                I love noodles, with almost anything on them. Italian, Asian, college dorm-style…you name it, I want them almost all the time. The problem is…noodles are basically empty calories. And when you’re dieting, it’s hard to even make room for things far less nefarious than the carbo-rific little demon calories in noodles. A large percentage of the calories in these noodles comes from protein! PRAISE BE DELIVERED! You could even eat a piece of garlic bread with a bowl of these and not feel guilty. And unlike the 0-calorie konnyaku noodles, these noodles don’t have that terrible smell, and have almost the same consistency as wheat-based pasta (I find the konnyaku to be grossly gummy).

Tastes like:  A delicious meat noodle that you never knew existed

Taste rating:  9/10

Tip:  Don’t overcook them. Once they are almost all floating to the top in your boiling water, they are done. I usually cook for 2-3 minutes less than the package recommends.

Qualities:  Vegan, Organic, Kosher

What's in it:

Review: Ratio Oatmeal Protein Bars

Brand:  Ratio

Flavor:  Oatmeal

Where to buy: here @ BodyBuilding.com

                I’m forever in search of good protein bars that aren’t just the same old combination of chocolate, peanut butter, caramel or nut. I was also that one weird kid that always preferred oatmeal cookies to chocolate chip, even if they had raisins. Yes, RAISINS BE DAMNED. I have to admit, I got pretty excited about the picture of the bar, on the packaging around the bar…like a rookie. Sadly, this bar was not filled with giant chunks of brown sugar-soaked oatmeal-y goodness. It’s mostly just chocolate-looking inside, with a disembodied oat shoved in here and there.

Tastes like:  Chocolate soaked in sugar alcohols

Taste rating:  4/10
Qualities:  Non-GMO, Gluten-free, All natural

What's in it: