Review: Ratio Peanut Butter Banana Protein Bars

Brand:  Ratio

Flavor:  3:1 Peanut Butter Banana

Where to get it: here @ Bodybuilding.com

                Ratio has so many flavors that appeal to me…I’m going to keep trying them. I WILL FIND ONE THAT I LIKE. I vow it. But this second try is not the one. When I first bit into it I was pretty excited about the banana-ness of it all, but as I continued to chew, it just kind of devolved into that sugar alcohol flavor that I tasted when I tried their oatmeal flavor. Peanut butter is usually an easy flavor to convey without refined sugar ingredients, but it just doesn’t make a great showing in these bars, sadly.

               

Tastes like:  Muted banana and sugar alcohols

Taste rating:  4/10

Qualities:  Non-GMO, Gluten-free, No artificial ingredients

What’s in it:

Review: Flap Jacked Protein Pancake Mix

Brand:  Flap Jacked

Flavor:  Buttermilk Protein Pancake Mix

Where to get it: here @ Flap Jacked

                Being a type 1 diabetic, I think I can appreciate the difference in this pancake mix more than your average Jane. If I ate pancakes made with a typical mix, the spike in my blood sugar would be immediate and quite prolonged if I didn’t preload with a bit of extra insulin. I don’t WANT to take extra insulin on purpose unless I’m at a party, and there’s CAKE. After I ate this mix, even with REGULAR syrup (I just can’t with the sugarless syrup), my blood sugar was just as fine as if I had eaten a breadless breakfast, like I normally do. So, this mix is basically amazing.

                But how does it taste, dude? If it tastes like crap, we don’t really care if it makes you blood sugar levels happy. Well, put your caring pants on, internets, because it tastes pretty much like pancakes. The texture was a little less cake-y, which I actually preferred. And I cooked these mofos PERFECTLY too, so I feel like I got a really good sample-set. The batter smells a little strange, but the taste was quite good. I put Land O’ Lakes light whipped butter and Eggo syrup on mine. (I know, it’s not even real syrup. I just can’t let some things from my childhood go, stop judging me!)

                I have already purchased more of this mix, and plan on using it exclusively when I want pancakes. The Buttermilk flavor could be easily added to with fruit or PB2 or what have you. They also have an apple cinnamon mix that I’m dying to try, as well as a banana hazelnut one. Thanks, Flap Jacked, I’m so totally in! 

               

Tastes like:  Pancakes that don’t make you feel like you ate a lump of dough

Taste rating:  10/10

Qualities:  Vegetarian, Made in the USA, No artificial ingredients

What’s in it:

Review: Stoneridge Orchards Montmorency Cherries

Brand:  Stoneridge Orchards

Flavor:  Montmorency Cherries

Where to get it: here @ Amazon (I am a bit dismayed at how hard these are to find online. Stoneridge Farms, if you're listening, chop chop! I want to buy more little packages!)

                Cherries are my favorite fruit. Living in Washington, we are absolutely blessed each year with affordable Rainier cherries. I eat a lot of them, and I always get sad when they go away seemingly a month after I get my first taste of the season. These little packages of sweetened (with cane sugar) darlings really surprised me, because they were so much better than I expected. They have just the right amount of sweetness, lots of delicious cherry flavor. I definitely plan on buy more, and soon! They are the perfect sweet snack without all the starch and carb crash. LOVE!

               

Tastes like:  I wish these grew on trees

Taste rating:  10/10

What’s in it:

Ingredients:  Montmorency cherries, Sugar, Sunflower Oil

Review: Just Pure Foods Crispy Onion Rings

Brand:  Just Pure Foods

Flavor:  Crispy Onion Rings

Where to get it: here @ Abe's Market

                I am so impressed with these little guys! The ingredients get an A++; they are almost entirely plant-based and organic, but they taste just like those onions in the can that everyone uses that are full of flour and sugar. I love putting these on salads and also on ham sandwiches. THEY ARE SO GOOD ON SANDWICHES, YOU GUYS. I didn’t really like eating them straight out of the bag, but that doesn’t mean you can’t if you REALLY love onions. I haven’t tried putting them on the green beans and baking them, I kind of think they might sog up a bit, but I also kind of think I would be okay with that. Looks like I might have an experiment to perform this fall.

               

Tastes like:  Those goodbad onions in the can, but a little less crunchy

Taste rating:  8/10

Qualities:  Gluten free, Vegan, Vegetarian, Raw, No artificial ingredients

What’s in it:

Review: South Beach Diet Whipped Peanut Butter Snack Bars

Brand:  South Beach Diet

Flavor:  Whipped Peanut Butter

Where to get it: here @ Walmart

                I find a lot of the time, people “in the know” of diet/nutrition/natural products often frown upon the mass-market brands, like South Beach Diet. Each product from each line really should be evaluated on an individual basis though, because these little bars are an absolute gem, both nutritionally and flavorically (yes, I made up a word, and I think it works. Shush). I’m a unicorn, a unique snowflake…a girl who doesn’t like chocolate. I really don’t, I just never have. So I am always on the lookout for bars like this, and this one is the best I have found for its 100 calorie hit. I always toss the box right in the fridge and eat them cold. 100 calories, great taste, 6 grams of protein, and surprise! no artificial flavors or sweeteners. If you like peanut butter (and if you’re female, I’m going to guess that you love it), you need these in your life.

               

Tastes like:  Cool (because I eat them out of the fridge), smooth peanut butter with a chew

Taste rating:  10/10

What’s in it:

Review: Grandma Hoerner's Big Slice Apples

Brand:  Grandma Hoerner’s

Flavor:  Big Slice Apples, various

Where to get it: here @ Grandma Hoerner's, also available at Target

                I LOVE baked apples and pears, even better if they’re spiced. But…that takes a lot of time and actual planning. These are just as good, and way more versatile. Good hot or cold, plain or with stuff! I dumped some All Bran in a pack to add a healthy crunch. They are also really, really good on waffles or pancakes – if you have a good protein pancake mix that you depend on (I highly recommend Flap Jacked), dump a packet of these warmed up on top instead of agave or syrup and make your knee-slappin’ morning. Good lord. I feel like you could do almost anything with these, and I could go on and on about the possibilities. At some point you’ll stop reading though, so I guess I’ll just leave it at…this is my new favorite thing. 

               

Tastes like:  All of your best dreams, translated into apples and spices

Taste rating:  10/10

Qualities:  Non GMO, Gluten free

What’s in it:

Review: Skeeter Nut-Free Cinnamon Grahams

Brand:  Skeeter Nut Free

Flavor:  Cinnamon Grahams

Where to get it: here @ Amazon

                I don’t have a nut allergy of any kind, so the nut-free aspect of this snack isn’t really important to me, but I know it certainly is to a lot of people and their children, since peanut allergies are serious business. So, all that aside, these are delicious! There is a goodly amount of cinnamon in them, which I love. I much prefer these to Teddy Grahams, it could be my imagination, but they taste a lot more like “real” food to me. Maybe it’s a real thing, maybe it’s the “all natural” marketing worming its way into my brain. I don’t care. And of course, I love the 1 oz. bag size. EVERYTHING SHOULD BE AVAILABLE IN SINGLE-SERVINGS, without costing 50x more than a 1 lb. sack. Rant over. If you like graham snacks, eat these!

               

Tastes like:  A crunchy cinnamon dream

Taste rating:  9/10

What’s in it:

Review: Mudd + Wyeth Yaff Bar

Brand:  Yaff Bar

Flavor:  Banana Peanut Butter

Where to get it:  here @ Mudd + Wyeth (or here for single bars)

                My first thought about this bar was kind of an odd one:  “This is a bar you could eat and not pay any attention to it at all.” It’s just…mellow. Safe. It won’t let you down. You won’t devour it without chewing, and you won’t rush to the store to buy it by the case, but it’s solid. It’ll make you happy without giving you any extra adrenal action. Great texture for breaking off little pieces if you do indeed want to share it with your dog, as the label suggests. I adore that notion, by the way. If you’re just snacking and not hiking or doing something where you’re trying to get some extra carbs for energy, there are over 200 calories in the bar, so sharing with your dog might not be a bad idea. Or just bag up half for later. I realize this has been a totally weird review, but I mean everything I have said in the most positive of ways. I’m glad Yaff is around.

               

Tastes like:  When a breeze that’s just the perfect, soothing temperature tousles your hair.

Taste rating:  7/10

Qualities:  No artificial ingredients, Made in the USA

What’s in it:

Review: Cocomama Quinoa Cereal

Brand:  Cocomama Quinoa Cereal

Flavor:  Banana Cinnamon

Where to get it: here @ Abe's Market

                First of all let me just say that I really like the packaging on these single-serving quinoa cereals. According to the package, you can eat them at room temperature or heat them up. They’re wet-ish in the package, and you don’t need to add anything to them, MRE-style. Maybe I was too excited, but wow, I did not like these. The honey almond was better than the banana cinnamon (and I love banana), but no. Just no. Saddest, little broken-hearted breakfast baby of all time, right here. Quinoa is basically a blank slate, so I don’t know WHAT made these so awful. I love the idea, so now I’m basically on a quest to find single-serving packets of steel-cut oats like this.

               

Tastes like:  Dirt

Taste rating:  2/10

Qualities:  Gluten-free, Non GMO, Made in the USA, Vegetarian, Vegan, No artificial ingredients

What’s in it:

Review: Quest Nutrition White Chocolate Raspberry Protein Bars

Brand:  Quest Nutrition

Flavor:  White Chocolate Raspberry

Where to get it: here @ Bodybuilding.com

                Quest bars are a great snack with low (net) carbs and lots of good protein. I’m slowly working my way through the flavors, and my second whack at these was this White Chocolate Raspberry flavor. I love me some white chocolate, yes I do. My favorite yogurt, of which I consume about 5 containers weekly, is a carb-conscious white chocolate raspberry. I liked these bars okay I suppose, I just found them to be a bit too sweet. The raspberry flavor is great, and I got pretty giddy when I actually found myself crunching down on some REAL raspberry seeds. If you really, really, REALLY like potent raspberry sweetness, you will die for this bar. I ate it in thirds over the course of a week, because that was about the right amount of raspberry sweetness for me at one time.

               

Tastes like:  Super sweet, super raspberry

Taste rating:  6/10

What’s in it:

Review: Primal Strips Meatless Jerky

Brand:  Primal Strips

Flavor:  Hickory Smoked & Texas BBQ

Where to get it: here @ FakeMeats.com

                Can we talk about texture for just a moment? Sometimes, things taste good, but they have an unbearable texture. That would be clams in white wine and butter sauce for me. I adore seafood, but I just can’t with clams and oysters, for textural reasons. I know soy is a wonder when it comes to making meatless products, but I still didn’t expect the texture of these Primal Strips Meatless Vegan Jerky snacks to be so completely on-the-money. IT’S CRAZY. It’s just like beef or turkey jerky, but not quite as hard to pull apart, tooth-wise. I guess that means it actually has BETTER texture. I could not have predicted this. Low-calorie and lots of good soy protein too, and they actually taste pretty darn good. They were a little sweet to me, more like a teriyaki than a BBQ/smoke flavor, but I definitely didn’t feed any of these to the dogs, much to their dismay.

               

Tastes like:  A less-dry, teriyaki beef jerky

Taste rating:  7.5/10

Qualities:  Gluten free, Non GMO, Kosher, Vegetarian, Vegan

What’s in it: