Review: Justin's Nut Butters

Brand:  Justin’s

Flavor:  Peanut Butter, Almond Butter

Where to get it: here @ Justin's

                Tiny pack, tiny pack, what are they feeding you? Nut. Butter. Delicious, portable, all natural, nut butters that you can do whatever the heck you want with. The smaller peanut butter packs have just 80 calories in them. Toss one of these and a banana in your bag, and BOOM! Snack off, dance off. The bigger packs have roughly twice as many calories in them, but they are still a perfectly acceptable way to treat yourself. The honey almond butter is my favorite…I like to spread it on toast. Not just any toast, the kind of toast made with bread that’s studded with seeds and grains and tastes kind of nutty in and of itself. Justin’s has done what everyone tries to do, no matter what they make – they have made a product that is impossible to improve upon. Perfection.

               

Tastes like:  Pure peanutty (or almondy) goodness

Taste rating:  10/10

Qualities:  Organic, Gluten-free, Kosher, Non-GMO

What’s in it:

Peanut butter ingredients:  Dry roasted peanuts, Palm fruit Oil

Review: Happy Yogis Yogurt & Fruit Snacks

Brand:  Happy Yogi’s Yogurt & Fruit Snacks

Flavor:  Mixed Berry

Where to get it: here @ Happy Family Brands

                I really like iced tea, but I refuse to buy it in a can. You know, a can like soda comes in? It just never feels right to me. When I crack the can and take a big drink, I need carbonation, otherwise it just messes with my mind. These little yogurt dots had a similar effect on me. They taste EXACTLY like yogurt, but they’re crunchy. It’s pretty far out. They taste good though, and especially if you’re feeding them to your children – way less mess for road trips. My final thought is that if you’re a yogurt-eater, you should definitely give these a try, if for no other reason than the sake of science. Delicious science.

               

Tastes like:  Dried yogurt

Taste rating:  6/10

Qualities:  Organic, Gluten-free

What’s in it:

Review: Carb Conscious Supreme Protein Bar

Brand:  Carb Conscious Supreme Protein

Flavor:  Cookies ‘n Cream

Where to get it: here @ Bodybuilding.com

                “Cookies ‘n cream” should NOT be synonymous to “chocolate”. It’s a different flavor, y’all. This bar is straight up chocolate-chocolate, no cream about it. That luscious-looking layer on the wrapper? It’s nowhere to be found in this bar. Additionally, there are THREEHUNDREDANDSEVENTY (370, sorry) calories and 14 g of fat in this. Additionally, it has just as many grams of CARBS as it does protein! And it tastes terrible. I can think of A LOT of things I’d rather eat for that many calories and that much fat…and I bet you I could still get 30 g of protein too, (big ol’ steak, anyone? Pot roast, perhaps?) Yeesh. For food to validate its existence in my world it has to do one of the following:  taste good, or be good for me. This bar does neither of those things. Avoid it, eaters.

                 

Tastes like:  A chocolate-flavored sugar alcohol brick

Taste rating:  0/10

Qualities:  I got nothin’.

What’s in it:

Review: Calbee Snapea Crisps

Brand:  Calbee

Flavor:  Snapea Crisps

Where to get it: here @ Amazon.com

                You’ve probably seen these Snapea Crisps at your local market, they seem to be all over the place right now. Strangely enough, it took me this long to try them. I think it’s because while I like peas, I’m not a person that eats the pods – cooked or not. I assumed there would be a pea-and-pod-type separation to these, but there really isn’t. No stringiness, no resistance to being bitten – they are so much better than I thought they were going to be. They have a slight “pea taste,” but not one nearly as strong as other dried pea snacks that I have tried. They also have the perfect amount of salt (I could taste it!) and are strangely very much like potato chips in texture and flavor, but I liked them much better. They also come in a 100-calorie pack, which seals the deal for me! (The only place I have found the mini-packs is here, someone holler at me if you see them somewhere else please!)

               

Tastes like:  Salty happy time

Taste rating:  10/10

Qualities: Non-GMO, Gluten-free

What’s in it:

Review: The Love Bean Superfood Fudge Spread

Brand:  Love Bean Superfudge Spread

Flavor:  Essentially Raw & Original Coconut

Where to get it: here @ Love Bean

                I didn’t know what to do with these little packets when I first got them. There are all kinds of suggestions on the back, and one of them is basically “Squirt it into your mouth and commence swooning” (I may be paraphrasing a tad). So, that’s what I did. At first I was like, “This is weird.” And then I was like, “Unnnngghhhh.” The texture is basically that of butter (at room temperature, you can also refrigerate these). I expected it to taste like coconut oil, which I’m not a huge fan of to begin with. It really didn’t though - it tasted more like chocolate, but a very smooth, comforting chocolate. (I’m also not a big fan of chocolate, if you haven’t gathered that yet.)            

                It’s really different. It tastes good. You need to try it for yourself. I feel like it would be absolutely KILLER on some sweet strawberries. Or toast. Man, I love toast. And the Love Bean offers them in little 1oz. packages, which I want to shuffle like playing cards with my grabby little hands.

Tastes like:  You’ll never buy another bottle of that chocolate syrup

Taste rating:  9/10

Qualities:  Gluten-free, Vegetarian, Vegan, Organic

What’s in it:

Review: Quest Peanut Butter Extreme Bar

Brand:  Quest Nutrition

Flavor:  Peanut Butter Supreme

Where to get it:  here @ Bodybuilding.com

                Oh Quest, how I love thee for having eleventy million inventive flavors! I don’t love them all, but I love that they exist. This is my 3^rd flavor review, and so far it’s my favorite! Straight up peanut butter, no chocolate, no messing around. Loads of protein and an absolutely anemic amount of carbs, but I am still wishing they would put less delicious-looking pictures on their wrapper, because there’s no bar in the world that’s going to taste as good as that pie looks. It does catch your attention though, so I guess they have that going for them. Stay tuned as I continue to eat my way through more Quest flavors, these are really an awesome snack if you’re diabetic, the blood sugar impact is so dang minimal, I can’t NOT support what these guys are producing.

               

Tastes like:  A sugar-free Zagnut

Taste rating:  7/10

Qualities:  Gluten-free

What’s in it:

Review: Plum Kids Jammy Sammy

Brand:  Plum Kids Jammy Sammy

Flavor:  Apple Cinnamon/Strawberry Jam & Peanut Butter

Where to get it: here @ Amazon.com

                Tiny little squares of fun! By now I think I’ve made it clear that I’m a tinyphile, and these Jammy Sammys fit that profile oh so perfectly. I really liked the Apple Cinnamon ones, the PB & J not as much. I felt the PB addition to the “breading” dried it out a bit. At only 110 calories, these are a great little snack for just about any time of the day or night.

               

Tastes like:  A more compact Nutrigrain bar

Taste rating:  6/10

Qualities:  Organic, Kosher

What’s in it: (Apple Cinnamon)

Review: Sunrise Fresh Dried Cherries

Brand:  Sunrise Fresh

Flavor:  Dried Cherries

Where to get it:  Looks like just CA and NC Costcos, and local CA markets, unfortunately

                Little snack packs of air-dried Bing cherries (and nothing else), what more could you ask for? Bing cherries are naturally more sweet than tart, and that carries over into the dried form as well. They kind of taste like large raisins to me, maybe a tad less sweet, but pretty close. I like raisins and I rarely eat them as a snack so I always find myself thinking, “I forgot how good these are!” If you also like raisins, I’d love for you to give these a try, and then let me know if you agree, or if I’m even weirder than previously assumed because I just described a cherry as a “large raisin”.

               

Tastes like:  Big raisins (I'm not backing down!)

Taste rating:  8/10

Qualities:  Vegan, Vegetarian, all natural, Made in the USA, Non-GMO, Gluten-Free

What’s in it:

Ingredients:  Bing cherries (that's it!)

Review: Dang Coconut Chips

Brand:  Dang

Flavor:  Toasted Coconut Chips

Where to get it: here @ Dang Foods

               

                I am determined to avoid using any puns involving the brand name of these coconut chips in this review. The struggle is real though, because the first time I tasted these, I said it. I swear. Coconut, sugar, salt. That’s it. I know that coconut is a love/hate food, so you’re obviously not going to like these if you hate coconut in the first place. You can shoo. But if you love coconut, you will be super impressed by these. I ate them straight out of the bag before it even occurred to me that they would be good on froyo, ice cream, cereal, yogurt…even a chicken or shrimp salad. I’m dying to use these in a shrimp dish. And guess what?? They sell them in little snack bags. Dang, I love you. (That wasn’t a pun!)

                   

Tastes like:  Crunchy sweet coconut heaven

Taste rating:  10/10

Qualities:  Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten-free, Non-GMO, all natural

What’s in it:

Ingredients:  Coconut, Cane Sugar, Salt

Review: Ostrim Turkey Sticks

Brand:  Ostrim

Flavor:  Maple Brown Sugar Turkey Snack Stick

Where to get it: here @ Amazon

                Pepperoni can never be healthy. Full of MSG, and animal organs and byproducts and chemicals, you should avoid it at all costs, whether you’re on a special diet or not. Wait, what? OSTrim makes a pepperoni that you won’t be scared eat?! Everything on the ingredients panel is recognizable as actual food-product. And how about the taste? SO FREAKING GOOD! I was really surprised since I have had such a hard time finding palatable jerky that wasn’t loaded with MSG. All these natural ingredients, for sure it won’t be savory enough, or the texture will be dry and weird, but NOPE! These sticks are perfect. (Vegetarian and vegan friends, earmuffs please): I ran my meat-eating behind right to Amazon and ordered more turkey sticks, and some of the beef & elk blend. (For some reason, their products are cheaper in their Amazon shop than on their website.) I’ll definitely be letting your know how the red meat sticks are, but these are a straight-up win.

               

Tastes like:  How can this be 100 calories??

Taste rating:  10/10

Qualities:  No artificial ingredients

What’s in it:

Review: Hemp Rules Caribbean Crunch Roasted Hemp Seeds

Brand:  Ziggy Marley’s Hemp Rules Roasted Hemp Seeds

Flavor:  Caribbean Crunch

Where to get it: here @ Ziggy Marley Organics

                Hemp seeds are PACKED with protein. My basic stance is that if you like ‘em, add them to anything that you possibly can. I often find that they have kind of a strange taste though, so I was pretty stoked to try some actual flavors. 99% of the time I put something crunchy on my salads - seeds, nuts, roasted chickpeas, etc. So naturally, the first time I tried these I dumped them on my usual lunch salad (butter lettuce, black olives, chicken breast, mushrooms). I did like them, but I found myself wishing they were sunflower seeds. I’m not ready to give up on these guys yet, I think I’m just not the kind of person who likes to eat them singularly. I dumped my other packets of hemp seeds into my jar of sunflower seeds and mixxy-mixxy! I think I’ll keep doing that, because the nutrition on these is just out of sight.

                 

               

Tastes like:  Gamey sunflower seeds

Taste rating:  6/10

Qualities:  Organic, Non-GMO, Kosher

What’s in it:

The Best of October, 2014!

                So, it's the end of October, and I ate some stuff this month. Some of it, I won't be eating again. Some of it, I might be eating again. And some of it...I have already eaten again. Without further ramblings, here are the top 3 new things I tried (and reviewed) in October, in case talking about them once wasn't enough to capture your interest. In no particular order...

1. Simply 7 Quinoa Chips - After trying these for the first time, I ordered A CASE of the 0.8oz snack-size bags. 110 calories and 7 g protein. Plus they taste just like potato chips & are full of salty goodness. The original review/where to buy can be found here.

2. Field Trip Beef Jerky - No MSG! MSG has 2 jobs - to make things taste good, and to ruin my life. This jerky tastes every bit as good as Evil MSG Jerky, but I don't end up with a racing heart rate and beer cheeks 10 minutes after eating it. Low fat, low calorie, high protein, high quality - I went swiftly to their website & ordered other flavors. The original review/where to buy can be found here.

3. Go Vida Dragon Fruit & Dulce de Leche - So inventive, so unique, so tasty.This is basically a snacking delicacy. I also ordered myself a tiny stash of these bags, and I'm hoarding them like the precious little fruits they are. The original review/where to buy can be found here.