Review - Osem Bamba Peanut Snack

Brand:  Osem

Flavor:  Bamba Peanut Snack

Where to get it: here @ Amazon.com

                This is my new favorite thing. So simple, so good! The first piece seems a bit bland on your tongue, like unsalted peanut butter. Then somehow, the more pieces you eat, the more the delicious, salty peanut flavor breaks through. These are truly satisfying, low-calorie, and have just 4 ingredients. Look for them in the Kosher section of your local grocery. I live in a small town, and the Kosher section of my local store is literally 3 shelves big, but they still have these, so hopefully yours will too. This is the best-kept secret from the peanut butter maniac community.

                 

               

Tastes like:  Salty peanut butter puffs

Taste rating:  10/10

Qualities:  Vegetarian, Vegan, All natural, Kosher

What’s in it:

Review - Skout Cherry Vanilla Organic Trailbar

Brand:  Skout

Flavor:  Cherry Vanilla

Where to get it: here @ SkoutOrganic.com

                Everything Skout makes is just the epitome of healthy outdoorsy-ness to me. Their products are simple, tasty, and super straightforward. They make pumpkin seeds in all kinds of tasty flavors, and these fruit bars taste great. I love, love me some cherries, but they don’t always translate well to fruit bars. This bar has just enough apples and dates to mellow out the tartness of the cherry, but not so much as to overpower it and become just another smashed date bar.

                 

               

Tastes like:  Sweet cherries

Taste rating:  7/10

Qualities:  Gluten free, Vegetarian, Vegan, Organic, Non-GMO

What’s in it:

Review - Odwalla Bar

Brand:  Odwalla

Flavor:  Lemon Ginger Nourishing Bar

Where to get it: here @ Amazon.com

                Ginger is a force to be reckoned with. I like it, but it’s just so easy to do wrong, especially in desserts. This bar is so over-gingered that I didn’t even venture beyond a single bite. I really like Odwalla as a company, back in college I worked in a coffee shop that sold the smoothies. The delivery guy always gave me the ones that were about to expire for free. When you’re a starving college kid (okay, I was never STARVING, but I did eat a ton of cereal and white rice), a free $4 bottle of juice is VERY exciting. I just feel like they’ve missed the mark on their line of bars.             

               

Tastes like:  All ginger and no lemon

Taste rating:  2/10

Qualities:  Kosher, Non-GMO

What’s in it:

Review - Fuel For Fire

Brand:  Fuel For Fire

Flavor:  Triple Berry

Where to get it:  here @ FuelForFire.com 

                This is the best pre-workout squeezer on the market, at least as far as the ones I have tried. Low calories, great taste, and loads of protein (10g!) make this product a staple for me on workout days. The texture is nice and smooth, so you can really pound one of these if you were so inclined…and I have been so inclined during a sugar dip in the middle of a workout. I recommend putting them in the fridge, they are really yummy cold. I have the other 3 flavors (Tropical, Sweet Potato Apple, and Banana Cocoa) on order right now. If you work out AT ALL in any manner, these will give you that initial burst of energy when you’re struggling to get into the zone, right before the endorphins kick in. I highly recommend them.         

Tastes like:  A thick, fruity pudding

Taste rating:  10/10

Qualities:  Gluten free, vegetarian

What’s in it:

Review - Detour Lean Muscle Bar

Brand:  Detour

Flavor:  Lean Muscle Cookies N’ Cream

Where to get it:  here @ Bodybuilding.com 

                Nope, nope, nope. I couldn’t get through this one. It tasted SO HEAVILY of sugar alcohols (22g, no wonder) that it didn’t even taste like food. I will say that the cross-section of the bar looked pretty good, and it was definitely a more “cookies n’ cream” taste than the straight-up chocolate taste that a lot of companies try to pass off as about 6 different flavors. But what good is food if it doesn’t taste good? Sad face.

                 

               

Tastes like:  Sugar alcohol overload

Taste rating:  0/10

What’s in it:

Review - Mediterranean Snacks Lentil Crackers

Brand:  Mediterranean Snacks  

Flavor:  Cracked Pepper Lentil Crackers

Where to get it: here @ Abe's Market

                When I ate the first cracker, I thought (as I so often do), “These could use some more salt.” But when I ate the second, third, and then the remainder of crackers, I thought, “How do they do that??” The flavor on these little guys is DEAD ON for the white, peppery country gravy that I broke up with a long time ago. This is good and bad – the crackers are pretty much delicious, but they did make an image of a slathered country biscuit bounce around in my mind for the rest of the afternoon. I’m a formerly obese American, sometimes I can’t help myself. The good news is that I didn’t cave in to that biscuit image. The OTHER good news is, these crackers are a total winner.

                 

               

Tastes like:  Crackers dipped in peppery “biscuits and gravy” gravy

Taste rating:  9/10

Qualities:  Non-GMO, Gluten-free, Vegetarian

What’s in it:

Real Deal Sriracha Veggie Chips

Brand:  The Real Deal All Natural Snacks

Flavor:  Sriracha Veggie Chips

Where to get it: here @ Amazon.com  

                 Do you like chips? Do you like spicy things? If you do, oh man, you are going to love the YOWZA out of these veggie chips. I’m a bit of a spice wimp, personally, but these chips have great flavor nonetheless. Crispy, little in size, and a great amount of salt to really bring out the fire; I don’t think I would dip them in anything, they are pretty tasty all by themselves. I mean, they were, before all of my taste buds burned off…

               

Tastes like:  HOT! HOT! HOT!

Taste rating:  8/10

Qualities:  Gluten free, all-natural, vegetarian, vegan, Kosher

What’s in it:

Review - Bonk Breaker

Brand:  Bonk Breaker

Flavor:  Peanut Butter & Jelly

Where to get it:  here @ BonkBreaker.com 

                I’m just going to cut right to it with this little dude – the jelly is non-existent and the peanut butter is dry as a bone despite the presence of honey and 9 grams of fat. Nutritionally it’s not terrible – but it’s just so dang DRY. As I chewed, my saliva moistened it into a sort of paste in my mouth that was actually really hard to swallow. The heavy peanut butter taste wasn’t unpleasant, but the texture on this bar is just unmanageable for me.      

                 

               

Tastes like:  Sawdust and peanut shells

Taste rating:  3/10

Qualities:  Gluten-free, vegetarian

What’s in it:

Review - Vital Juice

Brand:  Vital Juice Co.

Flavor:  Vital Almond w/ Carrot

Where to get it: here @ VitalJuice.com

                I got really excited about this juice, partially because the company is based in Seattle (where just about everything cool is based…you be quiet over there, Portland), and partly because I get really excited about new cold-pressed juice. I took one sip of this guy and it was all over. It’s SO bitter. I had a fleeting thought that maybe it would be drinkable if I dumped a packet of Splenda in it, but I was in my car (with no Splenda), and for 210 calories and 14g of fat, why MAKE myself drink the whole bottle if I wasn’t going to enjoy it? The bitterness reminded me of the inside of a banana peel, or when you get a really sour batch of grapes and they suck all the saliva out of your mouth. Maybe they have other flavors that I will like better, I’m not opposed to trying them.     

                 

               

Tastes like:   Bitter-bitter bad-bad times

Taste rating:  2/10

Qualities:   Certified organic, vegetarian, vegan, non-GMO

What’s in it: