Review - Papa Steve's No Junk Raw Protein Bars

Brand:  Papa Steve’s No Junk Raw Protein Bars

Flavor:  Peanut Butter Crunch

Where to get it: here @ PapaSteves.com

                If you’ve been counting calories for any amount of time, you know that eventually, each one becomes really, really precious. That’s how calorie-counters succeed, we learn that if we have that 500-calorie donut at the breakfast meeting (that we didn’t even enjoy that much, we only ate it because it was “there”…crap), we are going to struggle for the rest of the day trying to stretch our remaining 700ish calories over our remaining 14ish hours of consciousness. It is for this reason that I almost never get impressed/fall in love with any kind of bar that has over 200 calories. I simply cannot eat a bar for a meal. I can’t do it. I want other things. It doesn’t feel like real food to me, it always feels like a snack.

                This bar…is a little different. Yes, it has 295 calories and 31g of carbs. Yes, you need to pay attention and not go to bed thinking, “Wow, I ate three of those Papa Steve’s bars today in between my meals”. HOWEVER…if you’re a peanut butter fan, and you miss eating peanut-buttery desserts from heaven above…this bar needs to be behind your “Break In Case Of Emergency” glass. It’s got such an authentic peanut butter taste, but there’s a little extra to it, so it fulfills a need different than the peanut butter you put on your oatmeal on gym mornings. The “Dessert” need. The “I Need To Eat Something Bad” need. But it’s NOT something bad. The ingredients are stellar, plus you get 20g of protein and no added sugar.

                Thank you, Papa Steve. Thank you a whole bunch.

                 

               

Tastes like:  A mellow peanut butter experience

Taste rating:  8/10

Qualities:  Raw, vegetarian, Gluten-free, Non-GMO, Made in the USA

What’s in it:

Review - Quest Banana Nut Muffin Bar

Brand:  Quest Nutrition

Flavor:  Banana Nut Muffin

Where to get it:  here @ QuestNutrition.com

                I KNEW if I stuck with these Quest bars that I’d eventually find one that I could fall in love with! This is the one.  If you don’t like bananas, stop reading now. This is obviously not for you. I LOVE bananas, and banana-flavored things. This bar brings a strong banana flavor, but none of that nasty “artificial banana” flavoring. The carbs are great if you’re a diabetic looking for something sweet-tasting to trick your brain.

               

Tastes like:   Nutty banana taffy

Taste rating:  7/10

Qualities:   Gluten free

What’s in it:

Review - Bobo's Oat Bars

Brand:  Bobo’s Oat Bars

Flavor:  Lemon Poppyseed

Where to get it: here @ BobosOatBars.com

                                 

                As an openly anti-chocolate woman, I was super stoked on this lemon poppyseed oat bar from Bobo’s. I love oats, and this guy is VERY oat-y. The lemon poppyseed flavor is very slight, but I’m okay with that. I usually pretty happy with basically any level of lemon poppyseed, so if Bobo’s wants to make me a “SUPER LEMON POPPYSEED EXPLOSIONZZ!!” bar, I’ll go ahead and hoover that too. All of that was a pretty weird way for me to say, I super liked this bar a lot. And it’s vegan! I’m not vegan, but I love animals, so if I can find things that I like that also do no harm, well, you just can’t complain about that. The pack a heavy calorie punch – 380 for the whole bar, but they do come in smaller, snack-like sizes. Bobo’s is going on my short list of, “please feed me more of this, please.”

               

Tastes like: 

Taste rating:  8/10

Qualities:  Gluten free, vegetarian, vegan, non-GMO, Kosher

What’s in it:

Review - Rusterbar

Brand:  Rusterbar

Flavor:  Dried Cherry & Almond

Where to get it: here @ Rusterbar.com

                Most of us NEED the caffeine. We LOVE the caffeine. We don’t want to ever be caught without the caffeine. I too, am this way, so I was quite intrigued when I saw that this Rusterbar had as much caffeine (through guarana) as a cup of coffee. I didn’t taste much of the cherries in this bar, but the almonds play a big part in its construction. I feel like maybe some almond extract could have really made this bar sing, but without it I found this to be a pretty unremarkable way to take in almost 200 calories. This one is a skip for me.

                 

               

Tastes like:  An almond cereal bar

Taste rating:  5/10

Qualities:  All natural, Gluten free

What’s in it:

Review - RW Garcia Tortilla Chips

Brand:  RW Garcia

Flavor:  MixtBag Tortilla Chips

Where to get it: here @ VitaCost.com

                                I’m always excited to try new tortilla chips. These are pretty, but that’s pretty much the only allure they held for me. Not nearly salty or crunchy enough, they just lacked that “snap” that I find essential in a chip, especially one made to carry heavy loads of pico de gallo from the table to my face.

                 

               

Tastes like:  Bland tortilla chips

Taste rating:  5/10

Qualities:  Non-GMO, Kosher, Made in the USA, Gluten free, vegetarian, vegan

What’s in it:

Review - Energy Gummi Bears

Brand:  Energy Gummi Bears

Flavor:  Citrus

Where to get it: here @ Amazon.com

                Pre-workout in gummi bear form? Yes please! I am a person who needs pre-workout. Without something (pre-workout, juice, a fruit squeezy), I almost always have to slog through my workout in slo-mo, hating every minute of it. That’s no way to live. I popped these guys about 15 minutes before my workout, and no joke, they really helped, especially with the cardio portion of my workout, which is my least favorite. They look like typical gummi bears, but the taste is turbo sweet, probably to mask some of those wonderful “energy ingredients”. We all know how nasty those energy “shots” tend to taste, by comparison these are much, much better tasting.

                Additional fun fact: in what I consider to be a direct juxtaposition to the maniacal bear on the front of the package, there’s a little line of scripture on the back. I could not love this more.             

                 

               

Tastes like:  SWEET gummi bears

Taste rating:  7/10

Qualities:  Gluten free, Made in the USA

What’s in it:

Review - Mariel's Kitchen Blisscuits

Brand:  Mariel’s Kitchen

Flavor:  Lemon Cookie Blisscuits

Where to get it: here @ MarielsBlisscuits.com

                Now, you may see down below that I say these taste like “vodka cookies,” and think, “Don’t threaten me with a good time!” I promise you that I am not actually, threatening you with a good time. These have such a weird flavor. The lemon is there, sure, but something else is also there making them taste like clear liquor. The ingredients seem pretty innocuous, so I don’t know if it’s just me being weird, or if I got a bad batch, but wow, there is no reason I could see ever eating these on purpose.

                 

               

Tastes like:  Vodka cookies

Taste rating:  3/10

Qualities:  All natural, Made in the USA, Gluten free,

What’s in it:

Review - Ginny Bakes Ginny Minis Cookies

Brand:  Ginny Bakes Ginny Minis

Flavor:  Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Bliss

Where to get it: here @ GinnyBakes.com

                Little cookies on the hillside, little cookies in my mouth. I think the thing that I liked best about these Ginny Minis was how…girthy they were. They’re like sweet little pucks of chocolate and cinnamon sweetness. This means when you open the bag, there they are! Whole tiny cookies, not a pile of worthless cookie dust that you can only dump on top of ice cream or yogurt. I would have liked these better without the chocolate, but that’s just me, being a weird chocolate hater. They are super sweet, and have a strong spice-presence. I feel like this would be the thing that you give your toddler when they have been SO GOOD all day. I feel like children would just FLIP for these little goodies.       

                 

               

Tastes like:  Spicy chocolatey tinykins

Taste rating:  7/10

Qualities:  Gluten free, organic, non-GMO, Kosher

What’s in it:

Review - Alive & Radiant Kale Krunch

Brand:  Alive & Radiant

Flavor:  Kale Krunch Quite Cheezy

Where to get it: here @ Amazon.com

                                Kale is the prettiest girl at the dance right now, and for good reason. It’s delicious, it’s healthy, and it’s crazy versatile. The recent wave of kale-based snacks punctuate that versatility, and I assure you, I’m happy to try them all! This “cheezy” Kale Krunch tastes great, and is full of good stuff (it contains no cheese at all, and is vegan). All the ingredients are things you can picture in your mind – this is the new thing that I do. If I read a label, and a food-type image does not come to my mind pretty quickly, well…sometimes I eat it any way, to be honest. However, I won’t be extolling the virtues on the ingredient panel for my blog posts, at least.             

                But back to the snack at hand! Cheese-y and nutty tasting, the only improvement I could make on these would be to add a tad more salt. It is known that I am an absolute salt fiend, though, so I don’t want to lead you to believe that these are lacking in flavor – they definitely aren’t. If you’ve never tried kale, this is a great way to start, because it doesn’t taste “green” or “like dirt”.   

                 

               

Tastes like:  Crunchy, cheesy nuts

Taste rating:  8/10

Qualities:  Raw, Vegetarian, Vegan, Kosher, Gluten-free

What’s in it: