Review: Love Grown Foods Strawberry Raspberry Hot Oats

People do a lot of things in life in the name of love.  Make sacrifices, do nice things, etc.  Well, apparently there's a group of people out there that like to grow food in the name of love (apparently oats are quite the loving food) and because of that, led to another Love Grown Foods review as I take a look at this cup of Love Grown Foods Strawberry Raspberry Hot Oats.  I was able to pick it up at Kroger for around $1.50 (can't remember the exact price) and each container of gluten free Love Grown Foods Strawberry Raspberry Hot Oats comes in at 2.22 ounces and has 230 calories and seven grams of protein.

Review: Zone Perfect Perfectly Simple Pumpkin Chai Bar

As I've lamented on the blog, it's that time of year for pumpkin-flavored products and why shouldn't Zone Perfect add to their review collection with a pumpkin-flavored product too?  It's only fitting since everyone else is doing it.  So, I saw this limited edition Zone Perfect Perfectly Simple Pumpkin Chai Bar on sale at my local Kroger for $1.00 and snatched it up to once again be over pumpkined.  This bar comes in at 1.41 ounces and has 180 calories with ten grams of protein.  It's also gluten free, so there's that going for it too (besides its seasonality).

Review: Love Grown Foods Peach Almond Vanilla Hot Oats

I love the clearance aisle.  I love it when I find products that I regularly buy and are near expiration (I'll eat them well before expiration) and I also love it when I find products that I would have either never considered buying or had never heard of.  Today's review is a case of the latter as I was able to find a 2.22 ounce container of this Love Grown Foods Peach Almond Vanilla Hot Oats at Kroger.  Can't really remember the price, but since it was on clearance, that's not a realistic gauge of price anyway.  Within this container are 240 calories and a respectable seven grams of protein.  It's also gluten free.

Review: Wholesome Goodness Apple Cinnamon Omega Granola Bar

My mother tells me that I'm supposed to have some wholesomeness and goodness in my life.  If that's true, what better way to get that in my life (and my belly) is there than to eat a bar with both of those things in the name?  I really can't see a better way, can you?  Yes, that is a really horrible introduction, but hey, sometimes it's tough to write something witty (or even remotely passable) every single time.  Anyway, this isn't the first time I've tried to get both of those things in me since I've reviewed Wholesome Goodness previously, but today's review is another variety out of their product offering with this look at the Wholesome Goodness Apple Cinnamon Omega Granola Bar that I was able to pick up for $1.49 at my local Marsh.  Each bar is 1.4 ounces and has 160 calories and three grams of protein.

Review: Van's Natural Foods Mighty Good BBQ! Simply Awesome Baked Multigrain Chips

My run on Van's Natural Foods continues as my free sample parade leads me to another review of their multigrain chips with a look at another product with a "cute" marketing name with these Van's Natural Foods Mighty Good BBQ! Simply Awesome Baked Multigrain Chips.  Now, that name is being a bit presumptuous on two fronts, don't you think?  First, they claim that the chips are mighty good.  Then, they claim that they are simply awesome.  Also, don't you think that could be viewed as contradictory?  Are they mighty good or simply awesome?  To me, those are two different descriptions, but I take things too literal.  And yes, I've just wasted several sentences on something that is completely idiotic to discuss.  Anyway, this 5.5 ounce bag has about five servings of chips and each serving is 130 calories.

Review: Kellogg's Special K Blondie Brownie Bites

I've reviewed my fair share of healthy and unhealthy foods on this blog and usually it is fairly easy to determine which of those categories a particular food product falls into.  The source of today's review leaves me kind of torn.  On one hand, I've looked at several Special K products in the past and those typically fall into the healthy category.  But, when you look at the product name of this Kellogg's Special K Blondie Brownie Bites, nothing about it says healthy and that's why I can't figure out how to group it.  So, I guess I won't worry about it and will just treat it as a review and that's it.  Not sure why I felt the need to describe my internal conflict there, but hey, it's my blog and my show I suppose.  Anyway, I picked up this box for $2.99 at Marsh.  Each box contains six pouches that come in at 0.74 ounces per pouch and each pouch has 100 calories.

Review: Pure Protein Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch Soft Baked Protein Bar

Pure Protein has gotten creative recently after a long lapse in reviews.  First (based on when I found them), the rolled out a line of Greek yogurt covered protein bars.  Now, as I perused the nutrition bar section at Meijer, I found that they've released a line of soft-baked protein bars and wanting to try out something new as always, I decided to grab this Pure Protein Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch Soft Baked Protein Bar (wow, that's a long name) off the shelf for $1.25.  This soft baked bar comes in at 1.58 ounces and has 190 calories and seventeen grams of protein.

Review: Quaker Real Medleys Blueberry Hazelnut Oatmeal +

I admit, I've been sitting on the source of today's product review for a quite a while.  As you can see above, it was obviously a "NEW" product when I bought it, but that has been quite a while and there is nothing new about it anymore.  Even though it's not new, it's time to introduce another review into my Quaker review catalog with this review of the single serving cup of Quaker Real Medleys Blueberry Hazelnut Oatmeal + that I picked up at Kroger for $1.33.  Each cup is 270 calories of oatmeal goodness.

Review: belVita Cinnamon Brown Sugar Breakfast Biscuits

I've touched on belVita's breakfast biscuits once before on this blog and while I believe they are best eaten when dipped in coffee or tea (they are British after all), I try to eat them "naked" for the purposes of keeping a "pure" review.  I know that's a silly idea, but hey, I am the Crazy Food Dude after all.  Anyway, I was standing in line at my local Marsh grocery store recently and I saw a four pack of these belVita Cinnamon Brown Sugar Breakfast Biscuits sitting on the rack just begging me to make an impulse purchase and being the impulsive goof that I am, I fell victim to the trick and forked over the $1.00 for these.  The entire package of four biscuits ways in at 1.76 ounces and has 230 calories and four grams of protein, so some simple math will help you get the per biscuit values.

Review: M&M's Ice Cream Cookies

I mostly stay away from reviewing "oldies but goodies" in the store because I just think that people will find the reviews to be boring and I at least try (or trick myself into believing) to post recent, relevant content on the blog.  That said, sometimes I just can't pass up buying an oldie but goodie and a lot of times that is helped along by having a sale paired with a coupon and that's the case of today's review of these M&M's Ice Cream Cookies that I picked up on sale for a box of six at Kroger for $2.99.  Each cookie sandwich is 4.0 fluid ounces and 204 calories.

Review: Nature Valley Crunchy Roasted Almond Granola Bars

Nature Valley granola bars are amusing to me.  The are just about the most basic granola bar you can find, but that should be expected due to the fact that they are mass produced for wide audiences by General Mills.  What I also find amusing about them is that when you look at the box, there are two things that stand out, especially on this box of twelve Nature Valley Crunchy Roasted Almond Granola Bars (six two-bar pouches) that I picked up on clearance at Kroger for $1.15.  The first amusing thing is that Nature Valley seemingly sponsors everything including the PGA, Olympic sports, etc.  The second amusing thing is that since these bars come in pouches of two bars, Nature Valley has decided to put nutritional information on the box that includes columns for both a one bar serving and for a two bar serving.  Is their confidence in America's math skills so low that the feel the need to add information for just one bar, despite the fact that you could just divide the one number by two?  As someone that does math constantly all day, that is just mind boggling to me, but maybe that's necessary for people that only do math sporadically.  I don't know.  Regardless, I won't do the math for anyone and I'll just go ahead and say that each two bar pouch clocks in at 1.5 ounces with 190 calories and four grams of protein.

Review: Smartfood Cinnamon Brown Sugar Multigrain Popped Chips

I have mentioned on countless occasions that I like to troll through the clearance section of any store, including the grocery store, to find interesting things (to me) to purchase.  A lot of those things that I find and purchase make their way to the blog here through reviews.  Today's review of these Smartfood Cinnamon Brown Sugar Multigrain Popped Chips is one of those clearance purchases.  The full purchase price of this small 0.8 ounce bag was $1.00, but I was able to grab it on clearance for $0.49.  Lucky me.  Anyway, each small bag was an economical 100 calories and it was also multigrain and all natural too.  Just look at all the health and portion control benefits!

Review: Blue Bell Kentucky Delight Ice Cream

I've reviewed Blue Bell ice creams on the blog before, but I think the subject of today's review is the first time that I've been able to review a "secret" flavor before.  What I mean by that is that there is very little mention of this Blue Bell Kentucky Delight Ice Cream anywhere on the web.  It's not on their website and there are only a few sporadic internet sites that even mention it.  Not sure if this is a test, a discontinued flavor or what, but I feel special in bringing you this review today.  Anyway, I picked this up on sale at Marsh for $4.44 (nice price) and each container is the Blue Bell Standard half gallon.  In that half gallon, there are sixteen half-cup servings and each serving comes in at 190 calories.

Review: Green Giant Multigrain Barbecue Sweet Potato Chips

Today's review is the introduction of another one of mega conglomerate General Mills' products to the blog with this Green Giant Multigrain Barbecue Sweet Potato Chips.  With that, I was reminded of one of the more terrifying things that I've ever seen on television.  Most of us today know the cartoon version of the Jolly Green Giant mascot and his little cartoon buddy that they use in the marketing on television, print, etc.  Have you ever seen when they used a real person painted green that dwarfed the made up set that they had put together?  I saw it once in a television special about old commercials and it was terrifying.  What is also terrifying is that I've now got the Green Giant song from the commercials stuck in my head.  AHHHH!!!!  Anyway, this was a sample package that I got in the mail to demo one of their new products (I'll get to the core Sweet Potato Chips later) and since this was a sample, the measurements are kind of skewed compared to what you'd find in the store, but I'll list them anyway.  This was a 0.8 ounce bag and had 110 calories.  Of those 110 calories, 45 came from fat, so that's not particularly wonderful, but I guess it could be worse.

Review: Nature Valley Cinnamon Brown Sugar Soft-Baked Oatmeal Squares

It's not exactly a dirty little secret that companies like to copy each other, especially in the food industry.  If one company finds a recipe for success, so to speak, then another company will copy it and market it under their own label.  It appears as if that is what General Mills is doing with this Nature Valley Cinnamon Brown Sugar Soft-Baked Oatmeal Squares obviously being a clone of the Quaker line of soft-baked oatmeal squares.  It's funny actually, because who knew that oatmeal squares were something that the market was just so desperate for?  Clearly I didn't, but the snack time people at my work must have known as this was another free product offering.  This square bar itself comes in at 1.24 ounces and has 150 calories and two grams of protein.

Review: Kellogg's Special K Nourish Maple Brown Sugar Crunch Hot Cereal

So apparently Kellogg's has had enough of Quaker hogging the single serve oatmeal cup market and has finally gotten their own product to market to compete in the great oatmeal wars (a creation of my imagination).  That new product introduction leads me to another Kellogg's review as I take a look at this Kellogg's Special K Nourish Maple Brown Sugar Crunch Hot Cereal cup. I got a two-pack on sale at Kroger for $2.99 and each cup in the pack is 1.83 ounces with 190 calories, eight grams of protein and five grams of fiber. It's also a multi-grain blend with quinoa, so that's exciting...not.

Review: Quaker Real Medleys Cherry Pistachio Oatmeal +

Conspiracy theorists like to say that eventually the world is just going to be run by a handful of corporations. I never hear Quaker included in that list, but they might as well be since they seemingly produce half the food in my grocery store.  Okay, that's a HUGE overstatement on my part, but it at least conveys my main point...they produce A LOT of product and definitely keep me busy here on the blog.  Their bread and butter products are their oatmeal products, so here I am grabbing another one of those products with this review of the Quaker Real Medleys Cherry Pistachio Oatmeal + that I picked up on sale at Marsh for $1.25.  This container of oatmeal is 2.57 ounces and has 290 calories with nine grams of protein.  It's a just add water (either hot water or regular water and then heat in the microwave), so it's so simple a caveman could do it.  Sorry, I had to steal the Geico line.

Review: Blue Bell Moo-llenium Crunch Ice Cream

Blue Bell got off to a slow start on this blog and even when I did start doing reviews of their products, I stuck only to pint-sized containers, which kind of limited my flavor options since Blue Bell does not do many pints (at least in my local stores).  Seeing a sale at my local Meijer, I finally decided to step outside the pint-sized container realm and embark upon my first review of one of their half-gallon size flavors with this review of their Blue Bell Moo-llenium Crunch Ice Cream which was on sale for $4.23 at Meijer.  Very few companies still make half-gallon sized containers, so that's a point of pride for Blue Bell and it's about time I joined the party with a review of one.  Each half-gallon is sixteen half-cup servings and each serving is 170 calories (according to the container; the website says 190).

Review: Blue Bell Pecan Pralines 'n Cream Ice Cream

I've been known to complain a lot on this blog about product names and descriptions because they are either too cute and/or do not describe the product fully.  I've done this in previous Blue Bell reviews and the reason I bring that up again today is because the name of the subject of today's review pretty much takes all of that complaining out of the equation because the name of this pint of Blue Bell Pecan Pralines 'n Cream Ice Cream pretty much says it all, so there's no reason to complain, even though the pint container does not contain a description of what is inside anywhere on the packaging.  I guess it doesn't need it (FYI, the full product description is on the half gallon size container).  Anyway, I picked this up at Meijer on sale for $1.67 and it is the typical four half-cup servings and is 180 calories per serving.

Review: Quaker Real Medleys Apple Walnut Oatmeal +

Up until about a year ago, I went through about a four to five year stretch where I ate oatmeal for dinner about 3-5 times per week.  It was ridiculous.  Finally, I think I got burned out on it and now I only have it sporadically.  So, as I was walking through the breakfast aisle at Meijer recently, I spotted a sale on Quaker products and decided that I'd pick up one of their oatmeal products and do yet another Quaker review, so that leads me to this review of their semi-new Quaker Real Medleys Apple Walnut Oatmeal +.  This was priced on sale at $1.50 and it is 2.64 ounces with 290 calories.  Today is also National Oatmeal Day, so I can think of no better day to post this review!