Review: Kellogg's Special K Red Velvet Pastry Crisps

I'll admit that I have a love/hate relationship with products that are red velvet flavored and it's because of no real reason other than my stupidity.  For the longest time, I though red velvet was its own thing.  Not until later in life, while watching a Bobby Flay show on the Food Network, did I learn that red velvet is basically just chocolate dyed red.  Somehow, I felt cheated by that.  Yep, I'm a moron.  Anyway, Kellogg's Special K has decided to add to their review history on this blog with another variation flavor of their Pasty Crisps line with this box of Kellogg's Special K Red Velvet Pastry Crisps that I was able to pick up on a very nice sale at Kroger for $1.99.  Each box contains five packages of two crisps and each bar clocks in at 0.88 ounces with 100 calories and one gram of protein.

Review: Dannon Oikos Traditional Piña Colada Greek Yogurt

So, I like sales.  I really, really like sales.  That should come as no surprise to anyone that has spend any sort of time reading this blog.  If you are new to the blog, you now know that I really, really like sales.  Anyway, sale at Meijer recently prompted me to pick up this limited edition cup of Dannon Oikos Traditional Piña Colada Greek Yogurt (it's so limited it doesn't even have a spot on their website) on sale for $0.88.  It's a spin on the summer-ish (or perhaps just tropical) cocktail and since I love cocktails, I knew this would be right up my alley.  The cup itself comes in at 5.3 ounces and has 160 calories with eleven grams of protein.  This adds to my already expansive Dannon collection and while a lot of them are boring flavors that I've looked at just because they are in the diary case, this one actually kind of intrigues/excites me for some reason.

Review: Yoplait Original Cookies 'n Cream Yogurt

Freebies will do funny things, especially free food freebies.  I've often been the victim of Kroger's Free Friday Download on this blog and I even get hit by Meijer occasionally as well.  For the first time, I got hit my Marsh and that's what ended up in today's review adding to my Yoplait review catalog as I grabbed this six ounce container of the new flavor Yoplait Original Cookies 'n Cream Yogurt out of the Marsh dairy case.  It's low fat and it clocked in with 170 calories and five grams of protein.

Review: Muller Strawberries and Cream Yogurt

I mentioned in my prior Muller review that they had done a good job of sneaking more of their oddly shaped containers into my local Meijer by producing a new product line.  A product line that advertises that it's really fatty as it proudly proclaims it is 6% milkfat on the container.  Kind of spits in the face of conventional logic in my mind as it seems most products want to advertise that they are leaner.  I guess that fattiness is why the denote these as "Ice Cream Inspired" on their website.  Anyway, I picked up this container of Muller Strawberries and Cream Yogurt for $1.29 and it is what seems to be the industry standard 5.3 ounces.  It's also packed with 170 calories and six grams of protein.

Review: Yoplait Greek 100 Boston Cream Pie Greek Yogurt

I've mentioned throughout the years on the blog here in the various products that I've looked at that model themselves after Boston Cream Pie that I'm a big fan of that flavor combination.  Being that I've lived in Indiana for my entire life, I had never really had the actual cake until recently, but I had consumed many of the donuts that are modeled after it and I always found them to be heavenly.  Like I said, it wasn't until the past few years that I've had the opportunity to try out the cake and it definitely is heavenly as well, so when I saw an opportunity to add to my Yoplait review collection with another Boston Cream Pie themed product, I knew I had to jump on board and grab this single serving cup of Yoplait Greek 100 Boston Cream Pie Greek Yogurt out of the dairy case at Meijer for $1.09.  Now, the thought of Greek yogurt and Boston Cream Pie does seem like an odd combination to me, but my love of the dessert itself allowed me to get over that oddness in order to give this a look.  For the record, this single serving cup is 5.3 ounces and unsurprisingly has 100 calories and thirteen grams of protein.  It's also two points on the Weight Watchers scale if you are into that type of thing.

Review: Baskin Robbins Pralines 'N Cream Ice Cream

When I was a kid in the 1980s growing up in the Indianapolis area, there were a fair amount of Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin Robbins stores.  For whatever reason, both of them (same company) decided to abandon the area throughout the 90s and only over the past five years or so have each of them started to come back to the area in sporadic locations.  None are near my house, which is probably a good thing for my waistline, but I've noticed recently that they've started introducing "pints" (actually fourteen ounces) of their classic ice cream flavors in my local Meijer store, probably for people like me that aren't near their Baskin Robbins ice cream shops.  Apparently these came out this past May and on a recent trip, I was armed with my ever-present coupon and decided to pick up a container of this Baskin Robbins Pralines 'N Cream Ice Cream at the sale price of $3.00 (plus my $1.00 digital coupon).  Each container is 3.5 half-cup servings and each serving is 220 calories.

Review: Yoplait Greek Peaches 'n Cream 2% Greek Yogurt

The mega manufacturers keep on chugging.  That is one of the givens of life and today, another one of those mega manufacturers (Yoplait) will grace this blog with yet another review and if you've been reading recently, ANOTHER yogurt review.  I'm not quite tired of yogurt yet, but I can see that on the horizon.  Of course, I've been eating pudding just about every day for the last four or five years, so maybe I'll never get tired of yogurt.  Anyway, I picked up this cup of Yoplait Greek Peaches 'n Cream 2% Greek Yogurt on sale for $1.00 at Kroger and it's the semi-customary 5.3 ounces and has 150 calories with eleven grams of protein.

Review: MET-Rx Prime Strawberries & Cream Protein Bar

Perhaps MET-Rx has figured out that most of their bars are mammoth-sized as my prior reviews have shown and have finally figured out that in order to expand to more markets, they should shrink the size and calorie counts of their products (cleaner and leaner as the product packaging says).  I was strolling through Kroger recently and I noticed that they now have a new (to me) line of shrunken down bars with this MET-Rx Prime Strawberries & Cream Protein Bar that I was able to pick up on sale for $1.67.  This smaller bar comes in at a much lighter 2.29 ounces and has substantially less calories with only 200 calories and still a protein-packed twenty grams of protein.  It's gluten free too, so they are also able to reach that market as well.

Reviews: Bocandy.com Variety Box

It seems that half of my reviews lately have come via free products that have been sent to me and today's review is no different.  One of the owners of bocandy.com reached out to me and asked if I'd be interested in trying out a sample box of some of their products.  Being the out of control sugar addict that I am, I naturally said yes.  That led them to so graciously send me a box of free samples and you see some of those above (sorry, I ate some of them before I could knock out a picture.  My bad.).

Review: Muscle Milk Vanilla Almond Yogurt Protein Crunch Bar

Muscle Milk products tend to scare me, but as I mentioned in a prior review, I saw some of their bars in Kroger recently and when they were tagged with the "NEW" label, I knew I couldn't resist picking a couple up.  This Muscle Milk Vanilla Almond Yogurt Protein Crunch Bar is the second of that purchase and like the last, I got this for $1.99.  This beefy bar comes in at a robust 2.8 ounces and powerfully packs 350 calories and thirty grams of protein.  Nothing about this bar says diet...it all says muscle.  Kind of makes sense due to the manufacturer, eh?  Yeah, I'm pretty bright.

Review: Dannon Light & Fit Greek Blends Orange Cream Greek Yogurt

So today ends my Walmart binge.  I can honestly say I'm exhausted by reviewing these Light & Fit Greek Blends.  I'm not exhausted because I've had bad experiences, but instead by the fact that I'm just tired of eating Greek yogurt for a while.  That's one of the issues with these products that have expiration dates...I have to hurry my way through them.  Anyway, I picked up this single serving Dannon Light & Fit Greek Blends Orange Cream Greek Yogurt cup for $1.00 just like the rest of them and it comes in at 5.3 ounces with 80 calories and twelve grams of protein (two times the protein!).

Review: Promax Cookies 'n Cream Energy Bar

Cookies and cream.  Yum.  Great intro, eh?  Seriously, I've hit on Promax bars here on the blog before, but it has been quite a while since I did so.  One thing I've always loved about these bars is the tagline that they carry on the wrapper proclaiming them as a "Great Tasting Energy Bar."  I think that there lack of hubris is beyond amusing, so I got a chuckle as I grabbed this Promax Cookies 'n Cream Energy Bar off the shelf at Kroger for $1.67.  Each bar comes in at 2.64 ounces and is 270 calories with twenty grams of protein.

Review: Patak's Original Korma Curry Simmer Sauce

I've got to say, I've had some real successful experiences with Patak's products here on the blog. Some have been better than others, but as a whole, they've been quite good. It's those positive experiences that led me to pick up this twelve ounce jar of Patak's Original Korma Curry Simmer Sauce at Kroger for $2.99. I like reviewing these not only because I've had good experiences, but also because they help me expand my culinary experiences with Indian food, which is a cuisine that I had zero interaction with for my entire life up until these past few tears. Since this curry is cream based, it's a little higher up on the calorie scale compared to some of its brethren at 280 calories per half cup serving, but that's fine in the grand scheme of things.  If the heat of Indian food scares you, there's not much to fear here as this one score's as "Mild" on Patak's heat scale that they conveniently place on all their jars.

Review: Body Fortress Energy Chocolate Cookie Crisp Protein Bar

While I was less than impressed, but not repulsed, by my first Body Fortress protein bar review, I figure that another review is in order since I picked up two of these in the meathead section of my local Kroger and I hate to waste money/food by just throwing things out without giving them a chance.  So, I picked up this Body Fortress Energy Chocolate Cookie Crisp Protein Bar for $1.25 and the bar itself is 1.52 ounces with 170 calories and eight grams of protein.  Like the last bar, there is no indication as to what this bar is going to be like on the wrapper other than the name of the flavor, so any sort of pre-conceived notions that I may have about this truly are guesses.  But hey, verifying or disproving those guesses is why I do reviews!

Review: Turkey Hill Coconut Cream Pie Ice Cream

Personally, I'm a fan of Turkey Hill ice creams.  I've reviewed several of them on the blog and while there have been some flavor misses, I would say that for the most part, I find most of their flavors to be excellent.  After having seen several review of this Turkey Hill Coconut Cream Pie Ice Cream on various blogs across the web, I knew I finally had to bite the bullet and do a review of my own for this blog.  This is a seasonal flavor, so I don't know much longer it'll be in the store, but it was in my local Kroger and I picked up a 1.5 quarter container of it on sale for $3.50.  Each container has roughly twelve servings measuring at about a half cup each and each serving has 160 calories.

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: Blue Bell Cookies & Cream Ice Cream

I mentioned in my last Blue Bell ice cream review that Meijer was running a killer deal on these pints of ice cream, so being the cheap person (and also ice cream freak) that I am, I knew I had to pick up a couple more pints while the awesome deal was still running and that leads me to this review of the Cookies & Cream flavor of their ice cream.  Like I said previously, this pint was $1.67 and contains four servings at 180 calories per serving.  So, it's not exactly healthy, but it's more healthy than a typical "premium" ice cream.

Review: Quaker Chewy Dipps Cookies & Cream Granola Bar

As if you couldn't tell by the absurd amount of reviews here, I really like the endless variations of Chewy bar products produced by Quaker.  As long as they keep putting out good ones, I'll keep trying them.  I've already done a couple of Dipps reviews, but now I'm not to another review of this Dipps Cookies & Cream granola bar.  I picked up a box of six of these at Meijer on sale for $2.00.  Each bar comes in at 1.09 ounces and is 140 calories.

Review: Quaker Chewy Cookies & Cream Granola Bar

I'm starting to get Quaker Chewy fatigue and that's only from reviewing their original line of Chewy bars.  I've done countless reviews of them already and I'm sure there will be countless more because I'm guessing that Quaker will never stop introducing new flavors.  So, my quest leads me to this Cookies & Cream Chewy granola bar.  I picked it up at Meijer as part of a of ten pack combination box on sale for $2.00.  It is the typical Chewy bar weight of 0.84 ounces and contains 90 calories.  One thing that is different about this is that it is 25% less sugar, so I'm guessing that less sugar chops ten calories off because most times, these bars are an even hundred calories.

Review: PowerBar Recovery Cookies & Cream Caramel Crisp with Chocolatey Coating Bar

For better or worse, I work out a lot.  I spend over two hours a day doing cardio and while that may seem cool, it really drains me sometimes and others consider me borderline insane for doing it.  For all I know, they may be right.  Anyway, since that does drain me, I'm always looking for ways to help get my bearings back and seeing that PowerBar has these Recovery bars available (this one is part of the post-workout "Rebuild" stage), I'm always willing to try one out to see how they taste because whether they actually work is debatable.  I've reviewed some of these bars, along with other PowerBars on this blog before, so this is not my first rodeo.  This PowerBar Recovery Cookies & Cream Caramel Crisp with Chocolatey Coating Bar (say that five times fast!) was picked up at Meijer for $1.03 and is 1.97 ounces, 250 calories and has twelve grams of protein.