The good, and then the…

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  We went to a friends house and celebrated with some other people from the base.  There was a ton of food, and lots of video game playing.

This post is an attempt to get rid of some of the pictures I have piling up on my computer.  There are a lot of them, so here is the good, and then maybe some of the not so good.

Mary's Gone Crackers are wheat free and gluten free.  I picked up this sample at FNCE, and then got back to the base and was surprised to see this product was now on the shelf at the commissary.

 

They are small, round, and as you can see, packed with seeds.  The verdict: GOOD!  These were actually good and I would recommend trying them.

Next up is the Kinder Happy Hippo.

We bought these last year once because you have to admit, they just look cute.

They are not only cute, but so good, and filled with creamy chocolate, like nutella, minus the hazelnut flavor.  The verdict: GOOD!

This is a new Powerbar product.

I like cranberries, so I thought this might be good to try, and I liked that it only has 130 calories, where so many other similar energy type products are much higher in calories.  I like the original PowerBar, probably because I liked the chewiness of it and it took forever to eat, but now I find that not only some what gross, but too high in calories for a single snack food.  The verdict: GOOD!  It could have been better, but I would eat this again, and even buy it for a snack to carry in my purse.

Mixed in with food goodies are some other FNCE swag.  This is my PB jar scraper.  I think I put this picture up once before, but I think this is so cool.

This is an avocado tool, so it cuts it open and peels it out.  I think some guacamole making is in my future.

 Food Should Taste Good is a company I know many of you have heard of or tried already.  Over here on the base, we do not have access to this at all.  I was excited when I tried it at FNCE, and of course, the verdict there was GOOD!  I took this bag to go.  I must be saving it for a rainy day, and I am just really not ready to give this up yet.  Yes, I know if I don’t eat it, I will never enjoy it, but there will be no more after that.  Ok, that might be a little lie…I bought Ryan a bag of the jalapeno chips when I went grocery shopping stateside, but after that…no more.

This is Late July, organic chips.  Stay tuned, I tried this last night, so a review will be coming.

I still think my Pepsico cooler bag for groceries is pretty neat.  Do you ever use one of these?

These are from La Tortilla Factory.  I’m not gonna lie.  The only reason I took these home was because it only has 100 calories and my usual product has 170.  I have no interest in whether it is fat free or carb free, I only wanted to try these and see how the 100 calorie tortilla tasted.  Bet you thought I was going to tell you know what I thought.  That meal is coming up, so stay tuned.

ConAgra was all about the food safety at the convention, so I was pleased to grab this set of cutting boards, with separate boards for meats, veggies and fish, etc.

Next up, and do not laugh, but this is my homemade From Scratch Mac and Cheese from last March.

I froze the leftover because that many hours of labor for fresh, homemade mac and cheese did not belong in the trash.  I came home from Boston and was looking for something to eat, and I decided to try this out.

Look at the pretty ice crystals. 

I heated this up and it took quite some time.  Verdict: ALMOST GOOD!  It was good, but that was once you got past the consistency of the crumbly noodles.  They did not reheat so well, but the cheese was very good.  I am just glad I got a chance to eat this and it had not gone bad and did not go to waste.

Vitatops: These are sugar free, low fat muffins with around 100 calories, and vitamins and minerals added to it.  I get this product every year at FNCE and every year I think that maybe I will like it better.

Verdict: NOT SO GOOD!  I do not know what it is about this, but I find it too dry and not really chocolatey.  I try and try, but I just did not like this, or the other flavor I tried.  I did eat the entire one pictured here, but I had to through out the banana nut one I also tried.  Any thoughts on these?

At least after that I have a good one to show you.  I bought these at the hotel gift store in Boston.

These are chocolate covered little patties of cranberries and cashews covered in caramel.  Verdict: GOOD!

I love cheese and salty snacks, so I was excited to be able to give Barbara's cheese puffs a try.  Verdict: GOOD!  Aren’t you glad I have more good products than not so good products.  I have never had any issues with Barbara’s products, and if you have not checked this company out, go ahead and give it a try.

Anything labeled Snickers will probably taste good, and there is no doubt I have enjoyed the Snickers Marathon bar before.  Do I think this is healthy?  Heck no!  But at 150 calories, if I want a Snickers, this could be a way better option that eating a more calorie dense candy bar.  I eat these kinds of things very rarely, but I was glad to see that it had about the same amount of calories as my usual morning snack (usually 100-150 calories in the form of some kind of snack bar just before I head to the gym).

Verdict: GOOD!  Did you really think this was going to be anything other than good?  Not a healthy choice, but not bad for an indulgence.

Hooray for Annie's.  I never eat snacks like this, probably for the sheer fact that they often have gelatin.  The beauty of organic products is that you will not find gelatin, so I am good to go and can enjoy these. 

 

Only 70 calories, although not a huge portion.

But they were so cute.  Verdict: GOOD!  Yes, of course I liked these.

How funny that my next picture is a giant steak?  No, I did not give in and eat a steak.  Ryan was proud of his beautiful steak, so he wanted me to take a picture.  Since I never make meat, Ryan sometimes gets a craving and will want to cook a steak.  I do allow steak cooking in the house, so lucky for Ryan, he could do his thing and prepare this.  The dog was thankful too.  Verdict (from Ryan): GOOD!

My treat then was a nice bottle of beer.  Meet Super Bock, a Portuguese beer.  This is not an ordinary Super Bock, this is Super bock Gold.  I had never seen this flavor before, so I decided to give it a try.  Verdict: GOOD!

I really just had to take a picture of this because I found it so cute.  If you are trying to figure out what exactly is going on here, this is a shwarma, like the thinly sliced meat you find in the middle east.  This is the Portuguese version.  I found it in the prepared foods section at the local grocery store.  I don’t eat meat, but I can still think a product idea is cool.

This will make you drool.  I enjoyed this chocolate filled churro a few months ago, but I never posted the picture.  A food cart from Lisbon came over for a local festival and set up her cart by the marina.  This was sooo good.  Haha, verdict: SOOO GOOD!

I have just a few pictures left to get caught up on.  This is a giant salad Ryan made one day for lunch.  It is so nice to know that my husband loves veggies as much as I do.  No, he was not able to eat this in one sitting.  This was to be for his lunches for a few days.

Last up: These are pods for the Dolce Gusto machine we just purchased.  More to come on that!

 QUESTIONS:  Have you ever tried any of the products I featured here?  If you are a vegetarian, do you allow meat cooking in your house?  Have you ever heard of Dolce Gusto?  What is your favorite new product?