Chips Ahoy! Limited Edition Chocolate Banana

While at the grocery store I spotted a new cookie and decided to give it a try. The fact that it had banana in it, is truly what sold me ... so I welcomed a package of Chips Ahoy! Limited Edition Chocolate Banana cookies into my grocery cart with open arms.

Unfortunately the cookies didn't merely live up to the expectation built up in my head. I was expecting a strong robust banana flavor which was only intensified by the chocolate chips. But ... they were really a huge fail for me. The cookies themselves are along the lines of rather artificial banana flavor mixed in with your average Chips Ahoy! cookie. These are a crunchy cookie, like the standard Chips Ahoy! not the chewy variety. I truly wasn't a fan .. I had one cookie out of the whole package before "forcing" them upon my guests to try/eat/sample/take home.

Sadly these were a fail ... I guess if I really want a potentially delicious chocolate chip banana cookie I may have to just get adventurous in the kitchen.

A serving, 2 cookies, is 160 calories or 4 points plus values.

Trader Joe's Reduced Guilt White Meat Chicken Salad

Chicken salad is one of those meals that I've grown to love. It's simple, it's easy and it's perfect to have all year round (especially in the summer months). I've always checked out the chicken salads at Trader Joe's because they look delicious and I am a fan of their curry chicken salad. So, needless to say when I spotted the new Trader Joe's Reduced Guilt White Meat Chicken Salad I nearly jumped for joy and popped a container in my shopping cart without even batting an eye at the ingredient label.


I was excited because it was a pre-packaged chicken salad that wasn't loaded with a ton of fat and unnecessary calories. I portioned out 3 meals from the container (two for lunches and one as a late night dinner). I layered the chicken salad onto a tortilla, added a little lettuce and wrapped it up. I took a bite ... and was immediately heart broken.


This chicken salad contains no mayonnaise! The dish consists of grilled chicken, celery, carrots and onions which are mixed with low fat Greek yogurt and spices. Even with all that, unfortunately, the Greek yogurt gives the salad a very tart flavor. It's very plain tasting on the flavor scale. I added some salt and pepper to it to hope to give it some pizazz but it fell short. Sure, it's creamy, but it's missing that classic tang you get from mayo. Admittedly, when I make chicken salad at home, I don't use a lot of mayonnaise and I tend to cut it with yogurt ...but I just can't jump on the yogurt as a mayonnaise substitute in a dish where mayo is one of the main ingredients. I tried adding a tablespoon of light mayo to it and mixing it in but the tartness from the yogurt just overpowered it.


I was just not a fan at all and ended up tossing the container. Which I have to admit was kind of cringe worthy because a container is nearly $5. I'll stick to my homemade chicken salad that takes a little time to prep but is on point in the flavor category.


A serving, 1/2 cup (or 99g) is 100 calories or 2 points plus values.

Lay's Wavy Mango Salsa Potato Chips

Truthfully, I wasn't going to buy these potato chips. That is until I was shopping while hungry, saw they were on sale and figured "eh, why not?" That's when the Lay's Wavy Mango Salsa Potato Chips jumped into my shopping cart.

The chips are part of the Lay's Do Us A Flavor campaign ... and they are one of the flavors I was really questioning. I mean mango salsa potato chips? I LOVE mangoes and I love potato chips ... but the two just don't jive in my world. Mango salsa (the actual salsa) with tortilla chips, perhaps, but potato chips? I don't really know...

Opening the bag I could smell mango. Taking a bite of the chip ... all I could taste was mango. Mango, mango, mango! I ate another chip and couldn't handle anymore. They're a sweet, mango flavored chips. I've tried these chips a few times, each try only being able to handle 2 chips. I gave them a fair shot but I don't get any "salsa" flavor, I get mango ... crunchy mango potato chips. The two worlds just should have never crossed or become one. I think it's fair to say that I do not like these chips ... they're frankly disgusting.

If you're brave enough a serving is 1 ounce (roughly 15 chips), which is 150 calories or 4 points plus values.

AquaFina Flavorsplash Sparkling Berry Loco

I’m always on the hunt for a new flavorful zero calorie beverage. I enjoy water, but sometimes it can get plain old boring … so I picked up the new AquaFina Flavorsplash Sparkling Berry Loco which is a four berry blended sparkling water. I’m not the biggest fan of sparkling waters, but there are a handful that I truly enjoy … and since this was a different flavor I had high hopes.

Unfortunately those high hopes were smashed to smithereens after the second sip. The first sip I thought it tasted okay … the second sip brought on a wave of complete and utter disgust.  It’s mildly bubbly carbonated water with disgusting artificial flavoring. It was so bad I screwed the cap back on the bottle and threw it right into the garbage.  I’m glad I only purchased 1 bottle to try because I won’t be wasting money buying any more flavors.

Of course a bottle of 0 calorie or 0 points plus.

Trader Joe’s Caramelized Onion Dip

After trying the Trader Joe’s Bacon Cheddar Ranch Dip I decided to pick up the Trader Joe’s Caramelized Onion Dip to give a whirl. Just by looks it looked like one of my favorite dips that can be made with Lipton onion soup mix … but the caramelized onion made it seem that more enticing.

One day I decided to pull this out of the fridge because I was in the mood for a snack. Opening the container it definitely resembles my beloved favorite ‘homemade’ dip although I could see small pieces of caramelized onion throughout it.  I took out two tablespoons and took a bite with one of my chips … and my face puckered. I was overwhelmed with an overpowering salt flavor. At first I thought perhaps it could’ve been the chips … so I ended up dipping a raw carrot into it and found that overwhelming salty flavor was still there.  I’m not a big salt fan, I only use it very sparingly in cooking to boost flavoring in cooking.  This was just so jam packed with salt that I couldn’t even offer it to guests because I would have felt bad.  Needless to say the container ended up finding a permanent home in the circular file (i.e. the trash). I’ll definitely stick to the bacon cheddar ranch dip because that is flavorful and not salty.

A serving is 2 tablespoons which is 70 calories or 2 points plus values.

QUESTION:

Have you tried any of the dip selections available at Trader Joe’s?

Yoplait Light Mocha Mint Yogurt

Yoplait comes out with special limited edition yogurt flavors depending on the season.  Since I’m a big yogurt fan, I tend to try the limited edition flavors because typically they’re a nice change to the norm.  So while at Target I spotted and picked up the Yoplait Light Mocha Mint Yogurt.

Usually I buy fat free yogurts, the exception being some Greek yogurts.  Yoplait can be spot on with their flavors, so I went into this with high hopes … although I admit I was slightly afraid. Finally I pulled a container out of the fridge and upon opening it up I was rather afraid to take a bite because of the grayish look to the yogurt. Two bites in and I couldn’t handle it. It was a minty yogurt flavor that was slightly chocolaty but had a tart yogurt flavor to it. which was all around repulsive. I was NOT a fan and since I found it to be so gross I couldn’t even offer it up to family/friends so I threw the yogurt and the other three in the package in the garbage.  I’m gong to keep a mental note to not purchase anymore “mint chocolate” flavored yogurts.

A serving is 60 calories or 2 points plus values.

QUESTION:

Have you tried the limited edition flavors by Yoplait for December/January?

Starbucks Via Pumpkin Spice

The moment fall is close to coming into the picture, fall items start arriving. One of the drinks I absolutely love, but don’t order very often is the Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks.  It’s pumpkin, its latte, and it’s pure magic. So when I spotted the Starbucks Via Pumpkin Spice packets on the shelf at Target, I quickly scooped up a box.

I heated up 1 cup of milk, added in the Via packet and stirred it up … and it was HORRIBLE!  Now, I love coffee, but this has a very, very bold coffee flavor to it. I actually picked up more of the coffee flavor than I did any pumpkin.  The packet of mix smelled more of pumpkin in powder form than it did when it was mixed in with my milk.  Once I mixed it with the milk it just smelled of very, very bold coffee.  Now, I admit, I love coffee BUT I’m more of a light and occasional medium roast coffee fan. This was so bold I’d have to water it down to make it palatable, but by then I’d probably end up just drinking 1-2 cups of milk with a mild flavor in the background. I’d have to give it a nice dosing of sugar free pumpkin syrup and a few Equal packets, plus some additional milk to maybe even get a pumpkin flavor.  Needless to say … I was quite bummed, especially since the Via packets are not cheap.

Each pack has 60 calories to it, which is 2 points plus values. You then need to add in your points/calories associated with the type of milk you use.

QUESTION:

Do you like any of the Starbucks Via packets?