Fresh & Easy Spiced Apple Cider

As a little girl I always thought of apple cider as a hot version of apple juice. The first time I tried it was at the pool facility that is part of my aunt's condominiums. I was pretty much in love. For a while I even preferred it to hot cocoa (which is huge because I am chocolate obsessed.

Yes, that was a crappy intro, but I'm not in a creative mood here so bear with me. I'll just cut to the chase and make it short.

I bought a 7 cup/ 56 oz bottle of spiced apple cider from my local Fresh & Easy supermarket. It's a new product that contains organic apple and orange juices mixed with seasonal spices. It was quite expensive for $5, but I guess that's what you get for organic.

For some reason I thought that if it came in a bottle from the refrigerator section, it should be drunk cold. So I did. It was absolutely fantastic! I must say I was highly impressed with the almost perfect combination of spices, sugar, and juice. Yes, there is a tiny bit of pulp in the bottle, but shake it before you drink it and it immediately goes away. I don't know why people are afraid of the pulp anyways?

Well I drank about half the bottle before I realized that it should be drunk hot, so I warmed it up and it tasted just as good. Some might say better because it brought out even more of the sugar.

It's a great product overall...too bad it's so gosh darn expensive. Well if you compare it to a cup of Starbucks for $5, it doesn't sound so bad.

Smart Ones Double Fudge Cake

Of all the weight loss programs out there, I would say Weight Watchers is most probably the best. Their science-driven program really gives you a life changing view on healthy and normal habits. Too bad it is too $%#^% expensive for my taste, and you can lose weight without making a multi-billion dollar company even richer. I did it myself a couple years ago but losing 40 pounds.

Now, although I have never joined the Weight Watchers program, I have tried some of their products from the frozen food aisle. Today's review will be on Smart Ones Double Fudge cake. Each box comes with two cakes in a square paper-plate like box with a thin plastic wrap film on it. There isn't much description of the product other than the face that it has chocolate sauce and shavings on top of each cake; which ended up being true once you opened the package and looked inside.

I wanted to eat one as a snack so I took one out of the freezer and popped it in the microwave for 10 seconds, just like the package says. After putting it in the microwave I expected the sauce to melt over the cake, but it just stayed there like frosting. I didn't smell anything chocolate and it honestly reminded me of those Betty Crocker Brownie Bowls.

I would have loved to eat it with a spork (spoon and fork), but since I had non available I decided to go with a plain old spoon. The flavor was nothing like normal chocolate cake. It was actually quite sickening at first with a heavy-processed unnatural flavor. It wasn't very sweet either, even though the 10 seconds in the microwave made the cake warm. The warmer things are, the sweeter they taste.

The chocolate sauce was probably the worst part of the entire ordeal. But I was glad to say that I love the little chocolate shavings.

Well I did not want to waste the other cake so I decided to put it in with my to-go lunch for the next day. I took the last cake down to thaw in the morning. According to the package I was supposed to take the film off the top and thaw it for an hour. As a rebel, I decided not to take the film off so my bag doesn't get caked up and take it with me. Two hours later I popped open the film and took a bite. It's like Weight Watchers read my mind and slipped into my house and switched the cakes. The cake tasted amazing. Maybe it was just me and my thing for liking chocolate, and only chocolate, cakes cold. But the frosting was suddenly magical, and the already good tasting chocolate shavings tasted even better. It went great with my hot coffee.

But this stuff is nothing compared to the All American Chocolate Cake from Costco. I wouldn't say I would pay for this again, mostly because it is expensive; but it was nice to try it (cold off course).

Serving Size 62g
Calories 170
Total Fat 4g
Cholesterol 30mg
Sodium 260mg
Total Carbohydrates 31g
Protein 3g