See's Dark Chocolate Cherry Cordials

Remember your first encounter with a maraschino cherry? I do. I was 7 years old and excited to be in a restaurant. They brought me this pink lemonade with the most pure red and plump cherry that I have ever seen floating on the top. I thought it was going to be the highlight of my meal. I finished whatever I ordered and drank all the drink and saved that cherry all the way until the end so I can top off my meal with something wonderful.

The time came and I slowly put it in my mouth, deciding to savor its taste. My smile turned into a frown as the nasty chemical taste of the cherry filled the sensory receptors of my tongue and nose. Yuck!

Maraschino cherries are the most deceitful foods out there.



Until this chocolate of course. I just pick this one out of the box that I had got as a present, having no idea what the filling was. I took a pinch of the corner just to see what I was getting into, and boy was I dissappointed to see that maraschino cherry sitting in there. I was kind of angry at myself for picking what I thought would be the nastiest one out of the whole box as my first chocolate.

But I ate it anyway, assuming that somebody must have liked it for it to be produced. It did also help that my parents taught me never to waste food either. So I ate the rest of it and it turned out that maraschino cherries have deceived me again!

This is one of the best chocolates I have ever tasted. The dark chocolte covering was smooth and delicious. The bottom of the filling had some nice thick cherry paste that the whole maraschino cherry rests on. Bite into it, and a delicious syrup coats your mouth as the chocolate slowly begins to melt in your mouth. The cherry is sweet, flavorful, chewy, and a the true highlight of this product.

Starbucks Cheese Danish

As I have said previously, I'm much of a moist baked good love than a flaky one, so it was kind of a spontaneous thing getting this Danish. At the moment, it looked really good.

I've thought and Danish was from Denmark. And I was right in the fact that Danish people do come from Denmark. I was wrong when it comes to the pastry though. Although it's like the donut of Denmark today, danishes originated in Austria. Specifically, in Vienna, Austria.

Interesting fact no?

So my Starbucks nock off of a cheese danish is described by Starbucks as 'A flaky pastry folded around a generous serving of cream cheese filling.' Was it as rich and flaky as Starbucks claimed?

I guess, I mean the outer part tasted like a croissant, which is what it essentially is. The croissant was fresh and the real, natural cream cheese in the center was very thick. To tell you the truth I was a bit disappointed in the fact that I wanted something sweeter. I think I was craving something sweet at the moment though.

The thing finished way to fast for me. But it was delicious. I didn't get a coffee with it because I brought some iced tea along with me already. It went okay with it buy I think it would have tasted better with hot coffee for breakfast.

Mine didn't look like the Starbucks picture either. The middle with cream cheese was completely exposed for the world to see; it didn't have that extra croissant covering like in the image. I wish it did. It seems like it would have made my experience with it better. It may have reduced the contrast of nice flaky outside to the densely cream cheesed inside.

In the end I will save my money and invest it in a bag of croissants and a container of cream cheese to enjoy the experience I had with this danish.

But like all baked goods at Starbucks, it had a pretty great taste. It's just not how I roll when it comes to pastries.

Post Raisin Bran

As a little girl I loved fruits and vegetables. My mother ate plenty of them when I was growing in her tummy and she also made sure she fed me them until I was able to feed myself. How wonderful for my mom right? I enjoyed to eat those foods so she didn't have to force them on me like other mothers, or come up with funny ways to stick them in.

Well it wasn't that easy for her. To tell the truth, she just made it harder for herself. When I was a little girl, I loved fruits and vegetables FRESH and only FRESH. NOT cooked. I hated them fully cooked, steamed, in soups, out of soups, even slightly warmed up. They were disgusting to me. The only cooked fruit or veggie I ate were potatoes. For some reason the other stuff made me want to vomit. Same with raisins. They weren't fresh so I didn't eat them.

This persisted until one time I had to eat my cousin's steamed broccoli because I didn't want to be rude. I liked it and my liking for cooked veggies grew from there.

As for raisins, I discovered I liked them when they served them for lunch at school. Even then I liked trying things so I tried them and liked them. The next time they served them I was Student of the Month. When you are Student of the Month they give you an award and feed you a Wendy's meal for lunch at my elementary school. That's what they used to do at least. I remember asking my teacher if I could have the raisins. She laughed and said, "You would rather eat raisins than a fast food meal?!" No, I did not give up Wendy's, but it was interesting that it crossed my mind.

So up till that moment I hated Raisin Bran. I couldn't imagine why anyone would like it. But then it grew on me. So this time around I was at Target and I saw that they put the Post Raisin Bran on sale. I needed some cereal anyway so I picked up a box. I had never tried Post's Raisin Bran, but I didn't figure there would be much of a difference.



In the end there wasn't. The flakes were bigger than I was used to. The raisin's were also chewier. It wasn't as sweet as Kellogg's though. I felt like it could have used more sugar until I got a raisin piece in my mouth and changed my mind. The sugar on the raisins didn't seem to sweeten the cereal. By the way, that sugar is used to prevent the raisins from clumping because grapes are high in fructose.

The wheat bran didn't sog as fast as Kellogg's either, but it still slogged a little fast for me. I did try a plain bran cereal once that seemed like it would never sog. I kinda wish they put that bran in this cereal. If they did it would have been perfect. The bran did taste good though, leaving a nice grainy aftertaste as well.

This cereal is very healthy for you. Made with 100% Sunmaid California Raisins, it has a great source of fiber and protein to make it a filling breakfast, snack, or dessert. It provides about 32% of your daily fiber needs.

Nutrition Facts:
1 cup
Calories: 190
Fat: 1g
Carbs: 46g
Fiber: 8g
Protein: 5g

See's Lemon Truffle

Rich smooth truffle center of white chocolte and lemon covered in dark chocolate and decorated with white chocolate lace.

The flavor is as interesting as the description sounds. Most of you may have never imagined lemon and chocolate together. It's not a common mix, but you may think it should be after trying these.

The smooth chocolate covering the creamy center is amazing. The lemon flavor inside isn't heavy, but it's there. It honestly has a fresh picked lemon taste to it. There is sort of a lemonade with chocolate chip cookies to this truffle.

It's actually a favorite of many. It may not be my favorite, but I absolutely loved it!

See's Raspberry Creme

See's candy has dominated the West Coast of America by having some of the widest variety and best tasting chocolates around. People run to these chocolates for every special occasion. They have over 100 choices you can make, even plenty of options for the chocolate haters out there.

Like all quality chocolate sellers, they have their own shop. They actually have multiple shops in my own town. Don't have one near you? Too lazy to go to their shop?
Purchase them online for the same price.

This time a tried the Raspberry Creme described as: 'Heavenly dark chocolate covers a tangy, rich raspberry center to create this melt-in your mouth piece'
I must start off saying that See's chocolates actually look as perfect as they do on the pictures.



Of all the varieties they offer it may not sound like something you would add to your custom box, but it should be! The raspberry filling is so creamy, sweet, and has just the right amount of tartness. The color itself of the filling is beautiful enough to make you drool.

Try it and it just may be your favorite.

Sweet Home Farm Maple Pecan Granola

Granola was created in the late 1800s by a man named John Harvey Kellogg. At his time granola was only rolled oats baked to a crisp. It wasn't until the hippie movement that they added fruits and nuts to make the granola that we all so much enjoy today.

Back then there were two brands of granola, and the basically made the same exact thing anyway. Today, for us, we just have a myriad of options that it makes it a difficult task to choose a simple cereal. Some granola are crispier than others, some are sweeter. Some have nuts, others have fruit. Some have fortified vitamins and minerals, others are lower in calorie. There is honestly something for everyone.

On my last trip to Winco I noticed that they put the Sweet Home Farm Granola on sale. I've tried this brand months, maybe years, before and remembered being very satisfied with it. I didn't continue eating it though because a container of it was close to $5.

But on this trip I noticed the price was lowered to $2.78. My first thought was to check the expiration date to find that it wasn't going to expire until next year. They came in French Vanilla, Honey Nut, Maple Pecan, and a low fat version of granola with raisins.



I obviously chose the Maple Pecan, as you can see in the title of this post, because I have a secret crush on pecans. They add some of the most delicious flavoring to foods.

First off, this granola is great in the fact that it is 100% natural: free of preservatives, artificial flavors and colors.
Ingredients
Whole Rolled Oats, Milled Cane Sugar, Vegetable Oil (Canola and/or Safflower and/or Sunflower Oil), Rice Flour, Maple Syrup, Cornstarch, Pecans, Honey, Natural Flavor, Salt, Barley Malt Syrup.
All ingredients were produced in the USA and made without GMOs. GMOs are genetically modified organisms, which are organisms who had their DNA altered by some sort of genetic engineering. This stuff is bad for your health as well as your ecosystem.

RANDOM FUN FACT: The member of the hickory family, the Pecan tree grows over 100ft tall and bears nuts for more than 300 years. the pecan is the state nut of Alabama, the state tree of Texas and the only nut native to North America. WOW! I knew pecans were amazing.

So now to the grub. This granola smells divine, kind of like pecan pie. Taking a look inside you don't see loads of pecans but they are in there, and there are enough to flavor your cereal with delicious pecan goodness.



The taste is marvelous. I chose to pack it for an on-the- go snack, which I think granola is perfect for as well as nuts. Why? Because it doesn't mash in your bag like regular cereal and other stuff like cookies. It also doesn't take up much room. It was great by it self and very crunchy! The density of this granola is perfect, unlike the light crispy texture of the other granola I have tried. I also LOVE to eat it with almond milk. The longer it sits in the milk the better it tastes. It never gets fully soggy and slimy! I can take my time eating it as I please.

It's pretty healthy too. It is a high energy snack and does pack on some extra calories for the size, but it is well worth it.

Nutrition Information:
2/3 Cup
Calories: 250
Fat: 8g
Carbs: 40g
Fiber: 3g
Protein: 5g

This product is definitely something a cereal/granola lover should try. As I said it comes in other flavors so you can pick what kind you are in to.
I give this product a 10/10

Costco Braided Apple Streudel

It's almost a crime if you hit Costco and don't pay a visit to the bakery section. Today the Braided Apple Strudel was one display. A nice sweet woman was giving two-bite samples of them. I found myself wishing she was my grandma cause she insisted on calling me "sweety" and "honey" with a wonderful grin on her face. See what not having a grandma figure around does to you?

I have seen them before. The Braided Apple Strudel look delicious and fancy. I was never into the flaky desserts, I mostly prefer the moist stuff so they never really caught true attention until they were given out. Taking a good look at them really made me crave some. Lucky for me the woman was offering them.

They were better than I expected, but still not that great. They weren't sweet enough for my liking. Although I bet they would have been better with vanilla ice cream; a popular way to serve apple strudel in this country.

The texture seemed to me as good as it could get for a flaky pastry. But for most I think it would be soggy. If that is a problem for you, you can place these in the oven for 12 minutes and they crisp up. There is a generous amount of apple filling with real apple chunks. There was also some sugar crystals sprinkled on top of it.

The smell was sort of like apple pie. Matter of fact, the taste was like an apple pie. Kind of like a portable apple pie if you can imagine.

They were a bit pricey as well. It was $6.99 for a box of 8 pastries, making each pastry just under $1. Granted they are a decent size, even for the calories.

It's one of the worse tasting Costco bakery products, but it has probably one of the best nutrition stats for the size

Nutrition Information:
1 large pastry
Calories: 390
Fat: 16g
Carbs: 58g
Fiber: 3g
Protein: 5g

This wasn't bad tasting if you like puff pastry type of stuff
Since I'm not into it much I give it 4 points
Don't get me wrong, it's not disgusting at all and perfectly edible.

Chex Mix Turtle

One thing that I really dislike about Betty Crocker is her Chex Party Mix recipes. Every single one I try comes out soggier than the next. I look back countless times to make sure I got the recipe and timing correct, and I did! Not working for me. I just gave up on those because I realized it was cheaper, more efficient, and tastier to just buy the pre-made packs of General Mill's Chex Snack Mixes.

This time I chose the turtle variety. In this mix you can find pretzels, chocolate chex mix pieces, caramel popcorn, honey roasted peanuts, and little chocolate M&M like candies. It's a nice combination of sweet and salty.

When I first opened it I had no idea that there were even peanut and chocolate pieces in it because they were all stuck at the bottom. Well this stuff smelled great and tasted wonderful. They sort of had the affect that peanut butter filled pretzels have: once you start you cannot stop. Once you open the bag, before you know it you have finished it. Don't be fooled by the "50% less fat that regular potato chips" on the package. These chex mixes generally have a small serving size so if you are on a diet, stay clear from these.

But honestly, although the serving size is small, they last pretty long because they are so crunchy and take a long time to chew. I would recommend not eating them in a quiet place though. They get pretty noisy.

Everything inside the mix tasted pretty good. The best things were the caramel popcorn and the honey roasted peanuts. The chocolate cereal had an artificial taste to it and the mini chocolate candies sort of just tasted like pure sugar. The pretzels could have used a little more salt too.

Another positive thing about this product is that it is made in the USA.

I rate this a 8/10.
It has room for improvement but it is definitely delicious.

Chex Mix Caramel Crunch

I think I was genetically predisposed to like cereal and anything to do with it. Chex Mixes go along those lines. The Caramel Crunch version is the one I wanted to try this time around. It has wheat chex, corn chex, pretzels, and little swirl cookies all covered in a light invisible coating of caramel.

I decided to eat it for breakfast. The instant I open the bag I fell in love. The smell was amazing. I couldn't resist but try the little swirld first. They looked the most interesting to me. They sort of had a shortbread taste, heavy in vanilla with a light caramel twist.

All the other pieces tasted wonderful too. This was considered a "sweet and salty" snack, although I didn't feel the "salty" part. I figure that was supposed to come from the pretzels, but the pretzels had no salt on them. They were just crunchy bread, which was tasty nevertheless.



This is the best Chex Mix flavor I have ever tasted. Up till now I've thought the Honey flavored was the best, but boy was I wrong. Even though I've only tried maybe about half of their varieties, I'm pretty sure this will be my favorite all the way through.

Once you start the bag you cannot finish. That's the bad thing about these. They pack on a lot of calories and are pretty much "junk food" all the way through. Ignore the 65% less fat than potato chips sign on the front. Fat has nothing to do with calories. There are plenty of carbohydrates in the bag to add calories. It's not exactly filling either.

But it's delicious so what the hell.
9/10

Better n' Peanut Butter

Love peanut butter, but it's sabotaging your diet? Well Better n' Peanut Butter offers the best option for your problems. It provides peanut butter for half the calories. It's an all natural product by the Wonder Naturals Food Corp., and it is considered an official low fat food with only 3 grams of fat for a two tablespoon serving.

I first heard about this product from my old friend Hungry Girl. I honestly thought it was a miracle to find a replacement for peanut butter because at that time I was on my own diet to lose weight. I had to get my hands on this product, and the only place they sold it in my city was Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Market. So I headed over there when I had the opportunity and bought myself a jar.

It claimed to have the taste of regular peanut butter so I was excited, although I did expect a different taste. So I ran home and opened the jar to spread some on pita bread. The color was a little bit darker than regular peanut butter as well as much thicker and pastier. It's also shinier.

It did not taste like peanut butter to me at all. It had a whole different taste on its own. It had some nutty-ness to it but nothing like peanut butter. It was sweet and it didn't pair with jelly or jam too well. I ate it with honey and bananas instead.

Don't get me wrong, it was delicious in its own way and I would buy it as a good spread. I loved it! But if you are looking for a direct peanut butter swap with this product, you're not going to get it.

But you can use it anywhere that you usually use peanut butter.

I give it a 8/10. It's a great product

It also comes in a Low Sodium and Chocolate flavor.

Captain Crunch Peanut Butter

Many say it is heavenly. Some are addicted to it. Others say they live off of it. It's kid friendly, adult friendly, and it can be found in my kitchen and probably yours.

Can you guess the riddle?

CAP'N CRUNCH PEANUT BUTTER!

Of all of the Cap'n Crunch products this is obviously the most popular. Stores cannot keep it on their shelves. It also is mostly found in gigantic boxes because people love it so much. It's been around since 1967.

An abundance of people love this cereal, but thousands also dis it. They claim it is the most unhealthy cereal you can find on the store shelves. Despite the fact that this cereal is fortified with 7 essential vitamins and minerals, and the website goes on and on about how important a healthy breakfast is.

It's obviously not the best choice of cereals but I think it's going a little far to say that it is the worst cerel you can buy. It's not too high in calories and it's actually a good choice when you crave something sweet. I just wouldn't call it a nutritious breakfast if you know what I mean. It's something I would eat as a snack or dessert.

Nutritional Information:
3/4 cup
Calories: 110
Fat: 2.5g
Carbs: 21g
Fiber: 1g
Protein: 2g

If you haven't ever taken a sniff of this stuff, it sort of smells like peanut butter cookies. Not exactly like peanut butter cookies off course, but it is the best simile I can think of.

The texture is highly crunchy. The product may be untruthful about the extent of it's health benefits, but not the crunch. Infact, it's so crunchy that if you don't chew it properly you may rip your mouth. The good thing about it though is that it takes a long time before it gets too soggy and slimy. Even if the outside is soggy the middle seems to retain its crunch. This way you have a bit more time to enjoy your food.

The taste is favorable. I don't think I like it as much as many others do. I adore peanut butter as much as the next guy but I would prefer Cocoa Puffs to these. I just may have a huge chocolate addiction as well. What I can't get over is the artificial taste of this cereal. The peanut taste is also a bit light for me.

I honestly just prefer to eat this stuff plain. They taste like deliciously sweet chips to me.

In the end I give it a 6/10.

I know I should be ashamed of saying that for some of you, but I'm going to openly say that I prefer a lot of other cereal to this.