Panera Bread Carrot Walnut Muffin

Hey guys. It's been almost a month since my last post because I've been so busy lately. Today was actually one of the first days I got a good break from life.

So basically I went out shopping and around lunchtime I decided to drop by Panera Bread to get a pastry and some coffee. The Carrot Walnut muffin happened to catch my eye and they just happened to be placing fresh baked ones on the plate.

I was sort of reluctant to try it because I tried their Apple Crunch Muffin and I was not satisfied at all. That stuff had the nastiest apple filling that I have ever tasted in my life. Did I just get a bad one out of luck, or does everyone agree that it sucks?

Well anyways I got it along with some plain Hazelnut coffee. I sat at one of their nice, quiet, dark tables in the back with a good book and enjoyed.

The coffee was smooth, fresh, and had the quality of Starbucks coffee. I enjoyed every bit of it. The muffin itself was fantastic! I actually ate half of it before I took the picture cause it was so delicious. It has tons of walnuts on top and you can see the little carrot slices in the muffin. I'm pretty sure there was some apple in it as well as some plump raisins. The outside was a little tough, but it was perfect. The inside had a muffin-worthy moisture. In other words, it was not as hard as bread nor as soft as cake.

My only complaint would be that the walnuts were only on the top. I would prefer them to be within the muffin as well. A little more spice in the muffin wouldn't hurt either.

Calories: 500

Fat: 21g

Carbs: 72g

Fiber: 4g

Protein: 8g

Costco All-American Chocolate Cake

We all know that when it comes to a celebration there has to be a delicious dessert that waits for you and your guests at the end of that wonderful meal. If you don't know that, well then you gotta learn that a celebration is like writing an essay. You start off with the Introduction (some nice little appetizers that WOW them), then comes the Body (where you stuff them with all the good stuff), and then the Conclusion (where you leave them with popped out eyes and drooling mouths). IBC people IBC!

Even if you don't like the people who are coming over, impress them anyways. Believe it or not there are ways that you can easily show your guests a great time with less physical effort.

So one of the best "conclusions" you can get for your party is the 7-layer All-American Chocolate Cake from Costco. You know that when it comes to cake, everybody loves chocolate. Even the people who say they hate chocolate secretly like it (Yeah I saw you eating that chocolate bar behind a wall).

This cake is amazing in many ways besides its taste:
(1) It's huge
(2) Only $16
(3) Chocolate inside, and chocolate outside
(4) Stays fresh long
(5) Has a definite WOW factor

It looks gorgeous as it is in the box, but once you slice it, it looks even better with all the layers of chocolate. One of the best things about this cake is the frosting. It is nice, thick and creamy. Usually the cakes I try have some sickening wad of gloppy icing on top that I have to scrape off so I won't throw up, but this stuff is just perfect. It's decorated on the sides with shaved chocolate pieces that taste so fresh and add the perfect touch to this cake. It's like eating a giant brownie. The actual cake part is most and delicious. It sort of tastes like the Costco Chocolate Muffins, but without the chocolate chips on the inside.

This cake leaves such a good taste in your mouth as well. Only a couple bites and you feel satisfied with it because it is so rich. Quality not Quantity guys. It's the true diet cake cause you can only eat so much of it.

Fun tip, this cake tastes way better refrigerated. It reminds me of ice cream.

I just love this cake all around and I think I'm going to have some now for breakfast =]

Trident Layers Orchard Peach and Ripe Mango

You know how how fruit is so delicious? Especially in the summertime when all the best fruit come out like melons, berries, figs, peaches, and other galor. Now there isn't a fruit out there that I don't like and I cannot choose a favorite either. However, I do have some stop favorites and one of them is peaches.

So boy was I excited when I saw this Orchard Peach and Ripe Mango gum at Rite Aid. They even had it on sale, so what more can you want? I've tried Trident Layers once before and didn't think they were anything excelent, just okay. Maybe it was because of the flavoring, I don't know. But this looked good. I actually saw the Sweet Cherry and Island Lime flavor first, but then I asked myself why I would get that when I can get peach and mango?

So I ate my dinner and decided to have this piece of gum for dessert. Boy did it smell good when I ripped open the package. The package itself looks super cool by the way. If the package is cool it must be good right?

Well the moment I bit into it I fell in love. This is definitely one of my new favorite gums. It was so sweet and juicy, yet tangy and refreshing as well. Why didn't anyone make this before? Despite the tiny period of sticky-ness at the beginning it was absolutely perfect!

It even pops great bubbles!

Trident has always been my favorite gum brand. There hasn't been a product that they have made that I am not satisfied with.

Panera Bread Cinnamon Roll

Sometimes I dream about cinnamon rolls. Do you? =)

I know, I'm lame, but they're so good. With their moisty-yeastness and their cinnamony-sugaryness. "A taste of cinnamon and sugar in every bite!" as Cinnamon Toast Crunch likes to say.

Well unlike the cereal, actual fresh baked cinnamon rolls are better. I'm talking about the ones that people mix with yeast, eggs, flour, and such and roll it together themselves. NOT that Pillsbury crap that actually comes out like a cinnamon blob.

Well I'm probably dreaming about ooey-gooey cinnamon rolls cause I haven't had one in ages. Well that changed the other day when I hit Panera Bread with my mother to get my free hot beverage. I just wanted the free beverage and didn't care so much for the food, but them my mama's eye caught the fancy cinnamon rolls and she asked if I wanted to share one. I <3 my mommy! So, I got one.

And we sat in a nice booth, drank our coffee, and split our cinnamon roll.

All I gotta say is, it ain't like a cinnamon roll, but it's damn good anyways. Why isn't it like the usual cinnamon roll? Well cause it wasn't exactly ooey and gooey. But it was damn soft, moist, and delicious. I got an orangy taste from the glaze which was a good touch. The spice filling is delicious aswell. I'm pretty sure they have another spice besides cinnamon in there. I can't put my finger on what it is, but it's good. Only 620 calories for the giant thing. Share it with a friend if you're on a diet.

It's a different cinnamon roll experience. Baked fresh every morning, it is definitely the best thing I've tried from Panera Bread so far. Usually if I were to get a baked good from Panera Bread I would get it from Starbucks. Starbucks tends to have better tasting goodies to me, but they don't have giant, delicious, unique cinnamon rolls.

I think Panera Bread is only in California, but I could be wrong. Anyways, if you are near one, hit it up and get a cinnamon roll. Their coffee is pretty damn good and fresh too. If you ain't into that, then they have tea and soda.

Check out this cliff bar giveaway!
http://healthnuttxo.com/2011/08/21/clif-crunch-peanut-butter-white-chocolate-macadamia-nut-granola-bar-giveaway/

Carmel Coffee & Co. Chocolate Honey Nut Bar

For my little summer vacation I headed over to Carmel with my aunt and my mother. It truly is a beautiful place if you have never been. The weather is always cool which was a plus because it's boiling where I usually am. We walked around he shops, went window shopping, ate at this restaurant called Portabella. It was a great experience.

Around the late afternoon we needed a little snack from all that walking so we hit the coffee shop. Carmel Coffee & Co. is what they called it. I got a coffee, but I honestly have to say it didn't taste very good. Their 100% Arabica coffee did not taste very fresh, and it has bizarre flavoring to it. I did not like it. I usually drink my coffee black, but even after cream and sugar this stuff didn't taste good at all.

But I did get this Chocolate Honey Nut Bar thing that they had in the little baked goods section. I'm not sure of the exact name of it, and the girl who worked there had no idea herself. All I thought was that it looked pretty damn good.



I'm pretty sure the bottom was an oatmeal cookie base, topped with a thick layer of rich chocolate mixed with coconut and walnuts, topped with another layer of cookie and drizzled with chocolate. My mouth is still watering.

This was about the best dessert I've eaten in a long time. It beats brownies in my book. Up till this bar, brownies were my favorite. This bar surpasses any granola bar that I've ever tasted. It has everything that I can possibly want in there.

The bar itself was so sweet. The texture was moist and chewy. You felt the delicious coconut pieces crunch under your teeth and melt with the chocolate flavoring. The walnut pieces were a perfect compliment to it all. The cookie was so moist, fresh, and delicious.

I can't stop raving about this bar. I wish Starbucks had something like this. I am seriously thinking about driving out to Carmel to get a barrel of these or something.

M&M Coconut

By now everybody has heard of these coconut M&M's, which have come out years before for a limited time only. Once again they were to be a limited time offer a couple months ago, but people liked it so much that M&M's have made it part of their permanent collection.

I was excited about these because I knew how much I loved coconut and chocolate.

They come in a nice white package with Ms. Green reclining in the front and Mr. Yellow Peanut hanging off a coconut palm in the back.

They only come in nice 1.5 oz individual packages, with only 210 calories per pack. There are specifically 23 M&M's in each package, making each M&M about 10 calories. This is a good deal and perfect portion. 23 may sound like only a little bit, but actually you'll feel very satisfied after finishing the pack. The size of each M&M is between a regular M&M and a peanut M&M. They come in brown, green, and white; also containing some little tropical pictures on each M&M.

It's sort of disappointing that they don't have little coconut flakes floating around these because that would have just made these so much better, in my opinion at least. The coconut flavor basically comes from the sugar coating that covers a pure milk chocolate center. It's not a heavy coconut flavor at all. To me it tastes just like coconut extract. I think they put too much of it though because there is a slight bitterness to this candy that does not come from the chocolate.

I expected more out of these, but they were delicious nevertheless. I feel like they tasted much better halfway through each package. They different, but I prefer peanut M&Ms.

Stride Mega Mystery

Stride is not the first brand that came out with this "guess the flavor" type thing and it won't be the last. It has been around for a while now, but I barely got my hands on a pack a week ago.

Although Stride has updated some of their main flavors, that update does not apply to this product in particular. I'm honestly only bummed out about the fact that the gum is not wrapped in foil so that it won't get damaged in humid conditions.

By just smelling this gum you know that it has a fruity flavor. As you masticate, the flavor that will most pop out is this citrus flavor, pineapple is what it reminded me of specifically but others say orange. I also tasted strawberry somewhere in there and possibly some mango. It's basically like some fruit punch mix in a stick of gum. So this stuff is not necessarily Mega Mystery. But overall, it does taste pretty good.

The texture of this stuff is perfect for popping bubbles, but unfortunately, it's flavor does not last as long as other Stride varieties.

I think it's a good product. I'm pretty sure it has become one of Stride's permanent collections because it has been around for a while. I would give it a go because it does have an interesting flavor.

Gloria Jean's Pomegranate Berry Fusion Tea

My mother was the one who showed me what the Keurig was. It honestly looks like an amazing product. No matter what you want to drink you can have it fresh instantly. I don't actually own one but my friend bought one. I took a visit to her house and she made me some Pomegranate Berry Fusion Tea, claiming it to be one of the best teas she have ever drank.

I reluctantly accepted her offer and asked for it to be iced. The moment it came out it released a wonderful aroma that filled the room with a strong berry scent mixed with fresh brewed black tea.

The tea itself was very smooth and was a nice deep black tea color with a reddish tint. It was a bit light for me, but my friend said she thought it was perfect. You definitely taste the berries and pomegranates in this, making it almost like a unique fruit juice without the calories. I did add a packet of Splenda to this for taste. No doubt the keurig did make this tea taste fresh.

This is no where near my personal favorite tea. I myself prefer "chai" spiced tea. I put quotes around that because in my mother language, and most of the neighboring languages, "chai" means tea in general; not just the spiced American version. But the spiced American version is my favorite.

Tuttimelon Red Velvet Cake & Cookies n' Cream

On another trip to the mall we hit the fro-yo shop, called Tuttimelon. They serve gelato there as well, which I have yet to try. My mom and I enjoy the sweet flavors so I got red velvet cake and she got cookies and cream. But we shared of course.


So the red velvet cake was better than I would have guessed it would be. The flavor was amazing, kind of like Betty Crocker's red velvet cake mix. It's as if I was licking the whisk while baking it. I enjoyed it plain better than with any topping. The toppings would definitely overpower this thing. Coconut would match well on this though.


I can't decide if I enjoyed the red velvet more or the cookies n' cream. They both had their own delicious taste. The cookies and cream tasted just as good as the cookies n' cream ice cream that you buy at the store.

Both flavors were very creamy and fresh, better than the old Tutti Frutti that was near my house. I didn't detect a single ice crystal.

The store's environment is actually pretty cool too. It's a great place to hang out.

Over all, I enjoyed this place. Sorry I don't have real pictures but maybe that will motivate you to go to Tuttimelon yourself.

See's Vanilla Nut Cream

See's offers so many flavors that it is impossible to try all of them. Why is it impossible? Because once you try one you feel the need to buy that one multiple times because you find that you love it so much. I don't think that I would ever get tired of any flavor of their chocolates.

This time I ended up trying the Vanilla Nut Cream. It's filled with vanilla butter cream and English walnuts surrounded by a nice milk chocolate coating.

Yes, it is just as delicious as it sounds. It sort of reminded me of the Maple Walnut kind, but it did have a different flavor to it. The nuts were fresh and crunchy. There was a perfect balance of flavor between the chocolate and the filling. The filling may be too sweet for some, but I have no complaints. It is absolutely excellent!

Starbucks Zucchini Walnut Muffin

Coming from our neighbor Mexico, zucchinis are wonderful vegetables that have a lot going for them. You can eat them in almost any possible way. My personal favorite is in these veggie patties that I make at home.

Zucchinis are a very low calorie vegetable. 100 grams of this stuff is only about 35 calories. Low in calories, yet high in fiber. These squash are also high in potassium which is known to reduce blood pressure and heart rate by counteracting the affects of salt on your body. Not to mention that zucchinis are chocked full of antioxidants that can get rid of those nasty free radicals that cause aging, cancer, and other diseases in your body. Not to mention the excellent source of vitamin C and magnesium that it has.

So naturally after hearing all that you gotta love this stuff.

Since my oven is broken I've been feasting off sweets from places other than my home for months. I think I would die without baked goods so I have to get them from another source. This time it was Starbucks. I chose the Zucchini Walnut Muffin, never trying the one at Starbucks before. I've never thought of vegetables in sweets as weird truthfully. When I was little my mother would make carrot cakes and zucchini cakes that were irresistibly delicious. When I visit my uncle in Turkey, he made us an olive loaf (which actually wasn't that fantastic, but kudos for being just good).



The muffin was about the size of my fist, which is a decent size but it could be bigger. There was a couple walnut pieces stuck on the top and it smelled lightly spiced. I heard from somewhere that it tastes like their banana bread, which I have yet to try. This just proved to me more that Starbucks reuses the same batter for a couple of their desserts. For instance, their Blueberry Muffin and Very Berry Coffee Cake have the same exact cake batter. This is not a complaint, just an observation. Their cake batter is one of the best I've ever tried.

The muffin tasted delicious. The texture was very fluffy, as the description of he muffin claims. It was a little lest poundier than their Blueberry Muffin, yet still has thicker-than-cake feel to it. The description also doesn't lie when it claims this cake is "delicate". It was moist and fresh. If you examine the muffin you notice the little green zucchini pieces floating around. Mine didn't have very many walnut pieces though, which was a little disappointing. The spice was perfect and the batter tasted homemade.

I actually chose to eat this for lunch. Granted it is not the healthiest option, but I was in the mood for something sweet. Actually, it would be better for you metabolism to eat the "lunch" foods for breakfast and the "breakfast" foods for lunch anyways.

It's all natural with no artificial flavoring or preservatives. You'd think the low-cal zucchini would lower the stats on this, but you would be dead wrong. Just like how salads are not something you want to order at a restaurant.

Each muffin has 490 calories, 28 grams of fat, 52 grams of carbs, 2 grams of fiber, and 7 grams of protein. You may be better off with one of Uncle Harry's Bagels or a soft pretzel, but nothing would compare to the wonderful taste of these muffins. So I say eat less of other things for a day and taste one of these muffins.