Quaker True Delights – Tastemaker Program

As a foodbuzz featured publisher, I get contacted to participate in all sorts of fun things they're working on. One of the programs I signed up for late last year was the tastemaker outreach program. As part of the program, they will periodically offer up goods to sample, and with each opportunity, it's at my discretion to opt in or not.

I received my first products to try last week, the new Quaker True Delights granola bars. I received two samples each of three flavors, honey roasted cashew mixed berry, dark chocolate raspberry almond, and toasted coconut banana macadamia nut.I didn't try the last flavor, I gave both bars to my husband because I'm just not a fan of banana flavored anything. He informed me though that it was fantastic and had pieces of real dried banana, not artifical banana flavoring.
The other two granola bar flavors I tried were equally great. As you can see from their photos, they have large chunks of real fruits and nuts. No imitation berries here. I liked the tartness of the mixed berry combined with the mellowness of the cashews.My favorite flavor though was the dark chocolate raspberry almond. Dark chocolate chunks and raspberries, how can you go wrong? What I loved most about all these products was that they had mostly natural ingredients, whole grains, a low calorie count (140 per bar) and tasted GREAT. My only complaint is that I might like them to be a little larger, but they are the size of a traditional granola bar so I suppose I can't complain afterall :)

We actually saw them at the grocery store last weekend, so I know they're out. Go check them out, you won't be sorry.

A whole lotta bakin' going on

This weekend I baked cranberry orange muffins (shhhh I cheated, from a Trader Joe's Cranberry Orange bread mix). Unlike a lot of muffin mixes, which are filled with imitation fruit bits, these muffins were filled with big juicy cranberries and they were delicious. I highly recommend this mix and will definitely be buying it again!Saturday I followed this up with a half batch of Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies. I followed the recipe on the bag of chips with the exception of nuts. I substituted 1/4 cup of heath toffee chips instead. I also removed from the oven while still soft and only lightly browned on the edges (a trick I learned from Melanie). This makes a yummy chewy cookie, despite seeming undercooked when first removed from the oven. I was so glad I only made a half batch (about 30 cookies) of these because three days later, my hubby and I have eaten them ALL. The kitchenaid mixer I received last Christmas from my brother made this sooooo easy. I can't wait to make my biscotti this year!!

About that peanut butter

I purchased and devirginized that Skippy natural peanut butter (Minna's recommendation) last night. It's the best natural-esque peanut butter I've had thus far. It doesn't separate into an oily mess, doesn't require refrigeration, oh and it TASTES GOOD!!! It does have a smidgen of sugar, but no high fructose corn syrup, no hydrogenated oils and no preservatives. Thanks Minna. I'll never buy another peanut butter again.

Light bite - Trader Joe's strawberry yogurt

I recently bought this and was thrilled to find a yogurt that was a normal sized container, sweetened naturally, fat free and only 120 calories! I'm not sure what happened, but this was AWFUL. Despite me stirring for minutes and trying to cream out all the lumps, this yogurt had a horrible texture and an even worse muddy brown color to top it off. I could have gotten past the color if it tasted okay, but mediocre flavor and awful texture. Yuck. Trader Joe's - You hurt me today. I actually threw it away after forcing down a couple of spoonfuls.

Light bite - Fiber One oats & chocolate bar

Holy crap. The husband has been eating these for breakfast for months and I finally ate one today. The chocolate is genuinely good and there's no bitter soy taste like I've found in other fiber bars. It was like eating a granola bar with lots of chocolate chips. YUMMY! Try it!