Kj's Food Review

Private Selection Margherita Napolitana Pizza, Spanakopita, and Belgian Chocolate Lava Cakes

2011-12-02T11:49:00.001-08:00

The Private Selection Margherita Napolitana pizza is okay. I like the choice of toppings including grape tomatoes and mozzarella. It is rather small, though, and does not really have 3 servings like it says. Also, not really into the whole thin crust thing.

The Spanakopita from Private Selection was quite good. It ended up being a big frozen mass that I could not break apart, so I baked it as one piece and broke it apart after baking. This ended up being not that good of an idea, as they cooked extremely unevenly. However, they still tasted great. I would get again, but I gotta figure out how to break them apart to bake.

The Belgian Chocolate Lava Cakes were a total disappointment. I expected to like them like I love the ones from Dominos. However, these are extremely cakey and I do not usually like cake. Also, thought it had way too liquidy chocolate filling.

Disclosure: I received these items free from BzzAgent.

Cinnamon M&M's

2011-11-18T14:27:00.001-08:00

I felt pretty disciplined not buying any Lindt's or Andes special holiday chocolates in the holiday section of Target last week. However, I could not pass up on purchasing the Cinnamon M&M's since I had never heard of them before.

The M&M's are bigger sized than regular M&Ms. The Cinnamon M&M's are more like the size of peanut butter M&Ms. The flavor, though, is not much different than regular milk chocolate M&Ms. At first I seemed to be able to tell that there was a hint of cinnamon, but after a couple they pretty much just taste like regular M&Ms and I do not really like plain milk chocolate M&Ms.

Kroger The Truly Awesome Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-11-16T09:29:00.001-08:00

I do not often buy cookies at the grocery store because I prefer soft cookies as in sort of undercooked. Pretty much the only ones I like are the Pepperidge Farm soft baked cookies, but I have now discovered that the Kroger Truly Awesome Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies are actually pretty good.

Straight out of the box they do not seem all that different than some other packaged cookies, but they do seem to taste more like homemade cookies (probably because they have no added preservatives or artifical flavors). Just out of the box hey are too hard for my liking and actually quite a crumbly mess. However, they are quite awesome when microwaved for about 30 seconds. This makes them soft and really does seem sort of like they just came out of the oven.

I certainly will be looking closer at the cookie aisle for when these are on sale. Now if only they had peanut butter chips or a version of peanut butter cookies than they really would be truly awesome in my book, but if you love just plain chocolate chip cookies this is one awesome store brand to try out.

Disclaimer: I received the cookies for free through BzzAgent.

SuperPretzel SoftStix Review

2011-10-21T10:47:00.000-07:00

I have long been a fan of the frozen SuperPretzel Soft Pretzels. My favorite way to eat them is to sprinkle shredded cheese over them so it melts while microwaving the frozen soft pretzel. The SuperPretzel SoftStix have sounded good to me, but I had never been able to find them at my local grocery store. I finally happened upon them yesterday at Target.

The SuperPretzel SoftStix are basically pretzel bites with a Kraft cheese filling. They are little, but they are oh so good. The only problem I have is that the cheese always seems to squirt out of at least one stick when microwaving and I only ever do the initial 30 seconds and have never needed to do the additional 30 the directions tell you to do.

I totally love them, but with only about 4 real servings (2 sticks is not enough) they are not as economical as buying the pretzels and shredded cheese, since I can get 25 pretzels in bulk at Fry's and even when not getting shredded cheese in bulk size the serving amount goes much farther for cheaper. I would still buy the SoftStix again, especially since I have a coupon for them, but I will stick with the regular pretzels because it is just as good and cheaper for me.

Lucerne Honey Nonfat Greek Yogurt

2011-10-06T09:41:00.000-07:00

I have never been big into yogurt, but lately I have been enjoying eating greek yogurt since it is high in protein. I had only had Fage brand, but I figured I would try the store brand, since nothing was on sale except it and everything else was at least $0.40 more for same size. I am actually quite a fan of Lucerne for dairy products, especially the ice cream and Mexican shredded cheese. Thus I figured though it had the lowest protein (11g) of the different brands on the self, it could not be too bad.

Well, I was sadly disappointed in the Lucerne Honey Nonfat Greek Yogurt as soon as I opened it. It was not thick like the Greek Yogurts I had before. In fact it seemed more liquid than regular yogurt. Flavor wise it was not too bad, although I found it too sweet and just really am not into honey anyways. I might like the fruit flavors, but I chose honey because it had less calories (from having less sugar) than the other flavors of Lucerne Greek Yogurt I saw.

Even though it was on sale for $0.89 instead of its normal price of $0.99, I think it would have been worth the extra $0.40 to try another brand, although not the extra $0.90 for Fage regular price. Getting the Fage Fruit Mix Ins multi pack at CostCo is not bad.

Limited Edition Four Cheese Garlic Pasta Bake Hot Pockets

2011-08-27T11:22:00.001-07:00

This morning I ended up at my local Fry's that I had forgotten does not carry Four Cheese Lean Pockets, which is the only flavor I usually buy since I never can find the Broccoli & Cheese anymore. They had the Hot Pockets kind, but I find that to be way to greasy seeming, so not only more calories, but also not really enjoyable to eat. When I saw the Limited Edition flavor of Four Cheese Garlic Pasta Bake was actually meat-free, I decided to try it out since it was on sale and at least sounded different.

I did not really expect to love the Four Cheese Garlic Pasta Bake, as I thought it would be greasy like the Four Cheese Hot Pockets. I was surprised that it is actually not greasier than the Lean Pockets I have had. However, I was overall quite disappointed in this Limited Edition flavor.

For one, the cheese oozed out more than usual despite reducing the cooking time by 15 seconds, which normally means very little cheese oozing out while microwaving. Thus, I was left with a very empty seeming Hot Pocket, but really even if the cheese stayed in, I feel it would have still seemed very airy.

If it was just cheese filled, then I would be okay with this, as I understand the cheese melts and kind of takes up less space. However, the real issue is that it sounds like it should be stuffed with a bunch of pasta, but instead there was extremely minimal pasta. Seriously, I doubt there were even 5 pieces of pasta in the thing.

The flavor of the Limited Edition Four Cheese Garlic Pasta Bake Hot Pockets taste good, however, the fact I expected it to be full of pasta and it having pretty much none makes me really dislike this flavor. If it really was what it says it is and had pasta along with not being so empty (air filled), then I would probably be stocking up on it, but as is it totally deserves to be only limited edition and not stick around.

Limited Edition Salted Pretzel Caramel Ice Cream

2011-08-16T16:35:00.000-07:00

I love pretzels, especially soft pretzels, and I enjoy trying new ice cream flavors, so I could not pass up buying the Limited Edition Salted Pretzel Caramel Ice Cream when I was at Safeway yesterday. On the container Salted Pretzel Caramel ice cream is described as "Creamy Caramel Custard Ice Cream with a Playful Explosion of Chocolatey Fudge Flakes and Salted Pretzel Swirl."

From the first bite I loved Salted Pretzel Caramel Ice Cream. It is full of little fudge flakes (basically chocolate chip flakes in my opinion), so you are sure to get them in every bite. The caramel flavor of the ice cream is kind of minimal and the saltiness of the pretzel and chocolatey flakes are the main flavors. I do not mind, though, as the swirls of salted pretzel are amazingly good with the ice cream base. Certainly, great if you want a salty and sweet treat.

Limited Edition Dark Chocolate Strawberry Truffles Godiva Gems

2011-02-10T12:08:00.000-08:00

I picked up Dark Chocolate Strawberry Truffles Godiva Gems for $3.99 at CVS this week. They were 20% off, but still I normally would not pay this much for only 3.1 ounces of chocolate. However, I had some CVS Extrabucks to spend and actually paid nothing for them. If I had paid actual money, I think I would have been more disappointed in them.

They are not horrible, but I just somehow expected the center to be so much different. I thought it would be like some other truffles I have had where the center slowly melts in your mouth, but rather this is just a weird strawberry Cool Whip style texture of filling. The creamy strawberry filling is not necessarily bad, but not as long lasting as I tend to expect from truffles that can be savored and slowly melt instead of this quick dissolving minimally flavored filling.

I do love the dark chocolate shell, but that does not make it worth it. Especially, at the normal price of $4.99 a bag. I would much rather spend that on a good quality dark chocolate bar and actually could get at least 2 for $5. That said they are interesting enough I would consider buying them again if they are under $2 as part of after Valentines clearance sale, but I bet people will swipe them all at full price or the minimal sale price because its Godiva.

Loacker Dark Noir Covered Wafers

2011-01-07T14:48:00.000-08:00

The Loacker Dark Noir Covered Wafers translate to saying plain chocolate in English on the wrapper, which left me a little skeptical on whether I would like them, since I mostly do not like milk chocolate. The translation is just wrong, though, as it is actually dark chocolate and nicely not sweet, although not too bitter either. However, if you are not a dark chocolate fan you are not likely to enjoy these. Only downside is that the darkness of the chocolate overpowers any possible flavor of the wafers, which might just be plain bland on their own anyways.

Dove Peppermint Bark Dark Chocolate Promises

2010-12-21T18:21:00.000-08:00

I love dark chocolate and peppermint bark, so the combination of the two was a hard temptation to resist. I usually like Dove Dark Chocolate, which is surprising because it has milk fat and besides Dove I only really like dark chocolate without milk fat or milk of any sort. Normally I buy peppermint bark with milk chocolate even though I do not like milk chocolate that much, but it does not seem so bad when with the peppermint.

I was quite excited about the Dove Peppermint Bark Dark Chocolate Promises that I had one not long after getting back from Fry's with them. I was quickly disappointed. The dark chocolate part is minimal compared to the peppermint white chocolate top, but that is not the real problem. The main and major problem is that it is not very pepperminty. I expect to really smell and taste the peppermint when I eat peppermint bark, so this was a major disappointment, especially since Dove tends to be considered a great chocolate brand by me. Certainly is not worth the high price Dove chocolate usually sells for.

Chung's Vegetable Spring Rolls with Sweet and Sour Sauce

2010-12-21T18:16:00.000-08:00

I bought Chung's Vegetable Spring Rolls in the frozen aisle at Safeway a few weeks ago. Finally got around to trying them today. They are easy to make in just 2 minutes in the microwave. While they cook in the microwave thaw the sauce packet or packets in a bowl of warm water.

The spring rolls were pretty tasty in my opinion. I liked that they did not get crispy because I used the microwave, but I imagine you could have crispy ones if you used the oven to cook them. The dough is a little thicker than I usually think of for spring rolls, but does not affect the flavor in my opinion, as they are still stuffed with plenty of veggie filling.

I like that the spring rolls are conveniently packaged in a tray with each separate. This makes it easy to only make a few without having to try to break them apart, which tends to happen with stuff packaged touching in the freezer for a long period of time. There are three little sweet and sour sauce packets to go with five spring rolls. One packet is almost enough for two, in my opinion, although I like two as a serving size and it would be better if there were only four or there were six spring rolls.

Only thing I do not like about Chung's Spring Rolls is the sweet and sour sauce. Immediately it tasted wrong to me. The pineapple flavor is too strong making it too sweet and not a good balance of sweet and sour like the sauce should be.

Kroger Star Wars Fruit Flavored Snacks

2010-12-21T13:07:00.000-08:00

I have not had fruit snacks in a while other than the occasional gushers and fruit by the foot. Today at the grocery store I decided to buy some of the Kroger brand since they were on sale and I had a taste for them. They have various character packaging and I am pretty sure they are the same fruit snacks in different shapes. I picked up the Star Wars ones, although the Veggietales ones were pretty cool as I love that series.

Overall I like the taste of the fruit snacks, but they are a little too sweet and the difference between the colors and flavors is minimal and they all kind of taste like some sort of fruit blend like fruit punch drinks. Not really much nutritional value other than 100% daily value of Vitamin C. Biggest thing, though, is that there are only six pouches in the box and each pouch does not have that much in it. I will go with Gushers in the future. They seem more substantial per package and have more interesting flavor and if I buy when on sale they are not that much more expensive.

Banquet Apple Pie

2010-10-26T11:41:00.000-07:00

Before I became a vegetarian I enjoyed Banquet's pot pies. I still wish they made a veggie pot pie, but the new fruit pies caught my attention. Today I finally got around to trying the apple pie.

The pie is a nice individual serving size just like their pot pies. The crust tastes the same as the pot pies and to some extent that does not work out very well for the overall taste of the pie. Perhaps it is just because I am used to the crust taste with a savory filling that makes it seem odd with the sweet apple pie filling. The filling itself is average apple pie.

Overall the Banguet Apple Pie is not anything spectacular. However, it is a reasonably priced individual sized desert that is still big enough that you could share for a small dessert for two, especially if you top it with ice cream. It is also convenient that it can be microwaved and ready in less than 5 minutes.

Skittles Fizzl'd Fruits

2010-06-17T13:02:00.000-07:00

Skittles Fizzl'd Fruits is another one of my CVS finds recently. They look a lot like Sour Skittles when you first look at them, as they have a powder coating. The powder fizzes in your mouth and is kind of a fun sensation. I love fizzing candy, so this is something I enjoyed eating even though I find Skittles to be kind of too sweet with little real flavor. I still prefer fizzing hard candies for a fizz candy fix, but I have a hard time finding those and these are not too bad of an alternative, especially since I now know Skittles are vegetarian friendly.

I am a vegetarian and I kind of do not care about the little things (eg. gelatin and okay even sometimes the big thing of fish) and rarely read candy packages, but a few weeks ago someone was telling me what candy they avoid because it has gelatin and they mentioned Skittles. I never really thought of Skittles as having gelatin not that care, as I happily ate Sour Patch Kids as if they were not vegetarian until I finally realized they actually were and began eating them even more!!! So, when I bought the Skittles Fizzl'd Fruits I actually did first read the ingredients and realized they are in fact vegan. Yes, Skittles used to have strict vegetarian and vegan unfriendly ingredients, but not anymore.

Warheads Sour Chewy Cubes

2010-06-16T15:09:00.001-07:00

Warheads Sour Chewy Cubes
Originally uploaded by kjscrafts

I saw these little bags of Warheads Sour Chewy Cubes candy at CVS the other day for $0.33 each. I decided to try them because they sound like Sour Patch Kids. They do have similar consistency, but they just are not as tasty. The main thing is they are not sour at all. Of course, neither are Sour Patch Kids exactly. However, for something from Warheads I expected more sour. I guess the clue to them not being as sour as the hard Warheads is that the sour meter on the back says sour and not extreme or super sour.

Overall I think they are a nice small package alternative to Sour Patch Kids, but I still prefer Sour Patch Kids and I get way more for my $1 buying them at the Doller Tree than these little not even an ounce packs of Warhead Sour Chewy Cubes.

Pretzel M&M's: Salty Yes, Sweet Yes, Crunchy Not Always

2010-05-17T15:57:00.000-07:00

I had heard about the Pretzel M&M's a while ago and finally found some today at Target. I am a big pretzel fan, so I had to try them. However, I ended up being kind of disappointed in them.

The M&M's shell part is the normal M&M, which is not anything special to me, as I do not really even like that type of chocolate (is it even real chocolate?). The pretzel part for the most part was good and the salty part right after you get through the shell is kind of nice. The crunchy pretzel part, though, is not always there, as some pieces seemed kind of soggy.

The biggest issue for me with these is not the taste, though. It is the fact they are so close to perfectly round that they roll like crazy. Makes me think of that song about a meatball rolling away. The frustration of not being able to just dump them out on the table without them rolling like crazy puts it over the top to being too annoying and not all that awesome tasting for me to want again. Probably a good thing, since it is not a healthy snack.

Trader Joe's Mushroom Turnovers

2010-04-12T15:53:00.000-07:00

Last week I found these Mushroom Turnovers in the frozen food section of Trader Joe's. They are pretty easy to make in the oven. They come in a nice tray that has them broken into about two servings. They make a decent snack or appetizer.

I liked the crust, which was not too crispy. I like having things like this soft and not crunchy, but if you want it more of a crispy crust you could leave it in the oven for maximum time rather than the minimum time like I did. The flavor is pretty good if you like mushrooms. The onion aspect is pretty non-existent, though. That did not bother me, as I am not into having a lot of onion in things, but it could be disappointing if you read the front box and expect the onion flavor to be distinct. Only thing that would have made it better is some cheese in the filling.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians The Lightining Thief Limited Time Airheads

2010-03-01T19:17:00.001-08:00

I am always looking for the latest Airheads limited time flavors. Airheads are my brother's favorite candy and every time I find a new promotion one I get them as a treat for him and I also try the limited time flavors. I mostly like the limited time movie tie-in promotions because they usually have interesting things inside, such as the holographic surfboard images for Surf's Up.

The Percy Jackson & the Olympians The Lightning Thief Airheads just have a little decoder card paper pamphlet, so kind of boring. The special Limited Time flavors are Riptide Rush and Blue Poseidon. Riptide Rush is a yellow Airhead. It is basically just the lemonade Airhead flavor. The Blue Poseidon flavor is blue and I think it is much like the blue raspberry flavor, although it light blue and has dark blue spots in it. It looks different, but I think it is just a different look and not a different flavor.

Overall kind of disappointing, as both are regular Airheads flavors. Most of the time they are, so not actually surprising. The real disappointing thing is the movie tie-in thing stinks and is not a fun collectible thingy.

Sour Patch Bunnies

2010-02-23T12:30:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, I was looking through the ads and found CVS advertising Sour Patch Bunnies on sale. Sour Patch Kids are my all time favorite candy, so I just had to try these. The Sour Patch Bunnies come in individual sized bags. There are about 36 of these little bags per package. Each bag has about six Sour Patch Bunnies inside.

The Bunnies are about the same size as Sour Patch Kids. The colors are a little more pastel looking. Probably to tie in with Easter being a pastel color holiday. The bunnies are kind of blob looking, though. They do not have much detail, although you can kind of tell the effect they were going for and it definitely is a different look than the regular Sour Patch Kids.

Taste wise they are the same. They just look different and way weirder. It is a fun Easter egg filler for Sour Patch lovers like me, though.

Celestial Seasonings Raspberry Gardens Green Tea w/ White Tea

2009-09-10T15:28:00.000-07:00

I have always loved Celestial Seasonings brand and I still like them, but I was quite surprised to find all the green teas are now with white tea for a smoother flavor when I was at the grocery store yesterday. I decided to grab a box of the Raspberry Gardens and Blueberry Breeze to compare them to the older versions, which I had some of on my tea shelf, even though I really did not need tea nor really even had room for it on my shelf. I also grabbed the last two boxes of the old version of Raspberry Gardens, as it is my favorite flavor and raspberry has some useful herbal uses for me, just in case the new version was not as good and it is here to stay.

Yesterday I tried the new version of Raspberry Gardens. I will admit it is definitely a smoother flavor and that is probably a good thing for those that do not tend to like green tea. Also, note that I have nothing against white tea, as I do have some varieties of that on my tea shelf. However, the new version of Raspberry Gardens did not seem as good as the original. The main thing that got me is that it did not turn red. Sure the flavor was still raspberry, but it just did not seem as strong of a flavor and part of the strong flavor missing was of course the green being balanced out by the white.

I thought maybe I was just imagining them being very different, so today I took out the old and the new and did a side by side comparison. It turns out the formula is totally different and not just the adding of white tea in the new version. The old version ingredients read "Green Tea, Hibiscus, Blackberry Leaves, Natural Raspberry Flavors with Other Natural Flavors (Contains Soy Lecithin), Roasted Chicory, and Raspberries." The new version though reads "Green Tea, White Tea, Natural Flavor with Other Natural Flavors, and Raspberries." Basically they added White Tea and took out Hibiscus, Blackberry Leaves, and Roasted Chicory. I have a feeling something in that is what gave the old version the red color, but it also made it a more full flavor enhancing the raspberry. The new version just tastes so bland in comparison. I am thinking that maybe it can be better if I steep it longer than I am used to, but knowing the old is better is a mental taste issue that makes it hard to even say I like the new version.

Overall the old version is better in my opinion. It has a fuller and stronger flavor. The new version at least does contain raspberry, but the missing ingredients seem to have been necessary to enhance the raspberry. As a green tea both are good and it is not that the new one tastes bad. It just is that the new one is not an improvement, which I think they are trying for with the addition of white tea. I am glad that I stocked up on the old version with the last two boxes of it at my store. However, I hope they soon realize that the old version was better and bring it back. Keep the new one, too, though because I think it is great for those that want to drink green tea for the health benefits, but do not like green tea, as the white tea does make it at least a little more palatable for them. The true green tea lovers like me, though, do not need the white tea added, especially if it means getting rid of the stuff that makes the flavor so loved.

Limited Edition Chips Ahoy Fudge Bites

2009-08-13T20:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday in the grocery store I found these Limited Edition Chips Ahoy Fudge Bites on sale 3 for $6. I rarely buy pre-made cookies and when I do they are usually from the bakery section and not packaged ones like this. However, I am a sucker for limited edition things and this was one of the very few cookies ones that actually caught my attention. Maybe, it was the purple packaging, but whatever it was it did not end up with me disappointed, as these are actually really good cookies. Good thing they are limited edition and hopefully it is not a majorly lingering one, as I sure could be tempted to buy these again.

The cookies seem to be the basic Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies, but I certainly do not remember them being this small. Anyways they are a nice melt and your mouth type hard cookie, which is the only way I enjoy a hard cookie. The fudge topping is what really makes it an amazing cookie as far as pre-packaged cookies go. I really like the smooth fudge part on top. Best of all it is a pretty generous amount of fudge almost entirely covering the cookie, although the cookie itself is kind of small, but it is a great balance of fudge and cookie.

Eating Right Pomegranate Light Ice Cream Cups

2009-04-14T15:51:00.000-07:00

I thought the Eating Right Pomegranate Light Ice Cream Cups would be good considering I like most things Pomegranate. These ended up being a big disappointment, though. The taste is horrible and nothing like Pomegranate. I think the closest thing to describe it is that it tastes like red licorice. It comes with an easy to use wooden spoon, which tastes better than the ice cream. That just says how horrible this ice cream tastes to me. Sure, it might be good if you like red licorice, but I think it will disappoint all that think it is pomegranate flavor. It is probably the fish oil and fish gelatin that messes the flavor up and really not an expected ingredient in ice cream, but not surprising since it says Omega-3 on the front of the box.

Safeway Easter Shaped Dipped Sugar Cookies

2009-04-13T18:04:00.000-07:00

I first discovered the dipped sugar cookies at Safeway the day after Valentine's Day this year when I found them marked down for a $1 per package. The day after St. Patrick's I got the same deal on the holiday cookies, but no dipped ones were ever available for that holiday. For several weeks now I have been eying the Easter dipped sugar cookies, but I refused to cave in and pay $4.99 for a package. Thus I stuck to the day after the holiday grocery shopping and was rewarded with them being marked down to $1. I got a package for me and a separate package for my little brother this time since he loved the Valentine's ones that I brought on a road trip to share with him.

The dipped sugar cookies are the regular bakery seasonal design cookies with colorful sprinkles and a chocolate dipped coating on the bottom. I tend to dislike the shape sugar cookies because they are too hard for my liking, but the dipped chocolate seems to keep them soft. The only better cookies are the Peanut Butter Munchies I make for Christmas every year. Plus, the price of the day after the holiday cannot be beat considering I could barely make them myself cheaper and if I did that the dipping chocolate part would be quite messy.