Private Selection Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownie Mason Jar Dessert

The Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownie Mason Jar Dessert reminds me of my favorite cookies to make, which are peanut butter munchies (chocolate cookies with a peanut butter dough center).  I definitely enjoyed trying this dessert and there are other varieties that look appealing, but I won't be likely to try them for two main reasons.

The first reason is the price.  They are priced at $3.99 a piece making them a pretty costly dessert that really is not even big enough to share, although you could probably make it a small dessert for two.  Yeah, it is a somewhat fancy dessert, but seriously cannot get over paying the almost as much for a dessert to enjoy at home as a dessert at a restaurant.

What really gets me, though, is the packaging.  Now at first the concept of a mason jar for packaging was somewhat appealing, as it could be reused later.  However, the lid is just a piece of plastic making it not really recloseable more than a few times.  I guess it could be used for crafts or something, but would have been nicer if it came with the regular metal lids to be able to reuse for food storage.

Bottom line, though, is it seems it increases the price to be packaged this way and then it is just more wasteful, especially considering we don't even have curbside glass recycling.

Disclosure: I received a free sample from BzzAgent.

Sour Patch Kids now Including Blue Review

As Sour Patch Kids are my favorite candy, I had to try out the new packaging that includes blue. Years ago I thought that they needed a blue with the regular, as it just seemed like a good fruity one to have with the others.  At the same time it is hard to see a favorite candy change.  However, no color was replaced, but with the added blue there ends up being less of each color and I actually only had two yellows in the whole box, but that could be totally random.

Overall I'm not sure I like the addition of blue to the regular Sour Patch Kids.  It is nice you still get your favorite flavors, but somehow the blue flavor doesn't go with the regular ones. Maybe, that's because I have had the berry variety and it fits better there.  Also, somehow the blue seems to not be as flavorful, but I am sure I'll get used to it if it sticks around as I still got to get my Sour Patch Kids somehow.

Fiber One Strawberry Greek Yogurt Meal Bar Review

After finding the Chocolate Peanut Butter Fiber One Mealbar to be rather tasteless, I did not expect much from the Strawberry Greek Yogurt flavor.  It certainly is more flavorful, but not necessarily in a good way.  I found it to seem very sweet without any actual flavor to it.  The yogurt tastes like yogurt which is not much of a flavor, though, but there certainly is no strawberry flavor.

Looking at the bar it does not even look like it has strawberries.  Investigating the ingredients list I found that is because it is actually strawberry flavored cranberries in it.  Even if they are flavored with strawberry flavoring or whatever its called, they still taste more like cranberries.  Not a bad thing in my opinion, as I like cranberries, but certainly misleading product name and they seem less flavorful than regular cranberries, which may be because the whole bar has some odd nondescript overbearing flavor (soy protein powder, perhaps?).

While the Chocolate Peanut Butter flavor ones were disappointing, I would still consider buying them in the future if a good deal.  The Strawberry Greek Yogurt ones are definitely not worth it even if they were at the dollar store.  If the flavor aspect was not bad enough, they are also flimsy and fall apart way too easily and I did not even take them on the go, which I imagine would lead to them ending up very smashed and/or in pieces before you got to eating them.  Only good thing is they are filling with the 9 grams of fiber and 10 grams of protein.

Disclosure: I received a free sample from BzzAgent.

Fiber One Chocolate Peanut Butter Meal Bar Review

I am not that big on bars, but they are convenient to have on hand for quick snacks. The ones I mostly like are Chocolate Peanut Butter ones, especially the Quaker Chewy Granola Bars.  Thus, I was really excited to get to try the Fiber One Mealbars as a BzzAgent.

One of the main appeals of the Fiber One Chocolate Peanut Butter Mealbar for me is that they have 10 grams of protein.  Not as much as protein bars, but certainly more than a typical granola bar and thus a good in between option.

The texture of the Fiber One Chocolate Peanut Butter bars is something I liked, as it was much like a granola bar, although it stayed together better than the Chewy ones I like.

The taste, however, was not appealing.  It was not bad at all, but it also was not exactly good.  Instead it was rather plain seeming.  It was not chocolatey nor was it peanut buttery.  It was a little peanutish, but mainly it was just plain (oat flavor, maybe?).

Overall I would buy Fiber One Chocolate Peanut Butter Mealbars, but only if they were on sale and/or I had a coupon that made them the most affordable option.  Even then I would probably only have them to have on hand for the every once and a while need for an on the go filling snack and not for my emergency kits like we mainly buy these type of products for.

Disclosure: I received a free sample from BzzAgent.

Kroger Shrimp Lo Mein Skillet Meal and Garlic Bread

This weekend we tried the Kroger Shrimp Lo Mein Skillet Meal.  The frozen meal was easy and quick to make.  The flavor of it was also good and it had a good amount of shrimp per serving.  However, a serving ended up being rather small and even with a salad and garlic bread it was not really a full meal for the three of us as it lead us to believe it served.  It is also regularly priced at over $4, so since it really takes 2 packages to serve 3 it is almost the same to just get takeout from the place right next to our Kroger right down the street from home.

The frozen Kroger garlic bread also tasted great and easy to make.  The price of it is even good enough that I will probably buy regularly to have it on hand in the freezer for a quick side for meals or even as a snack.

Disclosure: I received a free sample from BzzAgent.

Limited Edition Pillsbury Pink Lemonade Cookies

The Limited Edition Pillsbury Pink Lemonade cookie dough caught my attention when I was at Kroger early this week.  Making them was easy enough, although I have kind of gotten into the even more easy and convenient trays of break apart cookie dough.

The flavor of them ended up being pretty good.  They definitely seemed lemony, although whether actually pink lemonade I do not know, as it has sometimes seemed pink is just a color rather than an actual flavor for pink lemonade.  It does have a little flavor of something beyond just lemon, though.  According to my brother, they seemed kind of raspberryish and he did not like them because of that.

Overall I liked the Pink Lemonade cookies right out of the oven.  However, once they cooled they were not only crispy, but they ended up being very crumbly feeling.  Since I really only like my cookies soft, I did not much care for them after they cooled, but I would get them again and just make only how many as will be eaten right away at a time.

Kroger Pomegranate Greek Yogurt

First off I must admit that while I overall have no issue with store brands and actually prefer Safeways to brand name in some cases, I have often found Kroger to really exemplify the lower quality bad rap store brands tend to get.  That said I have also found some of the Kroger stuff to be decent, although usually it is the stuff that is not actually a better deal than name brand, such as their Private Selection.  When it comes to yogurt, though, I have almost always found store brands are just too thin and watery seeming.  However, seeing that the Kroger Greek yogurt actually has a comparable amount of protein as name brands, I thought it might actually be a decent store brand yogurt.

Sadly, opening the Kroger Pomegranate Greek Yogurt I found it to have more of a thin consistency than the Kroger Carbmaster style I had also bought.  While I still appreciate it actually has the protein I come to expect from a Greek yogurt, at the same time it is not Greek yogurt because it is not anywhere near thick like it should be.  Worse, though, is it is totally bland tasting.  I guess I should expect that, though, because pomegranate really is more of flavor better blended with others than a stand alone, but I have had plain yogurt seem more flavorful than this.  If the only issue was this flavor, I would try out other varieties of the brand, but the thinness of the yogurt makes me rather just pay more for true Greek yogurt or even just buy the regular store brand yogurt that is cheaper and basically just like this fake Greek yogurt other than having somewhat less protein.

Disclosure: I received a free sample from BzzAgent.