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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.