Category: Review

A Few of My Favorite Things

I’m generally pretty fickle when it comes to products, trying new things as often as I can. Variety is the spice of life, no? However, there are a few things I’ve tried and truly stuck with over time. Here are a few of them!

Bell Plantation PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter

pb2I’ll admit, when I first heard about powdered peanut butter, I was skeptical. I tried it the traditional way, and was unmoved. It just wasn’t as satisfying to me as regular Skippy Creamy, my go-to peanut butter. But after trying it other ways, I discovered just how amazing this stuff is! You can use it as is in smoothies, roll bananas in it, or use it as a topping on ice cream (my favorite way). I’ve stirred it into oatmeal, put it on yogurt, used it in homemade protein bars, and even just whisked it into skim milk for a delicious drink.

You can get PB2 at many grocery stores, as well as Target, Walmart and Amazon.com.

Remington Simple Twist

It’s a piece of WIRE. It’s coated in something. (Whatever the material is they use to coat bobby pins, I’m guessing.) IT HOLDS MY HAIR. I do kettlebells, yoga and now, running, and it HOLDS MY HAIR. Better than an elastic. I got mine on a whim at Target. It came 2 in a pack for just under $6. I use it every day, because I love how easy it is to get my hair up and out of the way, and then how easy it is to let it down when I’m done. Plus, IT HOLDS MY HAIR. Need I say more?

Clorox Greenworks All Purpose Cleaner

CloroxGreenWorksI can’t even remember why I bought this stuff in the first place, I’ve been using it so long. First off, this  cleaner is 98% naturally derived, and while I like the sound of that, what I really love about it are two things: it has a gentle, pleasant scent, and IT WORKS. I’ve used various all purpose cleaners over the years and honestly this stuff works better than all of them.  It’s also budget friendly at around $3 a bottle, which you know I love!

So what are some of YOUR favorite things, things that you’ve used consistently over time?

Also, if you wouldn’t mind taking the time to take my little poll up in the upper right corner of the blog, that would be great! I’m always looking for feedback on which sorts of blogs you lovely readers like most!

Thanks all!

37 Calorie Brownies – Fantastic or Failure?

Whether you’re looking to lose weight or maintain, if you enjoy dessert you’ve probably looked for low-calorie recipes for your favorite foods. I certainly have. Pinterest, my frenemy in the realm of recipe sourcing, showcased a recipe for 37 calorie brownies. Seriously. A skeptic at heart, I pinned it, hoping to try it in the future. Why didn’t I try it immediately, you ask? Well, the recipe calls for granulated stevia. I don’t have anything against artificial sweeteners for the most part. I use “blue stuff” in my coffee in the morning, but I don’t bake with it, partially because I don’t feel like spending the money on it, partially because I don’t bake sweets at home very often, but mostly because baking with artificial sweetener never turns out to be as satisfying as baking with real sugar. The old adage is “if it’s too good to be true, it probably is”. However, in the interest of my own home-brewed brand of food science, and for you, dear readers, (okay okay I really wanted brownies, too) I decided I would go ahead and give them a shot.

I purchased granulated sucralose instead of stevia, because I’ve personally had a reaction to stevia in the past. Nothing crazy, it just caused some digestive issues. The only other recipe deviations I made was to bake it in a loaf pan, and to just stir it in a bowl instead of using a blender or food processor, because I was being LAZY. I had already had to clean my stand mixer from another recipe, and I didn’t want to bother with cleaning the food processor, too. So I stirred together the wet ingredients and then added the dry. I poured it into the loaf pan, which was lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray, and baked it for 20 minutes. I allowed it to cool and cut it into 8 pieces, so it should have been slightly more than 37 calories. For some reason, my calculator says it was 56 calories. Still not bad.

But how do they TASTE? I recruited The Hubs to help me taste them. Well, they are neither fantastic nor a failure. The texture was not brownie-like: you could definitely feel the oats (and see them if you look closely at the photos). The flavor was okay, but not intensely chocolaty like I prefer my brownies. The Hubs liked them fine. I think I will try them again (I mean, I have to do something with that giant bag of granulated sucralose *rolls eyes*) but blend them like the original recipe suggests. I think this will help the texture. The original recipe also suggested adding chocolate chips to the recipe, which I think I’ll try also.

In summary, I will try this recipe again, with some tweaks. My recipe calculated out to 56 calories apiece, so you could eat TWO of these for just over 100 calories. Not bad, really. Not perfect, but good. Would I serve these to company? Heck no! But I will try them again.

IMG_20150420_154120631_HDR

56 Calorie Brownies

  • ¾ cup nonfat greek yogurt
  • ¼ cup skim milk
  • ½ cup Cocoa powder
  • ½ cup Old fashioned rolled oats
  • ½ cup Splenda for baking
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 pinch salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Line a loaf pan with foil and spray with cooking spray.

In a medium sized bowl, stir together all of the ingredients. Pour into the prepared dish and bake for about 20 minutes.

Allow to cool completely before cutting into 8 squares.

 

Snack Review: Crispy Green Crispy Fruit Pineapple

IMG_20150204_123448677So I had to run to good old Acme this morning to buy some coffee for work, and while I don’t usually do impulse buys, particularly at Acme, because, hey, expensive. This little single serve packet of freeze dried pineapples cost me $1.49. Not terrible, but not great either. Each bag of dried pineapple has 35 calories and one ingredient: PINEAPPLES. Bonus.

I opened the package and took a whiff: smells like pineapples. Not the pungent sharpness of fresh pineapple but the softer, more subtle scent of canned pineapples, which hey, is fine, because canned pineapples are delicious! I poured a few out onto an envelope because I’m at woIMG_20150204_145058402rk and we have no plates. (We have been known to eat pizza off of USPS flat rate boxes because we get them for free.) They certainly look like desiccated pineapples. Check.

Next up: the crispy test. I pop one of these fine little babies into my mouth. Definitely crunchy/crispy and truly tasted like pineapple! Sweet, but not sickly sweet like regular pineapple that’s dried with sugar. I would say these would definitely do the trick for someone who wanted a piece of candy without the calories.

So, would I buy these again? Probably, but not often. Mostly it’s the price point. I would probably buy these if I could get them on sale for less than a buck. But definitely tasty and worth a try!

IMG_20150204_123459082_HDRHave you tried these? I’ve also tried the Asian pear ones but they were not as tasty.