Sensible Portions Multigrain Parmesan and Herb Crisps

By: Lizabeth | Feb 9, 2010

"Crisps", whether they be soy, rice, or something else, are a love-or-hate affair for me. You either adore the airiness or loath it. Personally, I'm a fan of crisps (like Glenny's MultiGrain Sea Salt Soy Crisps and Genisoy Sweet Crisps Chocolate), but usually find myself hungry again about 30 minutes after eating them. For this reason, I eat them only as an occasional snack. Recently, however, I noticed Sensible Portions Multigrain Crisps on my store shelves. They are made with whole grains, all natural and baked not fried. Intrigued by the idea of a healthier, more filling alternative to white rice cakes, I decided to give these a try. I plucked a bag of the Parmesan and Herb Crisps off the shelf and headed home with my new find.

When I got home, I opened the bag and was met by what looked like thin rice cakes. Happily, most of them were intact - I don't know if they're hardier than your average rice/ soy crisp or if I just grabbed a lucky bag. I took a bite of one and ...yowza! They really mean it when they say "Parmesan and Herb"! These are potently flavored little suckers. The herbs almost taste fresh, and there's plenty of cheese flavor, too. They're crisp and surprisingly light, being even airier than most soy crisps or rice cakes that I've tried. I really enjoyed these, and found a serving to keep me full for about 2 hours - enough to survive the afternoon doldrums.

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Corazonas Salsa Picante Tortilla Chips

Tortilla chips are the love of my life, so crunchy, so fun when paired with salsa. The only thing I don't love is that some of them could definitely use a nutrition makeover. Corozonas Sancks are made with plant sterols, which have been shown to have an impact on lowering "bad" LDL cholesterol. I decided to try out Corazonas Salsa Picante Tortilla Chips because I also love bold flavors and spicy chips, plus they have the added benefit of being made with whole oats in addition to plant sterols.

These tortilla chips have the usual triangular shape, but you can see actual pieces of the rolled oats embedded in the chips. The salsa picante flavor isn't extremely hot, instead, each chip has a mild salsa taste that works with the flavor of the tortilla chip itself. These chips would be appropriate with a healthy dip or on their own. If you don't like spicy chips, I think that you would appreciate the mild flavor of this. If you do like it red hot, well pair it with your favor HOT salsa and prepare to enjoy!

A 1 ounce serving of Corazonas Salsa Picante Tortilla Chips provides 140 calories from 7 grams of fat (11% of the daily value), of which only 0.5 grams is saturated fat. There is also 5% of the DV for sodium, 3 grams of dietary fiber and 2 grams of protein.

See more on: Chips , Vegetarian , tortilla chips | 1 Comment

Popchips Cheddar

I've tried the Original Popchips and I liked them a lot. Given the range of flavors offered by the brand, though, I figured it was a shame not to try the other ones, so I opted for the Cheddar flavor. I picked up a one-serving bag for $1.29 at Duane Reade - pricey but really not too bad for healthier chips.

I scanned the ingredients list first and it was nowhere near as simple as the Popchips Original: Natural Potato Ingredients (Potato Flour, Potato Starch), Safflower Oil and/or Sunflower Oil, Seasoning (Whey Powder, Salt, Cheddar Cheese [Pasteurized Milk, Cheese Cultures, Enzymes], Maltodextrin, Yeast Extract, Natural Flavors, Lactic Acid, Buttermilk Powder, Cream, Palm Oil, Safflower Oil, Butter Powder, Disodium Phosphate, Turmeric Oleoresin, Annatto Extracts, Onion Powder, Sodium Citrate, Xanthan Gum, Citric Acid), Rice Flour, Salt, Soy Lecithin (Processing Aid). I figured many of those probably went into the cheesy coating, so I decided to do my best to put the thought out of my mind and enjoy my chips.

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Archer Farms Organic Pomegranate Fruit Strips

By: Tanya Patrice | Feb 3, 2010

Even though I love the taste and nutrition of real fruit, I still enjoy fruit flavored snacks every once in a while. I've heard of various iterations of fruit leathers that are more natural than the traditional fruit snack, so I was eager to purchase a box of Archer Farms Organic Pomegranate Fruit Strips (Archer Farms is the Target store brand).

The strips were pretty chick and individually wrapped, which was convenient because they had sort of a slick stickiness to them. The flavor was very tart and very sweet, but the fruit strips get their flavor from the juices of organic apples (and its puree too), pomegranates, and a bit of lemon. Even the coloring is natural as it is based on carrot and blueberry juices. The fruit strips are a nice snack, but the sweetness is so strong that the flavor isn't really that authentic to real pomegranate.

Each 0.5 ounce Archer Farms Organic Pomegranate Fruit Strip provides 45 calories and 9 grams are sugars. There isn't much in the way of nutrients.

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Sweet 'N Low International Coffee Hard Candies

By: Lizabeth | Feb 2, 2010

I'm a sucker for hard candies ... I like to use them as a way to occupy my mouth, without making my family put up with the annoying chewing sounds I make while using gum. Mostly I buy sugar-free candies and I was actually surprised that there was a Sweet 'N Low Hard Candy, so of course you know I had to try it. I picked up a pack of Sweet 'N Low International Coffee Hard Candy at the dollar store to facilitate this tasting experiment.

Sweet 'N Low International Coffee Flavors Hard Candies include Irish cream, French mocha, amaretto, and hazelnut. They are fat free and sugar free. Each individually wrapped candy is a nice, fat little oblong disk. All of them look almost the same color beige, with varying degrees if darkness. The flavor is strong, clean, and delicious! The Irish cream and amaretto flavors taste most strongly of the liquors in their namesake, but aren't overwhelming. The Mocha and French vanilla both have more balanced flavor, with a combination of coffee and chocolate or vanilla. Each one lasted for about 7 minutes in my mouth, and I experienced no odd or metallic aftertastes, which was my main worry.

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