Product Review Monday

This week, I wanted to write about one of my favorite go-to things that both satisfies my cravings for deserts but is healthy for me as well.  It's called Carbmaster and it's a yogurt like thingie.  Not sure what makes it different from official yogurt and why they have to call it a cultured dairy blend instead....but its fuggin yogurt....whatever.

I love yogurt.  Not the old no-flavor style yogurt that hippies use to suck up back in the 70's; I'm talking the yogurts that are coming out these days that make candy bars taste like an old saltine.  They have every flavor and combination of flavors that you can imagine....literally hundreds of different types.

.....and they all have one thing in common.  FAT!   For some of these, you can get all the calories and fat of an entire meal in one itty bitty overpriced container.  If you're eating the stuff just because you like it, that's fine...but if you are doing it with some misguided notion that it will help you lose weight, you would probably be better off just going over to the ice cream aisle.

However; if you want something a bit more reasonable and that you can eat without feeling any regret, try Carbmasters.  They are made by Kroger, so I don't know if you have one of their groceries where you live but they are worth a try if you can find them.  They have 60 calories with 1.5 grams of fat.  4 grams of carbs, and a whopping 9 grams of protein.  Good calcium and vitamin D.  Live cultures just like yogurt.  

The taste is really, really, good.  I go through one or two a day.  With all the restrictions on what I can and cannot eat because of my health issues, it is so great to find things that I don't have to choke down while dreaming of eating good food.

Product Review Monday

Since the last review was on the abomination called Arctic Zero, I thought this time I would review something I've found that is not only healthy but is tasty as well.

Okay, healthy might be stretching it a bit.  More along the lines of not-bad-for-you, at least compared to some of the mountains of crap offered for snacking out there in the world today.  Because folks...I'm a believer in snacks.  I like to eat and I have a sweet tooth.  Show me somebody that rigidly follows a diet plan, meal after timed and measure meal, day after day...and I'll show you somebody that will eventually say fuggit to their diet plan and relapse like an alcoholic at Oktoberfest.  You have to be able to treat yourself and it's great when you can do that and still maintain sanity with your eating plans.  A couple of items that I've found to fit the bill are these fudgsicles and popsicles shown above.

The popsicles are great.  They're about 15 calories, no fat, sugar free, no sodium, and have a minuscule 4 grams of carbs.  These are about as close to a guilt free treat that I have found...and they taste really good.  The perfect fix for any urges for something sweet.

The fudgsicles are really good as well.  Not quite as guilt free but not anything that's going to blow your diet for the day.  They come in at around 40 calories, 1g of fat, 45g or sodium, and 9 g of carbs.  They taste...just wonderful.  Gawd they are good!  Nice chocolate flavor.  It really seems like you're indulging in real decadence eating these things.

So...if you are having trouble staying on an eating plan because you get overpowering urges to snack every once in a while...try these.  The reason to diet is to become healthy and maintain that health.  I don't think it's meant to give up foods or to give up the pleasures of eating.  Living healthy should never be something to endure; it's something to enjoy.  

Product Review Monday

I thought I would get back to doing product reviews and to start off this new Monday trend, I'm reviewing an ice cream bar called Arctic Zero.

So....right off the bat....it doesn't claim to be ice cream.  It's a frozen dessert, whatever the hell that means.  I have seen these little babies in the grocery store for several months and wanted to give them a try.  Being diabetic has really shit-canned my love of ice cream.  I'll look longingly at ice cream once in a while but even the super duper low fat, low sugar kind either still has way too much sugar..or the serving size is so ridiculously small that it's not worth the trouble.  This stuff, however, looked to be a decent size as well as very low in sugar and fat.  Plus it was dark chocolate!  The only thing that was holding me back was the price.  They are about $6 for a box of four.  My love of ice cream is only surpassed by my cheapness.

But the other day was my birthday...so what the hell....I treated myself and bought a box.

I was pleased that the actual bars were a decent size.  So many of the "low calorie" bars that you find are about the size of your finger.  I was, however, struck by the fact that the calorie count on the bar was a bit higher than the one advertised on the box.  Not that big a deal...but still weird.

The bar looks very yummy and the tissue thin outer chocolate shell is okay...pretty subtle flavor of chocolate, but it is there.  The "rich, fudgy chocolate" though was absolutely tasteless.  It actually tasted like a water popsicle.  Not bad, not good, not anything.   I was left wondering where the hell the 85 calories were in this bar.  It certainly wasn't in the flavoring.  As I mentioned at the first, I understand that this is NOT ice cream and I wasn't expecting it to taste like a heaping scoop of Blue Bell....still....I was expecting to taste something!

To sum up:  Arctic Zero is a waste of money.  This box will probably stay in my freezer until my wife gets tired of it taking up space and tosses it in the trash. 

I just need to resign myself to not having ice cream anymore.