Sol Cuisine - Crispy Chik'n - Plant Based Bites

pic from site - not my image

Last night I was craving something to eat, but I didn't want to cook something too time-consuming. 

Since I like trying out new things, I have the habit of going to the store with a list but then seeing something that interests me... and into the cart it goes. I wouldn't necessarily call it impulse-buying completely since I do read and review the item to see if it's something that I will like. (Yeah, I don't put EVERYTHING in my cart that catches my eye.)

Bubbies Hawaii - Cookie Dough [Brownie Batter with Peanut Butter Ice Cream Inside]

Hello and welcome to another PMS inspired purchase.

Back in the day when "powerloss" entered my life, my cravings would be on the sweet side. As I got older, it was a coin toss of sweet versus salty. There are even days where I craved spicy (which if you knew me, you'd know spicy and I have had an odd relationship - but I have been known to go through a Del Taco drive-thru and order deep-fried jalapeno slices... and nearly finished them every time save for the fact I'd get full and could eat no more).

Golden Bonbon - Green Tea Nougat

One could say I was introduced to nougat when I was little by way of candy bars. Nougat candy, however, wasn't until about the early 2000's. I was working as an office manager for a small manufacturing company, Our company was growing at the time, and we were hiring a few engineers to help with the expansion. We were moving from the smaller office I had started into the bigger building across the street... where the engineers were working mainly - occasionally coming to the smaller building where I had to buzz them in. I had made friends with one of the engineers (Russ) who at one point when I was working and didn't see him approach the floor to ceiling glass window and door. He knocked. I folded my arms in mock protest asking what was in it for me. He reached into his coat pocket and brought out some candy. I then relented and let him in.

AIZA'S SWEETS Pastillas de Ube

I think I've already spoken about my love of ube. It's just so tasty. And if it's a flavor option - especially for a dessert - I'm most likely going to try it.

A friend at work (another Filipina) and often have conversations about food, and we both excited about Filipino food A LOT. One day when she got into the office, she stopped by my desk and handed me a bag of treats. When I saw the purple, I immediately got excited.

Chewy milk candy with purple yam.

Chocolove - Ruby Cacao Bar

I'm not as big of a chocolate fanatic like when I was a kid. I would see that bag of Hershey miniatures or would be excited to go through my Halloween stash when my brother and I got back from trick-or-treating... but back then, it was your basic chocolate tried and trues.

Snickers. Twix. Milky Way. And a slew of others. (I really liked Mars Bars and Oh Henrys - I think mainly since they weren't as widely available as the other mainstream treats.

But even though I still love the staples from my youth, I have discovered other chocolate goodies.

Saffron Road Crunchy Chickpeas - Honey Roasted

Every Thursday, a number of my friends and I get together just to be social. It started off as a Stephen King marathon of sorts since a lot of his work was coming out as movies and mini-series, but then we started also watching other horror movies from our childhood to now.

And sometimes we just drank.

Siren Protein Bites - Lemon Poppyseed

While out running errands, I started to get a little hungry, but I didn't want to stop and eat a full meal since I had planned on cooking when I got home. So I opted for a snack I could eat while driving around.

Chobani Coffee Creamer - Sweet Cream

In my last post, I mentioned a little bit about my coffee journey. I have a need for creamer in my coffee. I think it stems from starting doing what I'd seen from others in real life as well as TV and movies - some cream and sugar. Nowadays for me is a splash of cream and maybe some sugar-free syrup if I'm feeling fancy (my favorite as of late is Torani Sugar-Free Almond Roca). Most of the time it's just creamer. (I've also been known to add a splash in my tea.)

Creamer takes the place of "milk and sugar" since there's usually some kind of sweetness involved since I like flavored creamers. I usually use Silk Sweet and Creamy Almond Creamer, Since I'm using the creamer for coffee and tea, I don't want something that will alter the flavor profile of the drink. Like if I'm drinking Earl Grey tea, I wouldn't want a hazelnut creamer or something like that - I'd want something with a neutral flavor profile that would go with any choice.

While at an Asian market recently (I was mainly there looking for apricot kernel powder for something), I needed to buy milk but couldn't find a dairy section anywhere in the store. So after getting the things I needed from that store, I went next door-ish to another grocery store to grab a few things, and while getting some milk, I saw that Chobani had new coffee creamers out. (I will admit, the colors, artwork, and packaging caught my eye first.) I was also looking for my usual creamer - but guess what? They were out. So I checked out the Chobani brand, and they had a Sweet Cream which made me happy (since usually, I don't find "sweet cream" in most brands so I end up getting vanilla or something).

And it was yummy!

The side of the bottle says "Simple Ingredients" and underneath... "We keep our creamer simple and delicious. Starting from fresh cream from our yogurt-making process, we add only milk, cane sugar, and a touch of natural flavoring. Stirred into your coffee, our creamer makes every sip sweeter than the last."

Now of course after reading this, I went in search of the official list of ingredients that can be found with the "nutritional information" - and is listed as follows: milk, cream, cane sugar, natural flavors.

Can someone tell me what "natural flavors" they used? Not really sure what that means. I get the gist of course, but it just seems rather vague to me.

Regardless of the mysterious "natural flavors" - I would buy this again. It's nice to have a backup alternative for coffee and tea needs.

The bottle is 24oz and lists one serving size to be a tablespoon - which is 30 calories per serving, the bottle yielding about 47 servings.

https://www.chobani.com/products/coffee-creamer/creamer/sweet-cream/
https://www.chobani.com/

Later my lovelies.

Have Goodness!
Rae

Chameleon Cold-Brew with Organic Oat Milk [Dark Chocolate]

I make my own cold brew. It's pretty easy - coffee grounds, cold water, leave to steep overnight and voila! Coffee!!!

I didn't use to be a coffee drinker. I grew up a Kool-Aid Queen consuming mass quantities of oversugared Tropical Fruit Punch (thanks Mom), and staining my upper lip with a Kool-Aid mustache (which really only looked like evil vaudevillians since the red usually curled at the corners of my mouth.

Or perhaps maybe a little Joker-like?

Cadbury Creme Egg Cookies (Limited Edition)

When I was little, I was a bit obsessed with the Cadbury Egg.

I blame the commercials.

They usually played around Easter every year. I'd see a big fluffy bunny rabbit twitching its little nose, and clucking like a chicken laying an egg. But this bunny was different - this bunny laid Cadbury eggs.

In the commercial, someone would unwrap an egg, tear it in two, and show off the ooey-gooey insides (which were the color of an actual egg - yellow center with white around it).

I was fascinated. Plus - the bunny was adorable, and the fact it "bok-bok'd" like a chicken made me laugh.

I can't remember how long it was after seeing those commercials that I actually had one of the eggs - but I do remember my reaction though, and it was a little less than favorable. I was super excited to try one, but when I did, the inside wasn't 100% appealing. The flavor and consistency of the creme were not what I expected. But for some reason every time I saw a Cadbury Egg, I had to get one and try it out. (Now, I feel the need to say here that they were a rather popular item so actually acquiring one when I wanted one wasn't always a success so I didn't have TONS of them.)

Fast forward to now! At the store, minding my own business, checking out the candy section (like I do - don't judge!) and what do I see? Cadbury Cookies!

And they're Limited Edition - so I just had to have them.

Visually, they remind me of Thin Mints all covered in chocolate, and when you bite into them, they have crispy crunchy cookies, but in the middle of those cookies is the infamous creme that - as a child - I did not enjoy or remember fondly. But a lot of my tastes and flavors changed since I was little so I bought them and tried them at home.

And I like them!

I don't know. Maybe it's a different creme-filling (I get more caramel notes than I did before), but they are quite yummy. They are also very sweet. I highly suggest only one or two as well as a glass of milk or water as a palate cleanser.

The 4.9 oz package housed 8 cookies.

A serving is 2 cookies which leave 4 servings per package - and each serving is 170 calories.

I hope "Limited Edition" means they were just testing them out to see if people liked them... and they bring them back. It also makes me want to try Cadbury Eggs again.

https://www.cadburyusa.com/en_us/home.html
https://www.mondelezinternational.com/

Later my lovelies.

Have Goodness!
Rae