I have to apologize to my readers for the delay in reviews.  Things in my work life are pretty stressful right now, so my time has been pretty limited and my priorities have been focused there and not here.  

I am not sure if this is a new product or not, but it's new to me, sounded interesting and I thought I would give it a try. As some of you may have noticed, I don't eat meat, but I'm not a vegan. I eat eggs a few times a week and I really enjoy a good breakfast burrito. Unfortunately, many of them contain meat. That's why this one appealed to me. The combination sounded really tasty. 

The nutrition list is not that great. Lots of sodium, fat and pretty carb-heavy. However, the protein grams are reasonable and the Vitamin A is very good.

This is a very good, whole-food list of ingredients. I'm not sure why they needed to add palm oil. I would have been happier if the fat added had been butter or even olive oil, but I guess I can overlook the palm oil, despite the facts that palm oil is notoriously unhealthy and harvesting it is bad for the environment.  I digress. I like the fact that there are no strange ingredients and that most everything is organic.

The inside of the cooked product. It was very good. The combination of the sweet potatoes, spinach and eggs was very interesting and tasty.  I expected an overpowering salsa flavor, but it wasn't. The flavors were balanced and it was a very satisfying burrito. I found this produt at Publix. I recommend it. 

I'm always on the hunt for decent tasting protein bars. I usually choose those with little to no sugar and mostly natural ingredients. Those are very hard to find! I saw this one in my local healthfood store and thought I would give it a go. 

This ingrdient list is very impressive. No added sugar, no frankenfoods. I didn't know what  hydrolyzed collagen was, so I had to do some research. www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/hydrolyzed-collagen-uses-and-benefits/- here is a very informative article on the subject.  There are a few popular protein bars that contain dates as either the first or one of the primary ingredients. I was anxious to see how they compared. 

290 calories is quite a bit and the 35 grams of carbs was pretty shocking. 25 grams of sugars mostly from the dates and raisins. I was hoping that for 290 calories, this would be quite filling and a satisfying meal replacement. 

It doesn't look too appetizing. 

Here's the inside. The texture was more cakey than some of the other date-heavy bars (Rx bar, I'm looking at you) and less sweet. The flavor was very cinnamon-y and very good. My taste tester liked it quite a bit. It was about $2.60 for one, which was comparable to other high quality protein bars. I want to note that Paleo Ranch also makes a "skinny" paleo bar which is quite lower in calories and carbohydrates. I'd buy this again. I just wish they had more flavors. 

Yes, dear readers, this is a non-health food review. While picking up some saltines to replenish the household supply, I spotted these and was intrigued. I have tried the Cello Parmesan Whisps crackers and thought these might be similarly yummy and low carb.  Well, are they? They were much less expensive than the Cello Parmesan Whisps and certainly more easily obtained. I can almost never find those Parmesan Whisps. 

40% less fat? Well, count me in. That should have been a clue that these were not remotely like the Parmesan Whisps since the Whisps are made of nothing except cheese. They are popular with the low-carb/high-fat (keto) crowd for their lack of carbs and relatively high fat content. 

120 calories is not bad for a generous serving size and 4 grams of fat is also pretty good. The carb grams are quite high as well as the sodium. No fiber, either.  The ingredient list is free of frankenfoods, but the potato starch and rice flour increase the carbs and basically make this a "Pringles" type of cracker/chip with cheese flavoring. I am disappointed, but not surprised. Real cheese crackers are pretty easy to make yourself if you want a real cheese-only cracker. Just bake a small mound or small slice of cheese in the oven until brown. You can also cook them on the stove top in a skillet. 

As you can see, they are light and puffy, kind of like a puffy Cheez-Its with holes. I chose the smoked gouda flavor because I am a sucker for gouda. The taste was salty and kind of had an artificial flavor and the cheese powder stuck to my hands. The texture; however, was light and crispy.  I suppose if you are looking for a lower-fat cheese cracker, these would be worth it. If you buy these thinking they are more cheese than starch, you will be disappointed. Read the label. I probably won't buy these again. 

The other day I was torturing myself (LOL) by checking out the cake mixes and frostings and noticed a new trend. There are tons of new products offering "mug cakes". 

There among the snack cakes was the FlapJacked Mighty Muffin. $2.48 for one. That sure did look like a healthier alternative. I also thought that since you prepare it in its own cup, it would be a handy snack for work. Just pour the water in, stir and pop it in the microwave. Boom! Cake! (or muffin) I chose the double chocolate flavor. 

Sorry about the blurry picture. 220 calories, 6 grams of fat (4.5 saturated), 21 grams of carbohydrates, 6 grams of fiber, 7 grams of sugar. Not bad. Check out the protein, calcium and iron.  Those are pretty good numbers. Of course, you know to subtract the fiber from the total carbohydrates to obtain the net carbohydrates, which would be 15 grams for this serving. The saturated fat is a little high, but compared to a store-baked muffin or snack cake, those numbers are not too bad.

Nothing crazy here. No artificial sweeteners, no artificial colors, no frankenfoods of any kind. 

I microwaved it for about 50 seconds in my little work microwave oven. It came out steamy and smelled really good and chocolately. Surprisingly, it was light and tender with a rich chocolate taste. The chocolate chips were a very nice extra chocolate flavor boost. I would definitely buy this again. Yes, it's a little pricey for such a small serving, but for a nutritious treat once in awhile, I'd say it's worth it. I plan to try the other flavors.