WIAW: new foods

Wow, so apparently most of you are Mac fans.  I should have guessed   I think it’s been my stubbornness that has prevented me from going the Mac route, but I’m feeling daring so I think I’ll be making a purchase this weekend!

This past week I’ve consumed quite a few new eats.  And I’m dedicating this What I Ate Wednesday to just that! 

I have been seeing the Simply bars everywhere!  (Not to be confused with Zone Perfect’s Perfectly Simple bar).  Both companies were kind enough to send me samples to try.

The stats are really amazing – 16g of protein in only 160 cals or less!  And they offer a ton of flavors.  I’ve tried the PB-chocolate and cinn-pecan so far.  The verdict? Good (not outstanding).  If it wasn’t for the fabulous protein-to-calorie ratio, I would not be that impressed.  If they were $1.50 or less and I could buy them locally, I would definitely keep them as snack/small meal on the go, but they aren’t sold in northern CA yet.  I will keep my eyes peeled.

Another bar floating around the internet?  Gnu fiber bars.  Several bloggers highlighted their fabulous deal of $7.95 for a 5-bar sampler pack with free shipping.  For that steal, I had to get some.  Besides, I couldn’t pass up trying their tasty-sounding flavors:

I’ve tried the blueberry cobbler and blondie and really enjoyed both.  They taste very natural, are pretty chewy, and all that fiber has some staying power.  I’d highly recommend.

So last weekend, I mentioned Zach and I went on date night (woohoo!).  We wanted to go to Palo Alto and were in the mood for some spice, so we tried a new (to us) restaurant, Thaiphoon, where we were able to snag a table outdoors. 

Both our meals and the app were good but…

… we left hungry!  Seriously, are we that big of piggies?  We ordered the vegetarian spring rolls, kung pao chicken, and thai basil tofu.  We easily finished our plates with no leftovers – which is a rarity for eating Thai food. 

Soooo, we did what any normal couple does and walked across the street to a new(er) wine bar called Gravity, where I promptly had a flight of sparkling wines.

I absolutely want to come back to this place – faboosh!

No date night is complete without froyo:

I’m pretty sure Zach tilted his cup that way so you wouldn’t realize he got the LARGE cup.  We both agreed that this was one of the more mediocre froyo experiences.  We’ve been here several times before and this time the froyo tasted really icy and the toppings were lacking.  Sigh.  Oh well.

What’s your favorite Thai food dish?

Have you tried Gnu or Simply bars?  Thoughts?

My take on a few more protein bars

Yay for all the shoe loving bloggers out there!  

I have a really fab review and also a delish fall recipe coming your way, but I want to share some thoughts on some more “protein” bars.

Around the blogvine, you’ve seen the ZonePerfect cookie bars, which I showed you last week.  At that time, I had only tasted the chocolate chip cookie dough flavor.  Since then, I split the other two bars with my hubby.  I was quivering with anticipation (okay, slight exaggeration) over the peanut butter flavor, because frankly PB-anything tends to rock.

My thoughts: Hmm, well this tasted more like a typical protein bar that was more gritty tasting.  I thought it tasted more like faux-PB.  It was good, but not great and the chocolate chip flavor really rocked.

Now onto the oatmeal raisin cookie.  Another anticipatory venture  

My thoughts: GREAT flavor and sweetness and crunch. Really quite good.

Overall ranking: 1. Chocolate chip at 9 pts; 2. Oatmeal Raisin at 7.5 pts; 3. PB at 5 pts. 

And way back here, I talked about my top protein bars which included Nugo Darks.  The only downside of it was a relatively high cost ($2+)  and I’ve never seen them in a store and had to order them.  Well guess where I found these two guys:

Nugo flavors

Dulles airport in DC!  How weird right?  AND they were only $2.50 each which is barely marked up from their case-price.  WIN!  I ended up buying both for, err, blogger research

Again, dying to try the PB flavor.  I tried it, and, well, it was good, but tasted like a Quaker PB granola bar and didn’t have the pizzazz that I loved about Nugo.

The Dark Chocolate Mint was T-A-S-T-Y.  Great alternative to the regular Nugo Dark and all the jazziness I love   I am totally going to buy a case of these next.

What flavors of protein or granola bars are your favorite?

And random question, but any topics you suggest I post about?  I usually ramble about whatever, but would love to have some inputs