Pop Tarts - Frosted Vanilla Cupcake

Look at that lil Pikachop. My entire pokemon knowledge comes from cultural osmosis, linguistics papers, and Sonic video game crossovers, so that is to say, I'm not really the target audience for this branding. But I had a Target gift card to use up (I think the Target boycott is basically indefinite at this point) and thus I bought all the Target exclusive snacks I could find with it, which turned out to be mostly Pokemon branded for some reason. Much to my brand-curious disappointment, this is actually just a regular pop tart flavor (though I hadn't tried it before), only they changed the name from "confetti cupcake" to "vanilla cupcake" and put some pokemen on the box. (I think there was this Pikachop, a Charmando, an Ivysaur, a Squirtle implement, and one other little monster). Is Pikachu vanilla-coded? I guess he (they? she?) kinda is. 

ANYWAY, this is actually a pretty good pop tart flavor, which I don't say often. It tastes like very sweet store brand cake. Is that a good tasting food? Well, depends if you're comparing to other pop tarts (yes) or other foods (no). The sprinkles are extremely unevenly distributed, but they are fun too. The main con (apart from the dietary content) is that there is a still a weird kinda metallic/chemical aftertaste. Not crazy strong, and it might be the sprinkles, but it prevents me from fully thinking "yes, I like this." Still it stands out among PopTart because the inside and outside blend together very well, almost like the Toaster Donut I tried yesterday. Kati, what is your diet right now?? (For those dieticians in the audience, there are a lot more new flavors of packaged junk than there are new brands of veg and egg to review, OK?? Doesn't mean I'm not eating veg and egg! Mind your business!)

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 7/10? 

Pillsbury Toaster Donut - Boston Cream

What a beautiful world we live in. I hope there's no glass in these. Supposedly there are two other flavors of "toaster donut", sprinkle and frosted, but those ones don't have any filling and the reviews for them are really bad. So that's probably why this was the only version at my store. 

I was really bracing myself for some toaster horrors, but weirdly, these are pretty good. They aren't especially donutty, but the frosting is just regular chocolate frosting and the pastry is better than the toaster strudel pastry - I think it's different, but maybe it's just that it's not enmeshing nasty fruit goo. Anyway, it's less flaky/oily and more "funnel cake". To be fair, it is enmeshing some mildly gross weirdly-fruity bright yellow custard, but I don't really even like custard (see: Boston Cream Donut, dunkin version, and Boston Cream Donut Dunkin Version yogurt) so maybe custard fans would be all about it. It's very yellow though. Anyway, there's just a little of it compared to the amount of Strudel fruit goo, and therefore less gross, even though the whole shebang is definitely donut-level sweet. If I could eat donuts every day, I probably would, so I like it. Unfortunately, although I technically could eat this every day, it's not at that level. But I'd try the other flavors! 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10 

Snyder's Dipping Sticks Pretzels

So my first reaction to these was: I guess desperation snacks (for when I am away from home all day, e.g.) are less tasty when I'm not despo. Which is true, I'm sure, but then I realised I usually get Utz and these are Snyder's! Two great brands of pretzels that both have "nut free" messaging on the package! Only... these aren't so great. They kinda taste like nothing instead of tasting like pretzel. Maybe it's the smoke. Or maybe it's just the "dipping stick" shape, which is probably meant to be dipped, and I dippn't. Whatever the reason, although these are convenient, reliable at easing hunger, and I'm not allergic to them, they don't have any non-functional virtues. For that I suppose I must return to the candy aisle. 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10 

The Little Potato Co - Little Yellows

These seemed so great. Canadian pre-washed pre-weighed golden potatoes with a little face drawn on. What's not to like? I'll tell you what, friends. Upon opening the bag, I was assaulted by a powerfully sweet? chemical? hazardous? acetone? sweaty? smell. The potatoes looked fine, they weren't mushy or discolored or anything, but the entire bag and every potato (and therefore my hands) smelled so strongly of this rancidly sweet smell, a smell I have never really smelled before, let alone on a potato. Google suggested maybe it is clove oil or some other herbal oil? But I have smelled cloves (non-oil form) and it didn't smell like that. The bag also didn't mention any such oils, which is messed up, transparency wise, if that's in fact what it was. I was prepared to eat them anyway since they seemed fine after cooking (and because these potatoes were expensive and the main food I planned for the week), but I texted my eat-anything-even-if-unwashed-or-20-years-expired-or-a-bird-pooped-on-it parents and they said... to throw them out. Good god! So, I did. Therefore I can't recommend buying these potatoes since I didn't eat them, but if you do buy them, let me know if they smell hella weird, ok? Like a sweaty gymbro wearing artificial fabric who rolled around in the chemistry lab's dumpster or something. Let me know if you smell that. xoxo.

Overall
Cost: 4/10 [8$]
Taste: ?/10 
Did I Even Eat Them: 0/1

O Organics Baby-cut Carrots

Some of my best friends are baby-cut...

Baby carrots are so strange. They're just whittled carrots! Pray tell, what are we doing here? Oh, they're for dipping. Aha. But I'd way rather have a carrot stick (that is, with angled cuts) than a weird wet cylinder. Gone are my days of raw carrot, but I had some great carrot/celery stick experiences, which I am now fondly reflecting upon. Mostly when a veggie tray was the only safe food at an event, but sometimes when I was at B-Dubs watching Sport! Thanks for the memories, weird round wet carrots! 

Enough of that; I bought these for cooking, because they were cheaper than both the whole normie carrots (inexplicable) and the non-organic baby carrots (inexplicabler). Maybe the usual organic baby carrot crowd's too scared of intestinal parasites to buy them. Exciting. I used 7 of these to approximate a regular carrot. These were just fine for soup and pasta. After opening, I will say that they got a little MORE wet and, dare I say, fuzzy? (Not moldy, I'm pretty sure.) But they seemed just fine once cooked. The power of fire!!!

Overall
Cost: 6/10 [2 something]
Taste: 6/10

Bright Farms Baby Spinach

This was good. Pre-washed, indoor grown, no pesticides, local(ish)... there have been some listeria recalls in bright farms' dark past, but I cooked it so it doesn't really impact me. Used for pesto. Didn't harm me. Would use again. Thank you and good night. 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10 

Pepperidge Farm Maggie's Apple Pie Cookies

The reviews for these are weirdly bimodal; some people think they're perfect (idiots!) and some people think they're disgusting (dramatic!). As always, I can tell you the honest truth: they are mid. Which is disappointing, because I love a cookie and apple is my favorite pie. My hopes were simply too high, as is often the case. These are cute, and not Bad, but they are way more sugary than buttery (or appley). Kind of like a good nutrigrain bar or something. Some kind of boxed breakfast treat, anyway. Sorry, Maggie. They also made my mouth a little burny, which doesn't seem great. (My parents tried them and also concluded "meh", and my dad asked if there was "a lot of cinnamon" in the ingredients -- which there's not, it's listed way at the bottom and I didn't taste cinnamon at all, but, maybe his mouth was burning too!! (I didn't ask any followups because I'm a bad food reviewer, sorry blog fans.))

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10