Subway

Since I'm apparently in a big breakfast-all-day kick, I would be remiss not to mention Subway, one of the few national chains that offers the glorious all day breakfast (at least at most of their locations). They also offer regular lunch subs, and sometimes soups and pizzas and salads and (new!) wraps, but really it's a sub place. They also have frequent deals which appeal to me (sub of the day, sub of the month, etc) and those special edition Lay's flavors. So there are a lot of good things here. The only nuts are in the cookies, which are kept in a case, so I generally feel pretty safe about it, too. Subway has a very distinctive smell, and to be honest, it doesn't taste that good, but it's filling, fast, highly customizable, and healthy-ish. Whenever I don't know what I want to eat, I get Subway instead.

Turkey Breast: This is "old reliable". Good hot or cold, with wheat or white bread, pickles or cucumber, it's a solid contender.

Subway Club: I love that this has roast beef! The other meats are "whatever" but somehow this is still under 400 calories with delicious roast beef. Pairs with yellow mustard and american cheese (IMO).

Ham, Egg, and Cheese: Good for that breakfast mood, especially with spinach and tomato and mustard. You have to go with flatbread for this one. White and yellow egg are basically the same, so get white!

Overall
Cost: 7/10 (Around 6$ for two meals, although I miss those 5, 5 dollar, 5 dollar footlong days)
Taste: 7/10

Good Health Kettle Chips with Avocado Oil - Sea Salt

These were better than I expected, since I don't really like plain/salt potato chips because they're super boring and not "worth" the calories so to speak, but the avocado oil seems to add a little of its own flavor here. These are thin and crunchy and definitely potatoey and salty with a little note of "avocado" flavor, which tastes kind of buttery and maybe somehow sour? Among plain chips these are definitely some of the best I've had. Too bad they're still plain chips in the end! Would be interested in the BBQ variety for sure though.




Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10

Metro Diner

Hey, I'm all about that breakfast-all-day life! So this place was extremely crowded (on a Friday at 5) but I think that's because it's new and small, not because it's good. I mean, they're only open until 8pm, what kind of diner is that? At least they have that sweet, sweet breakfast and they don't use peanut oil. I got a veggie omelette and coffee, which were both fine but nothing outstanding. The egg was definitely overcooked. Home fries were just big over-fried potato chunks (no seasoning), but the toast was good because it didn't have too much butter and there were unconventional jam choices at the table (blackberry! orange!). The menu didn't impress me much either, but this place is alright if you want a diner experience in Newark that isn't Perkins I guess (although it is still a chain, don't be fooled).

Mike says: average. nice waitress, old people.

Overall
Cost: 7/10 [about 15 dollars, including coffee and tip]
Taste: 5/10

Patience Fruit & Co Whole Dried Cranberries (Sweetened with Apple Juice)

Cranberries are pretty good, and although the ocean spray cranberries that I'm used to are also nut free, it never hurts to try something new and see what else is out there! (Unless you're in a committed relationship). So these guys are apparently sweetened with apple juice, and they're consequently a little plumper than your store brand dried cranberry. But the taste is pretty much exactly what you'd expect, i.e. it doesn't taste like apple juice, it tastes like a sweet cranberry. A nice little snack. The package is also très chic and even though they make snack packs with nuts (and coffee beans, which sounds tragically amazing), this product has a nice little `peanut free' logo on the back.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 6/10

Kettle Brand Sea Salt & Vinegar Chips

First of all, the website says these don't come in 1oz bags, but mine was 1oz, so now I'm confused and worried I ate some super old chips. Regardless, salt and vinegar is really not my favorite flavor, but these were still good. They are certainly very crunchy (firm, kettlechip-y) and smell like vinegar. They have a decent blend of both salt and vinegar, and plenty of bite. If you're a salt and vinegar fan, go for these! In general, the company says all their chips are a peanut and nut-free line, which is great because a lot of kettle chips (Dirty, Utz) are made with peanut oil. That gets these guys a few extra points in my book.



Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 6/10

Sharwood's Korma Simmer Sauce

I'm not very experienced with Indian food, because I have the (possibly wrong) opinion that it often contains nuts or legumes. So I have nothing "authentic" to compare this to, not even takeout. That being said, I've made chicken korma with this sauce a few times, and I think I like it. It's definitely a different flavor profile than I'm used to, though! The sauce is creamy and spicy, but not hot-spicy (the bottle says mild and that's certainly true), more like cinnamon and cardamom and other gingerbread-cookie-ish spices. Which is weird to me in a savory food, but once you get over that mental hurdle, it's legit. This makes a very large amount, by the way; I usually use 2 chicken breasts, half a package of mushrooms, and a cup of rice, and I still have a lot of sauce leftover. I do like this and I hope to someday branch out into some other dishes, maybe even actually spicy ones!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Stouffer's Vegetable Lasagna

Mmm. OK, so, like Elaine in Seinfeld, I don't think of Vegetable Lasagna as being very exciting. But this is way better than any other frozen lasagna I've had, vegetable or no. I do like regular lasagna, but it's not as delicious. This sucker is a dense rectangle of maybe 3 lasagna noodles, cheesy creamy sauce, a few carrots (but they don't even taste like carrots, they taste like the good sauce), possibly bits of brocco or squash or spinach but really all you can taste is noodle and sauce. And a little crispy breadcrumb topping. It's pretty great. It's probably not great for you, but hey, there must be some veg in there! It's about 400 calories and takes an unfortunately long time to cook (maybe 12 minutes) even in the microwave. On the plus side it always comes out well, good texture, a lil crispy but not burnt, and very moist. I try not to buy frozen meals too often (ha ha) but if this is on sale I'll always pick it up, it's a classic!

Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 8/10

Nature's Bakery Fig Bars

Check out this trendy new packaging! Anyway, these fig bars are solid. I'm not sure when they came out, but I first noticed them in the ~healthy~ section of my grocery store about 5 years ago, and since they were nut free and about a dollar (the single-serve option is a mega plus) I picked up a variety of flavors. Bear in mind that all the flavors are still fig flavors, but with other things there too. So these are like dolled up thick Fig Newtons. If you like that aesthetic, you'll probably like these. They're 200 calories for the two bars in each package, and so they make a filling little snack on-the-go. I see they also make brownie bar things too, which I will have to check out! They have a separate gluten-free line which is not very tasty, so I'm glad they kept it separate. And everything they make (at least that I've seen so far) is nut free!

My favorites are probably apple cinnamon, lemon, and solo fig, but they're all decent. Blueberry is good too! I think the only flavor I have left to try is strawberry.

Raspberry: These are also good! You can definitely taste the raspberry, which is nice. Like the raspberry jam PepFarm cookies, but in a fig bar. 7/10

Apricot Peach: These too are good! They don't strike me as especially good in the moment, kind of a mild flavor, not much fig flavor either, but I sure do crave them anyway. I dropped half of one and it basically ruined the rest of my day. Orange wrapper is pretty, too. 7/10

Pumpkin Spice: Ooh, this is a special seasonal edition that I got on Target.com. It really does have the pumpkin spice flavor to it, which is definitely a special and unique fig bar flavor. It smells like a dense spiced pumpkin cake, extra dark. Good, but I probably would burn out of these if I had them often, so I'm happy it's a rarity (and that I got to sample it!). More of a dessert than a brekkie. 8/10

Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 8/10

Moe's Southwest Grill

At first I hated it because of the dumb names they give all their food options (named after mostly bro-y TV and movie lines), but I will say that they have more options than your Chipotle or even your Qdoba, and they give you free chips + a salsa bar raid with every order. Now, are the chips + salsa good? No, they're terrible, soft, and tasteless, but they are free, which I appreciate. Also they give you just a little guac, which might sound bad but I think calorie-wise it's a plus.

The contents are your standard non-cilantro'd rice, meats (a little flavorless, especially the chicken, but they have decent steak and they offer ground beef), beans, fajita veg (plus mushroom, a nice touch!) and tasty queso that costs extra and also is terrible for you. Plus corn/salsa/lettuce etc. The flavor isn't as good as chipotle, especially the rice, corn, salsa, and meat, but when it's all mixed together it's still decent and very filling. So I don't hate it any more. I wish they all offered breakfast, though. A breakfast option would shoot any Tex-Mex chain up to a 10/10 instantly :9

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 7/10

Yum Earth Organic Lollipops

So, these lollipops really get around in the gluten-free/organic/whole foods sector, but they're also nut free, and therefore I am interested in them. From YumEarth (originally called Yummy Earth -- good change, I think), these come in a bunch of different flavors, but each pop is about 70 calories and a nice size.

They are also made with real fruit extract, but like....it's still a lollipop. Health food this is not.

The flavors (at least as of now) are: Strawberry, Grape, Mango, Peach, Berry, Pomegranate, Watermelon, and Cherry. I like the Cherry, Grape, and Peach best, they all have bright, strong flavors. The berry is fine, but I'm not really sure which berry it's supposed to taste like. Maybe the always mysterious blue raspberry? The pomegranate, strawberry, and watermelon are OK, but not amazing. Mango is the prettiest colors (yellow and gold!) but it's not as good as the others. The nice thing about these is that they're pretty easy to buy both online and in stores, and they aren't super expensive even though they're gluten-free/organic/etc. A nice treat for the common folk, if you will. I'm happy to have a few of these a month; they're a nice sweet treat that doesn't make you feel like I-just-ate-a-box-of-oreos garbage.

Sour Apple Tart: So this is a flavor I had never seen before, but I got one and it had the (very very old?) YummyEarth labelling. However, it's a freakin' lolly, so I ate it regardless of the fact that it was probably 5+ years old. And it was good! Probably the best of the flavors -- not too sweet, just a nice strong sour apple, kind of like a Jolly Rancher. Alas, I'll probably never have it again. 7/10

Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 6/10