Ronzoni SuperGreens Rotini Pasta

I'm always looking for ways to integrate more veg into my diet, especially if those ways include gorging on pasta. So this was quite a find! Unlike those tri-color rotini that seem like they might have some spinach/tomato inside them but really are mostly just colored that way, these are packed with green-veg-powder. I'm not sure if the powder form is quite as nutritious as fresh veg (I mean, probably not, right?) but there are more vitamins/fiber in the nutrition facts than you'd get with plain pasta, so I'm happy with it. The color is a shocking dark green, but the texture is exactly right. To be honest the taste IS a little different; more bitter and less...creamy? than regular. Especially if you eat one dry just to taste it, which I really do not recommend in this case. But when cooked they're pretty neutral, and with sauce on I struggle to notice a difference. Will definitely rebuy!

Overall
Cost: 7/10 (2$ instead of 1$ for regular, but it's worth it to me)
Taste: 7/10

Mrs Budd's Chicken Pie - Chunky White Breast Meat

I love pot pies! Whether fresh or frozen, with dumplings or crust or noodles, they're all delicious and precious. Except for one terrible thing: most of them have PEAS. And hey, I get it, peas taste good and are green and cheap. But I'm so allergic I can't even eat around them. So I was very happy when I saw this pea-less pie in the refrigerated pre-made section of my grocery. It has chicken, broc, carrot, and onion. The onion sounded a little sketchy to me, but they're cooked and so they don't have a super strong taste. There's no bottom crust, but the top crust is pretty thick, and there isn't really a ton of filling, so it works out. When you cook this, make sure you cook from the fridge and not frozen, and if you microwave, you have to do it inside the box, which is weird to me but trust me it won't cook through otherwise! The taste of this is really good, and like I said I wish there was a bit more filling. But it covers that craving without me having to cook up a pot pie from scratch, so I'm a big fan. There's also a yellow version with peas in it, in case you are interested in that (weird, but you do you). Oh, it's not very healthy, of course. The single serve one is like 600-700 calories. Hehe.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 8/10

Ben & Jerry's Oat of this Swirled Ice Cream

So, there's really no such thing as a bad ice cream, especially from Ben and Jerry's. This obviously tastes good. It tastes like the sweet cream inside of those oatmeal cookie sandwiches, but with heavy notes of cinnamon and brown sugar, as well as some fudge flakes. For me, though, the brown sugar/cinnamon vibe is a little heavy, especially if you're looking to eat maybe more than one serving at a time ( ha ha, who would ever though, right?). It's also ultimately not chunky enough for my preference, which is one of the perks of Ben and Jerry's usually. So it's good and if you like that cinnamon sugar biscoff vibe, I bet you'll like this. But I'm more of a One Sweet World girl myself.


Overall
Cost: 5/10 (It was about 3.50 on sale)
Taste: 6/10

illy Ready To Drink Cappuccino

Well, the good thing about this bottled drink is that it doesn't have the weird apparently metal taste of the canned illy drinks, which was really terrible. Instead, this just tastes like a sweet, milky packaged drink, which is a big upgrade. The negative is that there isn't much coffee flavor, and it's like 140 calories for a fairly small bottle without that much ~buzz~. That said, the taste is pleasant, even good, and it's definitely convenient and even resealable, so I'm a fan. It's no fresh Dunkin brew, but it'll do.





Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Sam Adams Cherry Wheat Beer

I know people rag on Sam Adams a lot because it's a mainstream  macrobrew, but I enjoyed this a lot. The ratings in general on beer websites are like, 1 star out of 5, which I think is totally unreasonable. It has a really nice cherry flavor which is super strong, not just a little hint of it, but that somehow refrains from being sweet at all (or sour, really, which is too bad). Just a nice refreshing strong cherry taste. The bottle art is also a huge upgrade from how it used to look; now it's very smooth and red looking, which probably adds to the strength of the cherry taste (in a good way) (no joke).


Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 7/10

Go Organically Fruit Snacks - Fruit Medley

These are decent! When compared to candy they are less good, but when compared to something like Welch's plain fruit snacks, I think these are slightly better. They taste a lot like a standard fruit snack, pretty colors and vaguely differentiable flavors, but no stand outs. The texture I like, they are a bit firmer than your standard more gummy fruit snack, but not chewy or hard like a Haribo gummy. The package size is pretty good; I'd say you get maybe 7-9 little snacks per pack, and they're only 70 calories. So this is a decent snack for lunches and kids and whatever you have going on in your life. Plus very allergy friendly and organic, if that matters to you.



Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Good Thins - The Beet One (Balsamic Vinegar and Sea Salt)

I'm not a big beet fan, and that's an understatement. So thank goodness the first ingredient in these is potato and not beet. The texture is more like a potato crisp than a cracker, and they are thin with a nice crunch to them. They have a fun purple red color with black dust, which is very unique, and they aren't super duper high calorie, which is nice. The flavor, though, even though there's a good amount of potato and some nice tangy vinegar flavor, is certainly, unmistakably beet. Just straight red beet juice. Do you like this? Then you will like this chip. Do you hate this, as I do? Then you will think, I can get this down because it's not super strong and has a good crunch and I'm hungry but gee I sure wish it didn't taste like beet.


Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 5/10

SunRype fruitsource superfruits - blueberry pomegranate

Honestly, this isn't very good, but it's a thick strip of fruit bar, and I was starving, so I was glad to have it. It's very dense and sticky and tasted I guess like pomegranate with a little blueberry and apple flavor. Not my favorite flavor or texture, and it probably is too sweet for anyone's good. It was filling though and very convenient. About 2x as thick as their "JustFruit" bars, which are otherwise similar.



Overall
Cost: 8/10
Taste: 5/10

O Organics White Corn Tortilla Chips

Even though this seems like a stylish hipster organic brand, it's the cheapest tortilla chips at my grocery store! I think it's a store brand, but I'm not 100% sure about that. Anyway, this is a good size bag for about 2 dollars, and they also taste good. They have blue corn and yellow corn options too, but the white ones taste the smoothest and sweetest and saltiest to me, so I prefer these. They are maybe a little too salty, and not especially complex, but they are a good vessel for salsa, guac, or queso, even though they're also a little thinner than I would like. They are triangles and not dumb circles, so that's a plus too!


Overall
Cost: 7/10 (2$)
Taste: 6/10

Corona Extra

Beer! Yay! OK, so I really like ordering this when I'm out since it's always pretty cheap and cold and they put a lime in it and it's nice. But I got it at two different Weises (this is a PA supermarket) and both times it tastes a little weird and skunky and people think it smells like pot. Weird. Maybe just when it's warm, it's weird. Anyway, I like this and it's solid and filling and nice and limey, but stick it in the fridge first just to be safe.






Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 7/10

Ozary One Bun Organic Wheat Sandwich Thins

I had to travel 200 miles to even find anything from this company, and when I got to the store on their product locator, this was the only Ozary product and it was in the freezer case. I was very predisposed to not like...whatever this is. Well, it's 6 thin wheat buns, kind of like English muffins. They don't need to be frozen, but they can be. They really are very thin, which I guess is healthy. I wasn't sure what to do with these, much like my tomato paste, so I used them for, that's right, mini oven pizzas. Split in half, add sauce and toppings, bake at 400F for 5-10 minutes. Pretty darn good. Crispy on the bottom but still a little english-muffin-like give on top, and a slightly sweet wheat flavor. Plus 3G of fiber! Not bad in the end, and might be tasty for little sandwiches too.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Mutti Double Concentrated Tomato Paste

Being a non-Italian chef, I wasn't sure what to do with this interesting toothpaste-like tube of tomato paste. The packaging is pretty rad, and it keeps for 20 days in the fridge once open, but still, most recipes I found to call for tomato paste only needed a tiny tiny bit. And I didn't want to spend 50$ on a bunch of random recipes just to use this up. So I used it as pizza sauce on a bunch of mini pizzas, because I'm not very creative! Added a little garlic and red pepper flakes and it did the job pretty well, plus was fun to squeeze out of the tube. This really is concentrated, not watery at all, and it did have a certain sweetness to it. I think it would make a cute little garnish on top of some small appetizers or something, though I can't imagine the specific case. But if you DO ever need tomato paste, this is a great choice!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10  

Barilla Sun Dried Tomato Pesto

When I hear "pesto", I think "pine nuts", so this is a mysterious product. It's not a cheese or basil pesto, though, it's a bright red tomato concoction. I guess it's different from pasta sauce proper because it is oilier and has tomato chunks instead of puree, but really the vibe isn't THAT different. This is classier though! And such a cute little jar, way easier to use up in 2-3 meals. I just put this over heated pasta and stirred. It was pretty decent and nice to try something different, though I don't know if this will replace sauce for me. It has a little bit of a sweet/bitter taste I didn't expect -- maybe from the capers, which I am apparently not allergic to!



Overall
Cost: 4/10 (3.50$)
Taste: 6/10

Wasa Thins - Rosemary & Sea Salt

What a long cracker! These are thin and long and a little powdery, and they do indeed taste like rosemary (but it's not overwhelming). I don't love rosemary, but these would probably be good with a cheese or cream cheese spread. (Or hummus if you aren't allergic?).  Sadly I've just been reaching for them as a snack on their own 'til now, because I'm a lazy poor grad student. So that hasn't left me with an AMAZING assessment of these, though they are filling and easy on the stomach for sick days. I will try to acquire a spread to elevate these bad boys. They do look very European (and therefore classy) so they'd be good for a party!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10

Barilla Ready Pasta - Gemelli

How Barilla has turned around for me from its homophobic past! Now that they've recanted I'm free to indulge in their surprisingly good and diverse products. Their website also has really clear allergy information. Anyway, these Ready Pasta pouches are the hot new thing! They only take 60 seconds in the microwave, right in the bag, and then they are supposedly ready to eat. Well, that is really convenient! And the portion size is pretty much just right (uh, for one person that is) -- about 420 calories of pasta time, or one decent bowl. Of course it isn't as good as regular pasta, although I don't usually eat Gemelli so I'm not sure how much of this is due to the thick shape. But these were definitely "less cooked" than normal pasta would be; they were chewier and tougher, which isn't great for me. In general, pasta is good and this is really easy to make, so I'm a fan (even though I will probably generally stick to the real deal myself).

Overall
Cost: 6/10 (more pricy than regular pasta)
Taste: 7/10

Pepperidge Farm Chocolate Fudge Stripe Cake

You know how recipe blogs don't just give a recipe, they give tons of unwanted personal backstory? I feel like that's the way things are heading here. Get ready, food fans. Anyway, I was at my boyf's place for the weekend and I wanted cake because sometimes you want cake, right? So these are at the store and on sale. I really like the vanilla celebration one (woo) but bae likes chocolate things if he likes desserts at all. Luckily I think we both liked this pretty well! It has a sweet vanilla cake stripe in the middle, surrounded by two chocolate cake bits. Lots of chocolate frosting on top, but some more generic lighter frosting on the inside which is refreshing and moist. That's one of the best things about these cakes is that they're so moist! Anyway, it says it serves 8 but it really serves like 2-3 over a few days. Sweet but not too sweet. Lovely cake.

Overall
Cost: 6/10 (3.50$ at Giant)
Taste: 7/10

Haribo Sour Gold Bears

I bought these as an airport snack, since I figured they'd last a long time because Haribo gummies are SO CHEWY AND HARD. Usually this is a huge con for me, but in the airport scenario it became a pro! For some reason, a lot of my friends love Haribo stuff, but I never really "got" it (and I still don't). They are stylish and come in fun flavors and shapes, but the texture is so difficult to manage and the flavor is just standard to me (except the red one tastes like vomit a little, which is super weird because people say that about Hershey's chocolate but I never got that vibe). These sour ones do have an enjoyable kick to them, they are fairly sour and good to nurse one of these babies for several minutes. Unfortunately this process also tore up my tongue the next day, so I have some minor regrets. But still a good long-lasting sour airport candy snack.

Overall
Cost: 7/10 (2$)
Taste: 6/10

Fiesta Mexico

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this yet! My favorite Mexican place. This is such a big restaurant, two floors and lots of different tables, and we never have to wait for a seat even though sometimes it is very crowded. The food, I think, is great, but even though the menu is expansive I've only ever ordered one thing since I like it so much. That's the fajita quesadilla with chicken (and rice). It is basically a chicken quesadilla with chunky fajita veggies in it. It is big and delicious. This is all you could want in a Mexican food. The rice is also very tasty, but it has peas in it which I pick out and eat recklessly. They also bring you chips and salsa, of course, and these are great as well. Watery salsa but in a good way. Unique flavor, not like a jar you'd get at the grocery.

I do change up my drink, and today I got the Strawberry Sangria, which was huge and super strong. And tasted like the berry parts of Berry Berry Kix cereal. So, it was good. A+.

Overall
Cost: 6/10 (maybe 10-15$)
Taste: 9/10

Dove Hearts - Milk Chocolate and Dark Chocolate Swirl

Dove chocolates are amazing because there's only a handful of them with nut warnings. Most of them are safe, tasty, AND they have cute little messages on the wrappers. How fun. These are special heart-shaped ones for Valentines, and they have a pretty swirl design on the inside. Ultimately, though, I like the original shape better for eating, and I would prefer either milk or dark chocolate on its own to this swirled version (to my surprise!). The taste of these is mostly dark chocolate anyway, so I guess that's a stronger flavor (or maybe there's more of it), but with a little milk chocolate which is more distracting than exciting. Oh well, worth a try. And still a tasty treat, just not my favorite version of Dove choco.

Overall
Cost: 5/10 (3-4$)
Taste: 6/10

Country Archer Turkey Jerky - Hickory Smoke

I really like jerky in general because it's high protein, low calorie, low effort. But even though I was excited, this was not good. Firstly, the bag says something like "real men don't have buns", which I guess is supposed to be a cute and funny joke, but it just seemed judgy and sexist, so that wasn't a great start.

Totally separate from that though, the taste was not good. The texture was really firm and chewy, in a bad way, but it IS jerky, so fair enough, that's to be expected. It seemed dry looking on the outside, not like the picture, but it was months from expiring, so I'm not sure why. The taste is vaguely teriyaki/soy flavor, a little sweet, and a lot umami, but again not in a good way. It was just a little too much like eating an old shoe.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 4/10

Little America Hotel - The Coffee Shop

I'm traveling for a conference, and staying at the Little America in Salt Lake City. It's a nice hotel, but there aren't a ton of food options inside (or so I thought). One nice place is this restaurant called "the coffee shop", which is so much more than a coffee shop! It is also a breakfast, lunch and dinner sit down diner-style resto. The prices are reasonable (10-20$) and the portions are big. Sadly at lunch I only got a fruit cup (served in a glass, and very fresh and good variety, but for breakfast I tried both the southwestern omelette (with white toast, and potatoes), which was very good and uniquely a little bit Mexican, and the American, which is just eggs/toast/meat/potato. Also a coffee. These were all good and what I hoped for, and they were good about allergies. I would totally go here if I come back to Salt Lake, even if not staying in the hotel. It's also casual and not too snooty (but still nice).

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 8/10

Chobani - Apple Cinnamon Blended Yogurt

To be honest, deep down I don't like yogurt that much. I just want to be a person who likes yogurt, so I buy it every now and then. Those bacteria are supposed to be good for you! Anyway, of all the yogurts, this is one of the tastiest in my opinion. It's not fruit-on-the-bottom style, so the whole yogurt is kind of a sweet vanilla cinnamon flavor. There are also a few tiny apple chunks in there, which are mostly on the bottom but still mixed throughout. I wouldn't say it's GREAT, but it's quite good and very filling and convenient for a late-night snack (as I am enjoying right now)! Also fairly soothing for a sick sore throat girl (as I am unenjoying right now..!)

Overall
Cost: 7/10 [usually 1$]
Taste: 7/10

Dragonfly Café

Happy New Year! I'm starting 2018 off with the flu, but at least I had a wonderful brunch at the Dragonfly Café! I love love love this place because the whole kitchen is nut-free. No peanuts, no tree nuts, but they still use egg/milk/wheat/milk so everything tastes good. When I discovered this place I was so happy. They have breakfast foods, omelette, sandwich, pancake, french toast, crepes, burgers, salads, mac and cheese, and more, probably. The service is good although maybe a little slow, but I actually like that. It's super chill. Today I got a custom omelette, with brie(!) brocco mushroom and ham. It was really good, actually, because the egg was thinner than most places, so it wasn't overwhelming. Also comes with rosemary breakfast potatoes (very nice) and toast (I accidentally got non-white, so I didn't eat it, but the white toast is good). I also got a cappuccino which was really good and had a cute cinnamon dragonfly in it. And then for dessert we split the chocolate banana crepes! I didn't think I would like it because of chocolate but it wasn't chocolate, it was crepes with banana filling and chocolate sauce on top and banana slices and some whipped cream. Basically it was freakin' great. I wish every day were New Years Day (props to them for being open, by the way).

Notre Dame crepes: I liked these even though they sounded super weird - apple, spinach, sausage, onion??? But there was mostly a lot of crepe, some goat cheese, and little tiny pieces of breakfast sausage (which were good!). I enjoyed it. 6/10

Chocolate mouse lava bomb egg thing: Ughhhhhh it made me feel bad inside and tasted like 'meh' 4/10.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 9/10

Q says: It's fine. The guy was nice. / I like it because you like it? My food was bad.