REVIEW: LOTS O' PRODUCTS

I have a whole bunch of things to review and instead of doing individual reviews which would have been incredibly short, here they all are together.

1. Mary's Organic Crackers - Herb
These are wheat- and gluten-free and have been eying me for months, years even. Seriously. As soon as they hit the retail store I was working at at the time, I had to have them. So what stopped me? The $6 price tag (despite my discount) and the fact that they look a little sketchy. I'm picky when it comes to crackers. I'm a huge fan of water crackers, Triscuit low-sodium crackers with prosciutto and brie and I'm a huge fan of Ryvita crackers with a smear of cream cheese topped with prosciutto or cucumber slices or radishes, but other than that, I'm not crazy about crackers. I should be since they're easy to snack on and fairly small so they can be tucked into my purse for emergency snacks. The only thing is that, as you can tell, I don't like plain crackers. Oh wait, I forgot the main point I was getting at...one of my co-workers told me that the crackers were a little "weird" and after hearing that, I never bothered to purchase.
But lo and behold, after all my food blog reading and after reading about everyone calling Mary's Crackers, Mary's Crack...I had to give them a chance. So here my friends, is my long-awaited taste of Mary's Organic Crackers in Herb flavour:Quite brown and kind of weird looking. One side--the side you see here--was kind of shiny, while the other side was more matte. It was a little bizarre. The box, upon opening, smelled super strong...of a bunch of weird herbs. It was kind of over-powering and off-putting at first.
Cost: $5.99
Purchased from: Shoppers Drug Mart but also available in grocery stores
Purchase again: I'm on the fence.


2. Vita Coco
I've been reading about Vito Coco water from various food bloggers but it was Heather from Heather Eats Almond Butter whose frequent photos of Vita Coco water made me jot it down on my list of things to get while at Whole Foods. I was a little shocked at the $2 sticker price. I mean really, $2 for a little 330mL tetra pak? That's more than a can of a pop for less than you'd get in a can of pop. And it's just coconut water! But I love coconuts! And it's a natural way to rehydrate!! Ugh!! So many conflicting thoughts were running through my head. As much as I love coconuts and fresh coconut water (my dad sometimes buys young coconuts for 2 for $3), could I really justify buying a small box of coconut water for $2--and mind you, this was actually the sale price. There was a larger size available for $6.99 but what if I didn't like it? So I decided to stick with the smaller size instead and went with the regular and one pineapple flavoured water. Here's my box of the 100% pure coconut water. Note its tiny sizeI stuck that baby in the fridge and drank it when it was cold and holy shit! was that ever good. I mean, I'm not kidding! Anyone that knows me knows that I drink things incredibly slow. It's one of the reasons I cannot drink things in a can unless I'm at home because I know I'll never finish them and so drinks from a can either a) have to be split with someone else or b) put back into the fridge where the gaseous drink will fizzle out.
This coconut water went fast, I mean, REALLY fast. Immediately upon finishing I wanted another one. I wanted the pineapple one and I wanted it NOW. But my will-power prevailed and I was able to keep the other Vita Coco (with pineapple) in the fridge for later consumption. Said coconut water was consumed a few days later after a stressful day at work (I no longer drink as much water as I used to since we're not allowed to have food/drinks in the lab) and I felt really dehydrated once I got home. Hey, what better way to rehydrate than with a Vita Coco?! So I downed that baby pretty quickly. Only bad thing about the pineapple version is that it's pretty strong so the pineapple kind of overpowers the coconut flavour in my opinion. It's more like pineapple with a hint of coconut rather than vice-versa, which I would have preferred.
Overall though, I am hooked. Following the weekend when I had run out of my two precious boxes of Vita Coco, Sean and I wandered into a sketchy Asian market looking for a substitute but nothing suitable was found. I was really surprised though. I'm not taken with the idea of subbing my precious Vita Coco for anything other than the juice of a fresh young coconut.
Cost: 2 for $4 (on sale)
Purchased from: Whole Foods
Purchase again: Hell yes!

3. Liberte Greek yogurt
I've always been a big fan of Liberte's products. From their milk to organic yogurt to their Mediteranee-style thick yogurt, Liberte has always gotten a gold star from me; that's why I was so excited to see a Liberte Greek-style yogurt in store. I didn't even know how much it was since there was no price tag, it was a new product on the shelves, but there was a $1 off coupon so I grabbed one of each (a tub and a coupon) and happily placed it into my basket.I decided that the first way to enjoy my Greek yogurt was with some buckwheat cereal and fruits. What better way to enjoy the natural taste of Greek yogurt, but boy was I in for a shock. It was mega tart. A kind of tart that I couldn't even get accustomed to. The yogurt would be good for cooking applications but it would definitely not be something I would snack on, or even use for breakfast. Blech!
Cost: $3.99 (with my $1 off coupon)
Purchased from: Sobey's
Purchase again: I'm afraid not

4. Larabar - Coconut Dream
In my never-ending quest to find energy bars that actually taste good, I stumbled upon Larabars at my most recent jaunt into Whole Foods. Larabars are quite popular amongst the bloggers I read on a daily basis and the Coconut Dream flavour caught my eye, as well as the "low sodium" advertisement. Surely, my dad would be proud! Here's the bar in action:And the nutritional label:A bit calorie rich for a "snack" but again, these are touted as an energy bar, so I suppose eating them right after eating lunch wasn't the greatest of ideas but I wanted something sweet and this was all I had. Here's the short list of ingredients:
I like coconut and it appeared twice on the list...how awful could the bar be? Well, I've decided that I am no longer purchasing bars where "dates" appear as the first ingredient on the list. Unless dates are fresh or dried and eaten as is, I'm just not a fan of them. Out of every energy bar I've tasted in which dates were a primary ingredient, the consistency and taste never sat well in my mouth. It was a two-bite taste and then it went back in my lunch bag. And that's where it stayed...for days...because I felt guilty throwing it out since it cost me $2.39 plus tax--for one freakin' bar!
Cost: $2.39--ouch!
Purchased from: Whole Foods
Purchase again: No :(

5. So Delicious - Vanilla Bean
If you're not familiar with the So Delicious brand, they manufacture dairy-free frozen treats. Typically their treats are made with soy milk but they also have a line of products made with coconut milk, perfect for people like me who can't consume anything made with soy.
To be honest, I've been dying to try So Delicious ice cream made with coconut milk for ages but every time I'm in a grocery store that carries the coconut milk variety, I'm always far away from home and therefore, can't purchase a pint without it melting. A late-night trip to Metro was a major score because not only did we get the following:we scored it for $1.99 since there wasn't a price when the cashier scanned it. Ah-ma-zing! So onto the product. Look at the inside, real specks of vanilla bean!Here are the nutritionals for a 1/2 cup serving:Not a bad 160 calorie treat, I'd say. And here are the ingredients:Organic and all natural = delicious! Unfortunately, that wasn't quite the case. Not for me, anyway. The aftertaste was a little too much for me to handle. I don't know what it was...perhaps the chicory root?...but it was just too much; I left the carton at Sean's.
Cost: $2
Purchased from: Whole Foods
Purchase again: No :(

6. Tropical Treets Ice Cream - Coconut
At $5.99, this was definitely a "treet." Was it worth it? Yes. It tastes completely and utterly of coconut heaven! It was so good I forgot to take a pic of the ingredient list and well, this was technically Sean's ice cream choice. I chose the bomb above. If you love coconut, you will love this ice cream. That is all. The ice cream is even made locally, within a 30-minute drive of my house, according to Google Maps.
Cost: $5.99
Purchased from: Metro in Stouffville
Purchase again: Hells yes!

So that's all the reviews from this round. Let me know if you've tried any of these products and what you think.

DEAR TYLENOL...

Whatever it is that you put into your magic pills, they really do work like magic. Nothing, absolutely nothing, makes me feel better when I have a cold like your little yellow, Daytime pills do.

Thanks very much,
Dominique

===

It's amazing how my body responds to medication. It won't respond to Traditional Medicinals Echinacea Plus or orange juice or chicken soup or anything like when I have a cold. It only and I mean, only, responds to Tylenol Cold. It's like they're in cahoots or something. Of course, knowing that I only had one measly yellow magic pill left, I was very hesitant to take it but also knowing that I couldn't miss another day of work, I had no choice but to pop the pill on Thursday morning, right before I started my eight-hour shift. But that was on Thursday morning and finally broke down yesterday afternoon and bought another $15 box of magic, orange pills. Ugh, damn Shoppers and their convenience prices! Figures that I'd end up downtown feeling utterly miserable and in desperate need of some Tylenol. So yeah, the new Cold Plus (the regular Tylenol cold plus mucous relief, what joy!) kept me going for another 4-6 hours. I managed to get through Kiki's Delivery Service, which I did not get through the night before (sorry Sean!) and while Sean wanted to take a nap after the movie ended, I was all fired up and awake. But I did manage to take a nap with him anyway.

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But let me back up and show you some eats...from the 30th...pre-sickness:
Breakfast was the standard half WW English muffin with PB and coconut butter:Lunch was organic roast chicken drumstick and veggies:Snacks included grapes and strawberries:Along with the very last half of a chocolate walnut and dried cherry brownie (man, those were good!) and two squares of Lindt Sea Salt for my second breakfast:Sean and I were heading downtown for a concert after work so we decided we'd grabbed dinner in the city. Before that though, I decided to snack on some prosciutto sandwiches (read: prosciutto sandwiched between water crackers) in the car. Before the concert we dropped by Dufflet to pick up their lemon/lime coconut tarts:

Sadly the tarts were lacking the tart flavour that I've come to expect from Dufflet. Sigh. Their lemon tart is, in my opinion, one of the best tarts in town, so this was truly a disappointment. It was way too sweet and you could hardly taste it. The coconut top did make up for it--but not entirely. Not a repeat purchase. (And I think that's the first time I've ever said any negative about Dufflet Pastries.)

And then went to Steve's Music store so I could pick up something to clean my drum kit but it was closed. So we then headed to Whole Foods so I could stock up on the essentials (ie: Vita Coco) but they were all out so I ended up getting some watermelon, water crackers and other stuff. In the end we didn't have enough time to grab something to eat so I just ate my watermelon.

After the concert we ended up in the parking lot for almost an hour before we were able to get out and by that time I just wanted to get home to sleep since I had work in the morning. Thank goodness for the prosciutto and water crackers I had eaten during the drive into the city and in the parking lot.

PS: For those of you interested, the concert was Vampire Weekend and it was totally awesome!!!===

31st...Wednesday
I decided to try something new for first breakfast:Strawberries with two two-bite cranberry and orange scones from Whole Foods. The scones are a little on the sweet side but they're tasty. They kind of suck all the moisture out of your mouth but I like my sweet scones like that.

Lunch was organic roast chicken on a bed of pale red kidney beans along with roast veggies:It really does pay to make your meals way in advance!

Snacks were the usual grapes and strawberries:
Along with half a chocolate-dipped macaroon from Dufflet and two squares of Lindt's Sea Salt chocolate for my second breakfast oatmeal:Chocolate was consumed, macaroon was not :(

And as you saw earlier, dinner was the following because I was feeling downright horrible:===

1st...no April Fool's jokes here
With sickness setting in, I didn't really want to eat anything but I knew it would be a bad idea to skip out on first breakfast. I knew a scratchy double-toasted whole wheat English muffin wasn't an option so I went with two cranberry orange scones with Earth Balance (yay, finally) along with some Olympic green tea and vanilla yogurt, grapes and strawberries:

I assume it was all very yummy because I couldn't taste a thing!

Second breakfast usually involves oatmeal but this time I decided to swap my lunch for breakfast:Organic chicken soup with orzo, egg drop and a hidden chicken thigh. Sadly this chicken thigh was not even close to organic. Bad times ensued. Double sad that I was at work. Triple sad that I ate this soup earlier than I normally would have because I was sick. Ughs all around! Note to self: do not assume something in Whole Foods is organic unless the label says so!

Lunchtime was oatmeal with two chocolate squares and the following grapes and strawberries:along with this box of Vita Coco:I wouldn't normally have finished both boxes of Vita Coco so quickly but I was sick and being sick means I make excuses for lots of things.

Here is the chocolate and macaroon I had that still did not get consumed:Sean and I had plans to get our hair done later that evening but plans fell through when the time turned out to be inconvenient. We headed downtown anyway so that I could go to Steve's to pick up some cleanser for my cymbals and we grabbed some Korean food for dinner. No photos...it wasn't that great anyway. My dumpling and rice cake soup was really nothing to write home about though Sean's cold noodle soup looked way better. I forgot that Korean dumplings tend to be heavy on the ginger and ginger in savory form makes me want to gag. I was really hungry so I managed to eat all but one. Blech. Dinner left my Korean craving very unfulfilled.

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2nd...Good Friday
Breakfast was eaten in the car on the way to the city:Whole wheat English muffin with PB and coconut butter on top. Clearly I put way too much coconut butter on top--hence the oozing. Some of it even dripped onto my makeup bag in the background. And yes, I did lick the CB from my makeup bag. I can't waste good coconut butter!

Lunch was had several hours later after Sean went from this...to this:HOT! Wow Sean looks so young now! I think we now look like an age appropriate couple rather than him looking super old and me looking super young. Don't let that "before" shot fool you--his beard used to be longer than that. Plus I now this his hair matches his clothing. Before his hockey hair didn't really match his (I hate to say it), "indie/hipster" clothing.

I also got my hair done but I just got my colour touched up. Photos to come. A full review of Caplansky's will also follow but for now, here's the smoked meat sandwich and fries that I had for a late lunch (it was a little after 4pm):I was smart enough to only eat half of everything and take the rest to-go. This lunch was consumed while my nose was running non-stop. It was kind of gross. After lunch we had plans to hit up Greg's Ice Cream on Bloor St. but my cold had other plans. We had to hit up the Shoppers stat for above-mentioned Tylenol. I was going down--fast! After a quick stop into the devil store (just kidding!), we came out with a box of orange-coloured relief, I popped one of those into my mouth and then Sean and I stood in line for some ice cream--just the thing to cheer me up! Sean ended up getting a scoop of orange marmalade and I got a scoop of Fifty's Frost--a malted chocolate.

After that we headed back to Sean's place. It had been a long day in the city and I was ready for some downtime. Upon arriving at Sean's, I was hungry again so a snack was consumed:Tea along with a bowl of fruit...blackberries, pineapple, canteloupe and some sketchy blueberries that I ended up tossing into the green bin. I felt bad about it but Sean reassured me that no one else would end up eating them.

And that's was the end of the day's eats.

HELLO WHOLE FOODS, GOODBYE $75.17

I can't believe I've spent almost $150 on groceries this week. That is insane--to the MAX! Fo' shizzle. I don't think I've ever spent that much money on groceries. Damn!

The Staples:Artisana Coconut Butter. Now I've never had this stuff before and at $15 a jar, I was really reluctant to purchase it. But as I looked at it longingly in the aisles and held it up to gaze at its coconut wonderfulness, Sean told me that if I was going to use it sparingly (like, not eat it as quickly as I do with popcorn), it probably would be a good food investment. So I took that as a sign to buy it. (Heck, I would have bought it without Sean's prompting since I almost ordered it online from Hamilton.) And then we have Madhava agave nectar (a great alternative to white sugar or other sweeteners--aspartame I'm looking at you!) and Nativas cacao nibs, which I typically add into my oatmeal. Oi, there goes $35.

The Boxes O' Goodness:Barbara's Bakery Puffins cereal (PB flavour). I first came across Barbara's Bakery cereal in the US. Yeah, that's right...I brought a box of cereal across the border. It was the cinnamon flavour and totally worth it. I poured that cereal into milk, ate it on top of yogurt, stirred it into oatmeal. That cereal and I had some really good times. Then I read all about other bloggers' experiences with PB Puffins. I had to get some.

It has been AGES since I've eaten cookies...ones that I haven't baked myself anyway. I typically peruse the cookie aisle in whatever grocery store I'm in, looking at what new sugary delights there are and if my mom is with me she'll say "are you getting anything?" but then I remind her that no, I'm not getting anything because all these cookies contain at least 2-3 ingredients I can no longer consume for whatever reason (usually a migraine is the trigger reason). But not at Whole Foods! At WF there are a whole bunch of cookies I can eat and so Sean and I settled on a box of Late July organic Vanilla Bean with green tea cookies, which are very similar to Oreos. The thing is that I'm not a fan of cookies in the first place (I prefer mine soft and chewy), so I had to ask Sean if he'd eat most of these before their October 2010 due date and he agreed. We had one each on the ride to the concert venue (Wrongbar, anyone?) and they were great! Not too sweet and just the right amount of vanilla bean and cocoa. There really is a huge difference between regular and organic eating. I'm all for the latter. You can consider that my Late July cookie review. Oh and of course, 365 Organic water crackers, which I'm obsessed with so I got two boxes just because.

The Indulgences:Vita Coco coconut water (the left with pineapple and the right, original). Two Kind bars and some dried mango from the bulk bin without all kinds of nasty stuff like sulphites--yay!

So that plus a carton of organic chocolate milk (which Sean consumed) and a bottle of organic blueberry St. John's Wort salad dressing is what you get for $75.17. Now, to defend the green space of goodness--despite my claims, I do love WF--I did buy a lot of stuff so that I could stock up. The coconut butter, agave nectar and cacao nibs were really pricey (each $15, $10 and $10) but each of those will last me a really long time and any subsequent trip to Whole Foods will not require the purchase the coconut butter, agave nectar or cacao nibs and so, $35 will be saved--or used for other things, hahaha.