As luck would have it, this product for review that came through the mail (thanks, Charlie) ties in nicely with my new-found determination to eat slightly better. I say slightly better, because the review after this is going to be a fast food one… so old timey Cheap Eaters who are tired of the new healthy fad should stick around for that one.

The first thing you see on the box of these Fiber One Chewy Bars from General Mills is “35% of the Daily Value of Fiber”. Now, it’s pretty easy to get that amount or even more of fiber from various sources, but it ain’t always as pleasant. I have to say that this was a pretty tasty source as far as fiber goes.

By the way, you probably don’t want to munch up on several of these bars at once if you’re not used to having that much fiber injected into your system. Uh, you could be making a one night stand date with the toilet.

So I was shipped the Oats and Chocolate flavor of these bars. They also have an Oats and Peanut Butter. There’s 5 bars in a box. Personally, I already get enough fiber but I decided to give it a go anyhow.

Before proceeding, I took a gander at the ingredients. Now, as far as I know most manufacturers list their ingredients in the order of the amount that is present in the product. I don’t know if they’re legally required by law to do that, but I’ve never really seen a deviation. So, for some reason the first ingredient in the list is not chocolate, not oats, not rice, and not barley flakes. It’s Chicory Root Extract! I’m thinking this must be a mistake… I don’t see how there could be more of that than chocolate or oats (which are the next two ingredients by the way). If somebody knows more about that, please let me know… actually, I wonder if that’s what makes the bar so chewy.

Continue reading “Fiber One Chewy Bars” …

I had been planning on posting this during the week to coincide with the upcoming Halloween candy-fest. Things have a way of popping up to spoil all my well laid Cheap Eats plans. Like my car zonking out - long story; we’ll stick to reviewing instead…

Anyhow, I received some samples of Slammers Ultimate Milk by Bravo! Foods Int’l Corp in the mail from Matt the other day. What they’ve done here is packaged up fairly standard chocolate and strawberry flavored milk with some very popular candy brands. Supposedly, these milk drinks are supposed to be shelf stable for 6 months, more healthy than other milk drinks and fairly decent in price.

But the big sell is definitely going to be the candy names. I got Milky Way, 3 Musketeers and Starburst Slammer drinks. Those are three names that most people know about. The actual Slammers logo on the package is quite small, which is probably a smart thing for them… they want to push the big brands.

And I think it might work for a lot of people. The biggest question for me was: do these drinks actually TASTE anything like the candies in question?

I have to admit that my expectations were way too high. After all, it’s a DRINK. Mr. Unreasonable Cheap Eats editor was planning on having a Violet Beauregarde (from Charlie and The Chocolate Factory) gum chewing experience. You know, the one where she chews a piece of gum an experiences a full turkey dinner (? can’t remember if that’s correct).

I was fully expecting to take a swig of Slammers and suddenly have the sensation of actually eating a Milk Way, 3 Musketeers or Starburst. Yeah, I know. Delusional.

I started out with the Milky Way Slammers. These bottles are the larger ones, by the way, at 14 ounces. They also carry a smaller 8 ounce size. The Milky Way one is actually supposed to be reduced fat chocolate milk.

Continue reading “Slammers Ultimate Milk” …

Welcome to the first ever Cheap Eats Battle where we take two similar products and review them head to head in full detail until you’re sick of reading about them. I think we’ve probably done this in the past, I’ve just decided to give it a name. No idea whether this will prove to be a popular feature, but here you go.

The two contenders for this battle are the popular mustachioed, disembodied and bow-tied eggman Pringles and the upstart, shaving-gel-like-logoed copycat Lays Stax. I actually was able to get the same “Pizza” variety of both of these on sale for the same price, a buck. Normally, they’re about $1.50 (Stax was $1.89 regular, Pringles was $1.69 regular) at various supermarkets, though you can find certain flavors of Pringles occasionally at the dollar store.

I’d never heard of Stax before, but let’s be straight: I don’t care what marketing will claim - they’re out to copy Pringles and that’s all there is to it. I’m not saying whether that’s right or not (look at all the “generic supermarket”-item copycats out there) With that out of the way, we can get on to comparing the two.

Packaging

Both cans are exactly the same height - 9 1/4 inches tall. Pringles can is the familiar cardboard covered with some sort of foil, while Stax is a plastic can. The lid for Pringles is usually clear while Stax is an opaque yellow lid. The Stax can is also interesting because it is one of those new-fangled “grippy” cans where the center body is oval instead of round.

Interestingly, if you look into the cans, you can see that this oval shape provides less room for the chips to move around in. They fit better. I thought that might mean less breakage, but there was equal breakage in both cans.

The Pringles logo is familiar, of course. The Stax logo again looks like the logo for an electric shaver or shaver gel. Pringles wins the outer look hands down.

Both cans are 5 3/4 ounces by weight. I dunno which has more chips in it. What, I wasn’t about to COUNT the number of chips in the friggin’ can!

Continue reading “Battle: Pringles vs Stax” …

Ok, it’s time to get back into manufactured snacks. I have withdrawal when we don’t talk about chips for a few posts.

I saw this box of Triscuit Cheddar the other day and since they were 2 bucks for a 10 oz box I decided to pick them up. I know you can get ‘em cheaper if you buy the BIG box at CostCo. Yeah, the box that’s so big you can use it to build a boat to visit Hawaii. Or Tasmania.

But Tasmania wasn’t in the cards this afternoon so I just got the wee box. I have to admit I’ve never tried any of the flavors (except the low salt and reduced fat versions), but there are a ton of different ones. Just head on over to Nabisco World, which is exactly like Disney World, minus the Mickey Mousing and plus a bunch of different food products. You’ll see they have 10 different kinds of Triscuit there.

At the store, they also had “Garden and Herb” Triscuit and “Garlic” Triscuit, but I decided to play it safe and go with Cheddar. Anyhow the label on the box promised “Made With The Flavor Of Real Kraft Cheese” and I couldn’t very well pass that up, could I?

Actually, back to my earlier point about using a box to fabricate a maritime vessel. The shape of a Triscuit is sort of like a log raft. So, if you had a very, very large Triscuit and you were very, very brave you could conceivably float to Tasmania or Hawaii on one. Actually, I’m going to try this tomorrow.

So, how do these taste? I was pleasantly surprised that the promise of Kraft cheese flavor did not go unfulfilled. I actually like the plain Triscuits quite a bit to start with - some good memories of eating them when I was a kid. And of course, it was easier to fool the parents by putting a box of them in the shopping cart because it says “Baked Whole Grain Wheat Crackers”. Mom goes, “Hey, how can we afford NOT to buy them!”

Imagine you were preparing a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and all of the sudden a rogue typhoon (blown in from Tasmania, of course) decides to land in your kitchen and rip open your cheese packet, sending clouds of powder into the air. It then proceeds to land on a bowl of Triscuits you had out in a bowl. This is exactly what Triscuit Cheddar tastes like. (By the way, I imagine this would make a bang-up commercial. Hi advertising execs, my services are for hire.)

Continue reading “Triscuit Cheddar” …

Remember when mom told you “Dangnabit Vern, don’t eat cookies fer breakfast!”? (And Cookie Crisp doesn’t count.) Ah well. Mom’s advice has been pre-empted by these Quaker Breakfast Cookies. Hey, it’s the pilgrim in the blue hat talking. He can’t possibly be wrong.

I received two boxes of these cookies to review the other day. They’ve timed it just about right, since I’ve just started seeing commercials for them. I got a box of Oatmeal Raisin and Apple Cinnamon cookies. There’s 6 cookies in each box, each individually wrapped which is rather nice if you just want to grab and go.

So the price isn’t as great for Cheap Eating - a box at retail runs $3.29, or about 55 cents a cookie. That was in the back of my mind while I started munching on these “nutritious solutions for mid-morning cravings.”

Now I guess we slip into “official review” mode. I’m going to focus on the Oatmeal Raisin variety:

Packaging:

You can’t really go wrong with Mr. Quaker on the box. That conjures up trust among those who remember eating Quaker Oats out of those round cardboard boxes. It makes me feel Amish or something as well.

As mentioned, the individually foil packed cookies are rather nice for the grab-and-go morning rush. I also feel like it keeps each individual cookie more fresh. After all, you’re not going to eat one of these every day… it’s going to last you a few weeks. Right? Though, I wonder if eliminating the individual packaging might shave off a bit of the price tag..

Appearance and Texture:

This looks like what you’d expect from an everyday oatmeal raisin cookie. Each cookie measures almost exactly 3 inches in diameter, which seems fair sized. They look appetizing - nicely browned and speckled with good distribution of raisins and oats. If you try to break one in half, it sort of tears like a soft cookie would and perhaps it’s even softer than that. Almost like playdoh.

One thing that’s nice about the fact that it’s very squishy is that it doesn’t crumble all over the place which probably makes it easy to eat in the car. Not that I’m suggesting you drive and eat. Crazy zero-handed Egg McMuffin drivers…

Continue reading “Quaker Breakfast Cookies” …

I really have a weakness for Jalapeño flavored chips. They are just WAY too tasty for their own good.

I also dig Kettle Chips, so these Lays Jalapeño Kettle Chips were pretty much going to win me over even before trying them. I don’t remember when major potato chip manufacturers started making kettle chips in full force (it seems like it wasn’t more than a couple decades ago but I could be wrong), but way before then I remember buying no-name Kettle Chips and really liking them.

For those with an aversion to oily chips, you’ll want to look away. I’ve had kettle chips that were so oily that you could easily see through them. They were like panes of stained glass. The Lays Kettle Chips aren’t that bad, though they are definitely cut thin and seem a bit oilier than normal Lays. Kettle chips are also quite a bit more crunchy so you have to be careful not to cut up the roof of your mouth. If you’re expecting normal potato chips, it’s going to seem like these are overcooked.

The Jalapeño flavor on these guys is pretty good, and for me it was more noticeable than the earlier reviewed Jalapeno Cheetos but that’s probably because there isn’t cheese powder to compete with the jalapeño taste. They’re delicious. There isn’t a significant burn though, so hothead chip connoisseurs might be disappointed. The overall flavor is definitely nice, though.

I guess the only rub with these guys is going to be the price. I always get suckered by these smaller “99 cent” bags of chips (Damn those conveniently placed Snack Foods lining the checkout aisle at Frye’s) but if you can find larger bags of these on sale you might be OK. Still, these smaller occasionally go on firesale… I’ve seen them as low as 69 cents but at that price I might be wondering just how fresh that Jalapeño taste is going to be.

Price: $0.69 - $0.99
Found At: Everywhere
Cheap Eats Score: 6/10

I didn’t feel like writing too long of a post today. Shoulder acting up. What to do? Why, put up something controversial and let everyone else write the post for me of course. Via the comments.

No, I know it’s not exactly controversial. But people tend to either think it’s the food of the gods for college kids and cheap eaters, or it’s an unpalatable, salty disgrace that has less nutritional value than marshy sawdust. I think the true answer may be a surprising combination of those two opposites…

This particular variety is called “Creamy Chicken Ramen”. I’m not even going to talk about the ramen; it’s the same in every package. Just the seasoning packet changes. If by “creamy chicken” they mean “original chicken flavoring plus random dairy solids” then this is a pretty good description of how it tasted.

You know, it’s sort of surprising that we haven’t featured Instant Ramen here at Cheap Eats as of yet (we’ve only talked about “real” ramen). I was sort of saving it for a full-featured spread whereby I went and tasted all the different possible varieties. I know there’s books that have been written exclusively about Instant Ramen.

But I don’t think that’s gonna happen, since ramen is sort of off limits for me for the time being. What? A Cheap Eater dieting? Sorta. Perhaps more later in the month on that.

In any case, my own opinion of instant ramen in general is that it’s a decent staple to have around for people on a budget, BUT you absolutely cannot eat this stuff every day. For that matter, I never eat it as a meal but only as a snack. I also discard the cooking water after making the noodles and then add fresh hot water with only 1/2 the seasoning packet.

How about you?

Price: $0.15
Found At: Ralph’s
Cheap Eats Score: 5/10