Weight Watchers Natural Light Smoked Mozzarella String Cheese

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Alright so a couple of new product are coming out onto the market currently and I thought that testing them out first before you all went out and spent your hard-earned money on them would be a good idea.  If you have not heard about this new line, it is a really large line of cheese’s ranging from slice, to string, to spread.  I’m not sure how different they could be than different cheese, but people see the Weight Watchers logo on something and get excited. 

Weight Watchers says, “Savor the smoky flavor of our natural Light Smoked Flavor String Cheese. Individually wrapped and just the right size, each 50 calorie stick makes snack time truly satisfying. Each stick is full of flavor and an excellent source of calcium.”  This line sounded appealing to me so as I was eating it I did notice the smokiness of the cheese and thought that it would make an interesting pairing with homemade pizza or something.  Some of the nice things about any string cheese is that they are handy and a nice afternoon snack for those of you on a diet and looking to slim down.  If you need more variety in your life then go ahead and try out the brand other cheese’s totalling 18 in all.  If you don’t want to pay the extra money for the name of Weight Watchers I would recommend trying a different line of flavored cheeses that will leave your wallet a little more full. 

Pros of this product is the nice smokey flavor and that’s about the only thing that differentiates this product from anything else. 

Cons are that it is more expensive and could be harder to track down than other brands.

Nutritional Information Serving Size 1 Piece

• Calories 50
• Fat 2.5g
• Sodium 140mg
• Carbs 1g
• Sugar 0g
• Fiber 0g
• Protein 6g

Mio Liquid Enhancer

amazon.com

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This is one of the hot new products on the market right now and it took me a while to getting around to it because for one I enjoy my Crystal Light, and two because this is way too expensive.  The price point on this product is so far off its crazy, at my local store its $4.00 for one bottle.  Are you kidding me? why is this product so much better than other water enhancers on the market? is it because it looks cool when you put it in your water or what? 

Alright so enough venting about this product and onto its actual taste.  The taste of the fruit punch was pretty good, just how you would imagine fruit punch to taste like.  There was not weird after taste or anything like that which made this product a pretty quick review in some sense.  However, my main question is why choose this over other brands?  It certainly wouldn’t be because of its packaging and that you can put it in your pocket to go because you can do that with any single serving water enhancer already on the market today.  Could it be the ingredients? no not really because the back of this package includes all types of odd sounding names like propylene glycol.  So this was a tough decision to make because on the one hand the product tastes fine, but loses major points when it comes to pricing and that it is about 90% more expensive than other products that do the same thing.  Overall (2 out of 5).

The pros was that it tasted like fruit punch and had no odd after taste.

The cons of this product was that it was too expensive.

Nutritional Information for 1/2 tsp:

• Calories 0
• Fat 0g
• Sodium 0mg
• Carbs 0g
• Sugar 0g
• Fiber 0g
• Protein 0g

Think Thin! Protein Bars Reviewed

amazon.com

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Aside from the fact that the name made me feel just a tad weird when buying them at the store, these bars turned out to be pretty tasty.  The main caveat to this is that some definitely taste better than others; some of the bars like the chocolate mudslide were a bit too dry while others were really great tasting.  One of the companies new flavors was the Chocolate Covered Strawberries which sounded interesting so we thought we would give it a try.  This was an interesting review because about half of the testers felt that this didn’t taste well at all while half thought it was fantastic.  So for this review it was almost a toss-up as to whether or not the reviewer liked it, so proceed with caution. 

One great thing about these bars is that they are gluten-free, so if you are on a gluten-free diet than these bars wouldn’t be off-limits for you.  Another great feature of this bar was that it has 0 grams of sugar in it, this was awesome to see because many protein bars have more sugar than an actual candy bar.  These bars have about 15 grams of protein or more depending on which bar you get so it keep you feeling full into lunch or dinner.  The calories for this bar are relatively well in check with a good snack, that being 200 calories.  Nutritionally speaking this is a great bar to have at work for an afternoon snack or a great meal replacement bar if you’re really in a hurry.

You can buy these bars at your local Whole Foods stores and some Trader Joe’s.  If you think that the 200 calorie protein bar is too much for you, then consider trying out there other 100 calorie bar line that has awesome flavors like cookies and cream or raspberry and white chocolate. 

The pros to the chocolate covered strawberry bars were that they had a good flavor and were nutritionally great.  The cons are that they’re tough to find for some people and are more expensive than some other brands.  Also if you pick the wrong flavor you could be out of luck in the taste and texture area of things.  Overall (3 out of 5).  The company does have a really great line of bars though that you can check out if you want at http://www.thinkproducts.com/2011/.

Nutritional Information: Serving Size 1 Bar

• Calories 200
• Fat 7g
• Sodium 105mg
• Carbs 21g
• Sugar 0g
• Fiber 1g
• Protein 15g

Fluffy Homemade BAKED Doughnuts

beaugureaufood.com

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Doughnuts are definitely seen as a diet busting dish and for good reason too, because they are after all cooked in oil.  If you do not wish to use the unhealthy version, try out this version and I promise it will remind you of your old favorites.  These doughnuts are both fluffy and satisfying at the same time because they are more of a quick bread than anything.  You could need some special equipment if you don’t have a 3 inch cookie cutter but you can buy one for less than a dollar;  if  you are already a savvy shopper and own a doughnut baking pan this would probabbly be the best time to use it.  The toppings are really up to you of course, but some great ideas could be confectioners sugar combined with some cocoa sprinkled over the top of them.  The glazes really take away the healthy aspect of the doughnuts because they are butter and sugar after all.  Let me know what you guys think of this recipe, I hope you love it as much as I do.

Ingredients:

• 2 pkg active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water (110-115 F)
• 1/2 cup warm milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 cup all-purpose flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water.  Add the milk, sugar, butter, eggs, salt and 2 cups flour; beat until smooth.  Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough (you want the dough to just pull away from the side of the bowl and not be sticky).  Turn onto a floured surface knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes.  Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top.  Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.  (Try an oven with warm water place in the bottom of the oven, turned off)
3. Punch dough down.  Turn onto a floured; roll out to 1/2 in thickness.  Cut with a cookie or doughnut cutter that is 3 inches wide.  Place on  greased baking sheets and cover for about 10 minutes more.
4. Bake in a 375 degree oven until the bottoms are just golden, 8 to 10 minutes.  Serve warm with your favorite toppings and cup of coffee.

Healthy Bacon Mac ‘N’ Cheese

liketocook.com

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Mac and cheese is most likely on every American’s top 10 list of favorite comfort foods, so I thought that honoring it with a healthy twist would need to be done.  Many people either swore of this dish when they started a diet because they thought it had too much fat or too many carbs, but this recipe manages to cut down on a lot of the fat and replace those bad carbs with healthy whole wheat pasta.  If you’ve tried healthier versions of this dish before and haven’t had any luck, I feel that this one will change your mind because it still has the cheesiness and creaminess that everyone has come to know and love about this dish.

Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons salt
• 12 ounces penne pasta or elbow macaroni
• 4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups skim milk
• 2 cups finely shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 2 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
• Cooking spray

Directions:

1. Preheat broiler

2. Bring a pot of water and salt to a boil. Add pasta and cook 7-8 minutes or until al dente; drain.

3. Combine flour and milk in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; let stand about 5 minutes to cool.  Stir in 1 1/2 cups cheese. Add pepper, and bacon; stir. Add pasta and toss to coat. Spoon into an oven safe dish coated with cooking spray and top with your remaining cheese. Broil 7 minutes until brown on top and bubbly below.