LUNA Peanut Honey Pretzel Bar Review

LUNA bars are one of my most favorite bars. I love bars. They're delicious and quite convenient. However, some bars are basically just candy bars in disguise. This is what I love about LUNA bars. They actually have nutritional value. LUNA is part of the CLIF company and so far, I enjoy all the brands they have created (Mojo, Clif Z, Luna Protein, you get the idea).
So, today, I ate the Peanut Honey Pretzel LUNA Bar. I actually have eaten and reviewed this bar before, but I just have to review it again! It's one of my favorites.
I ate this bar after working out at the gym (I did intervals on the elliptical for an hour!). I was sweating like crazy after, but it was a great workout. Anyway, I ate the LUNA bar as a post workout snack. It was delicious! Along with it's usual chewy bar mix, it had pretzel pieces and PEANUT BUTTER chips!  There was a touch of honey that complimented the saltiness of the pretzel, along with the vanilla yogurt coating on the bottom. Even though it's not chocolate, I still place this bar as one of my top favorite LUNA bar flavors!

So, I've been eating a lot more calories lately (especially at night), but I have been working out pretty hard. It's about 2 hours a day. What surprises me is that I haven't gained weight. If at all, I've gotten fitter and have more muscle definition. Maybe it's due to the workouts too. I still think I am fat and that I've gotten fatter since I've been eating more. I really don't know though. So, you tell me.  Here's a picture that I took yesterday that I forgot to upload to yesterday's post. Tell me what you think.

Do you guys remember me mentioning that I have to make a How To speech for my Public Speaking class? I can't decide between How to Lose Weight and How to make a healthy dessert (I'm thinking about the Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie on my blog!). For the 1st one, I can establish authority and credibility, which is a good thing. However, I don't feel comfortable talking about that. For the healthy dessert, it's delicious but the speech can get pretty boring and dull. The only way to grab their attention is to tell them that there's a special ingredient in the recipe. So..shh. Or else, they might not eat it if I choose that and they find out what the ingredient is. Which one do you guys think I should choose?

How long do your workouts last?
Is there such thing as too much exercise?

Zone Perfect Bar Strawberry Yogurt Review + greek yogurt breakfast recipe

 Hey Everyone! How are you guys doing today? Did you guys do anything fun? Picnic, biking riding, going for a jog, eating out, spending time with the people you care about? It's good to relax and enjoy life once in a while. With all the stress out there, it's a good thing to relax.
Anyway, I had a great day today. But, before I talk about that, I want to talk about this Zone Perfect Strawberry Yogurt Bar. I've had my share of Zone bars a couple years ago, but with the chocolate flavors. They were a bit too sweet but still delicious. So, I decided to try their fruit flavor. This bar was really sweet, but I guess it's still good since it was only 200 calories. The yogurt coating was delicious. You actually saw dried fruit pieces too. It was a bit chew also. There wasn't anything special about this bar. But, when I read the ingredients list, they had strawberry flavored cranberries. I wonder what happened to the strawberries.
Now that I've reviewed the bar, let's talk about my day. The first thing's first. My breakfast today was absolutely delicious! I ate nonfat vanilla greek yogurt + multi grain cheerios + dark chocolate chips + a dash of ground cinnamon. Absolutely amazing!

I used:

• 1/2 cup non fat vanilla greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup cheerios (I'll use dulce de leche or pb cheerios next time!)
• 1-2 tablespoons dark chocolate chips
• a dash of ground cinnamon

How it looks all mixed together...It doesn't look as appetizing.

Just mix it together and you'll have a great breakfast dessert that's filling! You can double the ingredients too (which I will next time!). It's too good to not eat. You can also crumble some granola bars into it and it'll taste just as good! I crumbled a Clif Crunch Bar and it was delicious!
So, today, I went for a run by the river! I went with my friend and it was a great run. It's my 2nd time running there and I did so much better than the first time. I guess the first time I went, it was my bad running day. I get those every once in a while (once a month). Then again, running in an indoor track is a lot different from running outside in nature. I was really sweaty at the end, running in the heat and sun. Anyway, beautiful scenery and I had fun running with my friend.

I also went to Target today and I bought 3 LUNA Bars, 1 Clif Bar, and 1 Mojo Bar (chocolate almond coconut!). I've already reviewed some of those, but I guess I will review them again.

To end this, I also want to share with you another great food to eat. I ate this for dessert. It's quite easy to make. I ate a peanut butter banana protein bar, spread it with some peanut butter and sprinkled some chocolate chips on top. It was delicious! It's healthy too.

So, how did you spend your day?
What's your favorite greek yogurt treat?

Balance Bar Cafe Cinnamon Bun Bar Review

I know, I know. Cinnamon buns are not chocolate. Well, unless you add chocolate glaze to it. Anyway, I decided to try out this Cinnamon Bun Bar. I ate it right before my nutrition class this evening. It was so cold in there, but at least it kept me awake during my 3 hour class. Then again, I had to stay awake because I sat up front. Anyway, let's get back to the review before I talk about my day.
So, even though Balance Bars aren't that healthy, they do provide a lot of nutrients. This Cinnamon Bun Bar has a total of 200 calories. Pretty good, compared to a regular cinnabun, which has about 1100 calories!
Well, how did the taste compare? It was absolutely delicious! It tasted like a real cinnamon bun with the cinnamon and the vanilla "frosting". It was amazing and it tasted homemade. It doesn't have the doughy texture like cinnamon buns, but it tasted like it and I was in heaven. The chips added to the flavor too. There was a strong cinnamon flavor, which I love!

Anyway, now that I've reviewed that, let's talk about my day. Well, for one thing, we're giving speeches in my Public Speaking class. I give my speech next week! I'm so nervous. It's suppose to be a How To Speech and I'm thinking about either giving a how to lose weight speech or a how to make a healthy dessert speech. I'm leaning more towards the healthy dessert speech. The chocolate chip cookie pie.

1 cup nonfat vanilla greek yogurt + 2 tablespoon dark chocolate chips.

My classmates that went today did a great job with their speeches. Except, there was this one guy that didn't seem like he prepare much. His speech was how to cook an egg in a microwave.
Anyway, for bfast, I ate cereal with milk. For lunch, I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a Kashi Dark Chocolate Coconut Bar. I ate the Balance Bar for a snack. Then, I bought a diet soda to drink during my nutrition class during the break, after the professor talked about diet soda. LOL. Then, I went home and ate green beans, tofu, a chewy oatmeal raisin granola bar, greek yogurt with dark chocolate chips, grapes and half a banana. Then, I ate green tea kit kats (which are amazing!). I know, it's a lot of food, but still UNDER my calorie requirements. But, hey, it was delicious.

 Tomorrow for breakfast, I plan on eating 1/2 cup nonfat vanilla greek yogurt + 1/4 cup multi grain cheerios plus 1 tablespoon dark chocolate chips + a dash of cinnamon. I hope it tastes good!
I skipped part of my day.  Whoops. I tend to do that when I talk about food. So, my math class was today and it was ok. It's really easy though.
I went to the school gym and I went on the elliptical for about 65 minutes. I entered my age and height and chose the interval training. 5 to 8 resistance, and 10 crossramp. I burned about 640 calories and the distance was around 7 and half miles. So good. When I run on the indoor track, I run for about 33 to 34 on the track (4 miles)  and then 35 on the elliptical (3.5 miles). I'm now trying to vary my workouts. I also workout at home first thing in the morning. I do the videos from blogilates, mainly the popcardio though.
Anyway, that was my day. School, working on my speech outline, exercise and eating.
Oh yea. I went to my local grocery store yesterday and I saw Hello Kitty Marshmallow pops. I just had to take a picture of it! Here it is.

Here's some other pics of me. =)

So, do you guys like Hello Kitty?
What is your typical workout?
What's your favorite treat?

Granola Bar Review!!! Kashi Dark Chocolate Coconut, Balance Bar Cookie Dough, CLIF Crunch Chocolate Peanut Butter

Hey Everyone! How are you guys doing today? I've been doing just fine, thank you for asking. Anyway, the past couple days have been quite fun. I went for a jog by the river with a good friend, went shopping, and hung out with friends. My classes were ok too. I don't have class on Fridays, which is what I love about college. You get to choose your own schedule.
Anyway, as you guys know, I love eating granola bars. They are one of my favorite foods in the world. Well, chocolate and froyo are my number 1 favorites but, you guys get what I mean. Anyway, here's my review of a few granola bars.

#1: Kashi Dark Chocolate Coconut

 

These Kashi Bars are absolutely delicious! It should be a dessert bar instead. The granola oat part was pretty typical but the chocolate tastes like frosting! I enjoyed this bar very much. It took a lot of self control to not eat the entire box of 6. 

#2: Balance Bar Cookie Dough

This Balance Bar was absolutely delicious. It's also my first time eating a Balance bar. The inside tasted just like cookie dough! The only thing is that there is the protein aftertaste, but that didn't bother me after eating something so delicious.

#3: Clif Crunch Chocolate Peanut Butter

This bar was pretty decent. It was basically a typical oat bar with chocolate chips in it and a peanut butter drizzle. It was crunchy and it was good. It's kind of like the Nature Valley Bars, but better.The White Chocolate Macadamia tastes better in my opinion. But, both are still very good.

I also went grocery shopping today and I got a can of garbanzo beans, black beans, nonfat vanilla greek yogurt, turkey spam, the smart balance mayo, and some other things that I'm forgetting right now. I plan on making black bean brownies, but I'm scared how they'll turn out. I may use the recipe for CCK, Chocolate Covered Katie. I'll look around the web to see what recipes are out there.
I will for sure make something from CCK using the garbanzo beans. I plan on making stuff with the greek yogurt and the protein powder I have at home. Do you guys have any good bars or cookie recipes I can try making with them?

Anyway, how was your guy's day today?
What's your favorite healthy dessert recipe? 

Peanut butter banana Protein Bars

Hey everyone! Happy Labor Day to you guys.
I know it's really late to post, but I'm still posting. How was your guy's labor day weekend? Did you go to any BBQ's or parties? I know..tons of delicious calorie loaded food. My dad barbequed some stuff and it was delicious. Chicken, turkey dogs, veggie burgers, steak and corn. I only ate the chicken, a little bit of turkey dogs and a veggie burger. I know. A lot of protein! What did you guys have?
Anyway, let's get back to business. I made some peanut butter banana protein bars. I've been wanting to make these for a while, but I needed really ripe bananas ( I love really ripe bananas!). Finally today, we had tons of ripe bananas (due to the hot weather!). We needed to eat them before they got bad and I'm the only one that likes bananas that ripe, so it was perfect timing. I do have to say, these taste pretty good. They were chewy too, but next time, I'm going to add chocolate chips. They're way cheaper than buying them from the store and they're quite easy to make. It's optional to bake these. It's safe to eat it raw! So, here's the recipe. It can be made vegan.

Ingredients:

• 1 ripe banana
• 1/4 cup all natural peanut butter
• 1/4 cup water
• 4 scoops vanilla protein powder
• 1 cup whole wheat flour (or oat flour)
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:

1. In a bowl, sift together the protein powder, flour and cinnamon. If you want to bake it, add 1 tsp baking powder. 
2. In another bowl, mash the banana with the peanut butter. Then, mix it in with the dry ingredients. 
3. Add in the water and chocolate chips. Mix and knead the dough until it comes together. If it's a little dry, add a little bit of water.
4. Place the dough in a pan and freeze or refrigerate for a few hours so that it'll be easier to cut. 
5. Cut it into 15 bars. This will be 100 calories. If you like bigger bars, 8 to 10 bars. They will be about 200 calories. 
6. If you're going to bake it, bake it at 350 F for 10 minutes. Enjoy. 

How was your guy's Labor Day weekend?
What's your favorite BBQ food?
Do you like homemade bars better or store bought ones?

 I tend to like CLIF Bars and LUNA bars. I also like some Kashi Bars as well.

CLIF Crunch White Chocolate Macamamia Review

As I've said before, I'm obsessed with granola bars. My favorite would have to be the kind the CLIF company makes. The make their CLIF bars, but also LUNA bars. They're both my favorite.

So, I decided to try out their Crunch brands. I love white chocolate, so I chose the white chocolate macadamia.

As you see, 2 bars come in one pack, for only 190 calories for both! They look like the nature valley bars, don't they?
Well, texture wise, yes. That is true. But, also, these taste amazing. Their crunch and sweetness is amazing (sweetness due to the white chocolate!). You even taste the macadamia nuts. I really enjoyed eating this bar.

I can't wait to try their other flavors.

CLIF Chocolate Almond Fudge Bar Review

It's official. I have an obsession with granola/energy bars. They are delicious and they are  quick and easy snack (or even meal, depending on the calorie count and the composition of the bar). From my last post. you saw that we bought chewy granola bars. They are for the whole family. And from previous  posts, I bought the CLIF Crunch Bars and even Luna bars and some type of kashi bars.
Just yesterday, I went to my local grocery store and bought these:







I know, right? I bought more bars. I bought a Balance Bar Cookie Dough because I wanted to try it. I also got Kashi since they're suppose to be good. I've had their Trail Mix Bars and they Go Lean Crisp bars as well.
Anyway, back to the Chocolate Almond Fudge Bar. Here's a picture of it.

 

 Doesn't it look appetizing? The bar is darker than other CLIF bars because of the chocolate. You can also see the almond pieces, which is really nice. 

As for the taste of the bar, it was delicious! It's one of my most favorite bars. Even though it has it's own chewy oat texture ,there also was a fudge texture with it as well, and a fudge taste, in a good way. It wasn't overly sweet either, which I was afraid of. The almond pieces gave it a bit of a crunch, which I like! This is one of my most favorite Clif Bars. 

So, what's your favorite type of snack foods?

What's your favorite granola bar?