Product Review Mania

Hey guys,

We just finished watching WALL-E. I had already seen it, but my family hadn't. I thought it was a really cute story, and I of course loved the little message about how we can't allow our society to become so lazy and dependent on technology that we live "virtual lives," and forget how to get out and move! It's also a great reminder to take care of the planet! I hope we never come to the point where we live in "hover chairs," like in the movie.

It makes me sad when I see regular kids at college using those Segway's to get across campus. Being able to walk to class and get in a little activity is one of my favorite parts of college--a little walk to class can do wonders to lift my mood and clear my head--and I'm in a time crunch, I'll bike. It's just sad to see people that resistant to move!

Anyway, backing up to this morning. My alarm went off at 8:30 and I shut it off, thinking I'd get up in 10 minutes. The next thing I knew, it was 10:40! Haha, yikes! Thankfully I was able to get a good night's sleep. I think it actually helped my nose, cause even though I didn't sleep elevated, it looks a lot less swollen today!

Breakfast/Brunch? was a yummy parfait with a new Trader Joe's bran muffin! I saw them yesterday, and thought I'd give them a shot.

Trader Joe's Apple Cranberry Bran Muffin Review

I loved the short ingredients list! This muffin is very dense--it's definitely not one of those soft, fluffy muffins. It has a ton of fiber, too. I tasted a little bit of the muffin on it's own and wasn't too impressed. It wasn't sweet at all, and it was like they crammed as much bran as they could into this condensed little muffin. I couldn't really taste the apple but it did have a few cranberries, which I liked. But then I tried it in my parfait--major transformation!

In the parfait, the broken-up bran muffin got all nice and crumbly, and blended really well with the greek yogurt mix. It added a great amount of texture, and I really liked it! With a little sweetness from the greek yogurt and pb, the muffin tasted great!

So basically, I personally wouldn't eat this muffin by itself. It'd probably taste good with some pb on top, though. But it's great in greek yogurt! I'll definitely be buying them again for that reason, and especially since they're so much cheaper than vitatops/vitamuffins. I prefer vitatops more of course, but I can't always be breaking the bank, ya know?

My rating: B- on it's own, A- in parfaits!

Onto the parfait:




Contents:
TJ's greek yogurt
Pumpkin
Cinnamon
Unsweetened cocoa powder
TJ's bran muffin
Newman's Own Organics apple ring
Spoon of dark chocolate dreams pb

I added a Newman's Own Organics apple ring on top to complement the apple/cranberry flavor of the muffin.

Newman's Own Organics Apples

I really like these! They're only partially dried, so they're still chewy. That was a huge plus for me! I also like that you get a whole apple ring, instead of tiny little pieces. They've got a great natural sweetness, too. I think it's great that they didn't add anything else to the apples. I did note on the package that you should refrigerate them after opening, which kind of surprised me--I never would have thought about it! So, just a heads up if you get them.

These apple slices are great on their own (it reminds me of hiking and trail mix!), or as a mix-in for greek yogurt or oats.

My rating: A

*****

For lunch, I had a yummy salad with TJ's beefless strips and Annie's marinade.



Surprise, surprise, right?

Another huge shocker:



Pumpkin dessert! Yum!

Then we went to the gym, and I walked around track for about an hour. I got home, practiced some harp, and had a quick dinner:

I call this my Hawaiian Salad! Haha, you all may remember my slight obsession with Hawaii (I will get there one day!) Basically I just named it that cause it's got shrimp and Annie's island marinade.



The cute sea bowl was chosen to go with the theme, of course :)

I also had a lot of frozen grapes and frozen blueberries, today.



Along with cherries!


After dinner, I went on a quick walk and then we watched WALL-E. I hope you guys are having a great weekend so far! I've got more Newman's Own Organics reviews to write up, but I don't want to make this post any longer. I'm becoming quite the product review maniac, haha. I'll leave you with a few giveaways to enter:

Whit's Getting Fit is having a birthday giveaway
An Apple a Day is having a Crofter's Superfruit Spread contest

Have a great night!