Samuel Adams: Brown Ale

Sam Adams Brown Ale, another one of the Brewmaster's Collection beers. I was expecting something a bit lighter than regular Sam, but I think this is heavier. It was also harsher and more bitter than either the regular Sam, or the Black Lager, which both suprised and disappointed me. I wouldn't turn this down, but I liked both the regular Sam Adams and the Sam Adams Black Lager better.

Lean pockets: Ham and Cheese

Lots of cheese and ham in a somewhat leaky bread pocket. Easy to cook, 2 minutes in the microwave, a good bread pocket that isn't soggy or chewy, overall a tasty snack. But wait, a snack I say? Yup, it is only about 4.5 ounces, not really enough for a meal. It's lean though right? you say. Well, not really. Even though it says lean, there are still 280 calories in it. For comparison, I had a microwave meal today that was 9 ounces and 220 calories. These are good, but they don't live up to the 'Lean' in the name. (280 calories; 7g fat; 41g carbs; 13g protein; 29% sodium)

Hershey's Take 5 candy bar

This one fits in the category of "lets just put everything in" It
is a lumpy combination of pretzels, caramel, peanuts, peanut butter, and
milk chocolate. You put that many good things in and it is hard to make
it bad, but I don't think they build on each other either. You can
taste the chocolate, pretzels, and salt (on the pretzels), and sometimes
you can taste the caramel, but the peanuts and peanut butter get a bit lost.
I am also don't care for salty pretzels and chocolate, although
I know some people really like that. There are better candy bars out
there that I would rather have than this one.

Quiznos Sub: Sierra Smoked Turkey

Hickory smoked turkey, lettuce, tomato, red onion and raspberry chipotle sauce. Quiznos subs are toasted, which means that before they put on most of the condements (like lettuce and tomato) they run it through a toasting oven that warms up the meat and toasts the bread. It makes for a good taste and slightly warm meat. This is a basic turkey sub, but it is one of their 'lite selections', which hopefully means fewer calories and fat. I was disappointed to find out their website doesn't have nutrition information on it, so I don't know how lite they really are. The only thing unusual on the sub is the raspberry chipotle sauce. I almost ordered my sub without it because I don't like sweet sauces on my main course, but I got it and am pretty pleased with it. It wasn't very sweet and had a bit of a smokey flavor, it keeps it from being 'just' a turkey sub.

Book: Are you my Mother?

This is one of my favorite Dr. Zeuss books. A little bird hatches and can't find his mother so goes looking for her. While looking he sees all sorts of animals, but doesn't find his mother. Eventually he makes it back to his nest, then his mother comes back and he recognizes her instantly. She never knew he was away. Best line in the book: "You are not my mother, you are a scary snort" My kid likes pointing out the bird on every page and making animal sounds as we go along. You can get this book as the standard paper 72 page book for young readers, or the abridged "board book" for babies to play with.

Wild Cherry Pepsi

As a kid I really liked Cherry Coke, then as I got older, it started being too sweet for me. Since Pepsi is a bit sweeter than Coke, you won't be suprised that it is sweeter than I like. Other than that, it has that wholesome caffeine goodness. It has a mild cherry flavor, just enough so that you know it is there, but not enough to overpower the cola. (160 calories; 0g fat; 42g carb; 0g protein; 1% sodium; per 12oz can)

Negligent Dancing?

A Chicago woman is suing her dance partner for dropping her on her head. In April 2006, Lacey Hindman, 22 with David Prange during a party at a Chicaco bar when Prange grabbed her by the forearms and tosser her in the air, neglecting to catch her. "I fell hard enough you could hear the impact of me hitting the floor over the sound of the jukebox. said Hindman who filed suit in the Cook County Circuit Court. She claims she suffered a fractured skull and brain injuries and is seeking damages for medical bills and lost wages.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070403/ap_on_fe_st/negligent_dancing

Lean Cuisine: Deep Dish margharita pizza

Part of Stouffer's Lean Cusine casual eating classics menu. A single serving pizza with chunky tomatoes, garlic, basil, and tomato sauce with extra virgin olive oil. Pizza usually has lots of cheese, thus, lots of fat. Doing pizza the low-fat way is tough. If you look at the picture on the box, the pizza shows lots of
cheese. That is deceptive, there isn't very much cheese on the pizza, and what cheese there was, wasn't evenly spread out. There is lots of crust (it is deep dish afterall) a reasonable amount of tomato sauce and diced tomatos, aand a little bit of cheese. The box said to put it in for 2:30 to 3:30, but for an extra crispy crust, put it in for an extra 30 seconds. I like crispy, so I cooked it for 3:30, which ended up drying the crust out (but it was crispy) I probably should have cooked it a little less. (lesson learned).
The pizza itself was decent, you wouldn't confuse it for pizza parlor pizza, or even pizza delivery, it still has lots of calories for what you get, with a 25% coming from fat. If you really crave pizza, this could fit the bill, but I wouldn't make it part of my regular menu. (320 calories; 9g fat; 48g carbs;
14g protein; 23% sodium; 6 weight watchers points)

Sensible Portions: Cheddar multi-grain crisps.

These look a lot like soy chips, however, they contain no soy (and no wheat gluten for those of you with Coeliac disease). These fairly thin baked disks with curled up edge chips are crisp, but airy, with most of the flavor coming from the powedered cheese on them, but some flavor appears to come from the chips themselves. They are good, better than many of the soy chips out there. They also don't have the rice-cake like dry mouth effect. The comparisons to soy chips are obvious and not always favorable, for instance, soy chips usually have much more protien then fat, and these chips have about the same amount of protein and fat. I find it ironic that the brand Sensible Portions comes in such a large bag, but since the crisps are so light, it only 16 servings in the bag. (120 calories; 1.5g fat; 14g carbs, 2g protein; 7% sodium; per one ounce serving)

Monday the Bullfrog

Monday the Bullfrog is a book/stuffed animal. Yes it is both, at the same time. The mouth of the stuffed frog opens and each of the heavy cardboard pages is about the animal the bullfrog ate that day, each day a different one until Saturday, but I won't spoil the suprise on that one. I doubt they are all animals bullfrogs eat (crabs? I think not). Also part of each animal (such as the crab's claw) are made of different types of material and stick out from the page, so there is something new for the kids to play with each day. An odd book, but at least I will always know that "Tuesday was furry and white". Buy at Amazon