Snyders: Garlic Bread Pretzel Pieces

Chunks of hard sourdough pretzels coated with a slightly oily garlic mix. I don't mean oily in a bad way, I mean oily the way garlic bread is oily (well, garlic bread is buttery, but you get the idea). Strong garlic flavor, lots of crunch from the pretzel chunks. These aren't the best flavor from Snyders, they are good, just not as addictive as some of the other ones. If you like hard pretzels and garlic, you are sure to like these. They just don't stand out against all the other garlic flavored snacks you can get. (140 calories; 7g fat; 18 carbs; 3g protein; per once ounce serving)

Just Apricots

Dried apricot snack. Little chunks of apricots, dried out. These are about what you would expect from dried apricots, a little bit tart, a little bit chewy. If you like dried fruit you will probably like this too. I like the other snacks by this company better, since they are drier and crisper. Ingredients: Apricots, nothing else.

Snyders: Hot buffalo wing pretzel pieces.

Chunks of hard sourdough pretzels with a thick coating of buffalo wing flavor. The pretzel chunks give texture and crunch, they don't add to the flavor. The flavor is all buffalo wing. A bit spicy, a bit creamy, and all tasty. Throw away any hope of a healthy snack, and good luck eating just one serving, these are tasty and great to much on while doing something else (except they will leave a somewhat oily residue on your finger). I like them and will add them to my 'eat in moderation' list of snacks. (140 calories; 7g fat; 17g carbs; 2g protein; per 1 ounce serving)

New York Style: Garlic Pita Chips

Odd, "New York Style" is the brand name. Thin squares of pita bread that have been baked until crispy, then covered with garlic. Two things stand out about them, first, they are consistently thin. Often you get some pita chips that are twice as thick as others, not so with this brand, they are all a single layer. They are thin, so they are crispy, not hard. The second thing that sands out is the garlic. These have a very strong garlic flavor. It overwhelms any flavor that the pita chips have. They are also a bit salty. If you love garlic, you will probably like this, but I think they overdo the garlic a bit. (130 calories; 5g fat; 17g carbs 3g protein; per 1 ounce serving)

Michelina's Lean Gourmet: Chicken Alfredo Florentine

Fettuccine with creamy alfredo sauce, white chicken and spinach. The alfredo sauce is creamy with a light flavor. It tastes like it has more fat than it has. The noodles came out good, a little firmness, and not all stuck together. The chicken was ok, a little hard and too salty, and not enough of it. The spinach added a decorative touch, but there wasn't enough of it to have any impact in the flavor. This is another one of those budget tv dinners that you can get on sale very cheap and when you look at it that way, it comes out pretty well. I like having some of these in the freezer for when I need a little extra food, but it doesn't make a good full meal. (270 calories; 6g fat; 38g carbs; 14g protein; 30% sodium; 6 weight watchers points)

GatorAlley: Gator Chicken and Cheese

GatorAlley Cocktail Bar & Grill is a new restaurant at 7525 Old Georgetown Rd, Bethesda, MD. I had the Gator Chicken and Cheese sandwich. It is thinly sliced grilled chicken with american cheese, sauteed mushrooms, onions, and green peppers, lettuce, tomato, and mayonase all on a sub roll. It was served with french fries. This was really good, much like a chicken cheese steak, but better than most. The chicken was tender and tasty, I think they grilled it before they sliced it, which is a good idea. The cheese melted in with it and made all the topping stick. I wish they had other choices besides american cheese, but that is a small complaint. The toppings were great, everything went well together. The french fries were just your standard steak cut fries, nothing special about them.

Godiva Chocolate: Dark Chocolate Raspberry Chocolixir

Fancy name, but a chocolixir is just a frozen slush that is chocolate flavor, kind of like a slurpee, or an Chocolate Frappuccino. What do you get when you mix Chocolate sirup, chocolate chunks, raspberry sauce, and whipped cream into a frozen drink? Possibly the best tooth-rotting, chocolate flavored drinking experience ever. This stuff is super-good, rich chocolate flavor with just enough raspberry. It is very sweet and by the time I was halfway through it I think my taste buds overloaded and shut down. Not every Godiva botique offers it, but if you like chocolate (and I mean good chocolate) and like sweet frozen drinks, this one is worth going out of your way for.

Banquet: turkey meal

Mostly white meat turkey and gravy with dressing mashed potatoes and peas. I don't usually eat banquet meals because the amount of fat and lack of vegetables, but this one is an exception, it actually has green vegetables and more protein then fat. (Yes the little things excite me.) And it was on sale at a very cheap price. This has a three segment dish, Peas in one, mashed potatoes in another, and in the largest, slices of turkey with gravy and croutons. The peas were standard peas, nothing special, but nothing bad about them either. They had some flavor and were firm, not mushy at all. The potatoes were smooth and creamy. I expected them to be dry and only edible when mixed with the gravy, but that was not the case. (of course, they were better when mixed with the gravy.) The turkey had been chopped and formed into circles, like lunch meat turkey, then sliced and the slices then cut in half. I got two half slices that were light meat and one that was dark meat, thus fulfilling the "mostly white meat" prophecy. The gravy was tasty but salty. They say it comes with dressing (or stuffing), but really they were just plain croutons. The turkey was not all that flavorful and tasted like lunch meat. For the price it was pretty good, and probably better than most banquet microwave meals, but it wasn't a standout dish. (200 calories; 8g fat; 27g carbs; 14g protein; 42% sodium)

Michelina's Lean Gourmet: Penne Primavera

Whole wheat pasta with vegetables in a light alfredo sauce. This is a basic dish, mostly pasta, with some veggies (mostly brocoli and squash) with cream sauce. It is fairly plain and uninspired with lots of carbs. It does have redemming qualities, first, like it says, it is fairly lean, 240 calories, with only 7g fat. I don't think it has enough protein though. Second, it is pretty cheap. I think I got it on sale for a dollar, making this Penne Primavera less then half the price of most lean cuisine or healthy choice microwave meals. Although it is plain, it is pretty decent, so factoring cost, this turns out to be a pretty good meal. Since I often end up eating two microwave entrees for lunch if they don't have many calories, this makes a great second dish, cheap and reasonably tasty. (240 calories; 7g fat; 35g carbs; 9g protein; 22% sodium; 5 weight watchers points) (Michelina's web site listed different nutrition information from what was on my package)

Frosted Raspberry Pop-Tarts

A pastry/biscut filled with raspberry jelly, frosted with white glaze with red bits of sugar on it. you can eat them cold (right from the pouch) or warm, but they are best warmed in a toaster. They are sweet and sugary, probably not the best thing you could eat for breakfast, more like a desert. Given the amount of fat and number of calories and amount of sugar, these can't be good for you. Each package contains four pouches and each pouch contains two pastries. The serving size, however, is only one pastry. No way you are going to eat one. Kids love these, because of the sugar, and they are fairly tasty, even though the pastry is dry and largely tasteless and the sugar overwhelms the raspberry flavor. Interesting trivia, the number two ingredient (after flour) is Corn Syrup, followed by High Fructose corn syrup.

It is really amusing that these come with instructions. You can warm the pastry in a toasting appliance or put them in the microwave for 3 seconds. I guess I can set aside 3 seconds for breakfast preperation, but I wonder about the toasting appliance, why not just call it a toaster? do they really think if they called it that people would think they couldn't use a toaster oven? Or is there such a wide range of things you can use to heat it that toaster wasn't accurate. Maybe I only have one of those circular pizza ovens and want to use it on the pop tarts. Step three is the really important one. "Cool briefly" You really can overheat the filling and it will burn your toungue. (410 calories; 5g fat; 76g carbs; 2g protein; 14% sodium; per two pastries)