Holy Granola & NEW Cookbook

Question: Who in their right mind ignores the jewelry, animals, etc. at a fair and goes straight for the area where a sign reading "Cookbooks $4.00" is located? Um...me. I picked up this baby (after careful deliberation... I looked through every one they had I would say) for a mere $4 (oh whaaaattt?) and that ridic collection of post-its? I did that in about 10 mins of scanning through this after buying it... and I'm making two of the recipes tomorrow. CANNOT WAIT

Moving on... I have been experimenting some of the many products that I hear repeated on the blogs I've been reading and I've noticed a couple of things that get repeated over and over so I figure, there's GOTTA be something good going on with these, right?

Enter MorningStar products... I popped the MorningStar cherry when I saw these babies at the grocery store. Anyone could tell you, I'm not a mushroom lover, I'm infatuated. Holy BaJesus. These were phenom!!!! The perfect dinner when I was 5 mins away from beginning my drink fest up at my boyfriends apartment smack dab in the center of UConn and realized I hadn't eaten anything substantial that could be considered a "meal" in quite a while that day.


These, cooked up according to directions, put on a whole weat sandwich thin (Arnolds's I believe?? Could be wrong....) and topped with sliced avocado and a salad on the side not only met my expectations but surpassed them... I'm officially in love with these and can't wait to try the endless varieties they have. I've been against frozen anything lately (minus ice cream... doesn't count.) just because I usually think: frozen = processed... but these are just perfect and with a short list of ingredients that I can pronounce. Whew. What a relief....

Kashi is a go-to snack, breakfast, staple usually for me... Cinnamon Harvest is my usual breakfast any morning and sticks with me for hours, it's delicious, and only uses GOOD ingredients. I love the dark chocolate cherry bars and because anything pumpkin is bliss to me, I figured I'd give these a shot.

The review? NOT so good.... that is, if you're looking for something to stick with you they're not so great. If you are looking for a full-on dessert, complete with more sugar than you know what to do with then this is the right one. The "pumpkin puree" or whatever is on top is just too much. I could only have a few bites before having to put it down for fear I'd be in a sugar rut the rest of the day.

Odwalla bars were also a new one for me... I always passed them in the store and thought "I should try those..." and finally did today. Mocha-walla? You make me wannaaaaa..... Love coffee/mocha/espresso flavored anything and these took me a few bites to judge them completely.

My first bite I thought... ehhhhhh.... Second bite, oh there's chocolate chips in these? Third bite.... I like chocolate chips.. and coffee. And overall, I give these a thumbs up. Definitely going to try some of the other flavors but these didn't disappoint!

Side Note: After a Taco Salad with chicken, fried veggies, and homemade fudge at the fair today, a 3 miler is on the agenda for tomorrow morning. Very very needed and wanted. Please God, don't rain. Thanks.