Portos - Coconut Thing

New thing today, tried a Portos coconut thing. It's a yellow glazed ball with sugary coconut inside. It was uber sweet, and not really my thing, but good if you're craving coconut. Just alright :)

California Earthquake Chips

New thing today, tried earthquake chips from California Chips. They have a very unique flavor.  Per someone else, it's like BBQ, sour cream and cheese & mesquite flavor with some vinegar. It is very odd, but a lot of people really love it. I was not one of them. It was a bit much for me, and had a weird aftertaste, so I didn't really like them. I didn't hate them though. They were edible, but I prefer a simpler tasting chip. I think people should still try them because everyone's tastes and preferences are different and a lot of people loved this chip. Nice new thing to try though. Now I know. 

Pineapple Cottage Cheese

New thing today, had LowFat Pineapple Cottage Cheese from Fresh & Easy. Holy smokes this stuff is great. Originally got it for the husband, but he found it too sugary sweet. I thought it was just right and so had some for breakfast with a few nuts sprinkled in. DELISH! It's probably a new favorite thing. It seems pretty healthy. So glad - new delicious discovery and regular favorite!

Arby's Deep Fried White Cheddar Cheese Curds

New thing today, tried these deep fried cheese curds from Arby's. Ridiculous! We were on a road trip back from Vegas and got these on our way home. They tasted like mini mozzarella sticks. Pretty deadly and good. I wasn't addicted to these like others, just wanted to try them out. Tasty.

Lays Cheesy Garlic Bread flavored

New thing today, tried these Lay's Cheesy Garlic Bread. Apparently it won some kind of flavor contest. Very garlicy tasting, and I like garlic but it was a bit much. Mom loved the stuff. I thought it was just ok, descent and garlic/cheesy tasting. Eh ok. I would nosh on them in the future but wasn't loving it. 

Holidrizzle Dark Chocolatier Sea Salt Kettle Corn - Target

New thing today, tried Holidrizzle Dark Chocolatier Sea Salt Kettle Corn from Target. It was on clearance and decided to try it out. This stuff is magic deadly. Super tasty and just the right amount of dark chocolate, sweet and crunch. Mmmmmm. So bad, but so good. Won't be getting more anytime soon, but ya it's pretty good.

Quaker Soft Baked Bars

New thing today, tried these Quaker Soft Baked Bars for breakfast, only about 150 calories each. Pretty good I think. The Banana Nut Bread was my favorite. They were sweet and filling, so a good snack or small small breakfast. I think the nuts help keep it filling. I would buy these again :) I did warm them up in the microwave for 10 seconds - excellent!

Zapp's Cheddar and Smoked Bacon Chips

New thing today, tried Zapp's cheddar & smoked bacon flavored potato chips. Sounds amazing, but tasted super strong and I wasn't really a fan. Way too much smoked flavor and although I love bacon, just was not digging these chips. Oh well?

Buffalo Bleu Kettle Chips

New thing today, tried Kettle Buffalo Bleu potato chips (photo from another blog). I've been into blue cheese lately, or I might just be a fan. Anyway saw these on a shelf and decided to try it. They don't fast so blue cheesy as more like just BBQ chips. They're good, but didn't have as much blue cheese flavor as I would have liked. If you like buffalo wings with bleu cheese, these might appeal to you, but honestly I think they just taste like BBQ chips with some tang. But - try them for yourself? :) They're good and I would get them again.

Rice & Seed Corn Tortilla Chips - Fresh & Easy

New thing today, tried the Rice & Seed Corn Tortilla chips from Fresh & Easy. We like the multigrain seed chips so thought we would try these out. Amazing delish!!! I am a huge fan. They taste better than the gourmet name brand stuff, and I just really like these. Yum, seedy & healthy :)

Aloha! Almond Bar Weight Watchers

New thing today, tried the Aloha Almond Bar, part of the Weight Watchers products. It was very small and I didn't think it would have any hunger diverting power, but it did. About 20 minutes after eating it I'm totally surprisingly satisfied. It was fairly tasty too. Sweet tropical fruit flavor, small hint of coconut and nutty tasting. I like the texture, firm yet soft chewy. Overall very yum and I wasn't expecting it to fill me up at all, but it did. 3 points. Flavor great and I would get this again. Go Weight Watchers!

Krispy Kreme Donut Holes

New thing today, tried Krispy Kreme donut holes. They look like they would be awesome. Very tempting packaging and look. Goes to show looks aren't everything. They were dry & sorta gross. I only had 2. The first one was gross. I tried the 2nd one and it tasted better but not that great. Oh well now we know. Would probably be really good with coffee or hot cocoa.

Goat Cheese & Espelette Pepper Chips from Cost Plus

New thing today, got these Goat Cheese & Espelette Pepper Chips from Cost Plus. They're foreign French Brets chips, and I was a little nervous about trying these, but the cashier lady said she liked them and the Carbonara chips which I also love. So decided to try it out. Turned out really yum! The taste is different in a good way. Not spicy or overly strong at all. Just sort of, well tasty? Glad it turned out well. I was worried. 

Mushroom and Green Bean Casserole

New thing of the day - Trader Joe's Mushroom and Green Bean Casserole.

In an effort to stop listing movies/TV shows as my consistently new thing - as it usually is, I'll mention a small something we tried new today. Our kitchen was lacking some basic food necessities so stopped at Trader Joe's on the way home and tried their sample of the day - always a favorite adventure.

Today was the Mushroom and Green Bean Casserole. They're definitely gearing up for Thanksgiving. I thought it was delish and surprisingly - I thought the green beans were tastier than the mushrooms. I find my tastes and preferences change depending on my mood or nutritional levels. I think my dad was right, saying to follow your stomach. When I'm low in iron it seems I crave and love the taste of spinach and red meat. Some days I'll love the sweets of fruit and yogurt, and some days I'll absolutely find it gross. Sometimes I'll crave salt and fish and once the food need has been satiated, I'll be full. 

I used to feel full a lot when I ate super healthy with lots of fruits and veggies. Now I just tend to get empty hungry and crave and eat without necessarily satisfying. I think my palette is a lot more sensitive to my body chemistry needs than I am, so I think I should pay better attention to how things taste and why I crave them. Really need to be more in tune with the healthy eating.

Anyway today's sample was, good :) A nice snack after a long Monday. Been really wiped out and tired lately. Not sure if it's the diet, although it probably is related. I think I'll try exercising tomorrow and possibly eating way more fruits and veggies to see if that kicks me back into normal energy mode. Or perhaps, this is a normal reaction to the cold dry weather and the season kicking in. Super low energy levels but it could be due to my regular monthly cycle.

So that's all. Nothing super insightful or fantastic. Just a mushroom green bean casserole. It was good - about a 7.5, and much healthier than my actual dinner.

Grilled Cheese Invitational

New thing of the day, my first grilled cheese party!

Friend hosted her first grilled cheese party - copying another friend's idea. It sounded delicious and we were excited to go. Everyone brought various breads, cheeses and ingredients to jazz up the sandwich. There were panini presses, skillets and frying pans for cooking. There was also a cheesy movie theme and some hot tomato soup to go with the party. Cheesy movies were Fair Game and The 3 Musketeers. Overall it was a lot of fun visiting with everyone and trying all the different kinds of grilled cheese sandwiches.

Here are a few of my favorites that were new, exciting and I will re-try at home. A simple yet elegant favorite was the white bread, sharp cheddar and dill pickle - YUM! Surprisingly a tasty combination. Then there was the garlic bread grilled cheese with salami. It was a garlic spread mix of butter, garlic and garlic powder with cheese and salami - so yum! I really liked the pastrami, brie, thousand island grilled cheese as well. Was a bit like a cheese steak sandwich. Of course the bacon and egg cheese sandwich was yum! There was grilled cheese with basil and some regular grilled cheese, no other fancy ingredients just different cheeses.

What a great idea! We had a wonderful time and I got to try a lot of new things! Wooooooooo! Thank you friends!

Charlie Brown Farms

New thing of the day, stopped and checked out Charlie Brown Farms.

We decided to re-take Pearblossom highway back home from Vegas. On the way back stopped at a wonderful little bizarre place called Charlie Brown Farms. It was a fabulous break and a fantastic rest-stop.

We stepped out of the car and it smelled like fresh baking donuts. Oh so good. We walk in and it's packed with weary travelers. The right side has a long line of people waiting to order hot fresh food like barbecue, donuts and other delicious food.

We weren't interested in ordering or waiting in line, so we wandered through the rest of the store to the left. They have a huge selection of trail mix, dried fruit, various flavored nuts and tons of candy and snacks. They had a great selection of sugar free chocolates and candies as well. I especially loved the section of local and flavored honey that you could buy. There were honey dispensers and honey combs you could buy and bring home. As you wander through the store there's a gnome garden and various knick knack type stuff. There's a very creepy doll house at the far end of the store. There's tons of stuff all over the place. It would be easy to stay an hour or more just wandering around the store and checking stuff out.

We went out the back and saw a rattlesnake cage. I wondered if that was on their menu. After using the restroom and buying a few snacks, we got out of there. It's a fantastic wonderful great little stopover and a great way to break-up the monotony of the long drive home from Vegas. Next time we'll plan and make more time to make this a longer stop on the way home. Maybe pick-up some presents, some kitchy stuff you can't see or get anywhere else, and possibly try some hot food. Great stopover!

Pomegranate

New thing of today, tried the fruit pomegranate.

More like, tried the seeds/fruit? I had never seen a pomegranate or its "fruit" in person before. I've only tried the juice. A coworker had a tupperware full of these little red glass beads. He said they were pomegranate and offered them up to people to try. I had a few.

I had it one by one, very potent and like biting into almost a roe fish egg except gigantic. It popped in your mouth and gave a burst of delicious sour nectar. It was incredibly tasty, but tart. They were amused at the pucker face I made with every bead I ate.

Overall amazingly delicious but sour - which I am not a huge fan of. It's much better as the fruit than the juice. I would definitely have it again. It would be an amazing tart topper to cakes and as a fun thing to sprinkle on waffles or pancakes. I will definitely have it again. Yeay for trying new fruit!

Blinky & Star tins

New thing of today, tried candy from the Blinky and Star tins.

I got these awesome little candy tins at City Walk in a store called It's Sugar with lots of fun candy stuff. I saw these awesome little tins and decided to get them. Being not a huge fan of candy, was going to give the candy away and use the tins for my stuff. I was going to use the red Blinky pac-man ghost as my vitamin/advil/pill box. I was going to use the Star from Mario World as a mint holder.

So today I opened the boxes and tried out the candies - disgusting! They had no flavor, although they had cute shapes like the tins they came in. 

The star one had zero flavor, banana-ish, but gross. The red one had a sour flavor to it - very mild, but not even that tasty. So I dumped out the candy on a napkin, gave it out to coworkers, and now have fun empty tins to use for my stuff! It will make me more likely to take my vitamins and to use up my mints - both of which I forget to take and really should take more often. Anyway, just love the tins, but glad the candy is gone - so gross!

PS - did you know that Mario World has it's own Wiki - check out the listing on the Mario Star. Also some info on Pac-Man and Blinky :) 

Sirius Chocolate

New thing of today, had some Icelandic Sirius Chocolate. 

I needed some Sirius chocolate because, I hate life a little bit right now. School/homework for my Masters is a pain in the ass. I had to revise some assignments which luckily my teacher is cool and she advised me of my mistake and let me fix it, but it's still a pain to redo something. 

Then I have the sniffles. It may be due to my Vegas weekend of tiredness. It may also be due to the fact that there was a leak in the roof and it dripped into our office today and the ceiling board picked up so much water that two ceiling tiles fell. Now our office stinks, it's leaking, there's some kind of mold smell and there are no plans to fix it as far as we know. I think they'll hope when it stops raining they'll just put up new ceiling and not fix the hole in the roof. Great. Moldy insulation above our office. Oh and we're refugees in our own office finding spare training room computers to work off of.

Plus we watched the season 2 finale of Dexter this evening. A bit disappointing as I was expecting more, but it all wrapped itself up neatly as a season finale should. Very enjoyable but missing a certain, je ne se qua. 

On top of all this, I've also gained weight. I'm almost well... I'm about 10 pounds heavier than my heavy weight last year, and I'm pretty sure I eat more when I'm stressed or happy, and usually I'm one or the other. How to fit in exercise with my current schedule, I have no idea. Maybe my husband should drop me off somewhere far from home so I have to run/walk home and get some exercise. I donno? ugh. 

So I was grumpy after all that and decided to crack open the chocolate. Moo moo goes the blogger. Mooooooo! Now to my point :) New thing of today. Foreign chocolate is - fantabulous. My mother in law came back from a trip to Iceland and brought back this bar of chocolate. I think it's the fact that they focus on the milk flavor and less sugar, or that there's cocoa and other ingredients, I really enjoy foreign chocolate a lot more than American chocolates. I think it's the type of sweet they add, not sugar but condensed milk or I don't know what. I don't usually like fruit in chocolate - but this one has just the right amount. Also there are a few nutty pieces and it all comes together quite well. It's a bite of deliciousness after a kinda rough Monday.

Here's to chocolate. It's delish and good and I only did a few bites, not the whole bar. It will last a good month or two if not longer. Although right now - just a little more is in my belly. It's probably not the best way to end a Monday, but it ain't bad. 

Gott kvöld or Goodnight in Icelandic.

Vegas Wedding and Deep Fried Oreos

So this weekend we were in Vegas for a fun Elvis wedding renewal for some friends. That was a fun first! They dressed up like Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley, were married by another Elvis, and renewed their vows in a short and fast but fun wedding ceremony. They did a romantic dance and kiss while being serenaded. Afterwards we took lots of photos with the family being dressed up. The ceremony was every bit as crazy and cheesy as you would think. It felt very assembly like with a wedding before and after ours as well, and everything running quickly. Although, I can now say I've been to a Vegas wedding and it was cool. After the wedding we had fun wandering up and down the strip and doing the usual Vegas escapades.

Another fun first. While we were walking on Freemont street, we saw 99 cent deep fried Oreos and had to try them. I thought they would be gross, but they were amazingly delicious. Like Oreos in a funnel cake and slightly cakey due to the melting from the heat. So delish and so happy we tried them. I am a fan and this could be one of my favorite foods of all time.

Also we got caught in a freak flash rain storm while out at Freemont street. We got soaked but I like rain and had a lot of fun running through it. That was completely random but very cool and a lot of fun :) A lot of firsts of today, but great firsts :)