Penny’s Low Fat Desserts

Guilt-free baked goods?! You can count me in!   This Penny is one talented baker!  She has managed to somehow create these heavenly cookies, muffins, and muffin tops that are not only low-fat, but also fairly low in calories and high in fiber! Penny is SO sweet, she sent me a sampler package of some of everything to review!  I loved that they came in individually wrapped convenient plastic wrappers to easy grab and go breakfasts or snacks too!

Penny’s Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Muffin Top

The muffins and muffin tops come in several varieties such as Orange Cranberry, Carrot-Raisin, Apple Cinnamon, Chocolate-Chocolate Chip, and Almond Poppy.  I’m a chocolate kind of girl, and will eat it in any way imaginable, so when you tell me I can eat one of these hefty muffin tops for just 100 calories, 1.5g of fat, 5g of fiber, and 3g of protein, I am ecstatic!  When I tried the Chocolate-Chocolate Chip, as pictured, I actually heated it for 35 seconds in the microwave with the plastic wrap on.  It was sooo perfect.  It tasted like it had just been baked!  I think the wrapper staying on while microwaving retains the moisture in the muffin top to keep it tasting as yummy as possible.  I reccommend it!  The chocolate chips melted and everything!  My second favorite was the Carrot-Raisin muffin top!  It was delectable!  Tasted just like carrot cake, but without the gazillion calories!  The hunks of raisin heated perfectly creating a melt in your mouth muffin top, and the hint of nutmeg really sets it off.  There is only 110 calories, 0g of fat, 4g of fiber, and 2g of protein in each one! 

Penny’s Oatmeal Raisin Cookie

Now for the cookies!  These bad boys come in 7 flavors:  No Sugar Added Toffee Cinnamon Cookie, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie, No Sugar Added Chocolate Truffle Cookie, White Chocolate Cranberry Cookie, Oatmeal Raisin Cookie, Peanut Butter Cookie, and Chocolate-Chip Cookie. 

 

My favorite were a toss up between the Peanut Butter and the No Sugar Added Toffee Cinnamon cookies.  At 150 calories, the Peanut Butter cookie provides 3g of fat (1.5 saturated),  12g of whole grains, 7g of fiber, and 3g of protein.  These were so yummy!  They kind of reminded me of a warmed up Nutter Butter!  While the No Sugar Added Cinnamon Toffee provides just 100 calories, 2.5g of fat (0g saturated), 6g of fiber, and 3g of protein!  This cookie is for you if you like your baked goods to taste authentic and buttery without the guilt of real fattening ingredients.   

What amazes me about Penny’s products is that even though I stashed mine in the freezer until I was ready to enjoy them, they stayed moist.  They didn’t dry out in the slightest!  And I love that about them!  Their shelf life, if frozen, is 6 months!  You can order these products in bulk and never have to worry that they will “go bad” if you can’t finish them off in a certain amount of time…not that finishing them off would be a problem, because I could eat them alll at once! 

Thanks again, Penny!  Your products are terrific!

Lärabars

A big thank you goes out to Kathy, my friend at Lärabar for sending me a little package of Lärabars to review!  There are a total of 16 flavors including: Cashew Cookie, Lemon Bar, Peanut Butter & Jelly, Tropical Fruit Tart, Cinnamon Roll, Peanut Butter Cookie, Cherry Pie, Apple Pie, Chocolate Coconut, Banana Bread, Coconut Cream Pie, Key Lime Pie, Pistachio, Ginger Snap, Cocoa Molé, and Pecan Pie.  If your mouth isn’t watering yet, you must be tasteless or something!  I got the privelage of sampling the first four varieties. 

Before I get to the fun part (the taste, of course), let me give you a little Lärabar 411.   What I find to be most amazing about these bars, is that each one has a maximum of eight ingredients.  Some only have two or three!  They’re just a tastey blend of dried unsweetened fruits, nuts, and spices!  There is absolutely nothing unnatural about these bars.  It’s actually amazing how sweet they are without any added sugar,  fillers, supplements or flavorings.  They’re also LOADED with natural vitamins and minerals.  Another fun fact about these spectacular bars, is that they’re raw (uncooked & unproccessed) which means that ultimately, essential enzymes, which are necessary for the digestion and utilization of nutrients, remain completely intact in their most natural, powerful state.  Lärabars are also gluten-free, soy free, and dairy free.  They are NON-GMO, Vegan, and Kosher as well.

Peanut Butter & Jelly

This flavor was hands down my favorite.  Maybe it was because I already had pre-conceived notions since I’ve heard nothing but rave reviews from other blog friends about it, but it sure did live up to its expectation.  It only has four ingredients!  Dates, peanuts, unsweetened cherries, and salt!  The texture of each of these bars was pretty much the same.  Very chewy and savory.  They are also very filling!  At 210 calories, this bar had 10g of fat (2 saturated), 340mg of potassium, 6g of protein, and 4g of fiber!  The sweetness of the dates combined with the salty peanuts and tart cherries was so perfect together.  I’d swear I was biting into a PB&J sandwich, without the crust of course, because those are the best

Cashew Cookie

Next up in order of preference, was the Cashew Cookie variety.  Considering I could eat any kind of nut like its going out of style, I think I know why I liked this one so much.  This Larabar contains just TWO ingredients!  Cashews and dates! These definitely make a dynamic duo.  Did you know that dates have more potassium than bananas?! At 210 calories, this bar has 12g of fat (2g saturated), 320mg of potassium, 6g of protein, and 3g of fiber!  Additionally, it contains  2 grams of heart-healthy Omega-6 fatty acids and 15 essential vitamins and minerals!  How can such a simple recipe add up to these kind of nutritionals and taste!  Ahhmazing.

Tropical Fruit Tart

Numero three on the list is the Tropical Fruit Tart Lärabar.  This bar was alright.  Not a slam outta the park for me, though.  It had a much more extensive ingredients list though: Dates, pineapple, unsweetened coconut, almonds, extra virgin coconut oil, cashews, orange juice concentrate, and orange juice peel.  I don’t get it, actually because ALL of those ingredients are some of my favorites!  Pineapple and coconut are ALWAYS winners in my book…especially together!   I think what weirded out my tastebuds, was the addition of the last two ingredients.  Orange flavors seem to drown out things for me.  The bar was still good and had a lot of flavor.  I just wish I could’ve tasted more of the coconut and pineapple as opposed to the orange flavoring.  Either way, by eating it, I got a full serving of fruit!  Anddd was provided with 20% of my daily Vitamin C!  At 210 calories, this bar had 12g of fat (7g saturated, which if I’m not mistaken, probably came from the coconut), 310mg of potassium, 5g of fiber, and 3g of protein.   

Lemon Bar

Lastly, we’ve got the Lemon Bar.  Let me start off by warning you.  The review of this bar will most definitely be biased because I absolutely hate lemon flavored anything.  I tried this bar, so I could do the review, trying to tell myself that I needed to put it aside and get over it, but I cannot lie.  I didn’t like this one.  Had I been a fan of lemon, things would be a different story.  The ingredients consist of: Dates, cashews, almonds, lemon juice concentrate, and natural lemon flavor.  The only positive thing I have to say about this flavor, was that the texture was still yummy.  That chewiness has me by the heartstrings   Oh, I lie-  another positive about this bar is the nutritionals.  At 210 calories, this bar has 11g of fat (1.5 saturated), 330mg of potassium, 6g of fiber, and 3g of protein.  It also provides you with 1 serving of fruit and 1g of Omega-6 Fatty acids…if you’re into that sorta thing   Haha.

I’m now dying to try the Coconut Cream Pie, Banana Bread, and Cinnamon Roll flavors.  Unfortunately, they don’t supply Lärabars in flavors other than Cherry Pie and Apple Pie anywhere close to me, so I may have to order them online (or maybe my buddies there will hook me up?!), which you can do here as well! 

Lärabar also makes two other bars called Jõcalat and Jamfrakas.   Jõcalat is basically a healthy chocolate bar, I think?  And Jamfrakas are the kids’ version of the Larabar!  Maybe I’ll get lucky and have the chance to review these for you as well?! We’ll see what we can do

Good Old Monday Morning

Hiya, everyone.  Hope you all had a great weekend!  Mine was pretty fantastic.  Let’s start at the beginning.  Friday night after going to work out at the gym, I headed home to shower and get ready to see the Twilight: New Moon movie with the sisters and the Momma.  Overall, I’d say we had a good time!  The movie was excellent.  Usually by that time of night (it didn’t start until 10:30), I’m exhausted.  Especially after a full day of work and then a hard workout at the gym…don’t even say it! I know, I’m such a grandma for being only 21 years old   What can I say?! I need my sleep.  I did get a quick nap in between showering and getting ready, so I was held over for a little while.  I also drank a coffee before we left for an extra caffeine boost.  After all, the movie was 2 hours and 1 minute long!  Don’t worry, the movie is so good, the time FLIES by.  Anyway, we got home around 1:15AM, and I’m pretty sure I was out like a light as soon as my head hit the pillow. 

I knew I wanted to get a fairly early start (for the weekend) on Saturday because I was taking a day trip to Lancaster to visit my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins on my Dad’s side of the family.  She’s a freckly lady too!  In fact, everyone thinks that we look like sisters.  She’s also one of my very best friends. 

I woke up Saturday around 8:30, jumped in the shower, cleaned up a little bit, got some gas, and I was on my way!  I got down there around 11:15AM and was thrilled to see everyone.  Around 12ish, we started to make lunch.  My Aunt makes the BEST grilled chicken salads in the world !  I’m not sure why they always taste SO good when she makes them up for me, and why I can’t seem to achieve the same taste at home.  It just consisted of a few chicken tenderloins cooked on the stovetop with spices, lettuce, cucumbers, carrot chips, and salsa!  So simple, but so tastey!  I also had an apple on the side.  After lunch, she took me to this adorable jewelry & consignment store called Deja Vu.  I LOVE consignment shopping!  I ended up with two tops and a pair of starfish earrings, that I had been wanting since my trip to Florida, but I refused to pay the outrageous $60 for a pair down there.  I found ones almost identical at this jewelry store for a mere $14.  Aren’t they cute?!

Starfish Earrings

  After that, we went grocery shopping!  Many of you probably think this is so lame, but I could entertain myself for hours in the grocery store.  Looking at different products, checking out nutritionals, and seeing what’s new on the market!  This particular grocery store was really neat.  It reminded me of a mix between a grocery store and a farmer’s market.  For those of  your who have ever been at a Stouffer’s, you know what I’m sayin’.  They had allllll kinds of fresh produce, which I’m pretty sure came from local farmers?  And almost any kind of organics you could want.  Considering our Giant doesn’t even HAVE an organics section, that was amazing to me!  My aunt introduced me to a calorie free drink while we were there too!  IT was YUMMY.  I love cream soda though, so maybe that’s why I was so infatuated.  It’s called Waist Watchers. Here are the nutritionals and ingredients:

Diet Vanilla Creme Waist Watchers

 After we got all the goods at the grocery store/market, we left for home to watch the Penn State game! 

2009 Lions

They ended up beating Michigan State in their last game 42-14!  I actually didn’t sit and watch most of the game, because I was out running around at Old Navy, where I heard there were some pretty good sales going on!  I came back with this adorable cardigan that I bought on sale:

It’s actually a lot cuter in person, but ya get the picture…literally

 

When the game was over, we popped in Bride Wars with Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway (two of my all-time favorites!) and ate Chinese food, which I picked up on my way back from Old Navy.    I got the steamed shrimp & broccoli with the sauce on the side and left my rice for them.

It was definitely a chick flick, but a really good one, none-the-less!  Kate realllllly looked like her Momma in this one for some reason!  I have never seen a movie that she looked more like Goldie than this one.

It was a nice and relaxing evening, but before I knew it, it was already getting kind of late.  It wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t had to drive an hour to get home, but I knew that if I had any chance of getting up early to be in at church for choir practice before Sunday School, I’d better get my butt home.  The nice thing about the drive is that it’s almost entirely highway, so it’s not hard to get to and from. 

 

Sunday morning came wayyyy too early, though.  I made it in to choir practice and then  went to Sunday School, which I was actually looking forward to.  I haven’t had a Sunday School class for awhile because there aren’t many other people in my age group at our church anymore.  Ya know, the 20 somethings.  We recently started a women’s study, which consists of 5 women, including myself.  We are reading through this book and talking about what God has been showing us through it:

 

I’ve already been learning a lot. 

After church, I went to the grocery store to stock up on some Clear Splash and Skinny Water (my new obsession).  Reviews to follow!  When I got home, I unloaded the groceries, ate lunch (roasted turkey, green & wax beans, baby carrots, and a wheat roll), and got changed for volleyball, which started at 1.  I was at the gym playing until about 3:30PM and then I did some ab stuff before I left.  When I got home, I ate a roasted turkey salad for dinner which consisted of baby spinach, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, snap peas, and a few raisins.  The star of the salad, however was this bad boy:

Newman’s Own Organic Balsamic Vinegar

Twas the perfect addition!

 

After eating dinner, I left for praise and worship night at the church, where the choir sang two numbers.   It was a great time of fellowship, testimonies, and worship.  After a long day and weekend, I was ready to hit the sack when I got home.