Q.Bel

  

Yes, this post is about CANDY   All-natural Q. Bel chocolate has officially won me over.  Every freckled foodie needs a healthy indulgence sometimes, and what better way to indulge than the all-natural way, right?!

• No Artificial Colors •
• No Artificial Flavors •
• No Preservatives •
• No High Fructose Corn Syrup •
• No Hydrogenated Oils •

Q. Bel has created the ultimate chocolate lovers dream.  Chocolate wafer bars and rolls in dark and milk chocolate are perfectly light and crispy.  They make for the perfect after dinner treat. 

There are three varieties of each: Crunchy Crispy Milk Chocolate, Crunchy Crispy Dark Chocolate, and Peanut Butter!

To be totally honest, I was surprised to find that each package of 2 wafer rolls contains (depending on the flavor) just 120-130 calories, 6-7g of fat (2-4 saturated), and 1-3g of protein!  Not bad for a dessert, huh!?

The nutritionals for the wafer bars weren’t quite as good as the wafer rolls, but they were still far better than a snickers bar!   Each package had 170-190 calories, 11-13g of fat (7g saturated), and 2-4g of protein!

I LOVED knowing I could eat a natural chocolate product without overexpending my calorie bank   I’ve got to say, the dark chocolate was my favorite.  It just melts in your mouth!  The delectable cream filling is enough to obsess over in itself.  It’s very rich, but not overpowering and the crunch of the wafer is so fun!

The peanut butter was really smooth as well!  The velvety texture and sweet peanut butter will melt in your mouth!  It reminded me of a health version of Reece’s sticks!  Perfection!

I was also curious how they came up with the name Q.Bel…I came to find that this is the sweetest aspect of all!  The Q stands for Quality ingredients, and the Bel, is a tribute to the creator’s wife, Isabel!!  He says that she “taught me so much about good, wholesome and healthy food among other things”…how sweet?! 

Thanks so much, John for sharing with me the goodness of Q.Bel!  I’m addicted!

Eat Natural Bars

Simple Ideas.

Simple Recipes.

Simple Ingredients.

Thank you so much to Samantha at Eat Natural for sending me two flavors of Eat Natural Bars for review! 

These bars are made with natural ingredients and contain all types of wholesome add-ins such as nuts, dried fruit, yoghurt, and dark chocolate!  All of their bars are gluten-free and vegetarian friendly, also!!

I got to try the Eat Natural with…cranberries macadamias
and dark chocolate bar first! 

Just reading the ingredients list was enough to make my mouth water. 

The dynamic duo of macadamia nuts and dark chocolate really had the whole salty&sweet thing going on.  Then, just when you think the taste can’t get any better, you bite into a sweet, yet tart cranberry.  My tastebuds were singing. 

Not to mention, for 221 calories, this serves as a quick and easy breakfast treat that makes you feel as if you’ve just indulged in a dessert!  I ate this before my Saturday morning yoga class, which was convenient because I like to roll right out of bed, brush my teeth and leave, but by the time class is over my belly is rumbling! This tided me over not only through yoga, but until lunch!  It was very filling!  I wasn’t too happy about the amount of sugar (15g) and fat, the fats are mostly healthy.  And I didn’t mind taking in the sugar because I realized I would need the carb power for yoga   The 2.5g of protein and 2.5g of fiber aren’t too shabby either!

The second bar I tried was my favorite. 

Eat Natural with…almonds apricots and
a yoghurt coating.

 

I’m a huge fan of anything coconut, and the flavor in this bar seemed coconut heavy!  I’m not sure why I could taste it so much in this bar as opposed to the other one, since the ingredients list states that the bar consists 14% of shredded coconut and this one only said it contained 12% shredded coconut??? Weird.  Who cares though…I LOVEED it!

  

 Weighing in at 228 calories, 12.4g of fat (8.2 saturated), and 2.9g of each fiber and protein, the nutritionals are that of a candy bar for the most part.  Realistically, they’ve got much more nutritious ingredients, but in comparison to the stats of a typical candy bar, I can’t say that these would win out? I really enjoyed the taste and textures of these bars though, and didn’t feel disgusting after I ate them (as I do with processed candy bars), however, I will not be making these bars a part of my daily diet.  As a treat now and then? Sure. 

 These bars actually come from the UK, but you can order them online here, here, or here!

Thanks again, Samantha!

One Day Closer….

…To a three day weekend!  Monday we have off work for Martin Luther King Day, and I’d like to use the day to do something fun!  I’m considering maybe taking the little sister tubing or something at Ski Roundtop?! I think that would be enjoyable! 

Doesn't this look like fun?!

 Today might be somewhat boring, but I am really going to focus on my first article for The Examiner.  I’d like to have a rough draft completed by the end of today!  You’ll have to check it out when it’s finished and posted!!

 To back things up a bit, yesterday on my lunch break I went to Giant to pick up some groceries.  I was completely out of Clear Splash (Giant brand flavored water), and I was craving some Dr. Brown’s Diet Cream Soda.  I also was sent coupons to try some Kettle Cuisine soup to review for the blog, so I grabbed the Chicken and Rice Noodles out of the organic freezer section on my way out, too.  It made for a convenient lunch option for packing today!

Looks like homestyle cookin'!

I’m excited to try it.  The nutritionals were really good too!  Only 140 calories and 3g of fat.  When packing it for my lunch, I bulked it up with some broccoli slaw to get in some veggie power   Along side this broccoli-chicken noodle soup, I packed two Power of Fruit Banana Strawberry bars (27 calories each). 

 

I try to stay around 300 calories for my lunches, 200 calories for breakfast, and 400 calories for dinner.  That way there’s always room for healthy, reasonable dessert & snacks.  They say you’re not supposed to dip under 1,200 calories per day, so there’s a lot of wiggle room when I stick to that plan as far as after dinner treats, since I’m also burning about 500 calories per day on the stationary bike.   Gotta keep that metabolism movin’!

Speaking of which, I had these snacks before hitting the exercise bike when I got home from work last night:

Carrot chips, sliced apple, & a tomato. Totally UNrandom

I used these goodies to fuel an 80 minute bike ride while watching a classic (Disney’s The Beauty & The Beast. HA.) on my ipod and facebooking.  Yes that’s right, facebooking.  I’ve discovered that my laptop will sit perfectly on the handlebars of the bike if I can hold it there while I’m pedlaling.  Addiction at its best, I suppose.  I prefer to think of it as multi-tasking   Oh, and for those of you who don’t know, you NEVER get too old for Disney movies.  I was humming “Tale As Old As Time” the rest of the night.

Dinner last night was a can of Amy’s Organic Fat Free Split Pea Soup.

I ♥ Amy's.

I also mixed in some chickpeas after this photo was taken for extra volume:

Amy's Split Pea.

Canned chickpeas.

I could seriously just eat handfuls and handfuls of these guys plain (dangerous!!).  In fact, I think I actually ended up eating the whole can.  They are SOOO simple, but sooooo satisfying.  I think the salt in them really hit the spot too since I had worked up a sweat doing my cycling

For dessert, I had a 90 calorie Trail Mix Pop Culture Probiotics bar:

Chunks of cranberries, flaxseed, oats, and vanilla yogurt make this girl smile.

Welp, I’m off to conquer the world work on my article!  Wish me luck!

Oh, and new giveaway on the table!  Be sure to wish Brandi at http://branappetit.wordpress.com/ a happy blogiversary and enter her giveaway for a chance to win some sweet stuff!