Bar-Hopping with Gnu and Odwalla

So I've been bar-hopping lately...snack bar-hopping, that is. Yep, I ventured beyond the confines of my beloved Clif world and taste-tested a few of those other treats you see lurking in the ever-expanding bar aisle. Here's a quick summary of my thoughts:
Gnu Bars
These bars have been getting major press lately: featured on the Today Show, Rachael Ray (A Broccoli Hut fave), and included in magazines like Real Simple and Prevention. A few months ago, Robyn from Gnu Foods kindly offered to send me a box of these fiber-packed bars for review. Due to my abundant snack bar stash, it wasn't until now that I got around to sampling them.

The Stats
-130-150 kcalories
-3-5 grams of fat
-3-4 grams of protein
-a whopping 12 grams of fiber
-7-11 grams of sugar
-fruit-sweetened
-vegan
-made with whole grain flour
-HFCS-free!
The Flavors (in order of preference)
*Banana Walnut: I have sample many banana-nut flavored bars in my day, and this rendition is one of my favorites. Quite banana-y, with no artificial aftertaste (after all, there are real bananas in there), and I like the texture that the walnuts provide.
*Cinnamon Raisin: Feeling like a cinnamon-raisin bagel? Grab one of these! Not only is the taste right on target, but you'll get a lot more fiber by chomping one of these instead of its more starchy counterpart.
*Chocolate Brownie: Quite the fiber-licious brownie, this one. I really enjoyed this variety thanks to its abundance of (dairy free) chocolate chips. If you're expecting a milk chocolate flavor, however, you should look elsewhere--this bar has a more intense cocoa flavor that I love.
*Peanut Butter: This flavor was pleasant enough--but NOT peanut-y. It was mildly sweet, but it earned only a "meh" response from my tastebuds. Not a winner. Re-formulation needed, ASAP.
*Orange Cranberry: I opened this bar with high hopes; I expected it to be similar in taste to the apricot Clif flavor (which reminded me of glorious orange marmalade). Not so. The orange flavor was not authentic, and it did not combine well with cranberries. This was by far my least favorite.
General Comments
I used these bars as a pre-workout snack. Not a wise decision. I had my suspicions that the high fiber content would not make them ideal for a quick burst of energy, but what's a Clif Z-bereft girl to do? Anyway, these bars are generally quite difficult to digest--generating fullness, but also causing some discomfort during physical activity. If you choose to try these bars for yourself, consider consuming them as a mid-day snack; avoid eating them before exercise or just before bedtime.
On another note, the wrappers of these bars are ridiculously difficult to open without scissors. Translation: not a good snack to throw in your purse for on-the-go snacking, unless you happen to carry some sort of cutting utensil with you.

Odwalla Bars
These bars are rather ubiquitous: on campus, in various Whole Foods locations, as well as in the food blogosphere. Thus, I just had to give them a try for myself. Unfortunately, I was unable to sample all of the flavors due to the peanut recall as well as the limited selection at my local Whole Foods. Where are those elusive Superfood bars?! Also, I am not including the Chewy Nut Bars...we'll save those for another review, since they're quite qualitatively distinct from the other flavors.

The Stats
-220-250 kcalories
-4-7 grams of fat
-3-4 grams of fiber
-4-5 grams of protein, although the Superprotein variety has a whopping 16 grams
-18-20 grams of sugar
-made with organic ingredients
-includes a few vitamins and minerals, such as calcium (25% RDA), vitamin A (20% RDA), and vitamin E (50% RDA)

The Flavors (in order of preference)
*Superprotein: Hello, giant protein oatmeal cookie! When I brought along this flavor for a quick pre-workout snack, it always disappeared far too quickly. I love its subtle cinnamon-y taste and the fact that one bar contains so much protein! They're even soft like a freshly-baked cookie.
*Choco-Walla: Alright, I am a bit biased in that I will pretty much eat anything with chocolate in it, but this was another winner. Delightful chocolate chips also provide unexpected hits of intense chocolate flavor throughout the bar. I bet this would be quite tasty warmed and dunked in rice milk:)
*Banana Nut: Yep, yet another banana nut bar. No points for creativity, but Odwalla does get some points for taste. This bar also lacks the artificial banana flavor that so many bars can have, but it does have visible chunks of walnuts inside. Delish.
*Berries Go-Mega: As a non-fish eating vegetarian, I am always looking for ways to fit in those omega-3s, so I appreciate products that provide an alternative to the usual flax and walnuts. Excellent berry flavor--it boasts cranberries, strawberries, and raspberries. Good, but not a favorite.
*Strawberry Pomegranate: Now this is a creative flavor. It's not too often that you encounter strawberries in bar form (why is that?). Anyway, the flavor reminded me of those Fruit Roll-Ups I used to stash in my lunchbox as a kid...not sure if that's good or bad. I didn't detect any hints of pomegranate, sadly.

General Comments
These bars have a texture similar but not identical to Clif bars; they are slightly softer and stickier, which can cause unexpected problems (read: sticky fingerprints on test papers). In addition, excepting the Superprotein variety, they lack the significant protein counts found in Clif bars. Most flavors have just 4-5 grams in comparison to Clif's 9-10 grams.
One of may favorite Odwalla products does not come in the full-size bar, but I highly recommend them if you can find them: Carrot Raisin snack bars. I featured them many months ago here at the Hut, but I still find them quite delicious. For those of you who found the Clif Carrot Cake variety so unpalatable, you might try this version as an alternative. These have 110 kcalories and lots of vitamin A.
I have previously reviewed Clif bars and Clif Z bars. Check 'em out!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Getting Creative

You all will be happy to know that I have been trying some new dishes these past few days. I tried out a few of your suggestions from my last post, but I also did a little experimentation of my own the kitchen. Did you know that cooking is an excellent mode of procrastination? Food is much more of a priority than homework, in my opinion...

Wednesday
A few of you mentioned that you like to combine broken up Clif Z bars into Greek yogurt as a quick and tasty snack/breakfast. Well, I improvised a similar snack on Wednesday evening with the items I had on hand: cottage cheese, sliced apple, and (a very old) Nature's Path Optimum Energy bar crumbled on top. I like this bar+yogurt/cottage cheese idea, because you can change it up so many different ways.
Thursday
Again, taking cues from your comments, I tried a new breakfast: toast with tahini and agave. Thanks, for the inspiration, Kimberly--it was fabulous! I also had some more blueberries with wheat germ.
My snack before my run consisted of a Cinnamon Raisin Gnu bar and a small apple. Something about this combination totally worked--my average pace was 45 seconds faster than the day before!
I needed a quick lunch afterward, because I had a meeting to attend. I stopped by a campus eatery and grabbed a House Salad: Romaine, carrots, tomatoes, red onion, cranberries, and walnuts. I added my own tofu and dressed it with Bragg's.
After the meeting was out, I was starving--so I needed something quick that wouldn't ruin my dinner: banana with Futter's Almond Butter.
Dinner was entirely spontaneous. First, I sauteed some farmers' market bell peppers in a pan with garlic and chili powder. I also mashed some leftover kidney beans and plopped them onto a halved pita (I don't have any tortillas at the moment). Add some salsa, and you've got a makeshift taco! Plain yogurt with cashew butter made a great sweet ending to the meal.
Friday
Every semester I schedule my classes such that I have one weekday off; this way I can actually get laundry and grocery shopping done with some regularity. Anyway, this semester, I have Fridays free. I seized the opportunity to sleep in, squeeze in a morning workout, and enjoy a leisurely breakfast. I just can't get enough scrambled tofu. This one had tahini, Bragg's, and ground ginger. I also had some (slightly overdone) toast and a sliced Granny Smith apple. Top it off with a perusal of The Chronicle, and I'd call it a perfect morning meal.
After multiple trips to Whole Foods (read: forgotten bag of dried cranberries at the cash register...), I was ready for some fuel. When my stomach calls, my creativity goes out the window. So, I just mashed some chickpeas with Nayonaise and Grey Poupon and plopped them onto Ak Maks. Broccoli, almonds, and local white peach finished it off.
I had plans to dine out last night, but we wouldn't be leaving until later in the evening, so I made a quick snack beforehand: plain yogurt with dried cranberries (yes, the forgotten ones) and pistachios.
For dinner, we went to The Cheesecake Factory. Honestly, the best part about CF is its wonderful brown bread. I wish I could buy this stuff in bulk and eat it all the time--it's slightly sweet, and I love the oat topping. I probably ate half the basket...For my entree I ordered a Vegetable Chopped Salad with Romaine, radicchio, edamame, beets, asparagus, and crisp apples. It was on the "small salad" menu, so I asked if they could make it full size, but they couldn't. I don't really understand that--they obviously have the ingredients on hand; can't they just bulk up the portion and charge me more? Sheesh. I was left hungry, so we all ordered dessert. My smoothie obsession took charge because I ordered the Tropical Smoothie, which included pineapple, passionfruit, and coconut. Delish.
After dinner and a movie, I returned to the apartment in need of a bedtime snack. It's probably more habit than anything else, but I must have something in stomach just before sleeping. Last night I chose whole grain graham crackers with cashew butter and a glass of soymilk. Put me right to sleep:)
Well, I am off to run errands and maybe do some homework. Be back tomorrow with a feature post.

Long-Awaited Reprieve

Whew! My tests and quizzes are complete (for the time being), just in time for the holiday weekend. My nutrition test went smashingly, but the anatomy test...not so much. The professor posts grades on Friday evening, so we'll see. I probably won't check until Monday though, just so I can enjoy my weekend at the lake! I've been studying non-stop for the wast two weeks, so I am ready for a few days of down-time and maybe a smidgen of aquatic sports:)

I picked out a few recipes to try this week, and most have been a success thus far. Read on to find out the deets.

Monday
After my recent discovery of the wonder that is Annie's Goddess Dressing, I decided to try out Dreena's Goddess Garbanzos recipe. All I have to say is wow. I can't wait to try it again! I enjoyed mine atop a whole grain hot dog bun (Arnold brand), along with my usual salad, some steamed veggies, and a chocolate soy yogurt. I had never tried Stonyfield's soy yogurt before, and I noticed a few unique characteristics. The texture is more liquidy than that of other brands, and this variety (chocolate) was quite sweet. It was a nice treat, but I'm not sure it will go into regular rotation. The smoothie of the evening consisted of raspberry Spirutein, frozen berries, soy milk, and a bit of a broken up Honest Foods granola plank. De-lish. Tuesday
Return of the breakfast parfait! This particular combination was one of the best I have made in a while: vanilla soy yogurt, frozen cherries, and Fiber One cereal. The vanilla soy yogurt totally made this dish. Yum.
After class yesterday, I was so hungry that I just put together the fastest lunch I could think of...taking the test must have gobbled up all my energy. I made a pita sammie with cranberry and stuffing flavor Tofurky, Nayonaise, and spinach. A spinach salad (with dried cranberries!), a juicy peach, and some almonds finished it off.
For dinner, I picked out a recipe from Clean Eating Magazine (the premiere issue): Lentil Salad with Cranberries and Pecans. (I guess I just couldn't get enough cranberries yesterday...). I didn't have any pecans, so I subbed walnuts, and I used cranberries that I had in the freezer. That's a good tip actually: at Thanksgiving and Christmas, I stock up on bags of cranberries and freeze them so that I can enjoy their nutritious goodness all year round. Anyway, this recipe was bad. There was no flavor except for the extremely tart berries and acidic white wine vinegar; it needed a balancing ingredient of some kind. At least it looked pretty.
The smoothie of the evening consisted of tropical Spirutein, frozen pineapple (way cheaper than fresh!), almond milk, and broken up granola plank. In retrospect, this would have been perfect with coconut.
Wednesday
Today for breakfast I treated myself to a peach-soymilk smoothie and a banana-walnut Gnu bar. I went scavenging for cool cups and glasses, and I all I came up with was this hefty beer mug. I need to make a trip to Home Goods...
In the midst of my studying, I found the time to put together a quick (albeit random) lunch. I used up the rest of my tempeh by cooking it up in a Vidalia onion salad dressing I found in the fridge. Onto the greens it went, and along side it I had some crackers with almond butter and some blueberries.
Dinner tonight was phenomenal. I tried Dreena's recipe for Cashew Ginger Tofu. I could slurp this sauce with a straw--it was that good. Accompanying the superstar meal component were some vegetables, whole grain couscous, and a fresh pear.

I have a quick question for all of you: after a discussion with my nutrition professor, I think I might be borderline OD-ing on soy protein. Sooo, do you all have any recommendations for vegan protein powders not made from soy? As you all have seen, I just can't live without my evening protein shakes!

Well I am off to relax...at last!