Getting Naked For Chocolate

I've been a fan of Bear Naked's line of granola for as long as it's been available. I happened to be at Food Emporium when a Bear Naked employee was giving out free samples of--at that time--their newly-launched granolas. I was very impressed and immediately purchased the Apple Cinnamon cereal, which is still one of my favorites. Since then I've revisited Bear Naked from time to time but with so many varieties of cereals available nowadays, I've not paid all that much attention to the Naked line. That will now be changing. Bear Naked has come up with some more granola flavors that warrant a lot of attention, one of which I have sitting in front of me as I type this--I've been snacking on it the entire night. Heavenly Chocolate is its name and that it is. This stuff is as delicious as any chocolate bar and is truly out of this world. It's made with the better-for-you dark chocolate, whole grains, and makes a wonderful treat. You won't feel guilty snacking on this granola either. I haven't had it with milk yet but can only imagine that it would be addicting as a breakfast cereal. Bear Naked's line includes such flavors as Fruit and Nut, Banana Nut, and two other flavors that I am looking forward to trying: Blueberry Walnut and Peanutbutter & Jelly. Throw some of this in yogurt, enjoy it on the run, or as a delicious breakfast treat, it doesn't matter. Just eat it.

www.bearnaked.com

Pepperidge Farm Remembers Cereal

While on a recent visit to Food Emporium, I noticed a presumably new granola cereal from Pepperidge Farm. Saddled with the not-very-creative name "All Natural Cereal," I decided to go with the Harvest Apple Cinnamon flavor over its siblings--Cinnamon Raisin, Triple Nut, and Maple Glazed Pecan. Not an easy choice given that I think all of the flavors sound terrific. I believe that this is Pepperidge Farm's first entry into cereal territory and they've come up with quite a winner. The granola blends a bunch of ingredients including raisins, walnuts, brown rice, ground hazelnuts, almonds, pecans and brazil nuts, as well as a healthy dose of Granny Smith apple pieces and a bit of cinnamon, which make the granola into a tasty treat. It's so good that I'm going to pick up a couple of more bags and eat it as a snack at work. I'm looking forward to trying the other flavors which will probably be more widely available soon if they aren't already. Strangely I could not find one mention of this product on the internet and it is not listed on Pepperidge Farm's site. There's also no "new" tag on the product so perhaps this is a product being tested. If it is, the company needn't worry as this is a cereal that I am happy to wake up for.

Hey, There's Pumpkin In My Cereal (Sort Of)

Those who know me are well aware that my breakfast cereal box is more likely to have a leprechaun or blue ghost adorning it. However once and awhile I'll make an attempt to have something else in my house that's "healthy" for breakfast in addition to my usual oatmeal. Occasionally I will even check the tiny area marked "Organic" in my local grocey store. Recently I was looking in that very area and a cereal caught my eye--Nature's Path Organic Flax Pumpkin Raisin Crunch. It contained pumpkin, certainly not an ingredient one sees every day. I hardly noticed the rather gigantic "FLAX PLUS" type on the box, which normally would send me running to a sweet "yabba-dabba-do" treat instead. Since the Nature's Path cereal was on sale for a very reasonable price, I figured what the heck, I do love pumpkin, hopefully it won't taste horrible, and after all it is good for me. I strolled up to the cashier leaving behind lonely boxes of SpongeBob SquarePants and Froot Loops. A few days later, I tried my new purchase and was surprised that it wasn't terrible--in fact it was pretty darn good. I took a look at a handful of the cereal and while I can't say there were very many pumpkin seeds to be found, it was still chock full of raisins and lots of other good-for-you ingredients like rolled oats, flax meal and cinnamon, all organic. It's also high in fiber and has 650 mg. Omega-3's per serving. I've also eaten the cereal as a snack without milk and I have to say I'm impressed. It may not be enough for me to try the company's other cereals (until they perhaps come out with a Flax Plus Chocolate Creme flavor) but give it a try--it's about as tasty as it comes in "healthful" cereal form.

http://www.naturespath.com/products/cold_cereals/