Aftershocks

Coming from me– the picky eater, the girl who shies away from just about anything that could possibly be considered healthy– this may come as a shock. Quaker Oatmeal Squares is by far my absolute most favorite cereal.

It’s got such an incredible taste! It just has this subtle sweetness to it that’s so unexpected.

And of course it’s completely filling as well!

They’re great in a bowl of ice-cold milk, or just by the handful as a snack. In fact, I think I should go have a bowl now.

Edit: Oh hey! I have a terrible habit of forgetting I have cereal here when I run out of milk. I waste a lot that way, unfortunately. I just found that I had a box in the cabinet that has a sell-by date for the beginning of November and I know it was opened at least a month before that. You won’t believe it, but they weren’t stale! Lasting-power in a cereal! That’s a definite plus!

How exciting do these look?! Well, I’m here to tell you that they’ll completely live up to your expectations!

I had every intention of taking pictures of the whole process, but I got too excited about having chocolate pudding *shameface*

The boxes come with 6 individual packets. All you do is add the mix to 1/2 cup of milk, stir, and place in the fridge for about 5 minutes to chill!

I was skeptical at one serving being satisfying enough. It was a fat kid moment, ya know? So I doubled the milk and used two packets (and am happy to say that in this case, doubling works just fine–ya know sometimes when you double something like this the outside ingredients needed aren’t exactly on). I recommend pouring the packet into your milk (which is what you’re supposed to do….) because I have a habit of putting in my dry ingredients and then pouring in my wet ones–in this case, it made it harder to get out the little blobs because this really hits pudding consistency faster than a normal batch of pudding.

I stirred till I was satisfied I had gotten all my mistake-blobs out and then sat it in the fridge while I had my lunch.

To my surprise, two servings was too much. I couldn’t finish! *shock* The flavor was perfect! There was no distinguishing it from a full recipe.

Currently these are only available in Vanilla and Chocolate–and the sugar free versions of each. I’d love to see Devil’s Food in the future. It’s my faaavorite.

Last week I decided to branch out and try a few new Hot Pocket flavors. I don’t do this often since with microwave things like this, it’s really hit or miss.

I was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable the Cheeseburger Hot Pockets were! To me, they tasted like a Krystal burger. That’s probably the best description I can give you to get an idea of whether or not you might enjoy them.

I was super-hungry so I went ahead and ate the second one as well. I didn’t enjoy it quite as much–I can’t say for sure whether it was because I wasn’t as hungry or because there seemed to be more chunks of onions in the second one (I have a thing about onions when they contrast so obviously against the texture of the rest of the meal). Either way it was still pretty good.

These won’t make it to my regular Hot Pocket buys, but I’ll definitely have them again. They’ve got my picky eater seal of approval.

You may recall a few months back I gave Oreo Cakesters a try; sadly, they just didn’t do it for me! Within the last week or so, I caught a commercial advertising Nilla Cakesters. I had a feeling Nilla Wafers might fare better in this cake-like confection, and I was right!

I spotted them last night in our late-night sync cable excursion and snatched up a box. I think Heaven exploded in my mouth on the first bite! I’m strongly reminded of cupcakes while eating these–only, much batter cupcakes because the ratio of cake to icing is perfection!

I strongly recommend giving these a try! I love eating away the top layer, enjoying the cream filling, and then finishing off the final cookie/cake bit, but it’s just as tasty to eat the whole thing as-is! I’m torn as to which is the more satisfying method; you’ll have to try them for yourself and weigh-in!

Tonight I made my third trip to Chili’s. Three trips and I’ve yet to fall in love with Chili’s the way everyone else does. In fact, everything I’ve ever eaten at Chili’s I’ve thought, “Restaurant X has this same thing, only better.”

I started out risky. I tried Cajun Chicken Pasta, which was a stretch for me, but it tasted horrible! I gave them that one since I was taking a chance in trying it. Last time we had an Awesome Blossom, which severely lacked Awesome :( And I also had a bacon cheeseburger that just fell flat….I was trying to stick to something simpler and give them a chance to impress me…no good! There was no flavor whatsoever to that burger. So disappointing.

Last night I went as restaurant-basic as I could think to get. We had their Skillet Queso for a Starter and well, that just made me want to go to Moe’s for decent queso. For my meal I had a sirloin and loaded mashed potatoes. I enjoyed the potatoes, they were yummy, but I’d have much rather had the white cheddar mashed potatoes from Ruby Tuesday. My steak…well I didn’t eat very much of that at all. On top of being cooked nowhere near the way I asked for it, it was flavorless and seemed like it had been marinated in water. There IS such a thing as too juicy!

I haven’t completely given up yet. I signed up for a $5 coupon, so I’ll try once more eventually. Anyone have any suggestions? I’m running out of ideas of what to try on that menu to finally be able to say I enjoyed Chili’s!

Better Crocker Complete Meals are by far my favorite quick meal to cook. They have everything in the box, including the meat! I go for the Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo and the Three Cheese Chicken. They come packed with a can of Progresso chicken, which is top of the line when it comes to any sort of canned meat.

All you do is mix the ingredients in a small casserole dish, cover with tin foil, and put in the oven for about 30 minutes! Most come with alternate directions for the skillet or microwave, but I prefer this set it and forget it method. I usually just set a timer and head back to whatever else has been occupying my time!

I think they currently have 5 meals to choose from:

• Cheesy Beef Taco
• Chicken & Buttermilk Biscuits
• Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo
• Stroganoff
• Three Cheese Chicken

I definitely recommend giving them a shot!

In my quest to eat healthier, and cheaper I discovered these tilapia fillets at Wal Mart. I’m starting to really love fish!

I generally thaw two fillets by just leaving them in the sink with a little water for about 15 minutes. Then I sprinkle them with a little lime juice or cheap cooking wine (you can skip this step, I just do it to open it up a little and let the marinade soak in quicker) and then cover it in a good marinade to sit in the fridge for 20+ minutes–you can experiment with different types of salad dressing and such, but to get you started, I’ve found that soy sauce makes a good marinade and teriyaki sauce as well. I especially love the sweet flavor teriyaki sauce gives it. I don’t like teriyaki at all, but it give the fillets an amazing flavor! Then I just throw them on the Foreman while I make rice or mac n cheese or something for a side dish! Viola!

It something so yummy I actually crave it often! Which is great since there are 16-18 fillets in the box in my freezer right now!

This is one of those posts where I don’t have any real ‘review’ type things to say…I just wanna gush about how much I love Vanilla Coke.

I remember last March when Ryan, his mom and I all went to the Coke Pavilion I was so excited to drink Vanilla Coke again in the sampling area. You can’t imagine my excitement when I saw it back on the shelves just a few months later! It’s been back for about a year now, actually, and at least once a month I have to grab a case for my fridge. No one ever gets any of my Vanilla Coke. I’m absolutely stingy about it. I need to research and see if I can find it in a glass bottle…I bet that’d be sex in a bottle.

Oreo Cakesters are snack cakes. Oreo ‘cake’ on the outside, with a cream filling a’ la Oreos.

A week or two ago, Melony had some at work and let me try one. I decided to wait until I’d bought some of my own to form my opinion.

Last night, I saw a little 3-pack in the checkout line, so I grabbed ‘em.

My opinion was the same. The cake part gives off a sort of stale flavor. This is after trying them twice, so I don’t feel like I ended up with stale ones. They also remind me of another snack cake that’s already out, and been out for a long time, I just couldn’t put my finger on which one it was.

Now, for the second one, I decided to peel off the top and try just the cream filling—the cream filling is actually top-notch! I really like the filling a lot, and would love to see them sell it separately–similar to marshmallow cream.

Overall, I’d say they’re worth a try. The filling is incredible, so maybe you’ll get lucky and the cake won’t taste stale to you. Maybe I’m just weird!

If you’re a cheese freak like me, you noticed the change in Velveeta Shells and Cheese 3-4 years ago. It was enough of a change that I stopped eating it. It was a sad time.

After a while, I really started craving it, so I decided to try some things out. I bought a box ‘with bacon’ to try out. I figured maybe the bacon would distract me enough from the flavor….just enough to satisfy me.

What I found was that the cheese used in this variety, is much closer to the original velveeta flavor. So close that, I buy it on a regular basis.

So that’s just a little tip for those of you who also miss the old Velveeta flavor.

I’m not sure how flavors differ just in different packaging types, but I think you’ve all experienced that once or twice.