Shape Your Weigh

Daryl's Bars - Protein Bar Review - Double Chocolate Brownie

Workout today was 30 minutes of HIIT cardio.  I'm taking a rest day from weights and will do the Friday Chest/Biceps/Abs workout tomorrow morning. :)  I prefer to do my weight training on the weekend and I still hurt from Wednesday and Thursday so resting today makes sense!

I did a blog post the other day about the Daryl's Bars - S'mores protein bar and how presently surprised I was with the taste and texture.  While I was at Sobeys I decided to pick up the Double Chocolate Brownie to give it a try as well.  You know...for a blog post and all LOL.  First impression, it's not nearly as sweet as the S'mores but still good.  I would buy it again but it would be my second pick.  I think I'll have to make another trip to Sobeys and pick up a couple more flavours so I can give a full review of all available options. ;) 

Happy Friday everyone!

Nutritional Information

• Calories: 236
• Fat: 8g
• Saturated: 2g
• Sodium: 50mg
• Carbs: 18g
• Fibre: 4g
• Sugar: 4g
• Protein: 22g

Day 38 of 99 - A Replacement for Chips - Sour Cream & Onion Crisy Minis Reviews

Although I'm sure these aren't the healthiest thing I could be snacking on as far as providing nutritional value - I enjoy snacking on these Crispy Minis from time to time when watching Netflix in the evening.  They come in different flavors but so far my favorite is the Sour Cream & Onion.  It's a nice switch from popcorn and fewer calories than regular potato chips.  You can typically find them on sale at Sobeys or the SuperStore for $1.99 or 3 for $5.00 too which isn't too bad. :)

Nutritional Info (20 grams ~20 chips)

Calories: 90
Protein: 1g
Carbs: 14g
Fat: 3.5g
Fibre: 1g

Day 25 of 99 - Halo Top Peanut Butter Swirl

I was at the SuperStore tonight after teaching POUND in Stratford and noticed the HALO TOP ice creams were on mark down for $2.99 vs their typical $5.99-$6.99 price tag.  If anyone recalls, I already reviewed the Birthday Cake flavor and found it was just okay.  This one was kind of going the same route the first couple of bites until I got a piece of the peanut butter swirl then it was totally yum! :)  I would definitely buy this again for $2.99.  Not sure it's worth the $7 though.  It's not as watered down as the birthday cake flavor, but not quite as creamy as real ice cream.  At any rate, I still felt like this was a nice low calorie treat for the price. :)

Nutrition (Per 1/2 cup)

Calories: 90
Fat: 3.5g
Saturated Fat: 1.5g
Carbohydrate: 15g
Fiber: 3g
Sugar: 6g
Sugar Alcohol: 5g
Protein: 5g

Day 11 of 99 - Kirkland Nut Bar Review

Thank you to my friend Michelle MacLaren for coming to my rescue today when I forgot to pack my snack for this afternoon!  Rather than hitting the vending machine for something sugary I was able to try one of these Kirkland Nut Bars. :)

I give this a 10/10 for flavour. It was delicious if you like sweet and salty.  I may have to pick up a box for myself now :)

 

Nutritional Information: 

Calories: 210
Protein: 6g
Carbs: 14g
Fat: 16g
Fiber:7g

 

Halo Top Birthday Cake Review

After years of watching Americans post their pictures of Halo Top ice cream and going on and on about how amazing it is, I finally broke down and bought one this evening.  The $8.99 price tag kept me away up until this point, but the Sobeys in Montague had it on sale for $5.99.  It's still far more expensive than ADL ice cream which you can get for $3.99-$4.99 when it's on sale, but I digress.

I decided to try the Birthday Cake flavor since it's lower calorie and the net carb count is lower compared to some other flavours.  First impression was that it was sweeter than I thought it would be but after a couple of spoonfuls I felt like it had the taste and texture of watered down ice cream.

On a scale of 1-10 I give it a 5 or 6.  This would fall under my "Won't be buying again category".  Sorry for any fans out there!  If I want ice cream bad enough, I'll be sticking with my regular ADL ;-)

Nutritional Information (Per 1/2 cup)

Calories: 80
Fat: 2.5 g
Saturated Fat: 1.5 g
Sodium: 120 mg
Carbohydrate: 15 g
Fiber: 3 g
Sugar: 6 g
Sugar Alcohol:  5 g
Protein: 5g

Kirkland Protein Bars - An Alternative to Quest Bars?

I've written reviews for other protein bars before and wanted to do a quick write up on the Kirkland brand.  My brother bought a box of these for me during a trip to Costco. You get 20 bars in a box and a single box is roughly $35. In my opinion, they taste a lot like the Quest chocolate chip cookie dough and brownie bars but at a fraction of the cost (less than $2/bar vs nearly $4 for Quest). The only drawback is that the Kirkland brand only comes with 2 flavors - chocolate chip and brownie but I don't mind that. :)

Out of the two bars, my preference is for the chocolate chip but I like the brownie one too. These are my go to bars for a morning or afternoon snack.

I recently discovered that you can order these bars online through Costco without a membership card. I placed my order on the weekend and had the bars by Wednesday. No off island trip or bridge toll required. :)

Nutritional Information - Chocolate Chip Cookie

Calories: 190
Fat: 7g
Saturated Fat: 2.5g
Carbs: 22g
Fiber: 15g
Sugar: 1g
Erythritol: 4g
Protein: 21g

Nutritional Information - Brownie

Calories: 190
Fat: 7g
Saturated Fat: 2.5g
Carbs: 23g
Fiber: 15g
Sugar: 1g
Erythritol: 4g
Protein: 21g

T-FAL Actifry Review

Last Christmas I acquired an amazing deal from a friend who wanted to sell their Actifry. Roy and I have been wanting one for a while but the price range always stopped us from making the purchase. My friend who owned one decided she no longer liked it and was selling it for $50 so I bought it quick. I can honestly say it's one of the best purchases we ever made.  No joke, if it broke tomorrow I'd have to go out and buy another one. It's become a staple among our appliances, where even the kids love to use it.  What do we cook in it? Well I'm so glad you asked. ;)

I love to cook homemade "healthy" fries which in the past, I'd cut up, rinse, cook in the microwave for a few minutes, then toss in the oven. No more of that! Now with the Actifry I just cut up my potatoes, throw them in the Actifry with or without a little bit of oil (they crisp up nicer if you add oil), turn on the Actifry and wait. No messing around with waiting for the oven to pre-heat etc. In the same amount of time, roughly 20 minutes, I get yummy homemade fries. :) I've cooked regular fries, sweet potato fries and the kids have even thrown in bagged fries from the freezer. They love using it after school because it's so simple to use. Just throw the food in and turn it on. lol.  My son Alex has taken to cooking BACON in it during the morning for breakfast. :)

The model we have is T-Fal and it's one of the originals so it doesn't have all the bells and whistles with a timer and such but it works great. Like I said, if it broke tomorrow I'd have to purchase another one. As it stands, I wish we had 2 or a bigger one just so we could cook more in it. It's sometimes a pain waiting to use it if the kids already have something in there. Alex also likes to cook chicken nuggets when he gets home from school because it's so easy.  I've cooked a chicken stir fry in it once and it turned out great. :) The only thing is you sometimes have to open the lid to stir things around if they get stuck around the paddle.

PROS

1. Simple to use even for young pre-teens
2. You can cook healthy foods (uses almost no oil)
3. Convenient
4. Clean up is easy - most parts are dishwasher safe.

CONS

1. Price
2. Takes up counter space
3. Our model is smaller so you can only cook so much in it at one time.

Does anyone else have an Actifry? What recipes would you like to share? 

Oh Yeah! One Bar - Birthday Cake Review

Let's resurrect the blog with a quick and easy post - a review of the Oh Yeah! One Birthday Cake protein bar ;) Last Saturday was a hectic day with Alex's rock band concert in town. I wanted to have a protein snack with me during the evening performance that would satisfy my sweet tooth and require zero cooking/prep. I decided to stop by Active Nutrition in Charlottetown where I purchased 3 new to me protein bars to try. Note - I didn't eat all 3 on the same day ;)

A lot of people have been posting pics of this protein bar on Instagram so I had high expectations. It didn't disappoint - very yummy! My only complaint is that when you're counting macros you want to eat ALL your sprinkles. Mine kept falling off so I had to grab a bowl. ;)

The price is in line with any other protein bar at around $3 each so it's  a once in a while treat. The carb count is higher on these compared to a Quest bar but I still enjoyed it. I would still advocate going for real food versus a protein bar made with sugar alcohols and tons of other ingredients but what the hell. It is what it is lol.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 220
Total Fat: 7g
Saturated Fat: 5g
Cholesterol: 5mg
Sodium: 140mg
Potassium: 85mg
Carbohydrates: 24g
Dietary Fiber: 9g
Sugars: 1g
Sugar Alcohol: 10g
Protein: 21g

What Protein Powder Do You Use?

I've been getting this question a lot the past couple of days on Facebook so instead of replying to half a dozen messages with the same question I'm going to do a blog post and share the link for everyone to read. :)

If you know me, then you know I have a hard time battling food allergies and acne issues. I've tried a lot of protein powders over the years and the only one that has never caused me grief is the New Zealand Perfect Whey protein powder. I buy it from Jason Mosher's Charlottetown Naturally Fit store! I've tried the pineapple mango, salted caramel, chocolate peanut butter, chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. All of them are excellent but my go to is always the  basic vanilla cream so I can mix whatever fruits/flavors I want. I believe a 2lb tub runs around $40 and the 5lb tub is a little over $60? I could be mistaken so don't quote me on those prices. Union members receive a discount and the 5lb tub lasts me forever. 

I don't make money from promoting this product - I just promote what I believe in. I'm sure GNC has great products as well but now that I found one I like and have used for years I don't bother with any others. It blends really well, no chalky texture and tastes good! I love making smoothies with it but have also baked protein cookies, muffins, banana bread and pancakes. You really can't go wrong. :)

If you decide to try it let me know what you think! 

Recipes

• Precision Nutrition Pumpkin Protein Bars
• Protein Waffle with Maple Syrup
• Low Calorie Banana Muffins
• Protein Brownies from Tina
• Chocolate Protein Latte
• Chocolate Blueberry Protein Crepes
• Black Bean Protein Brownies
• Protein-Packed Ice Cream with Peanut Butter Cups
• Peanut Butter Whey Protein Cookies
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bars
• Oatmeal Protein Cookies
• Pina Colada Post Workout Drink
• Homemade Protein Bars
• Tropical Blend Protein Yogurt
• My Sweet Indulgence

Hoof Prints Frozen Yogourt

The last two nights I've had the absolute worst craving for sweets. I actually walked around the SuperStore last night in search of something to indulge myself with but ended up coming home empty handed and feeling frustrated. Tonight I decided to stop fighting the craving and to allow myself to have something. Life is not about total deprivation right? Roy, Alex, Jonathan and I went for a walk to Sobeys and decided to come home with this - Hoof Prints Frozen Yogourt. Yes it has sugar but it's a treat. :) 120 calories for half a cup and it was heavenly. :) If you enjoy regular hoof print ice cream then you will definitely love this! The chocolate caramels are tiny so you don't need to feel guilty about enjoying them. I may just have more of this tomorrow! :)