Year: 2012

NEWS: Subway Trying Out a Chipotle Beef Teriyaki & Cheese in Alaska…and Maybe Other Places

Marvo 3 Comments

Chipotle Beef Teriyaki & Cheese Sign

The other day, Impulsive Buy reader Michelle from Alaska let me know about a new Subway sandwich she saw a commercial for — the Chipotle Beef Teriyaki & Cheese.

The combination of chipotle and teriyaki sounded really weird, so I thought she might be going crazy due to the extreme lack of daylight this time of year in Alaska, but she later emailed me with written and visual proof that this limited time only sandwich exists. So it’s Subway that might be crazy.

Here’s what Michelle thought of the sandwich:

So…just meat, cheese, sauces, and lettuce & tomato on flatbread. I think it looked pretty close to the sign sandwich. Since you get to watch the creative process (S.A. layering meat & cheese onto bread), I can tell you it went like this: bread, meat, teriyaki sauce, shredded cheese (yellow & white, so I’m assuming cheddar-jack), toaster oven, chipotle sauce, and finally, lettuce & tomato. That’s a wrap!

It tasted like what I thought: two very different sauces on a toasted steak & cheese (I’m from Philly and cannot in good conscience call this a true cheese steak). The sandwich is advertised with the phrase “sweet heat” and someone thought teriyaki & chipotle sauces were the answer here. The teriyaki does provide an underlying sweetness, and the chipotle yields the back-end kick, but the basic flavors of soy and cumin just do not make sense to me. You know, where there is soy sauce, cheese is not. Finally, it strikes me as the sandwich you’d create in college, on a dare, or while impaired…the “using every condiment in the fridge” sort of thing. Eh, maybe it was like two young lovers trying to make it work when they clearly come from two different worlds. Is there a “West Side Story” angle?

Subway Chipotle Beef Teriyaki & Cheese

I haven’t seen the Chipotle Beef Teriyaki & Cheese being offered at Subway restaurants here on this rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, so it might only be available in certain regions. However, the sandwich appears to made with ingredients that every Subway has, so it should be easy to reproduce. If you’ve seen it being offered at a Subway in your area, let us know in the comments.

Images provided by Michelle

NEWS: If You Got Your Glutton On This Holiday Season, Jamba’s New Fit ‘n Fruitful Smoothies May Help You

Marvo 1 Comment

I’m afraid to step on a scale or look at myself naked in the mirror after being a food whore for the past few weeks. During that time there have been holiday dinners, quarts of egg nog, dozens of cookies, pieces of cakes, slices of pies, and people giving me candy as if I’m a bank teller but the only currency I accept are chocolate Santas and Hershey’s Kisses.

After all that I probably need to lose weight and convince my friends and family to give $5 gift cards instead of enough candy to make my kitchen counter look like I’m preparing for Halloween. Well, Jamba Juice recently introduced their new line of Fit ‘n Fruitful Smoothies to help people lose weight.

The Fit ‘n Fruitful Smoothies are being promoted as a meal substitute and come in three flavors: Berry Blend, Strawberry Raspberry Banana, and Peach Mango. Each smoothie has 14 essential vitamins and minerals, are a great source of protein and fiber, contains two or more servings of fruit, and are made with a Weight Burner Boost.

According to the Jamba Juice website, the Weight Burner Boost is made with conjugated linoleic acid, or “CLA,” which is derived from safflower oil. CLA is a naturally occurring fatty acid that…ARRRGGGGHHH! TOO MUCH BORING SCIENCE TALK!

An Original size Berry Blend has 390 calories, 5 grams of fat, 0.5 grams of saturated fat, 95 milligrams of sodium, 74 grams of carbohydrates, 8 grams of fiber, 54 grams of sugar, 13 grams of protein. A Peach Mango in an Original size cup has 400 calories, 4.5 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 90 milligrams of sodium, 79 grams of carbohydrates, 7 grams of fiber, 61 grams of sugar, and 13 grams of protein. Finally, an Original size Strawberry Raspberry Banana has 390 calories, 4.5 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 85 milligrams of sodium, 75 grams of carbohydrates, 9 grams of fiber, 59 grams of sugar, and 13 grams of protein.

REVIEW: McDonald’s Apple Cinnamon Walnut Oatmeal

Stephanie 5 Comments

McDonald’s Apple Cinnamon Walnut Oatmeal

I own this amazing pair of sleek, light-as-a-feather pants that changed my attitude about what pants could be. I knew that I had to buy them when the changing room attendant began to wax poetic about her own pair that was waiting for her at home after a long day at work. These pants had it all: comfort, good taste, and style. I would not be embarrassed to be seen wearing them in public, unlike other “comfortable pants” I happen to own (I’m looking at you faded high school gym sweatpants). The price was a little steep, but I knew I was making a good investment on these heavenly pants.

I recently discovered that the same could be said for McDonald’s new Apple Cinnamon Walnut Oatmeal. Since it’s the latest in a long line of fast food establishment oatmeal initiatives, it’s certainly fashionable, and since it is only available in a few markets right now, it’s something you can brag about to friends (if you’re in the habit of bragging about what you ate… which is pretty ridiculous, so please don’t.)

The Apple Cinnamon Walnut oatmeal also costs more than you’d want to pay for instant oatmeal, but you knew what you were getting into when you pulled your car into a McDonald’s drive-through for breakfast, instead of boiling some water and tearing open a packet of Quaker Instant, so shut your mouth.

McDonald's Apple Cinnamon Walnut Oatmeal Walnuts

The oatmeal itself is pretty hearty. When you receive it, it’s already filled with generous chunks of apples (different types of apples, I may add) and thickened with light cream. In fact, if it weren’t for the delicious cinnamon flavor of the rolled oats and the accompanying packet of chopped walnuts you have to add in yourself, this oatmeal would be almost the same as the Fruit & Maple version, minus the dried cranberries and raisins. Even the McDonald’s where I bought my Apple Cinnamon Walnut Oatmeal got confused and handed me the older variety without so much as a blink! I mean, I understand the two oatmeal varieties look sort of the same, but you’d think there would be safeguards in place! Oh, wait, never mind, this is McDonald’s during the breakfast rush, not NASA. If someone’s headed for a burst O-Ring it would probably be the dudes in the headsets who don’t make eighty grand.

McDonald's Apple Cinnamon Walnut Oatmeal Closeup

The Apple Cinnamon Walnut Oatmeal is warm, filling and tasty, but the only thing that keeps it from getting a higher rating from me is the presentation. Seriously, it looks very unappetizing. When they first give it to you, the cream hasn’t really seeped into the oats, so it leaves a thin, cloudy layer of liquid at the top. Not cute. You really have to stir it up a bit to give it a more natural-looking (and non-disgusting) appearance. It’s confusing to the senses.

The oatmeal smells wonderful, and the container is hot and inviting, but it looks like baby food … after the baby has eaten it and spit it back up. As we’ve already seen with the Fruit & Maple Oatmeal, it’s not guaranteed that every McDonald’s location will serve its oatmeal in this horrible fashion. Just be prepared to be a little frightened by the oatmeal straight off, give it a good stir and enjoy. Hopefully in some comfortable and stylish pants.

(Nutrition Facts – 1 bowl – 270 calories, 8 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 10 milligrams of cholesterol, 105 milligrams of sodium, 45 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of fiber, 19 grams of sugar, and 6 grams of protein.)

Other McDonald’s Apple Cinnamon Walnut Oatmeal reviews:
Brand Eating
Serious Eats

Item: McDonald’s Apple Cinnamon Walnut Oatmeal
Price: $2.19
Size: 1 bowl
Purchased at: McDonald’s
Rating: 7 out of 10
Pros: Oatmeal initiatives. Generous amount of apple chunks. Delicious cinnamon flavor. NASA. Heavenly pants.
Cons: Can be easily mistaken for the Fruit & Maple version by non-NASA employees. Only available in limited markets. Must mix in the chopped walnuts on your own. Oatmeal’s presentation can be likened to baby vomit.

NEWS: New Savannah Smiles Girl Scout Cookie Celebrates the Organization’s 100th Anniversary, So Make a Girl Scout Smile By Buying A Box From Them

Marvo 4 Comments

Office Supplies - 41/365

The new Savannah Smiles Girl Scout Cookie might just convince me to buy Girl Scout Cookies instead of having to awkwardly explain to a 10-year-old girl why I’m not buying them, which usually involves me saying too much, like telling the little girl that my rejection will prepare her for her future boyfriend breakups and explaining that I don’t have a checkbook on me because this is the 21st century and the only person who writes checks is my grandma when she sends me money on my birthday.

The newest Girl Scout treat is a lemon-flavored cookie that’s dusted with powdered sugar. The cookie’s shape makes it look like a smile, hence the name, Savannah Smiles. Of course, if you flip the cookie upside down, it turns into a frown, which I guess if you wanted to give it a name, you could call it Fayetteville Frowns.

Savannah Smiles were added to the Girl Scout cookie line up to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts, which began in Savannah, Georgia by Juliette Gordon Low.

Booyah! History lesson! You’ll thank me when it comes up in Jeopardy.

A serving of five Savannah Smiles cookies has 140 calories, 45 calories from fat, 5 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 125 milligrams of sodium, 23 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 10 grams of sugar, and 1 gram of protein.

Source: Foodbeast

Image via flickr user Jamiesrabbits / CC BY 2.0

REVIEW: Kellogg’s Krave Chocolate Cereal

Jasper 47 Comments

Kellogg's Chocolate Krave

Like so many 20-somethings, I often feel like I’m not a girl, not yet a woman. I have my own job, apartment, and 401k, but I also still play video games, don’t know how to sew buttons back on my shirts, and am totally fine with appropriating Britney Spears lyrics to describe my existential circumstances.

I think my relationship with breakfast cereal is emblematic of this condition of emerging adulthood. I’ve finally realized that two cups of coffee don’t pass as breakfast for proper, health-minded adults, so I dutifully eat some Shredded Wheat or Kashi most mornings. But anytime I have ready access to children’s cereals, I’ll spend all day plotting my next foray into the break room for another bowl of sugary goodness.

(Last year, I lived across the street from my office, and if I ever saw Cinnamon Toast Crunch in the break room late in the week, I’d go into work on the weekends for breakfast. I once got into the elevator with a coworker on a Saturday morning, and I felt compelled to stick around for an hour pretending to have non-Cinnamon Toast Crunch-related business to handle so he wouldn’t think I was a huge weirdo like all of you do right now.)

All of this is a very roundabout way of asking: does Kellogg’s new Krave Chocolate Cereal pass muster as an adult cereal? Before actually eating any, I ran through the evidence:

Uh, it’s CHOCOLATE for breakfast. Not adult.

That being said, it’s actually not bad, health-wise – whole grains, no high fructose corn syrup, and less sugar than a lot of other cereals. Adult.

Kooky fonts on the box and krazy spelling in the name. Not adult.

Absence of an anthropomorphic animal mascot. Adult.

There’s a visual on the official website of an anthropomorphic piece of Krave cereal that, judging by the chocolate around its mouth and its “CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE YUM YUM” sign, may have recently committed an unspeakable act of cannibalism while serving on a picket line of some sort. Unclear, but kind of disturbing.

Based on my completely arbitrary set of criteria, there’s no definitive proof that Krave is an adult cereal. That also means there’s no definitive proof that it’s not an adult cereal, so I will proceed to the review with no qualms about setting back my slow march towards adulthood once again.

A very pleasant smell of chocolate wafted out as soon as I opened the bag. Each piece of cereal was a bit larger than a Chex, and many pieces either had flecks of chocolate on the outside or were somehow transparent enough for me to see the chocolate on the inside.

Kellogg's Chocolate Krave Innards

I started by eating a couple pieces dry. Krave is crunchy without being exceedingly so (think Chex or Lays potato chips rather than Cap’n Crunch or kettle chips), and the outer shell’s lightly crunchy texture and its lightly sweetened taste work well together. I was disappointed at first with the amount of the signature ingredient — when I bit pieces in half, I could see that there was relatively little chocolate within the shells, and the taste of chocolate in each individual piece was underwhelming, too.

Kellogg's Chocolate Krave Closeup

However, when I added milk to a full bowl of Krave and ate whole spoonfuls, the chocolate flavor began to shine. Each bite tasted more chocolaty than the last, yet at no point did it ever get to be too chocolaty. (Sidenote: did you know Microsoft spellcheck will suggest “chocolatier” instead of “more chocolaty”? And then tell you that “chocolatier” is not actually a word?) I also detected a slight hint of hazelnut, though the list of ingredients actually makes no mention of that. The cereal retained its crunchiness fairly well in the milk, but I was irritated that none of the chocolate leaked out to provide me with a bowl of chocolate milk at the end.

Is Kellogg’s Krave an “adult” cereal? No. Would I pretend to have work to do on a Saturday morning just to eat a bowl? No. Still, I definitely enjoyed it and would recommend you grab a box. Krave doesn’t fit into my adult cereal rotation, nor is it really sweet enough to qualify as a childish indulgence, but Amazon would only sell me Krave in a pack of four. I guess I’ll have to take the adult path of not being wasteful and eat many, many more bowls of Krave in the near future.

(Nutrition Facts – 3/4 cup (cereal only) – 120 calories, 30 calories from fat, 3.5 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 1.5 grams of polyunsaturated fat, 1 gram of monounsaturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 100 milligrams of sodium, 70 milligrams of potassium, 24 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 11 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein, and a bunch of vitamin and minerals.)

Item: Kellogg’s Krave Chocolate Cereal
Price: $5.00 per box (4-pack for $20)
Size: 11.4 ounce box
Purchased at: Amazon
Rating: 7 out of 10
Pros: Nice chocolate smell. Appropriately crunchy. Lightly sweetened. Chocolate flavor builds as you eat more. Retains its crunchiness fairly well in milk. Has whole grains and no high fructose corn syrup. Eating chocolate for breakfast. Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Britney Spears’ first album.
Cons: Amount of chocolate may be disappointing if you’re only eating a small serving. Doesn’t leave behind chocolate milk. Kind of pricey, now that I think about it. Amazon not allowing me to buy a single box. Cereal cannibalism. Not living across the street from the office.