Coconut with a Side of Play-Dough

Coconut & Chocolate Crunch Gelato

Teeth are stupid, we get baby teeth and those last us like, 12 years (or whatever), only to be replaced with something that needs to last us another 70+ and even then they might not grow in "right." It made sense when life expectancy was like, 35, but this is 2022. George Jetson was (supposedly) born this year, shouldn't we GATTACA this stuff up by now to genetically ensure our collective dental future? Or is there a big dental conspiracy so they charge us a fortune? 

Long story short, I went in for my normal cleaning and ended up getting dental surgery. It was expensive, and it sucked. On a positive note, I get to eat a bunch of soft, cool, foods. Like ice cream, or gelato while I heal, so I grabbed a bunch of stuff to try. Including this gelato. 

A Double Dose of Balls (I said what I said) - Orange Cream Pop & S'Mores

Herr's S'Mores and Orange Cream Pop Balls - Ollie's

At first glance, the Herr's snack ball line seems a bit...juvenile. I used to work in daycare (which seems like a lifetime ago), and ball-shaped things like these were perfect for snack time. They're fun, easy for little fingers to grab, easy to chew, and in the case of Herr's, they come in a variety of colors and sweet flavors. It's a toddler's dream. Along with the child-like-appeal, the packaging always feels slapped together, making these easy to dismiss as a novelty. I looked down on these for a long time, thinking it's child-food, but after trying the Funnel Cake Balls I was singing a different tune. 

Funnel Cake opened my eyes to these being more legit than I thought, and while not every flavor was a winner (like the lack-luster Cotton Candy), I decided I would do my best to try the rest of the line-up this time around. So let's give these two flavors a go! 

Aldi Hot Cocoa Cremes - Do these look familiar?

Hot Cocoa Cremes - Aldi

At first glance, these should look pretty familiar. It's a pretty blatant dupe for the Hot Cocoa Oreos first released in 2017-2018. (Phew, that post did NOT age well. Ouch. On a lot of levels.) We have a big ol' red mug, the "O's" are all puffy marshmallows, and the packaging is a dark almost Oreo-blue. While the general design concept and layout, and even the calorie count, are the same as Oreo's, there are a few key differences to note. 

For starters, the Oreo version actually had two layers of creme filling. A white, presumably marshmallow, layer, and a cocoa-brown one. Here we have one flavor, a light brown version that is ideally a combination of the two. Then there is the quirky ingredients and nutritional information. (These Aldi cookies pack an interesting amount of sodium.) Safe to say, these are not a no-frills re-release of a seasonal Oreo flavor. And while I love to see Aldi do that with expensive popular products, it's only good if it tastes good. 

Like a Tastykake Time Forgot

Chocolate Banana Mochi Pie Cookies  - H-Mart

Is it a cookie? A pie? Mochi? All of the above! This mish-mash of a product was just too intriguing to ignore.

Inside the bag are tiny individually wrapped cookies. And when I say "tiny," I mean it. These are easily one bite, two if you want to be dainty. 

Happy New Year - Hot Cocoa Oreo Review and DAILY REVIEWS ARE BACK! (For Real This Time)

Hot Cocoa Oreos - Target $3.99

Happy New Year everyone! 

A lot happened in 2017: I got a new job, bought my first house, my boyfriend, his daughter, and I moved in together, we got a chinchilla, and I de-mosquitoed our above-ground swimming pool. (There is hilarious footage of me with trash bags duct taped to my legs, wading into the water to drain it.) One thing that didn't happen....was blogging. 

2017 was my worst blogging-year to-date and I'm disappointed that I wasn't able to keep up with it, but there's no better time to get my blogging-butt in gear than today. My goal for 2018 is to get back into daily blogging, and to jump-start that goal I have several reviews scheduled for this week! (Hooray for planning ahead!)  

It's official! Daily reviews are back starting today, and there's no better way to start than with a food-blogging staple, "new" Oreos! (I put "new" in quotes because, like always, I'm late to the party, but they're still new, so it counts.)

Popcorn Flavored Cocoa?

Limited Edition Sweet Popcorn Options Cocoa - Gift from Food Review UK

So this has been in my stash for ages, because I really didn't want to review it, but after trying the Buttered Popcorn Mike and Ike's I figured there was no better time than the present.

Since it's just a little hot cocoa packet there's not much for me to talk about as far as packaging, so let's skip the packaging portion of the review and get this over with get right down to it!

Choceur Peppermint Meltaways - Aldi

Choceur Peppermint Meltaways - Aldi

Bah, Humbug. I may be a Scrooge-y old Grinch when it comes to the winter holidays, but even I can't resist the allure of yummy chocolate mints.

I picked these up on a recent trip to Aldi and thought it'd be a good idea to hurry up and review them while they're relevant, plus once photographed, I can share them at my annual cookie swap. This is my 6th year hosting a swap, and each time I model the party's theme after a movie franchise with that year's number of sequels. This year?

I went with the cinematic classic, Leprechaun 6: Back 2 tha Hood. I'm a big fan of bad horror franchises like Leprechaun, Puppet Master and Demonic Toys, so it's my way of working a little Halloween into the Holiday spirit.

Honestly, I'm starting to run out of ideas, so if any of you have some fun bad movie theme suggestions for next year, be sure to leave them down below. If I can't think of something I might just have to "reboot" next year's theme.

Okay, enough about future party planning, time to stuff my face with some chocolate!

Snackbusters - 3 Flavors of Organic Brownie Brittle

If there's something weird
And it don't look good
Who you gonna call
Snackbusters!

I'm back again with another stash busting post, this time I have three different flavors of Brownie Brittle, and they're all Organic! Will being organic make it less addicting and flavorful than normal Brownie Brittle? Can healthier junkfood still taste good? Time to find out! 

The packaging for all three bags in the same, so there's not much ground for me to cover there, so I'm going to focus on taste for this trio of crispy crunchy brownie goodness.

Maltesers Malty Chocolate Drink - Food Review UK

Maltesers Malty Chocolate Drink - Food Review UK

I made 2 YouTube videos (video 1, video 2) reviewing the products I got from my swap with Food Review UK, which was awesome, but a few of the products they sent over required a bit more prep so along with the videos I have a few items I'll be reviewing in blog post form. The first of which being this awesome Maltesers drink powder!

Cookies & Creme Cookie Butter - Trader Joe's

 Cookies & Creme Cookie Butter - Trader Joe's 

From this point on, reviews are back on schedule! (Hooray for consistency!) 

How are you surviving this winter weather? I live on the East Coast in America, and where I live I've been pretty lucky. We got about a foot and a half of snow over the weekend, but the weather has warmed up quite a bit and everything is (thankfully) melting away quickly. I was snowed in away from home, which meant being away from my desktop computer, so I didn't get to work on the blog, but if you follow me on Instagram you got to see a few of the things I munched on while hiding out indoors and avoiding shoveling. To prevent that from happening again, I'm looking into laptops so that I can more easily work on the blog when I'm on the go. I've always preferred desktops and I've never had a laptop computer before, so do any of you have laptop recommendations? (Right now I'm kind of looking at this one, so I can run the Adobe suite, blog, and do graphic design work on the go. Any advice? or opinions?)

Okay, on to today's review, cookie butter!

Hot Cocoa m&m's - Walmart (Exclusive)

Hot Cocoa m&m's - Walmart (Exclusive) 

Happy New Year everyone! I hope your 2016 is off to an amazing start! Sorry for the hiatus, if you follow my Twitter (that I'm trying to use more) you'll know that my car was involved in an accident right before the holidays and that my life has been pretty hectic getting all of that straightened out. I was able to buy a new used car a few days later to get back to work, and the second I got back into my old routine...I got sick. Really sick. My voice sounds oh so sexy right now, but I'm not going to let that stop me! The show blog must go on!

These Hot Cocoa m&m's were a Walmart exclusive, and they were the seasonal counterpart to the Target Exclusive Café Mocha m&m's. (Which I was a big fan of and reviewed HERE.) I was originally going to skip this seasonal sweet because, well...I thought it was a gimmick and nothing more. I mean, m&m's are already chocolate flavored, and hot cocoa is just a drinkable milk chocolate, so how are these going to taste any different than the normal candy? After talking to Cybele and seeing The Impulsive Buy's photos showing the layered candy inside, my curiosity got the best of me, and I grabbed a bag for myself.

Hot Cocoa Chips Ahoy! - Walmart

Hot Cocoa Chips Ahoy! - Walmart

After Angie's attempt at a hot Cocoa popcorn left me cold, I decided to try Chips Ahoy's take on the classic winter beverage, because I'm a glutton for punishment and never learn from my past mistakes. In all seriousness, back when I guested on the Nosh show we discussed these cookies in their Nosh or Not segment, and I called them out on being a normal chocolate cookie hiding under a fancy seasonal name. It must just be a chocolate cookie with chocolate and white chocolate chips, right? Just a marketing ploy? Oh how wrong I was.

Speculoos Cookie Cocoa Swirl - Trader Joes

Speculoos Cookie Cocoa Swirl - Trader Joes

Speculoos spread is a super popular item from Trader Joe's that comes in a few different flavor variations, but what is "Speculoos" anyway? Before shopping at Trader Joe's I'd never heard of it before, so I looked it up on the ever wonderful Wikipedia to find out more about this silly sounding spread.

Apparently, Speculoos refers to spiced cookies, of Dutch and Belgian origin, which are commonly associated with the winter holiday season. The spices used in the cookies are cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cardamom and white pepper. For the most part, it sounds like a spreadable version of a gingerbread cookie, but the flavor profile is a bit more complex. This stuff has been listed as one of the top 10 Trader Joe's items for the last 3-4 years, and it's inspired some new, less traditional, flavor variations. (Like the pumpkin pie version I reviewed this fall.) 

This version I have here is kind of like an American-European mash-up. We get the spicy goodness of the European Speculoos, mixed with a Oreo puree! Spreadable cross-continental cookie goodness? Don't mind if I do!

Chocolate Passport - Trader Joe's: Marlton, NJ (Tanzania)

Chocolate Passport (Tanzania) - Trader Joe's: Marlton, NJ

Today I'll be taking a break from all my pumpkin posts (we're almost done!) to show you this freaking gorgeous chocolate gift-set from Trader Joe's. I was walking around the shop, buying my usual treats, when I saw this on a wooden table by the checkout lines. The packaging caught my eye, so I made a beeline right to it and tossed it into my cart. I thought this might make a nifty little gift item for those of you still shopping for the holidays, so I thought I'd take a moment to review it and let you know what I think.