The Styrofoam of Ice Creams

 Fruity Pebbles Light Ice Cream Pint - Walgreens

I'm no food scientist, so I can't explain to you the chemical make-up of...whatever this is. Instead, let me explain it to you with childhood memories and products.

My Boyfriend Went KETO - The Worst Culinary Week of My Life

I didn't plan on writing about this (hence the bad cellphone pics), but it turned out to be a really interesting experience and worth blogging about. 

Mid-December, wanting to be healthier for the New Year, my boyfriend suggested we go Keto, and my original response was, "I'd rather die." 

At that point I only understood the most basic concept of Keto, which is that it limits carbohydrate intake, forcing your body into burning fat stores instead. Wanting to strengthen my argument (and hoping to talk my boyfriend out of it) I started researching Ketogenic diets online. Several weeks of Pro-Keto YouTube videos, blog posts, recipes, and Reddit threads later, I had a much better understanding...and I still refused to do it. 

As I thought, the goal of a Ketogenic diets is to burn keytones for energy, and to do that, you need to cut your carb intake down to very VERY low levels, somewhere between 20-100 grams per day, while eating a diet rich with proteins and fats. This dietary-lifestyle has it's benefits, like balancing out sugars for diabetics, or treating some forms of epilepsy, but it's pretty extreme for a casual dieter such as myself. To put it into perspective, one average-sized apple contains 25 grams of carbs. If you're on the lower end of the carb-limiting spectrum, that already put you over your daily limit. 

Now, more informed, and still refusing to do it (this time with a better argument), I still  supported my boyfriend's decision to give it a try. Instead of joining him on his diet journey, I supported him by cooking Keto recipes all week. There were some successes, a lot of failures, and intense grumpiness...

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!

Sparkling Ice - ???

Sparkling Ice - ???

Third time’s the charm?

Sadly I was out of grapefruit and I didn’t have any pink props for the photo session. (I am not a fan of pink, so I don’t own much pink.)

I already shared my thoughts on the aesthetics of this line, so If you want to check that out, you can click HERE.

The lemonade was better than the blueberry pomegranate, so I thought that the citrus flavoring might cover up the artificial sweetener a bit better than the other fruity options. I decided to test this hypothesis by trying the grapefruit Sparkling Ice.

Sparkling Ice - ???

Sparkling Ice - ???

I’m back with my second flavor of Sparkling Ice.

To keep these photos from being too repetitive and boring I decided to play around with some props. (It makes the photo taking process a lot more fun for me since these bottles look almost exactly the same.)

I already shared my thoughts on the aesthetics of this line, so If you want to check that out, you can click HERE.

The last flavor I reviewed was the blueberry pomegranate, which was tolerable, but I have no desire to ever drink it again. Since lemonade is such a classic drink I imagine it’s pretty hard to mess up, so I have high hopes for this one.

As I poured this into my glass I noticed that it smelled like flat diet Sprite. (It’s sweet, and tangy with lemon juice notes but very lightly carbonated.)

I took a sip, and the initial flavor was surprisingly tangy.  It was just like drinking a lightly carbonated batch of Country Time lemonade. Although this drink starts out tasting great, that artificial sweetener (sucrose) leaves a diet taste in your mouth.

I was pretty happy with this flavor, it’s better than the blueberry pomegranate, but the aftertaste has the same artificial chemical-like sweetness. So there is no way you are passing this off as anything but a diet drink.

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Sparkling Ice - ???

Sparkling Ice - ???

My uncle actually brought these over, so I have no idea where these specific bottles came from. (I’m pretty sure you can buy this brand at any grocery or convenience store in America though.)

I have a lot of flavors to review, 7 to be exact, but I’ll be mixing these in with other reviews to keep things fresh and interesting. (Personally, I know I don’t want to drink this stuff for 7 days straight, and I can bet that none of you would want to read 7 of these reviews in a row. )

All of the bottles and labels are clear, so the product provides a nice pop of color. (I had way too much fun lining up the flavors/colors for the first photo. I did a few arrangements and this was my favorite. I tried to balance out all the “red” flavors.”)

As you can see in the group shot, the label design is very consistent. (The strawberry lemonade version has black text and “lemonade” on the label, but it still looks like the rest of the line.) The typography for this label is really crisp and clean, and I like the minimal imagery used at the top of each bottle to visually indicate the flavor. Design-wise, this is a really nice product, but how will it taste? I’ve been burned by good designs before. (I’m looking at you Neuro.)

Skinny Cow Peanut Butter Creme Chocolates - Dollar General : Cherry Hill, NJ

Skinny Cow Peanut Butter Creme Chocolates - Dollar General : Cherry Hill, NJ

(I bought the Key Lime Coconut Patties as the same time.)

I bought these from the dollar store because I recognized them from a review on Candy Blog. (One of my favorite foodie sites.) For some reason I remembered these getting a really favorable review, so I grabbed a package.

I have had skinny Cow products before, and while I liked the product, I hated the logo. It’s just plain creepy. A humanized cow with an hourglass figure wrapped in measuring tape? Combine that image with the slightly suggestive pose and you have a decent amount of nightmare fuel. (This pose actually reminds me of Molly Ringwald’s from The Breakfast Club.) Logo aside, this design has a decent layout. Personally, I would tweak the sizing of the text and make everything a little bit larger, but the placement allows the design to flow nicely.