So Kashi, who makes some of my favorite cereals, has expanded into a few more areas. Frozen entrees, check. Crackers, check. Snack bars, and even pizza? Double check. COOKIES?! CHECK!!!

They have 3 varieties of cookies: Happy Trail Mix, Oatmeal Dark Chocolate and Oatmeal Raisin Flax. Of course I skipped over the oatmeal ones and got Happy Trail Mix:

Happy trail Mix. “Naturally Yummy.” “No Hydrogenated Oils – Zero Grams Trans Fat – All Natural.” SO natural, that in fact, they provide a “freshness” packet along with the cookies that you are instructed NOT to eat. Let’s see how this turns out…

So they’ve got this 3-part thing going on to their cookies. You open the box, then you gotta open the bag, then slide out the tray:

When I first picked up the cookie, I noticed it wasn’t hard like other cookies. It was pretty soft and I was holding the cookie very delicately in fear of smushing it.

(do you like that little sideways smiley we got here?)

It’s a good-sized cookie, keeping the calories at 130. I bit into it — ugh! a little oatmealy. Not as bad as Pepperidge Farm’s Crunchy Granola Cookies though. I actually got used to it really quickly. This cookie is bursting with different textures: 7 whole grains, sesame, raisins, coconut, peanuts, sunflower seeds, cranberries and walnuts are to thank. There’s crunch in the softness, and softness in the crunch. Also, don’t expect a sweet cookie, either; the only sweeteners here are evaporated cane juice crystals and honey. It tastes ok. Less than ok to me, because I hate oats (but I love granola..??), raisins and coconut. The coconut taste is pretty prevalent to me (maybe because I dislike it I notice it?) and I hit a raisin every once in a while.

Because Kashi is a “healthy” brand, let’s go into their nutrition facts. 130 cals for this snack, which is not bad. 4g fiber and 2g of protein, plus 7g of sugar… meh, I’ve seen worse. Not ideal, but I’ve seen worse in snack bars. My real beef with this cookie is that there are NO vitamins or minerals listed at all. For something that boasts “7 whole grains” I would really expect to find more nutrition in here. Compared to a regular cookie — let’s take Pepperidge Farm Soft-Baked Chocolate Chunk Milk Chocolate – it’s almost the same. 150 cals, 1g of protein and you even get 6% of your DV of iron. BUT you lack the 4g of fiber that Kashi has.

• Taste: 6
• Crust and center moistness: soft with different ingredients that crunch all over
• Value: 8 cookies for $3.49 at Target — pretty good
• Overall: I’ve got my anti-oatmeal working for me here, so I’d pass (I also hate raisins and coconut). The lack of real nutrition in this cookie doesn’t make me feel guilty when I choose to pick up another cookie instead. 6

YES! Another cookie review! I came across this in the cookies aisle at Ralphs (I wandered over there from the produce section after I bought fruit and vegetables. Seriously. No, seriously, the layout has it so that the cookie aisle is RIGHT BEHIND the produce. What genius thought of that???) and HAD, HAD, HAD to buy them. And this is a chick who doesn’t normally buy things that aren’t on sale. But I had to. So here goes…

Pepperidge Farm has come out with a new-to-me line of granola cookies. I suppose it is their “healthy” line of cookies? I’ve never seen these kinds of cookies with granola in them; usually it’s oatmeal, and you guys already know how I feel about oatmeal *shudder*. I debated over the $3.99 pricetag, which then led to the question of which cookie I should try:

As you can see there are 4 types: Trail Mix, Triple Nut, Dark Chocolate Almond and Fruit & Nut. I immediately went for the Dark Chocolate Almond I’ve decided to let the nutritional information influence my decision on cookies in this blog since it usually does when I eat them. Therefore it’s worth mentioning that all of these cookies except the Dark Choc Almond had 140 calories per cookie while the Dark Choc Almond had 130. However, the Dark Choc Almond was lacking the tiniest bit in protein. I also am a huge sucker when it comes to dark chocolate so I had to pass up on the nuts and fruit ones.

Is it just me or are the cookies from PF getting smaller..? I suspect that because these cookies are “healthier” they had to lessen the portion size so that they can keep the calorie count low:

Fits right into the palm of my hand. I took the cookie out and my mom asked me to help move the printer — agh, the agony of suspense! After I finally helped her move the printer (along with some books too) I hesitantly bit into this cookie, thinking it was going to be oatmealy. The word “crunchy” on the package also sent images of crumbs falling faster than I can catch them too. Unfortunately, it is a bit oatmealy , but much better than oatmeal :/. The texture is really in between a regular cookie and a cookie with oatmeal in it. Secondly, to my surprise, it’s really not crumbly for how crunchy it is! The taste is definitely different, but I might be able to get used to it. As the major ingredients include “rolled oats, whole grains and steel cut oats,” it’s a lot meatier for a cookie. I understand that my standard for the amount of chocolate a cookie contains is high, but if you reference the picture above, you can see that there isn’t actually that much chocolate in that cookie. The distribution of almond bits was perfect; they blended in great with all those oats.

Now, the big question: would I buy it again? At a non-sale price of $3.99 for 8 cookies, it comes out to $0.50 a  cookie. It doesn’t taste as good as Michelle’s Vegan Cookies (review to come soon!!) which are a comparable 135 calories a cookie but a much more expensive $4.69 for 6 cookies pricetag ($0.71 a cookie). I’m going to have to just say it and vote no. The oatmeal-y / granola-y taste is too much for me (even though I love granola) and the small / medium amount of chocolate they include on the cookie is not enough to make up for it. <3 PF, and I’m happy they are deciding to introduce some “healthier” (in actuality I really mean “not as bad for you”) cookie options. To those of you who can do oatmeal: I urge you to buy these!

• Taste: 7
• Crust and center moistness: Crunchy, but not crumbly
• Value: $3.99 for 8 cookies, that’s ok. 130 calories per cookie, that is GREAT! 8
• Overall: I hate oatmeal but I love granola; this doesn’t do it for me. If you like oatmeal, then you’ll be pleased with this cookie. 7!

What do you think of the idea of a granola cookie? Way to stand out apart from the oatmeal crowd, PF! Have you tried any of the other 3? What do you think?

WOOO!! The holidays are over, and I can finally get back on track with everything. Work, working out (er…maybe), sleeping and most importantly, blogging about COOKIES!

So i’m not exactly done with PF cookies. I got some as a gift! YUMMY! And it’s actually one I’ve never tried before — PF Soft-Baked Choc Chip!

I don’t usually like soft cookies. I like crunchy (I am the one who calls for the outsides of banana bread, the corner of brownies..) but I actually liked these! They weren’t just soft, but they were  moist and smooth. The big chocolate chunks were a great choice over regular chocolate chips simply because the cookies themselves are pretty big. Good taste overall, and not overwhelmingly buttery.

• Taste: 8
• Crust moistness: soft
• Center moistness: soft
• Value: we know how this goes — on sale at $3 for a pack of 8 of medium-sized cookies is a bargain at $0.38 a cookie
• Overall: a definite chocolate chip cookie craving saver, I would buy it again. 9

Okay, so they were on sale at Ralphs!

I got the Snickerdoodles:

So I had a craving for some cinnamon sugar. Sue me.

I couldn’t even wait until I got home to open the bag (hey, I just did 35 minutes of cardio!) and eagerly bit into the self-proclaimed soft baked cookie. I suppose there is a difference between soft cookie and soft baked? Not to say that these were crunchy, but they were harder than I expected. I’ll have to be honest, it was a little disappointing. Not enough cinnamon, a bit too much sugar and much too hard. Have you ever picked up a glass of what you thought was Coke and took a sip only to find out it was Sprite (or even more surprising, water)? Okay, maybe it wasn’t that drastic of a surprise, but I expected better. I’ll have to stick to my normal chocolate chip mac and white choc mac, BUT, the Molasses cookie looks really good too…

If you get this cookie, I STRONGLY recommend you stick it in the microwave for about 8 seconds. It makes for a much softer cookie, and it tastes SO much better because it’s warm

I just have to open this up by saying that Pepperidge Farm cookies are *the* go-to supermarket consumer packaged good cookie for me. I packed a bag of these when I went to China, and thank goodness I did, because apparently these types of cookies are not an Asian thing (see post below about Chinese cookies).

They have several different varieties; I really like the Chocolate Chunk line (except the one with pecans in it — not a huge fan of any other nut besides macadamias in my cookies) and the next line I’m going to get into is the Soft Baked one. I haven’t tried the 100 Calorie packs yet though, I’d be interested in trying those too.

This review will be about the Chocolate Chunk Tahoe White Chocolate Macadamia cookies, since these saved me so badly when I was sans-”normal” cookies:

The cookies are on the large side, definitely; there’s 8 cookies in each bag.

I absolutely love the color on these cookies. Perfectly baked. AND, there’s the exact right amount of “toppings” in the cookies; every bite has more than one chip or nut so you get a mouthful of yumminess rather than a mouthful of just dough sometimes. Don’t think that these cookies are overly sweet though; the dough is not too sweet (just slightly buttery), which balances out the sweetness of the other components. The chocolate chunk ones are the crunchy ones, and believe me when I say to listen to the label. These are very crunchy, which do translate into crumbly, which leads to a mess on your shirt and your mouth (and the dining room floor). In addition, because these are so crunchy / crumbly, sometimes pieces break off that you didn’t bite into (I hope you have fast reflexes. Or don’t listen to the 5-second rule). Another slightly annoying thing about these cookies is that they (moreso than other cookies) leave a lot of cookie on your teeth so your tongue gets a good workout. Other than that, these cookies have a great flavor and aren’t too dry. Pepperidge Farm is also the only brand I can think of that make milk chocolate macadamia nut cookies too, so they definitely get points from me regarding that.

• Taste: 10
• Crust crunchiness: 10 for very crunchy
• Center crunchiness: 10 for very crunchy
• Value: when they’re on sale at Ralphs for $2.50 or $3, 10; remember, there’s 8 cookies in this bag! They’re normally $4 or $5, and I’m cheap, and I don’t buy them unless they’re on sale.
• Overall: 10, for being my go-to grocery store cookie

Check out Pepperidge Farm’s other cookies here.