Larabar Chocolate Chip Brownie

Larabar Chocolate Chip Brownie ($1.00, Kroger)
1.6 oz / 45g

Ingredients: dates, chocolate chips, almonds, walnuts, cocoa powder, sea salt.

Calories: 200
Calories from fat: 80
Fat: 9g (13%)
Sat. Fat: 2g (11%)
Sodium: 30mg (1%)
Total Carb: 31g (10%)
Fiber: 4g (17%)
Sugars: 23g
Protein: 4g (9%)

Look at that ingredient list! I mean that is something to be proud of in this day and age. Not a hint of vegetable glycerin or sunscreen in this one! Just a whole bunch of sugar. Seriously, it is over half sugar. 45g bar, 23g of sugar. Sorry to bring that up. Anyway, how's it taste? It is delicious! It is cocoa and sugar and almonds, dates, and walnuts! This is a compressed date bar but isn't as dry or chalky as some. It is quite good. And sugary.

Larabar blueberry muffin

Larabar blueberry muffin ($1.00, Kroger)
1.6 oz / 45g

Ingredients: dates, cashews, unsweetened blueberries, blueberry juice concentrate, lemon juice concentrate, vanilla extract

Calories: 190

Cals from fat: 70

Total Fat: 8g (12%) 

Sat Fat: 1.5g (7%) 

Sodium: 5mg (0%) 

Total Carb: 26g (9%) 

Fiber: 3g (12%) 

Sugar: 17g 

Protein: 4g

Wow, I have to admit I wasn't expecting this to be another bar of soap compressed date bar. The ingredient list gave it away, but so (unfortunately) did the bar's soap like appearance. Despite the looks this bar tastes pretty great - it has a soft, fruity texture and tastes like the ingredients - blueberries, dates, and cashews. Not really granola-y but tasty nonetheless. 

Belvita blueberry

Belvita blueberry ($1.00, Kroger) 

1.76 oz / 50g  

Ingredients: rolled oats, rye flakes, enriched flour, high oleic canola oil, sugar, whole grain wheat flour, evaporated cane sugar, dried blueberries, malt syrup, invert sugar, baking soda, salt, soy lecithin, dispdium pyrophosphate, natural flavor, datem, blueberry juice concentrate, ferric orthophosphate, niacinamide, pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin, thiamin mononitrate.

Calories: 230

Cals from fat: 70

Total Fat: 8g (12%) 

Sat Fat: 0.5g (3%) 

Sodium: 220mg (9%) 

Total Carb: 36g (12%) 

Fiber: 3g (12%) 

Sugar: 13g 

Protein: 4g

More cookies for breakfast. These look like real cookies - a little fruit and some oat pieces showing through a natural golden brown color. Certainly better looking than the chocolate variety. They taste great, too - certainly not like the fruit is genuine or anything crazy like that. They have a taste reminiscent of blueberry muffins or pancakes but are more portable and crunchy. This is ever so much more convenient to have in my bag than all that butter and syrup floating around, so I stand by these being a good choice. 

Clif Mojo Chocolate Almond Coconut

Clif Mojo Chocolate Almond Coconut ($0.99, Kroger)
1.59 oz / 45g

Ingredients: organic brown rice syrup, organic almonds, soy rice crisps, organic coconut, almond butter, organic roasted soybeans, organic oat syrup solids, vegetable glycerin, organic coconut oil, sea salt, organic gum arabic, natural flavor, natural vitamin e.

Calories: 200

Cals from fat: 110

Total Fat: 12g (18%) 

Sat Fat: 6g (30%) 

Sodium: 180mg (8%) 

Total Carb: 20g (7%) 

Fiber: 3g (12%) 

Sugar: 10g 

Protein: 8g

I've become very fond of the Clif Mojo bars overall - they are more like a "normal" bar than the clif bars and they are tasty and often borderline bad for you, all attractive qualities I think you'll agree. This bar is no exception - it tastes like one of those chocolate/coconut girl scout cookies. I have to dock some points for the coconut bits which rained like confetti around my work area.

KIND Dark Chocolate Nuts and Sea Salt

KIND Dark Chocolate Nuts and Sea Salt ($1.69, Kroger)
1.4 oz / 40g

Ingredients: Mixed nuts, chicory root fiber, honey, palm kernel oil, sugar, crisp rice, cocoa powder, non GMO glucose, sea salt, soy lecithin, milk powder, vanilla extract.

Calories: 200

Cals from fat: 140

Total Fat: 15g (22%) 

Sat Fat: 3.5g (18%) 

Sodium: 125mg (5%) 

Total Carb: 16g (6%) 

Fiber: 7g (28%) 

Sugar: 5g 

Protein: 6g

Now this isn't really a granola bar, it is really a candy bar that is sold on the granola aisle at the grocery. It is a brilliant coup that they were able to pull this off. The bar is a bunch of nuts sitting in a bed of chocolate. But oh boy is it good - crunchy, chocolatey, salty, amazing. I immediately went to amazon and put a big box of them in my cart. They are delicious. Delicious candy bars masquerading as health food.

Belvita chocolate

Belvita chocolate ($2.99 for 5, Target) 

1.76 oz / 50g  

Ingredients: whole grain wheat flour, sugar, high oleic canola oil, whole grain rolled oats, semisweet chocolate, whole grain rye flour, cocoa processed with alkali, baking soda, disodium pyrophosphate, salt, soy lecithin, natural flavor, datem, ferric orthophosphate, niacinamide, pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin, thiamin mononitrate. 

Calories: 230

Cals from fat: 70

Total Fat: 8g (12%) 

Sat Fat: 1.5g (8%) 

Sodium: 180mg (8%) 

Total Carb: 35g (12%) 

Fiber: 3g (12%) 

Sugar: 11g 

Protein: 4g

Cookies for breakfast! I haven't been this happy since I took an early morning flight and had some biscoff cookies with my coffee. These are sort of ugly, spotty brown cookies but since I'm typing this to you, dear reader I can focus on shoving them into my open maw without considering their looks a great deal. They have a sort of dry, chalky texture which is really decent with a cup of coffee but might not be great if you like having breakfast in the desert. I just ate one without having a sip of coffee and thought I might succumb to a dusty, parched demise; scratching white lines on my ashen skin as I quietly contemplated the miracle of full coffee service. Then I remembered there was a lovely cup of coffee close at hand. Coffee and cookies within arms' reach, such is the great pleasure of the first world. Suck it, desert.