Glucoholic - Sugar Free Snacks

Our regular readers are probably beginning to notice that The Glucoholic has a serious addiction to Cracker Barrel. It started some time ago when Cracker Barrel introduced their low carb menu options. It doesn’t hurt that those menu items taste great. Add to that a country store that periodically carries interesting sugar free products, and you’ve got what we like to call a no-brainer spot to grab some grub and look for some low carb goodies.

We recently had the opportunity to sample Maple Grove Farms Vermont Sugar Free Syrup from Cracker Barrel. We found this syrup to have exceptional maple flavor. Some syrups, especially the low carb variety, are lacking in the flavor department. It’s fine to make sure that the sweetness is adequate, but no good breakfast syrup is lacking when it comes to maple flavor. This syrup is light and crisp and gives you the feeling that you woke up to breakfast on a New England farm. If you like breakfast food as much as we do, we encourage you to head to your nearest Cracker Barrel and pick up a bottle.

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Just in time for those low carb Christmas buckeyes, we were fortunate enough to find Jif Natural Creamy Peanut Butter. Now don’t worry, we’re not turning this into a “natural products” review site. The truth is, if we hadn’t gotten into the habit of checking labels on all new products we see, we would have passed on this one under the assumption that this peanut butter was full of carbs. Natural or not, this peanut butter is low in carbs and is absolutely delicious. It is very creamy and sweet. Whatever magic mixture of peanuts, oils, fats, salt, and sugar was concocted to make this peanut butter taste so great is the work of geniuses.

Seriously, if it weren’t for the lack of massive amounts of Omega fatty acids, this peanut butter would have taken over first place for our favorite peanut butter from Smart Balance. We also noticed that the packaging mentioned that there was no need to stir this peanut butter. On the nutrition label there is a statement about natural oil separation, which seems to be a contradiction. Most natural peanut butters we have tried really needed to be stirred quite often. We’ve been sampling this peanut butter for the better part of a week and have not been tempted to stir it in the least. This peanut butter will make you happy.

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We really wanted to like Trader Joe’s Valencia Peanut Butter With Roasted Flaxseeds. Unfortunately, this review was a lesson in not always getting what you want. We wanted to like this peanut butter because it’s a low carb food with lots of Omega-3 Fatty Acids. Unfortunately its taste got in the way. We were willing to overlook the remaining oil after minutes of intense stirring. We were willing to overlook having to store this peanut butter in the refrigerator. We just couldn’t get over the taste. Bitter, oily, and grainy is the best way to describe it. The roasted flaxseeds would probably have tasted better raw. Unfortunately, we can’t really recommend this peanut butter. For our money, we’ve not seen anything that can beat Smart Balance Omega Peanut Butter.

That’s a shame too, as each 32 gram serving is really nutrient filled. With each serving you would get 200 calories, 16 grams of fat, no cholesterol, and 55mg of sodium. You would also get a low 2 grams of digestible carbohydrate, including 3 grams of fiber, and 9 grams of protein.

When we first started reviewing this product we thought we were on our way to a negative review. We got three glasses of cold water, and mixed in the True Lemon, True Lime, and True Orange flavors. We took three sips. Then we said “what’s the point?” The Glucoholic has never been fond of just dropping citrus in water. It’s probably the acidity, but it just seems like tongue-kissing the terminals of a nine volt battery. Being from the south, our first stroke of genius was to add a pack of Splenda to each water. Now we were getting somewhere. Definitely drinkable, but still a little like that homemade lemonade you make in restaurants when they don’t have anything you want to drink. Then we tried a little in some Splenda-sweetened iced tea. Paydirt! This stuff really does taste like the natural flavors. The orange was especially intriguing. We felt a little silly, and then sillier again when we saw all the things you can do with these crystallized citrus flavors on the True Lemon website.

Nutritionally, there’s nothing to report except the exceptional 25% of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin C per packet. Zero of everything else means you can use it for many purposes without any worry. We noticed there’s a new True Lemon Naturally Sweet flavor, which has Truvia brand stevia already in the packet for sweetness. This should be pretty handy for those who just want to carry the packets to flavor their tea. Overall, we give these crystallized citrus flavors a good rating, and can’t wait to try some of their cooking and baking recipes.

The Glucoholic has finally stopped worrying about swine flu long enough to get down to business and review another great low carb food. We’re talking about Pilgrim’s Pride EatWellStayHealthy Grilled Chicken Breast Fillets. The EatWellStayHealthy brand is a lineup of frozen chicken products designed with health in mind, and products in the line sport the American Heart Association’s heart-check mark for low saturated fat and cholesterol. Generally we like to have fresh chicken when we can, but there are some times when having some frozen breast fillets on hand that only need to be heated up is a great time saver.

The chicken breast fillets are packaged in a handy resealable freezer bag. There are clear, concise instructions for how to heat the fillets in the microwave, on the stove, and in the oven. We chose to prepare our fillets in the microwave. Following the instructions yielded a flavorful, juicy chicken breast that we were quite pleased with. These fillets did not taste like they just came off the grill in the back yard, but there is some grilled taste provided by the “smoke flavor added” mentioned on the packaging. The grill marks on the fillets round out the experience. If you are looking for some healthy, tasty chicken breasts you can prepare in a flash, we highly recommend Pilgrim’s Pride EatWellStayHealthy Grilled Chicken Breast Fillets.

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