Cranberry Orange Nut Bread Clif Bar

I was really excited to see that my grocery store started carrying the seasonal Clif bars, after seeing other bloggers with them for a couple weeks now, I was wondering whether or not my store would get them at all. The first one I decided to try was the Cranberry Orange Nut Bread, which I had pretty high hopes for. I love the tart taste of cranberry bread and was hoping to get the same taste in this bar. Unfortunately, this bar was pretty disappointing. There was a lot more orange flavor in it than I would have liked, and the cranberry taste was hardly noticeable. It wasn’t a “bad” tasting bar though, so if you’re a fan of orange flavored foods you’ll probably love it, just don’t buy it expecting it to resemble traditional cranberry bread.

Full nutritional information is available here.

Cool Mint Chocolate Clif Bar

This is another one of the “default” flavors that seems to be carried everywhere Clif bars are sold, and it’s also one of the better flavors available. The naming is dead on – they managed to get an almost perfect chocolate/mint taste and if it was just a bit crunchier it could pass for a giant Girl Scout Thin Mint cookie. Since the name is so accurate, there’s not really much more to be said about this bar. The nutritional aspect is the same as the other Clif bar products, and like their other bars it’s one of the most convenient snacks to take on-the-go with you. If you find yourself craving Girl Scout cookies but don’t want to eat 60 calories per tiny cookie, you can pick this bar up to satisfy both your sweet tooth and stomach.
Full nutritional information here.

Kashi TLC Trail Mix

From my experience with their products, Kashi can do no wrong. Their bars are mostly made with healthy and natural ingredients but still taste amazing. Their Trail Mix TLC bar is no exception, and rivals Peanut Peanut Butter as my favorite. I love how you get giant chunks of nuts (almonds in this case) instead of the barely noticeable shavings in other granola bars. The cranberries and raisins also add some sweetness that the two other flavors didn’t have (even if most of them were on one end). Overall this (and all the other Kashi TLC bars) are a great choice for a quick snack.

Full nutritional information can be found here.

Kashi TLC Honey Almond Flax

I can’t really complain about the taste of this bar because it pretty much tasted like the name describes it. With that being said, it’s a pretty boring granola bar. It tastes like oats and almonds with a hint of honey, and “healthy” is the best way I could really describe the the taste. I’d rather have the peanut butter version, if only because it has a more distinct flavor.

Full nutrition information can be found here.

Special K Peanut Butter Chocolate

This was the first time I’ve bought a Special K meal bar, but it was the only decent looking thing I could find in the gas station I stopped at. This bar tasted surprisingly good, I was expecting it to be extremely fake tasting, but it was actually somewhat like a peanut butter buckeye. It was far from a satisfying peanut butter/chocolate replacement though, both flavors were fairly weak and still had a somewhat fake taste. The texture itself was alright, but it was a bit too “airy” for me, I like it when bars are chewy/dense. It kept me satisfied for around 1.5 hours, which was a bit disappointing. The nutritional stats are similar to a Luna Bar, with 10 grams of protein and 180 calories per bar but with a worse ingredient list. Overall, I doubt I’ll be buying this bar again, I’d much rather have a Luna bar over this, which are unfortunately not carried in as many convenience stores.

Full nutritional information available here.

Chocolate Chip Clif Bar

I don’t know if it’s just my area that does this, but it seems like every convenience store carries 3 “default” Clif flavors (peanut butter, chocolate brownie, and chocolate chip), leaving the other flavors pretty hard to find at times. Out of those easy to find flavors, Chocolate Chip would probably be my favorite. It’s quite a bit denser than a cookie, but I thought it tasted a lot like a chocolate chip blondie. I’ve read that microwaving them for 10 seconds makes it much softer, so that might have to be next on my “to try” list. Like all Clif Bars, it’s pretty filling and is easy to eat on the go.

Full nutritional information here.

Are there any foods in your area that are hard to find? For me, there aren’t any stores that carry Gnu Bars, Clif Nectar bars, and the Jocolat Larabar flavors, all of which I’d really like to try.

Luna Bar Berry Almond

I was pretty disappointed with this bar, I thought I would enjoy it a lot more than I did. I knew things would be rough when I opened the package and had to peel it off the bar itself – this is one of the stickiest things I’ve ever had. Not only is it sticky, but it’s purple. Be sure you’re not holding any papers (or a book) while eating it, because the goop will quickly stain it. The flavor itself wasn’t too bad though, it tastes sort of like what you might expect a Kix cereal bar to taste like. The flavors were pretty artificial tasting though, so don’t expect it to really taste like any naturally occurring fruits. The bar was also very flimsy, it started “sagging” as soon as I took it out of the package. I can’t really recommend buying this bar unless you’re willing to look past the messiness of it. For me, granola bars are meant to be on-the-go convenience foods, which this certainly wasn’t.

The nutritional information can be found here.

In other news, there is a Amazing Grass giveaway going on at Live, Love, Violin. Be sure to check it out!

Trader Joe’s Vanilla Almond Crunch Granola Bar

Another granola bar to review. This time it’s from Trader Joe’s and it’s their “Vanilla Almond Crunch” flavor. I’m not sure if the vanilla was lacking or if it’s just too subtle a flavor to really pick up, but I didn’t really get any big hit of any flavor other than the typical granola/nut taste. It didn’t taste bad but it didn’t impress me much either. As far as granola bars go, this isn’t the most convenient one to take with you somewhere. It’s very sticky, which means your steering wheel or whatever you’re carrying could get a little dirty, and it’s not sturdy at all – mine were a little damaged just from being in the box I bought it in. It seems smaller than a Kashi TLC bar, but it also has slightly fewer calories (130).

Full nutrition information can be found here.

Kashi TLC Peanut Peanut Butter

Welcome to the first StartingHealthy review! This one is on Kashi’s chewy granola bar line, called TLC. They’re available at almost any grocery store and are a bit pricier than Fiber One bars, but about the same as other “organic” granola bars.

The one I had today happens to also be my favorite, the Peanut Peanut Butter flavor. The “butter” in the title is a bit misleading, since this doesn’t really taste like all the other peanut butter products on the market, but more like raw peanuts. If you’re fine with that, it’s definitely worth a try. The bar itself is pretty chewy, enough to hold it together without too much crumbling as you eat it. It’s a decent size for the 140 calories it has, and it held me over for 1.5 to 2 hours. Overall, this is a great snack for when you’re on the go between meals, the only thing I didn’t like was that it seemed to stick to my teeth a lot.

Full nutritional information available here.