Nabisco Banana Garden Harvest Toasted Chips

Fruits can be fresh, frozen, canned, or dried, but thanks to the new Nabisco Banana Garden Harvest Toasted Chips I can now eat fruits in a crunchy, processed chip form. If you combine the taste of bananas with the look, size, and crunch of Wheat Thins and the shape of Doritos you would have an idea of what Garden Harvest Toasted Chips are like, or you could look at the picture on the right.

According to the revised USDA food pyramid, I should be eating six ounces of grains, two and a half cups of vegetables, two cups of fruits, three cups of milk, and five and a half ounces of meat and beans every day, but who eats like that? Who eats two and a half cups of vegetables and two cups of fruit everyday?

Most likely, people healthier and skinnier than me.

I don’t even know what a cup of fruit looks like. I was going to educate myself and find out how many slices of bread I need to eat to reach six ounces of grains or how many bananas I need to eat to get two cups of fruits, but the McDonald’s Big Mac Value Meal I ate made me sluggish and lazy.

It’s good to have another option when it comes to eating fruit because fruits are a pain in the ass, especially bananas. Fresh fruits, unlike Cher’s face, eventually wilt, rot, or spoil. Picking fresh fruit at the grocery store is also difficult since I get kicked out for smelling, fondling, or slapping fruit a little too much in order to know if they are ripe.

I know that honeydew melon enjoyed it.

I could make my own banana chips by buying some not quite ripe bananas from the grocery store, waiting for them to ripen, cutting them into slices, pulling out my Ronco Food Dehydrator, placing the banana slices on my Ronco Food Dehydrator racks, setting and forgetting my Ronco Food Dehydrator, letting the Ronco Food Dehydrator do its thing, and in a time 1,000 times longer than the time it takes me to walk to the nearest hippie natural foods store and buy banana chips, my homemade banana chips will be ready.

The Nabisco Banana Garden Harvest Toasted Chips taste like the banana chips found in hippie natural foods stores, which I enjoy, and just like Lays Potato Chips, prescription painkillers, a roll of bubble wrap, or a room full of balloons with a needle in my hand, once I pop, I can’t stop.

Despite tasting good, I was disappointed that I couldn’t reach my daily recommended amount of fruit by eating only the Nabisco Banana Garden Harvest Toasted Chips, since a serving of about 16 chips only provides the equivalent of 1/4 cup of fruit.

If you’re too lazy to do the math from eating a McDonald’s Big Mac Value Meal, I would have to eat 2/3 of the six-ounce bag in order to eat a cup of fruit or about 64 chips. I’m pretty sure eating a normal banana would be easier, if you eat them quick enough before they start rotting. Also, bananas are an excellent source of potassium and I was hoping that these chips be another good source, but each serving only has 160 milligrams, compared with a medium-sized banana, which has 400-500 milligrams.

Overall, the Nabisco Banana Garden Harvest Toasted Chips are tasty and they’re healthier than other snacks out there, but aren’t as healthy as an actual banana. But if you’re tired of the rotting with fresh fruits; the opening of cans with canned fruits; the thawing of frozen fruits; or the hippie, treehugger images that goes with dried fruits, you may want to give these chips a try.

(Nutritional Facts – 1 ounce (about 16 chips) – 120 calories, 3 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams trans fat, 0.5 grams of polyunsaturated fat, 2 grams of monounsaturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 60 milligrams of sodium, 160 milligrams of potassium, 22 grams of carbs, 3 grams of dietary fiber, 8 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein, and 0 grams of banana peel slipping.)

(Editor’s Note: Read more about the Garden Harvest Toasted Chips at the Junk Food Blog. Then go watch the second version of the Hot Dog Dance)

Item: Nabisco Banana Garden Harvest Toasted Chips
Price: $3.99 (6-ounces)
Purchased at: Wal-Mart
Rating: 3 out of 5
Pros: Tastes like banana chips. Crunchy. Recloseable bag. Naturally flavored. Baked with 100% whole grain. Made with actual bananas. Decent alternative for fresh, frozen, canned, and dried fruits.
Cons: Only one-fourth a cup of fruit per one ounce serving. Not a lot of potassium with this banana product. Rotting fruit. The amount of time it takes to dry fruit in the Ronco Food Dehydrator. Getting kicked out of the grocery store for fondling melons. Bananas can be a pain in the ass.

25 thoughts to “Nabisco Banana Garden Harvest Toasted Chips”

  1. Banana chips without the banana! May as well go buy a trail bag of…banana chips. That sounds really good. I’m going to go to bed now, because the text I’m typing looks like it’s moving on its own.

  2. Hmmm, sounds tasty but kinda pricey. Of course, I know sometimes prices are higher on your Pacific Rock than in the lower 48.

    So, Marvo, with regards to your popping obsession, were you the inspiration for the Weird Al lyrics “Spend my nights with a role of bubble wrap…Pop, pop – hope no one sees me…gettin’ freaky”?

  3. I tried it but didn’t like it. I’ve had banana chips growing up in Jamaica and they aren’t sweet like these (they use green bananas). I think that threw me off.

  4. OK, so I got the sample of the veggie ones and the apple cinnamon ones they were both disgusting, that is why I don’t try to eat healthy chips. I will continue to stick with my pita chips and potato chips. Forget healthy!!

  5. I am glad you found bananas in a chip form because I don’t think it would look good if you were fondling bananas at the grocery store to determine their ripeness.

  6. Wah! Fruits are hard! And the packaging is worse…what is this 1/2 serving of real fruit in each 1 oz serving? And then, there’s your math on top of that. Feh, I just won’t eat anything not fried or pizza-flavored from now on. And then I can stay in bed 24/7 and wash myself with a rag on an end of a stick. YAY!

  7. Hmmm…The idea of fruit-flavored doritos doesn’t sound that appealing to me. Oh well, back to my nacho-flavored applesauce.

  8. Marvo, I am looking forward to the “set it and forget it” dance video. Thanks for another useful review, I will stick to buying banana chips from my local tree hugger store.. these don’t sound like something for me.

  9. Zenne – Go to sleep.

    Chuck – Actually, I think these retail for $2.50, but we have to pay the Over The Ocean Tax. No, I’m pretty open about my bubble wrap popping. I don’t care if people hear us.

    tanya – Another thing about banana chips, they’re kind of greasy. These looked greasy but weren’t.

    govtdrone – Mmm…Stacey’s Pita Chips.

    nicole – I don’t fondle bananas at the grocery store, I stroke them to see if they’re firm.

    Domokun – On the front of the package it says half a serving, but half a serving doesn’t equal half a cup according to the back of the package.

    Gabs – I’m hairy so I’m supposed to like bananas, like all monkeys do.

    Karen – Nacho-flavored applesauce? You just made me throw up in my mouth a little.

    bikerbabeee – I think the “set it and forget it” dance video would just be me doing The Robot for about three hours straight. It’s entertaining at first, but after five minutes, it’s gets pretty boring.

  10. I tried the free samples ( veggie ones & apple cinnamon) I got in the mail and I thought both flavors were NASTY!! I tried feeding them to my dogs even they walked away…now that says something hahaha
    Pamela

  11. Why is is every time I buy fruit it is under ripe or over ripe? GET IT RIGHT, FRUIT. Anyways, I hope you and your honeydew are happy.

  12. I bought some of these and they were pretty delish. They taste like banana chips with a wheat aftertaste, which I actually enjoyed despite my hatred for most wheat products. However, pretty sure I’m still not eating healthy since I managed to devour the whole bag in one day…

    Oh well, time to buy more (they’re cheaper around here). Maybe I’ll even take a gamble and buy the “nasty” flavors. I have a penchant for liking what everyone else hates and hating what everyone else likes. This should work in my favor.

  13. Pamela – Wow. I’ve actually tried dry dog food, so if they can eat that, but not the veggie and apple cinnamon flavors, I don’t think I want to try them.

    Daria…I mean, Alisha – I was happy, but the honeydew probably wasn’t, since I ate it.

    Rhawb – I could see myself eating a whole bag in a day. Actually, I could probably chow through an entire bag while watching an episode of Heroes.

  14. I think I pretty much/mostly love you Marvo. You make me giggle everytime you post and keeps me away from those damn celebrity trash websites 🙂 Thanks!

  15. Cindy – Hey! I like those damn celebrity trash websites! I have to take a shot of vodka every time a celebrity goes into rehab.

  16. Sooo Marvo, I got a plan. If ever I am in Hawaii lets purchase some bruised up too ripe banana’s, look at celebrity websites while taking shots of vodka and play big spoon, little spoon 🙂

  17. A little slap and tickle doesn’t hurt the fruit. Now, excessive pinching… that’s not fruit friendly.

  18. Cindy – I don’t know how to play big spoon, little spoon. Let me guess. I have the little spoon. 🙁

    mallory – Thank goodness the grocery store I shop at is open 24 hours a day, so I can go in late at night a spank a watermelon. Isn’t that how you can determine whether it’s ripe?

    demondoll – It’s hard to pinch most fruit, but I do like to do that with grapes, but not too hard.

  19. I have never spanked for information on ripeness, just sick pleasure.

    I shop at Wegmans usually but I only produce grope at Walmart because I think they have seen worse there.

    I really have it down to a science.

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