Month: April 2012

REVIEW: Food Should Taste Good Hemp Tortilla Chips

Marvo 3 Comments

Food Should Taste Good Hemp Tortilla Chips

I just skimmed the Wikipedia entry about hemp and now I feel bad about eating these Food Should Taste Good Hemp Tortilla Chips.

The hemp seeds used to make these chips could’ve been used to grow more hemp plants, which in turn could’ve been used to make hemp clothing someone could’ve worn, hempcrete to build someone’s home, or hemp plastic to be used in a car.

Those hemp seeds I ate could’ve been turned into something significant and long lasting. Instead, their short, meaningless existence consisted of me eating them and then pooping them out.

From now on, I’m gonna stick to eating potato chips because what other uses for potatoes has society come up with? Powering some kid’s lame science fair project? Ammunition for a spud gun? Yeah, I don’t feel so bad about eating potato chips.

The Food Should Taste Good Hemp Tortilla Chips are made using only five ingredients: organic blue corn, high oleic sunflower and/or safflower oil, hemp seeds, corn bran, and sea salt. If you examine the chips, you can see the hemp seeds in them. The chips are a color that I like to call plastic army men green (although at some angles they looks brown) and they’re also a list of things that make it sound like the Holy Grail for Whole Foods shoppers. They’re certified vegan, certified gluten free, MSG free, not made from genetically modified ingredients, all natural, and they don’t contain artificial colors, flavors or preservatives.

I should note that I’ve never tasted hemp seeds before. Sure, I’ve been the driver of a car whose other passenger were puff-puff-passing their way through some weak ass weed, but I don’t know if second-hand weed smoke could be considered consumption of a cannabis plant. But, thankfully, the Google algorithm helped me learn hemp seeds have a nutty flavor.

Food Should Taste Good Hemp Tortilla Chips Closeup

The Food Should Taste Good Hemp Tortilla Chips are the size of Doritos and are a little thicker than Tostitos. At first, the hemp tortilla chips taste like normal tortilla chips, although a little bit better than Tostitos, but the hemp seed’s nuttiness eventually shows itself, although the level of nuttiness is more along the lines of a nip slip than full-frontal nudity. So if you gave these to an unsuspecting person they will probably think these are just some weird colored, but regular tasting tortilla chips.

While skimming through the Wikipedia entry about hemp, I also learned it’s a good source of omega-3 fatty acids and protein. The Food Should Taste Good Hemp Tortilla Chip’s nutrition facts say a serving of these chips provide 3 grams of protein, but the amount of omega-3 fatty acids isn’t listed anywhere. There isn’t even a ribbon or banner on the front of the packaging that says it’s a good or excellent source of omega-3 like there are on packages of salmon and some granola bars.

Room on the front of the package isn’t a problem. Look at all that white space.

I hope I’m getting some omega-3s from these Food Should Taste Good Hemp Tortilla Chips, because if I’m not getting any, I’m going to feel worse about eating them, even though they are some tasty chips. I already feel like I wasted the hemp seeds that went through my digestive system. They could’ve been used to create a hemp biofuel to fuel a hemp plastic car being driven by a person wearing hemp clothing to his or her house made from hempcrete.

(Nutrition Facts – 1 ounce/about 12 chips – 140 calories, 70 calories from fat, 7 grams of fat, 0.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 1.5 grams of polyunsaturated fat, 5 grams of monounsaturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 80 milligrams of sodium, 17 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 0 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of protein.)

Item: Food Should Taste Good Hemp Tortilla Chips
Price: $3.69
Size: 5.5 ounces
Purchased at: Whole Foods
Rating: 7 out of 10
Pros: Tasty. Certified vegan, certified gluten free, no MSG, not made from genetically modified ingredients, all natural, and they don’t contain artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. It’s frickin’ made with hemp. All the uses for hemp. Low sodium.
Cons: Needs to come in a bigger bag. Hemp flavor could’ve been stronger. Not sure if it provides omega-3. The hemp seeds I ate could’ve been used for better purposes.

NEWS: Jack in the Box Introduces Another Chipotle Chicken Sandwich

Marvo 2 Comments

Update: Click here to read our Jack in the Box Chipotle Chicken Club Sandwich review

Oh, I hope Jack finally learned how to say the word “chipotle,” because he has a new chipotle chicken sandwich.

This week, Jack in the Box introduced their Chipotle Chicken Club sandwich. It’s made with a spicy crispy chicken breast with chipotle sauce, hickory smoked bacon, American cheese, lettuce, and tomato on a toasted sourdough bread. This is the third chipotle sandwich Jack in the Box has introduced. The first two being the Chipotle Chicken Sandwich and the Chipotle Chicken Ciabatta Sandwich, both of which are no longer on the menu.

The Jack in the Box Chipotle Chicken Club has 686 calories, 35 grams of fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, 1,292 milligrams of sodium, 54 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 6 grams of sugar, and 34 grams of protein. It’s available in a combo meal, which includes a small fries and 20-ounce drink, for $4.99.

It’s available for a limited time, except for those of you in Austin, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, San Diego, Spokane, and Yakima, where it’s not available at all. I don’t know why.

SPOTTED ON SHELVES – 4/19/2012

Marvo 10 Comments

New products are released all the time and here are some we found on our most recent shopping trips. We may or may not review them, but we’d like to let you know what new items are popping up on store shelves.

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Red Baron has a bunch of new frozen pizza products. First off, there’s Red Baron’s Pizza & Sides, which comes in four varieties: Pepperoni Pizza & Buffalo Wyngs, Pepperoni Pizza & Mozzarella Sticks, Cheese Pizza & Buffalo Wyngs, and Supreme Pizza & Mozzarella Sticks. Yes, DiGiorno did it first, but at least Red Baron didn’t combine pizza with cookies.

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Next up is Red Baron Feasts for One Thick Pan Pizza. It’s available in three varieties: Pepperoni, Supreme, and MEAT-TRIO. Don’t ask me why MEAT-TRIO is all in caps. But whenever I say Red Baron Thick Pan MEAT-TRIO Pizza, I’m going to shout the MEAT-TRIO part. It’s a personal pizza with a thick, chewy pan-style crust. It cooks in under five minutes. A whole Red Baron Feasts for One Thick Pan Pepperoni Pizza has 680 calories, 28 grams of fat, 14 grams of saturated fat, 1,220 milligrams of sodium, and 28 grams of protein.

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According to Red Baron’s website, there are other Red Baron Feasts for One varieties, like their Super Slice (no picture taken, but I did see them) and these Original Crust pizzas. These personal pizzas are significantly wider than the Red Baron Feasts for One Thick Pan Pizzas and come in three flavors: 4-Cheese, Pepperoni, and Supreme. No, I don’t know why there are Asian people on the front of the box. If you were to eat an entire Red Baron Feasts for One Original Crust Pepperoni Pizza you would have consumed 820 calories, 28 grams of fat, 12 grams of saturated fat, 2,140 milligrams of sodium, and 34 grams of protein.

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Vitamin Squeeze Water Enhancer is like MiO Liquid Water Enhancer, except it comes in a huge ass bottle. It’s available in four flavors: Acai, Grape, Pomegranate; Fruit Punch; Tropical Citrus; and Peach Green Tea. Each bottle is able to make 24 8-ounce servings. The Fruit Punch and Peach Green Tea flavors have 40 milligrams of sweet, sweet caffeine per 8-ounce serving.

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The problem with Popsicles is that they have no redeeming nutritional qualities. They’re mainly sugar and water. But Popsicle’s new Yosicle line contains 10 percent nonfat yogurt and has 25 percent of your recommended daily allowance for calcium. Oooh, ten percent! Take that, Go-Gurt and your 100 percent nonfat yogurt content. Yosicles come in three varieties: Torpedo!, Layerz!, and Duos!

Kettle Sweet Garlic Chili on shelf

After a bit of Googling, I found out these have been available for a couple of months, but there’s no mention of them on the Kettle Brand website. I kind of regret not picking them up since I’m a fan of spicy Kettle Brand potato chips, but the product below made me completely forget about them while in the chip aisle.

FSTG Hemp on shelf

These Food Should Taste Good Hemp Tortilla Chips aren’t new. They’ve been available for almost a year, but I only just discovered them at Whole Foods. I should really cruise around Whole Foods more often. Oooh, maybe they have hemp ice cream! The tortilla chips are green in color and made with hemp seeds and blue corn. It’s not really surprising to see Food Should Taste Good with hemp tortilla chips. After all, they do have other odd tortilla chip varieties like chocolate.

If you’re out shopping and see a new product on the shelf, snap a picture of it, email it to us at [email protected], and you might see it in our next Spotted on Shelves post.

NEWS: Whataburger Starts Selling Whatachick’n Bites Wheretheyhavelocations

Marvo 3 Comments

Whataburger

I realize many of you won’t care about Whataburger introducing their new Whatachick’n Bites this week because 90 percent of you don’t live within a reasonable driving distance from a Whataburger location. But I’m letting you know about it because I love driving my computer’s spell check mad by typing Whataburger and Whatachick’n. You should see all the red squiggly lines on my computer screen right now.

Whataburger’s Whatachick’n Bites are made using 100 percent all white-meat chicken breast that’s lightly breaded. Oh, if you’re wondering if they use pink slime, they don’t. The Whatachick’n Bites are offered in six or nine pieces. There’s also a 4-piece kids’ meal.

You can dip those Whatachick’n Bites in either Honey BBQ, Creamy Pepper, Ranch, Fat Free Ranch, Honey Mustard, or Creamy Gravy.

For some strange reason, the Whataburger website doesn’t list the nutritional facts for six or nine pieces, but it does for four pieces. Four Whatachick’n Bites have 240 calories, 8 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 1,170 milligrams of sodium, 19 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, and 21 grams of protein.

Oh, the website also lists the nutrition facts for 18 pieces. I guess they do that just in case you find yourself in a Whatachick’n Bites eating contest. Eighteen pieces has 1,080 calories, 36 grams of fat, 4.5 grams of saturated fat, 5,265 milligrams of sodium, 86 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of fiber, and 95 grams of protein.

Image via flickr user niseag03 / CC BY ND 2.0

REVIEW: Subway Smokehouse BBQ Chicken Sub

Adam 12 Comments

Subway Smokehouse BBQ Chicken

I have good news and I have bad news when it comes to Subway’s new Smokehouse BBQ Chicken sandwich. The good news is that’s it’s significantly better than just smearing BBQ sauce over Subway’s “Oven Roasted” Chicken. The bad news is that you may very well incur the wrath of an esteemed sandwich “artist” in ordering one.

If the guy smoking freshly-killed chicken with Applewood out back in his shack in the North Carolina woods is the Rembrandt of the barbecue universe, then I suppose we should extend the metaphor and proclaim Subway’s very own “artists” as the equivalent of first graders during arts and crafts time.

I knew the sandwich was new and expected some kinks going in, but the look of befuddlement I received when asking for the sandwich (despite, I should add, several prominent displays in the windows for it) was enough to make me wonder if my artist had even brought her brushes to work. That she continued to refer to the meat as “pork” and asked me if I wanted cheese with it made me question if it wasn’t “switch place with your spouse at work day,” but the real kicker was when she proceeded to grow noticeably angry at my polite insistence that she construct this masterpiece to include whatever the picture called for.
 
Clearly, I must not understand tasteful art.
 
But I do understand barbecue, and when it comes to something you can order at a suburban fast food restaurant, this is about the high point. Obviously that’s not saying a lot should you live south of the Mason-Dixon Line, but who are we kidding, this is a Subway review. The chicken itself is an admirable stab at smoked and pulled chicken. Despite coming from one of those dreaded pre-portioned containers held in a refrigerator, it manages to convey a certain less-than-cloying sweetness with an unexpected lightness of acidity and tang of apple cider vinegar.

Subway Smokehouse BBQ Chicken Innards

The shredded chicken has a mild spice and hint of smoke flavor, which, I’m almost 100 percent certain, was conveyed in the meat and not just the sauce. The meat avoids any fatty strings or cartilage, and has a succulent taste about it which could pass for the kind of really solid imitation pulled chicken BBQ your Weight Watchers Aunt (or Charles Barkley) makes in the slow cooker. Above all, it’s a step up from Subway’s floppy Oven Roasted Chicken, which, even with barbecue sauce, mostly just tastes like rib meat and salt.

Subway Smokehouse BBQ Chicken Next To Oven Roasted Chicken with BBQ

That said, the portion is meager and looks nothing like the advertisement. Crunch (like slaw) is needed on top, while a potato bread base could go a long way to imitate the authentic barbecue experience. Some shaggy interior decorating and southern rock music wouldn’t hurt to inspire the faux atmosphere either, although something tells me that may clash with the artist process.

Subway Smokehouse BBQ Chicken Portion

If you prefer chicken to beef, have exactly four dollars (plus tax) to spend, and decline to dine outside the confines of fast food restaurants, I can see this being a frequent purchase. If, however, you happen to just be some schmuck who’s running late for work and falls victim to unrealistic advertisements (like me), then I would suggest passing. That is, unless you insist on some finger painting and stick figure drawing, for which I’m sure your sandwich artist would be happy to provide on your complimentary napkin.

(Nutrition Facts – 6-inch sandwich – 380 calories, 60 calories from fat, 6 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 30 milligrams of cholesterol, 950 milligrams of sodium, 57 grams of carbohydrates, 5 gram of fiber, 8 grams of sugar, and 32 grams of protein.)

Item: Subway Smokehouse BBQ Chicken Sub
Price: $4.00 (6-inch)
Size: 6-inch
Purchased at: Subway
Rating: 5 out of 10
Pros: Chicken gets good BBQ sauce coverage and has a nice smokey-sweet flavor. Not too salty. Better than Oven Roasted Chicken. 32 grams protein (allegedly). Fingerpainting.
Cons: Getting yelled at by a sandwich artist. Holding up the line at Subway. Too little meat. Needs crunch. Bring your own Skynyrd. Admitting I don’t dislike healthy crock pot “BBQ” chicken.