REVIEW: Blue Bell Brookie À La Mode Ice Cream

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Blue Bell Brookie A La Mode Ice Cream pint

No one likes to admit when they are wrong. But I’m here to tell you, I was wrong. How, you ask? It involves the phrase “à la mode.” We all know it means “with ice cream on top,” right?

That’s what I always thought, and that’s somewhat accurate. But here’s where I was wrong—way wrong. I must confess that I somehow thought it was derived from Greek or Latin, which makes no sense at all because I’m pretty sure ice cream wasn’t a thing back when that Plato guy was around. It’s actually a French phrase that means “fashionable” or “in style,” but sometime around the late 1800s or early 1900s in America, it came to mean the then-trendy practice of putting ice cream on pie. I was also wrong in thinking the little mark above the a in à la mode is called a tilde. It’s a grave accent, which seems like how you would describe what Beetlejuice speaks with.

Blue Bell Brookie A La Mode Ice Cream topless

Now that everyone except for punctation nerds and etymology buffs has moved on, let’s get to the review of the new Brookie À La Mode ice cream from Blue Bell, which the Texas-based creamery says is brown sugar ice cream with chunks of brownie and soft chocolate chip cookie pieces. I’m not even going to get into the fact that Brookie À La Mode is a silly name, because it is ice cream, so I’m not sure how you can put ice cream on top of it. And simply putting brownies and cookies together in the same general vicinity does not constitute a brookie. But you came here to find out if you should run out to buy this, right? Well, maybe not run, but you should saunter, or sashay if you prefer, over to your local store. It’s not worth breaking a sweat or anything like that, but it’s still plenty good.

Blue Bell Brookie A La Mode Ice Cream spoonful

Blue Bell Brookie A La Mode Ice Cream brownie pieces are wonderful

The showstopper here is the brownie chunks. They are little pieces of rich, heavenly, chocolatey goodness that magically stay moist and chewy without getting soggy in the ice cream. I would eat a pint of just the brownie chunks. The other two components are good, but nothing special really. The brown sugar ice cream has just a faint hint of something to differentiate it from vanilla, but it gives off more of a cookie batter vibe. It’s perfectly fine, but don’t expect a lot of brown sugar flavor. The cookie pieces are about as expected, and although they have a similar texture to the brownie chunks, when you get one of the chocolate chips, there is a nice crunch and extra pop of flavor.

Blue Bell Brookie A La Mode Ice Cream lid

Aside from a name that doesn’t make much sense and that it made me feel a little bit foolish for being off base on the whole à la mode thing, this is a nice addition to the Blue Bell lineup.

Purchased Price: $3.99
Size: One Pint
Purchased at: Brookshire Brothers
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 240 calories, 11 grams of fat, 6 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 40 milligrams of cholesterol, 115 milligrams of sodium, 30 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 22 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein.

Snickers Crunchy Peanut Butter Minis Ice Cream Bars Review

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Snickers Crunchy Peanut Butter Minis Ice Cream Bars box

Why are these Snickers Minis Ice Cream Bars not called Snickers Fun Size Ice Cream Bars? They’re roughly the size of regular Snickers Fun Size bars, not the square-ish regular Snickers Minis. Calling them “Fun Size” would’ve been, well, fun — and more accurate.

Nomenclature aside, one of the genuinely fun things about these mini ice cream bars is the four varieties available. Along with these Snickers Crunchy Peanut Butter Minis, there are also Original Snickers, Salted Caramel, and Almond varieties. Sorry, fans of Snickers Butterscotch Scoop, Pecan, Hazelnut, or Fiery. Maybe they’ll show up next year, if these sell well.

Snickers Crunchy Peanut Butter Minis Ice Cream Bars individually wrapped

I think there’s a chance they will, because these Snickers Crunchy Peanut Butter Minis are good. Each bar features caramel, peanuts, and crunchy peanut butter ice cream in a chocolate coating, and there are ten individually wrapped bars per box. If you want to eat all ten in one sitting, the box has already read your mind, offering the nutrition facts for that scenario: 920 calories, 61 grams of fat, 31 grams of saturated fat, 5 grams of fiber, 68 grams of sugar, and 18 grams of protein.

While they taste great, with their strong nutty flavor from the ice cream and nuts (though mostly from the latter), with a hint of chocolate from the coating, they aren’t so compelling that I’d eat all ten in one sitting. With an actual Snickers Fun Size candy bar, because it’s denser, just one satisfies my sweet tooth. With these ice cream bars, it takes two to get that same feeling.

Snickers Crunchy Peanut Butter Minis Ice Cream Bars cross section

As someone who prefers crunchy peanut butter, I’m thrilled there are added peanut bits in the peanut butter-flavored ice cream in addition to the usual nuts on top, guaranteeing some crunch in every bite. What I didn’t really get enough of was the caramel. I could feel its gooey texture and see it ooze out from under the chocolate layer, but thanks to the strong nuttiness from the other ingredients, its flavor was nearly nonexistent. But I guess that’s okay since these are Snickers Peanut Butter Minis Ice Cream Bars.

Snickers Minis Ice Cream Bars cross section

While that’s fine, I also purchased the regular Snickers Minis Ice Cream Bars to compare, and there isn’t a significant difference in nuttiness and flavor between the two, even though the Peanut Butter version has more nuts and peanut butter-flavored ice cream. With the regular one, the peanuts stand out, while the caramel flavor is lacking, which sounds very familiar, if you read the previous paragraph, and not very Snickers-like.

A difference was somewhat noticeable when I was double-fisting them, but if you were the ruler of a country and I were your Official Snickers Ice Cream Feeder, and you had only eaten regular Snickers Ice Cream Bars, and if feeding you anything else meant I’d be thrown into a dungeon — I’m pretty sure sneaking in these Snickers Peanut Butter Minis would keep me out of a cage.

I guess that’s a long-winded and confusing explanation. A more accurate way to put it would be that these taste a bit too close to regular Snickers Ice Cream Bars to my liking.

Purchased Price: $5.49
Size: 9.5 fl oz box/10 0.95 oz bars
Purchased at: Safeway
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 bar) 90 calories, 6 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, less than 5 milligrams of cholesterol, 40 milligrams of sodium, 9 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 7 grams of sugar (includes 6 grams of added sugar), and 2 grams of protein.

3 Other Things I Consumed This Week: 11/21/2025

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Hillshire Farm Turkey & Bacon Ciabatta Deli Sandwiches

I don’t own an air fryer, so I can’t give you the 411 on how crispy this sandwich can get. However, I do have a microwave that, according to the box, will create a softer sandwich, so beep beep boop!

Before I comment on how this sandwich tastes, I must mention how it’s constructed. Obviously, everything is frozen — the provolone cheese, oven-roasted turkey, hickory-smoked bacon, chipotle aioli, and ciabatta roll. However, they’re not stacked nicely. A good portion of the cheese protruded from under the bun, and the frozen disc of chipotle aioli sat on one side of the sandwich. So when I microwaved the first one, most of the cheese melted onto the paper towel I was instructed to wrap around the sandwich, and the chipotle aioli ended up in one corner of the sandwich.

So if you happen to buy this or any of the other varieties, I’d highly suggest, after the suggested defrost time, repositioning the slightly less frozen ingredients so you can achieve a better balance. And that was your Public Service Announcement for the day.

Okay, now how does this taste? Good enough for a frozen sandwich. The bread, surprisingly, wasn’t dried out or tough to bite through, which has haunted previous microwave sandwiches. Between that bread was a decent portion of turkey that ended up a bit dry and tasted overly salty. Bacon did what bacon does and added some smokiness and porky flavors. The provolone was surprisingly noticeable for a mild cheese, and the chipotle aioli kicked up the flavor a few notches with its smoky, peppery notes. 

Stacking issues aside, Hillshire Farm’s Turkey & Bacon Ciabatta Deli Sandwich is a decent tasting offering that has gotten me curious about the other varieties. It’s $6 for two, they’re ready in under 4 minutes, and each provides 25 grams of protein.

Unwell Frosted Cranberry Energy Drink

Is it just me, or does someone else have Matchbox 20 pop into their head whenever they see an Unwell product? 

This seasonal energy drink has 150 milligrams of caffeine from green coffee extract, and like Unwell Water, it has 745 milligrams of electrolytes and contains no artificial sweeteners. Actually, I think this is the company’s first energy drink.

Maybe because it comes in a can and it’s an energy drink, I thought the beverage would be carbonated, but it’s not. Because it’s not carbonated, its cranberry flavor is decent, and it’s not too tart, I found it easy to drink. However, I don’t taste anything that could be considered “frosted.” Or maybe “frosted” was added to the name to make it sound wintery. 

While it tastes fine and I could see it coming back next year, I don’t think it’s delicious enough to make me want to repurchase it if it does.

Chips Ahoy Chewy Cookie Butter Inspired Cookies

Vin already covered this with a full review, but I wanted to add my two cents here. These cookies were good. I thought the speculoos cookie butter flavor was mild, but noticeable. I was disappointed that the cookie’s filling didn’t have a texture similar to cookie butter. Instead, it had the same snap as the chips in the cookie.

However, after going through half of the package, I came across the warming instructions, which involved heating a cookie or two on a plate for a few seconds. Those suggestions made the cookies better in my opinion. The speculoos flavor popped much more, and some of the cookie filling had melted a bit. So beep beep boop, if you decide to buy these cookies.

Click/Tap here for our previous Other Things I Consumed posts.

REVIEW: Tombstone Chili Cheese French Fry Style Crust Pizza

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Tombstone’s Chili Cheese French Fry Style Crust Pizza box describes this as hamburger, chili cheese sauce, mozzarella, cheddar, red onion, & parsley on a potato crust. Hmmmm…

French fries are awesome! Pizza is awesome! Chili cheese-flavored things are awesome! So it would stand to reason that this chili cheese french fry crust pizza would also be, you know, awesome, right?

Well, let’s start with the positives. For a lower cost frozen pizza, there are actually a good number of toppings on this thing, especially cheese. Usually, lack of cheese is my number one complaint with frozen pizzas, so I was pleasantly surprised to find this one decently cheesy. There is a good amount of meaty bits, onions, and sauce as well, although the entire time I was eating it, I couldn’t help but wish sliced hot dogs were used instead of the meatball things. Compare me to Sonic the Hedgehog, but nothing beats a good chili cheese dog!

I really like the flavor of the chili cheese sauce, too. It has a nice bite without being overwhelming or detracting from the other flavors, which is really impressive. The consistency is great, too. Thick enough not to leak or squish out when you cut it.

This pizza also smells AMAZING while it cooks. It reminded me of a Sonic chili cheese coney and tots, that perfect blend of chili, cheese, and potato was spot on.

Sadly, that’s where the pros run out, and we turn to the things I didn’t appreciate.

The French fry crust in THEORY sounds great: Innovative, unique, and like the best part of a crispy French fry. Turns out, that only applies to the very edge of the crust, unfortunately. The crispy, crunchy outer edge of the crust is PERFECT, and what I ultimately wanted from the rest of the pie: crunchy, well done fries transformed into a saucy cheese conveyance vehicle. Something about that so-called “crunchy outside, soft inside” crust is where it all fell apart for me.

The taste is aight. Not exactly French fry, per se, but definitely in the “processed potato product” ballpark. More like hash browns if I had to pick something specific. I didn’t really mind that. What I minded was the texture, which is SO. FREAKING. WRONG. It’s floppy, despite baking the pizza on the bottom rack (as instructed) for an additional 5 minutes. It’s also somehow chewy and squishy. It almost reminds me of mochi or gnocchi, and neither of those has a texture I’m excited about sharing with a pizza. My heart stopped being in it after the first bite, and I forced myself to finish my 1/4 pie serving. It took too long to chew, and it was neither pleasant nor appetizing.

If you could get past that, the “hamburger” meatball things were dry and bland and also had a bit of a weird texture to them, although not as weird as the crust.

I say this one is interesting enough to try for the novelty, but make sure you have a backup plan if the crust texture proves to be too much for you.

Purchased Price: $5.87
Size: 18.8 oz
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 4 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1/4 pizza) 330 calories, 15 grams of total fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 20 milligrams of cholesterol, 630 milligrams of sodium, 39 grams of total carbs, 2 grams of dietary fiber, 3 grams of total sugar, and 9 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Cheez-It Pizza

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I’m not breaking any new ground by saying that even the worst pizza is still pretty good.

Your local pizza joint? Pretty good. Pizza Hut? Pretty good. Those little plastic rectangles they force-fed you in elementary school? Pretty good. Pizza in the morning, pizza in the evening, pizza at supper time! When pizzas are on a bagel, it’s still pretty good.

I love pizza… butttttt, I’ve never been much of a thin crust guy. Outside of Domino’s, I don’t even really eat it. I’m actually on record saying, “I don’t want pizza on a cracker.” Well, that changed the second I found a frozen pizza that was literally on a cracker. The cracker in question? You know it’s Cheez-It, so why teez-it?

“Take a Cheez-It, freeze it, and then Pizz-it.” – some marketing guy, probably.

Cheez-It Pizzas come in three flavors — Pepperoni, Cheddar Jack Supreme, and Italian Four Cheese — and are available nationwide. I opted for the Four Cheese, which has whole milk mozzarella, parmesan, yellow cheddar, and Romano… and Cheez-It, so technically, it’s Five Cheese. Semantics.

Right out of the box, the pizza smelled like Cheez-Its, so it was a great start. The baking instructions said to cook the pie at 450 degrees for 8-10 minutes, but as a lover of Extra Toasty Cheez-Its, I defied their orders and set the timer for 11.

I’m not one for rules – not even these pizza rules everybody apparently knows about. It’s a good thing I didn’t stop at just one bite; otherwise, this review would have been a dud because the first bite didn’t pop.

I had flashbacks to the Cheez-It collab at Taco Bell, where I thought the Cheez-It was lost entirely within the Crunchwrap. I was ready to say something snippy like, “This pizza puts the ‘ick’ in ‘gimmick.'” Good thing I didn’t say that, though, because it’s not funny at all.

It grew on me. After one square, I ate four more—one for each cheese. The cheeses had a really nice flavor, but they kind of blended into a generic, chewy “pizza cheese” taste. Parmesan stood out the most.

At first, I wasn’t getting anything more than crisp from the Cheez-It, but by square three, the Cheez-It flavor was firmly there. The crust tastes like 75% of a Cheez-It.

Honestly, this is just a hot, overly salted, cheesy cracker, and I think that’s fine.

There isn’t enough marinara, though. Maybe the extra minute in the oven evaporated the sauce, but it’s dry, and I’m not even a guy who likes a super saucy slice. I’m not even a guy. I’m a child eating Cheez-It Pizza.

I ate half the pie, and I was satisfied. I air-fried the other half the next day and was equally satisfied. It wasn’t even that far off from a Domino’s Thin Crust, but like takeout pizza, I think I prefer my frozen pizza like I hate my stomach – doughy.

It’s not delivery. It’s not even DiGiorno\*. It’s decent. It’s a snack, not a meal.

So yeah, I’ve had worse. I don’t even know you, and I know you have too. It’s technically pizza, and as we all know, all pizza is pretty good.

*This is from Palermo’s. Until writing this review, I literally thought this was a collaboration with DiGiorno because of the box design, but it’s not DiGiorno, it’s Deceptive!

Purchased Price: $8.99
Size: 16.85 oz.
Purchased at: ShopRite
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1/4 Pizza) 320 calories, 18 grams of fat, 10 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 45 milligrams of cholesterol, 850 milligrams of sodium, 25 grams of total carbohydrates, 2 grams of total sugars, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 15 grams of protein.

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