The Evil and Dangerous Marshmallow

Remember the cool new Goldfish cookies I reviewed? There were chocolate, cinnamon, and honey graham and they were surprisingly good. Well, check out this smart concoction:

Goldfish S'mores! This bag basically has both the chocolate and honey graham and they added some little marshmallow fish:

I wanted to not like them, to be unimpressed. I tossed a handful into my mouth, then another. Before I could stop myself, I ate the whole bag. They are even harder to stop eating because of the marshmallow. The new texture, the blend of flavors - evil, Pepperidge Farm, evil.

Another attempt at combining flavors involving the marshmallow:

This is an attempt to combine chocolate and vanilla - creating a Swirlmallow. (Oooh - I hope they locked down the copyright on that one!) Quite simply, these are horrific. Look at the picture - they look kind of grey. They don't taste as good as a plain ol' vanilla marshmallow, and they sure don't taste like chocolate. These seem like a good idea - and might be better in a recipe or roasted, but they are God-awful right out of the bag. GLAACK!!

But there was a handy Choking Warning on the package:

Eat one at a time. (What?)

For children under 6, cut marshmallows into bite-sized pieces. Children should always be seated and supervised while eating. (My mother never cut up a marshmallow - apparently she was trying to kill me.)

I never knew marshmallows were so dangerous.

Of Bears and Fish

So many people (okay, two) asked about where to find the Chocolate Goldfish, that I must reveal my source - Target! I actually went there today to double check. While there, I decided to get some Chocolate Teddy Grahams to compare them. The Chocolate Goldfish are still on top! They are a bit sweeter AND you can have 50 Goldfish for 140 calories and only 24 Teddies for 130 calories. (And there's something about that Goldfish smile I just can't get enough of!) There are a whole bunch of games on the Teddy Grahams website, but the bear is no motivational speaker. Again, go with the Goldfish.



Not only does Target have the Chocolate Goldfish, they also have the Honey Goldfish (remember they are actually called Goldfish Grahams, but that ain't working for me). These are good too! Pepperidge Farms - you rock!!







While I was trolling Target for more new chocolate treats to review, I recalled that one of my seminar attendees was raving about a new chocolate Chex Mix. There are several - Chocolate Turtle, Chocolate Peanut Butter (I have GOT to find that!), and Dark Chocolate. There are also some 100 calorie packs - Chocolate Caramel (I found these). I also found some Chocolate Chunk Chex Mix bars.



I'm holding out hope for the regular Chex mixes - low cal Chocolate Caramel was good. Did it blow me away? No. I'd rather have Chocolate Goldfish. But if you like Chex Mix, I think you'll like this. The bars, however, are horrible. They have some kind of weird plasticy aftertaste. Yuck. There are some great cereal bars out there - Cheerios has an awesome one - but this one is very, very bad. Definitely goes in the "just because you can do it doesn't mean you should" category.



The best lesson of this blog for me has been the fun of having a new hobby. I give a training session on stress reduction and one of the things we discuss is how important is it for adults to have fun and to have a hobby or interest outside of work they enjoy. I love searching for new chocolate treats and writing about them! What activities do you have in your life that you think are fun? Do you make time to engage in them? Do you need to find some new ones? Sometimes the things that were fun get boring - we get used to them. Maybe you need something new to make you smile. Life is short - and how fun yours is is up to you! And that's not just Fishful Thinking! ; )

Oceans of Chocolate Optimism

I just tried Chocolate Animal Crackers by Kraft. These are the animal crackers most of us grew up with - they come in the cool package that looks like the circus train. I got them for the sole purpose of comparing them to the Chocolate Goldfish. I secretly thought they might be better. (I don't know why I seem to be so skeptical of the Chocolate Goldfish - I have eaten them and they are good!) The animal crackers were not as good - less sweet - more crackery. But better shapes! But not smiley faces. Get the Goldfish.


On the ChocoTour I got some Stauffer's Chocolate Animal Crackers - they rank somewhere between the Chocolate Goldfish and Barnum's Animals Choco Crackers (the official name for the Kraft crackers). Stauffer's base is in York, PA but you can't tour their factory, so I didn't go there. (I want to see stuff being made! I'd love to see dough being pressed out of little animal molds! Whee!!) They claim to have started making animal crackers back in 1871. Now, they are just a division of the Meiji Company of Japan. Wah - that makes me sad. Anyway, Pepperidge Farms is kicking their butt in the chocolate-cracker-in-an-animal-shape department. Go Team USA!


Stauffer's does, however, have some exciting stuff on their website including this important information:


What is the difference between a cookie and a cracker?

Stauffer's Animal Crackers have less sugar and shortening than cookies. Animal Cookies, another Stauffer's product line, have slightly less flour than animal crackers. Animal crackers have a layered dough, which gives the crackers a crunchy and delicate texture. Break an animal cracker in half and you will see layers.

Holy cow-shaped cracker! This is like cookie geology! I bet Animal Cookies are really good.(Here's the deal though - they have WAY more calories than animal crackers - it's all that sugar and lard.) Again, get the Goldfish.

Now here's something truly amazing! There's a whole special Goldfish website (the chocolate ones aren't even on there yet - we are soooo cutting edge!). And they have a special program called Fishful Thinking (I kid you not) and this is what they say about it:

The Fishful Thinking program provides the tools parents need to teach their kids how to think optimistically about themselves and how to use their Optimism to overcome life's obstacles, persist in the face of adversity, and transform setbacks into manageable challenges. By teaching kids Optimism today, we are equipping them with the skills and strategies they can rely on to shine in the face of adversity for the rest of their lives.

Chocolate Goldfish are motivational speakers!!! Who knew?

As Close to Seafood as Chocolate Should Ever Come

Just when you think you have it all figured out, you realize you know nothing.

I was prepared for Chocolate Goldfish to be horrible. I like the little Goldfish crackers, but after all, they are a cheese thing or a cracker thing. I guess it's somewhat hard to figure out exactly what Goldfish do well. They really aren't the greatest cheese item ever or the best cracker ever.

Regardless, I was ready to write a scathing blog about how Pepperidge Farm should stick to what makes Goldfish great - cheese. I was ready to relive my former erudite comments about Pez and gum not venturing into chocolate, about staying true to what made them good and not trying to be chocolate. I was ready to rock and roll!

Then I ate a Chocolate Goldfish. It was good. I ate more Chocolate Goldfish. They too were good.

I was wrong about the Chocolate Goldfish.

Actually these are Goldfish Grahams and the ones I tried just happened to be the chocolate ones. (They also come in honey and cinnamon, but when there's chocolate, why bother?) And, dear reader, I bought them with you in mind. I can now rationalize any chocolate purchase I make - it's research for the millions reading this blog everyday. I'm boldly tasting chocolate so you don't have to! (Hopefully I saved you from Weight Watchers Boston Cream Pie yogurt.)

The Chocolate Goldfish (I like that name better than Goldfish Grahams - it gives chocolate the attention it deserves) are actually good. And 50 (yes fifty!) of them only have 140 calories! And they are made with whole grain! And they have a little smiley fish face on every one. In fact, the whole experience has caused me to re-evaluate what makes Goldfish great. It's not the cheese or the cracker - it's the size and shape! That's what makes them fun to eat! And that's what makes the Chocolate Goldfish good. They are not the greatest little chocolate cookie/cracker things ever, but they are good. And they are a fun shape. And you can eat lots of them! Whee!!!

I also think these would be great sprinkled over ice cream, sprinkled in a peanut butter sandwich, mixed in with vanilla yogurt, stuck in raw cookie dough - oh, the epicurean delights!

So try not to be as judgemental as I am - a product may indeed hold qualities you didn't even appreciate until you experienced it in a different format. Something you don't like may be good in another recipe. A person may have qualities you don't appreciate until you see him or her in a different setting.

And if you still don't like something or someone, there are plenty of other fish in the sea! Bwah, ha, ha!!