Football and Foliage

Maybe I'm crazy, but it seems like there are a whole lot more football specific candy/baked goods than ever before.  Have you seen these babies?  Football Oreos:

Look at all the different designs!  Gotta love "lick the competition."  Do these do anything for me?  While I admire the different shapes and the many designs, I have to say - not really.  There seems to be more cookie and less cream and I am so NOT about that.  I was born for Double Stuff.

Little Debbie (LD) has some football shaped brownies (oddly these are the same shape as their Easter egg brownies, but the shape is better for footballs, so you go, LD!)  They taste pretty good - the same as all the other Little Debbie brownies I've reviewed.  A new shape is just a good excuse to buy more.  Cheap and pretty chocolately - while not a touch down, I'd say definitely a field goal.

Look pretty good, huh?  Always moist - Little Debbie has the cheap, mass produced brownie down cold.

And look at these!  Reese's Footballs!

These are totally the Reese's eggs repackaged as footballs.  But they are still that delicious Reese's peanut butter, so I'm not complainin'!  And the bag weighs like a ton!  (2 pounds!)

Since football is a fall sport, I'm going to include some other fall flavors.  (Yeah, yeah I know it's January - give a girl a break!  I've been busy!)  Harry and David has these Red Apple Caramel balls:

And while you guys know I love most of Harry and David's stuff, I did not love these.  They had some kind of funky aftertaste.  Boo!  If Hershey can get the exact taste of caramel apples in their Kisses (reviewed on September 5th), Harry and David can do better than this.  Flag on the play!

Godiva also has a caramel apple Gem:

Now it's just pathetic when Hershey does better than Godiva.  Once again I rant at how damn expensive Godiva is and how not so great.  (Just like some pro football players we could name.)

Not to be limited by football, LD also had these for the Fall and their usual brownie trees for Christmas:

A solid performer.

Marshmallow Treats again - this time for Fall.  Nothing wrong with them - they are basically second rate Rice Krispy treats in fall colors.  A little less crispy, a little less sweet, just not quite as good as the original. 

But you gotta give LD credit for those colors.  I like a little originality and flash.  (Just like some pro football players we could name.)

My favorite decorated sugar cookies from Harry and David:

Good tasting, not rock hard like some of these decorated cookies can be.  They are VERY hard to stop eating.  And they are in adorable little designs.  I'm glad to see they have remained politically correct and not included an Indian head dress.

These little marzipan works of art were in World Market:

You know they are from Europe when you see the toadstool.  We would have never included that in the good ol' US of A.  Leaves yes, fungi no.  They come from Germany.  Land of the fairy tale (and the fungi).

Really pretty, aren't they?

The taste isn't bad - they have a good, strong almond flavor.  I would like it if the chocolate coating was thicker.  Marzipan can be so sweet - I like it best with paired with heavy chocolate.  But I really like the artistry of these - very nice.

If you are intrigued by any of these - Harry and David stores are having a great sale right now.  I got the cookies for half price.  Little Debbie's never stay around for long - I have to grab them as soon as I see them.  The Reese's footballs I found in Wal-Mart.  But two pounds is a lot - be ready. 

Go Team Chocolate!!  Coming up next - my other beloved - pumpkin!!!!!

Little Debbie Does Easter

God, I love holidays!! Easter is a big one at the Church of Chocolate (and not for the reasons it's big everywhere else). I mean we're down with the whole pagan celebration of spring thing and hey, the Son of God stuff is amazing, but for us - this is the last big candy holiday for a while. And it's a doozy!

According to the NCA (National Confectioners Association - hosts of Candy Expo) 88 percent of Americans create baskets for their kids (yeah, right - one for you Little Johnny, two for Mommy) - using 90 million chocolate bunnies! 90 million! And you guys thought I had a lot of chocolate bunnies!

Today, however, I say - let them eat cake!

My girl Little Debbie is back in the house!

This is a staple in both chocolate and white - change the sprinkles - change the cake. This shape with red, yellow and orange sprinkles was a Fall Party Cake. But there was yellow cake and chocolate icing, so I can't give Lil' D too hard a time.


Here's the main problem - they are kinds dry. I keep finding this with theses cakes and it's breaking my heart. Come on - my childhood memories of these being good are being replaced by my adult reality of them kind of sucking. Lil' D hook a girl up and fix these things!

Look at these festive things:

There is something about these. something that makes me want to eat them. I'm not even a big brownie lover. They are definitely moist and chocolately. They taste pretty damn good. They are a whopping 200 calories each so it must be all the fat and sugar. Lil' D maybe you don't need to hook me up anymore than you already have.

You gotta laugh at this shape for an egg:

But pretty damn creative and so good! And cheap. I warn you, if you get these, you will eat them. But the box and keep one, take the rest to the office. Play Easter bunny and leave them on people's desks. They are so random and funny!

Once again - the seasonal Marshmallow Treat:

This time I decided to do a taste test with the King of marshmallow treats - Rice Krispies treats.

The Little Debbie treat is about twice the size of the RK treats for the same number of calories - 100.

Now these all have chocolate, which puts them ahead right there.

This one is my favorite - with just the right ratio of chocolate to rice crispy:

This one has too much chocolate in my book. But sometimes that's what you want.

Bottom line - there is more of the Lil D treat, so if you want quantity - go with that one. Also it has the cool seasonal factor - a big hit with me. But for sheer taste - the Rice Krispies treats are better - more flavor. And my favorite is the second one - chocolately drizzle. YUM!

I decided to go ahead and review these while I was on a cereal bar roll:

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Marshmallow Golden Graham Treats. Not as light and airy as the Rice Krispies like things, these are heavier. I thought I would love the peanut butter one, but it was nothing to write home about. I took a couple of bites, then trashed it.

Chocolate marshmallow, however, was a different story. Now the picture looks bad because there's some bloom on the chips, but that's probably because it got hot at some point. It still tasted great and I ate the whole bar. These are giant and have 260 calories. I'd say this was better than the typical cereal bar and very filling. Try one next time you're grabbing something on the run and don't want to go completely insane with a Snickers.

I reviewed these last year and I love them just as much this year. I'm not even that crazy about marshmallow! But I love these! Only 100 calories each.

These I hate. They have orange filling - maybe supposed to look like an egg yolk?

See how big the Little Debbie is?

Boo! Orange! But egglike - points for creativity! The chocolate coating is great, but the orange was so overpowering to me - I just didn't like these at all. Bleech.

Yay - chocolate! The base is like the Little Debbie brownie - rich and moist. I don't know exactly why this crazy thing works, but it does, baby, it does!

For $1.79 you get 8 of these - now if that's not worth celebrating, I don't know what is! Cheap, festive, fun - and, well, depending on how you look at it, holy.

Thank you, Easter Bunny! More marshmallow to come! As well as Easter candy by See's, Bissinger, and L.A. Burdick.

I Love Little Debbie

Little Debbie is full of surprises. Besides being the cutest little kid EVAH, she is rocking the house at Valentine's Day. I like the fact that the boxes boldly ask you to be her Valentine. And since it looks like I won't have another Valentine, I am taking her up on the offer. Hey - at least she shows up with cake!!



First up are the iced brownies:

Love the heart shape and really love the heart shaped sprinkles! (Not be be confused with nonpareils). As you know I don't think LD's brownies are the best in the world, but these are so festive and at $1.79 for a box of five, you can't beat them. After being snowbound with them all weekend, I have come to love them.

Each of these boxes has cheesy Valentine's Day cards you can cut out and give to your beloved. My favorite has a pic of two heads of lettuce and says "Valentine, lettuce us be together."

Now these just look gorgeous. They come two hearts to a pack:

Can you see the beads of moisture? I like the chocolate drizzle - makes them look elegant. Seriously - elegant Little Debbies! Who needs a fancy chef when you can just just whip these babies out?

Now here's the surprising and heartbreaking thing - the chocolate hearts were kind of dry. I know - shocking! After all, you can see the moisture! I don't know what happened, I'm just telling you. They were dry enough that I actually preferred these:

I KNOW - I couldn't believe it myself. I adore chocolate. I consider the Swiss Cake Roll an act of genius. But the pink cakes had a lot more creme (see for yourself) and were much more moist. They were a lot better. Maybe I got a bad batch of the chocolate ones - at the end of the creme line - who knows. But if you have to choose, go with the pink ones.

I've saved the very, very best of all for last:

These are amazing. Two cookie-sized cakes, with a thick layer of cherry creme (not too strong) between them, and the whole thing dipped in chocolate. These are amazingly delicious. You want a Valentine's Day treat - look no further. My heart belongs to Little Debbie.

And if I don't get out and get some exercise, my waistline is going to belong to her too!

Little Debbie Stole Christmas

I was determined not to miss the Little Debbie Christmas treats. I missed some of the fall ones and I wasn't going to let that happen again, so this season I think I got 'em all. And I am sorely disappointed.


Let's start with gingerbread - a holiday tradition and a personal favorite of mine:








They look festive enough, they were the perfect degree of softness, but - alas, they were just not good. I ADORE gingerbread but these seem to have some kind of weird aftertaste. Not sure what was happening here, but it was not good. Archway makes a MUCH better gingerbread cookie. I'd post pictures of the Archway ones, but I already ate them all.



These looked good:






Creative, right? Love the red and green. Again, not good - nothing bad, just kind of tasteless. I have a box of regular Rice Krispy Treats and they are WAY better. Something is missing here. ZZZZZ.



Okay, there's still hope! There's chocolate!!!

Okay, maybe the sprinkles need a little help, but these look good! And they were definitely the best of the bunch, but for 190 calories each, not amazing. Only average. I'd rather have one of Little D's pumpkin cookie things or her peanut butter bars. Or even an oatmeal cream pie! Sad, but true.

Okay wait, what about these?

Okay, artistically they don't really look like the trees on the box. Taste-wise...well, they are just kind of flat. They aren't bad brownies, they just aren't really good brownies. They have a great consistency, but again, the flavor is just, well - average. Again, not really worth the calories. Disappointing. : (

And finally:

Something clearly happens to the sprinkles between posing for the shot on the box and getting to the consumer, but hey, what the heck. I had high hopes for these too. I like frosted cookies like these - I know they are cheap, but I've always liked 'em. These? Not so much. Again - a weird aftertaste. A blah factor. So heartbreaking.

Now here's a shocker:

Okay - another sprinkle mutiny, but look at that radioactive green! I LOVE it! I was surprised by the shameless printing of their name on every cookie, but whatever. There are like 10 billion cookies in here and they were cheap as dirt. I got them at Target. I bought them for the name - Festive - and the outrageous color. And as cheap and cheesy as they are - they are the best of the lot!

Oh Little Debbie, why have you forsaken me? Was it what I said about Martha?

The lesson? We always want what we can't have. I really, really wanted the Fall Little Debbie brownies. When they were sold out, I was sure they would be the best thing EVAH! But now that I have the Christmas ones - well......

Here's the eternal challenge of the human race - continue to strive and grow vs. being happy with what you have. The secret is to find the mix that works for YOU. What works for your friend on the corporate fast track may not work for you. You might choose more time with family or more time to travel and less income.

So this holiday season, be very thankful for all you have and remember that what you don't have may not be as great as it seems. And if you do get it, it may not have nearly as many sprinkles on it as you thought.