Food Review - trail mix bar

let's face it, not everyone has time to bake or make snacks from scratch. luckily there are tons of portable fruits (apples, bananas, oranges, plums, dried fruit). nuts are pretty portable roo and good for you, but sometimes you need more. sometimes you need a granola bar, or crackers, maybe even a cookie. again, there isn't always the time to make all those from scratch and monitor the ingredients you put into them.

so, i've decided to start reviewing some items for you. that way, you and i will know what the best, healthiest, tastiest choices are for snacking.

as i have said before, things in their most natural state are the best for you. like fruits and vegetables, they look exactly as they did when the were pulled out of the ground or plucked off a tree. i tend to limit the amount of boxed and packaged things i buy, but sometimes, it's necessary.

like today for instance. i was running a bunch of errands and i got hungry. i almost always have a snack in the arm rest of my car but E and i switched cars today. no snack - yikes. so, while i was at target, i grabbed an on the go bar.

i chose a clif mojo bar mainly because it looked good and had chocolate in it. i have never had these before but there were 3 different flavors at my target. i chose the dipped chocolate peanut one. it looked like this inside: (sorry for the photo quality, i took these with my BB)

it's called a sweet & salty trail mix bar. it was wonderfully, chewy and crunchy at the same time. it literally tasted like a candy bar. goey, almost caramel-like consistency around the peanuts and the bottom half was dipped in chocolate. ok, it tasted good. but, how healthy is it?

let's look at the main ingredients:
organic brown rice syrup, organic peanuts, organic coating (consisting of basically evaporated cane juice, oil, cocoa powder, and vanilla), soy rice crisps, honey roasted peanuts, organic pretzels, organic peanut butter, roasted soy beans, oat syrup, etc.

while this bar was a little heavy on the sugar (11 grams) it was at least natural sugars (brown rice syrup, evaporated cane juice, oat syrup). it did have a fair amount of protein too (9 grams). it had a total of 210 calories, 10 g fat (no trans fat), 190mg sodium (pretty low), 22g carbs, 2g fiber.

i would say, overall this is a pretty good product. not ideal to eat everyday, but if you are on the run and craving something sweet, this is light years better than a candy bar with the sweet candy bar taste. plus, the protein will keep you feeling fuller for longer.

i'd give it a 7.5 out of 10 and will definately try the other flavors.