Chef Lisa

Now, I’m not one to take herbal supplements. So many wild claims are made about them, and I really don’t know whether or not to believe it. That said, I picked up a package of The Republic of Tea’s Get Lost Herb Tea For Weight Control at World Market. The name caught my attention, so I checked out the label. It’s supposed to help satisfy your appetite and control your sweet tooth to help control cravings.

I doubted it could do that, but it was the ingredients – and the potential taste of it – that made me buy it. It’s got tropical banaba leaf, cinnamon, carob, gymnema leaves, organic roobios, and orange peel. I thought what the heck. Even if it doesn’t control my appetite and cravings, it should at least taste good, right?

The tin says you’re supposed to drink three cups a day either before or after a meal. I had my first cup of it this morning. All I can say is that it appears to work. The horrible cravings I’ve been having for chocolate are gone. And I am right – it does taste good too, even without sugar or sweetener.

I’m going to try to make reviews of food, and things related to food, a regular part of this blog. At least once a week, you’ll find a review of some kind. This week, I’m going to be taking a look at one of Nabisco’s 100 Calorie Packs products – the Lorna Doone Shortbread Cookie Crisps.

In the past, I’ve always tried to look at the economy of products. Buy in bulk and you save money. However, you may have noticed that when you do buy in bulk, you use those things up faster simply because you have more. That’s certainly the case when it comes to cookies and other snacks. Buying in bulk doesn’t save you anything if you’re eating too much. We’ve decided we’ll spend a bit more on something if it means it has built in portion control. For me, being able to grab a single packet of something is great – it’s a single serving. For the kids, it’s great because they get to eat an entire package of cookies.

So, like the millions of other people, we’ve been buying the 100 calorie packs. We’ve tried several of them, but my favorite of the second is the Lorna Doone Shortbread Cookie Crisps. First of all, they look adorable. Little individual shortbread cookies about the size of a nickle. Don’t ask me how many of them are in the package, I don’t know, but it’s the perfect amount for a little treat, and it’s only 100 calories. There’s enough of them, however, that it makes me think “wow, there’s still some in the pack” if I eat them one at a time.

I don’t know why they call them crisps. Probably simply for marketing purposes, but I love the fact I get to eat a handful of mini-cookies. I’ve never had the regular Lorna Doone shortbreads, but the 100 calories crisps taste wonderful. They’re definitely going to be put on the grocery list again.

As I search for things to eat that I can, at least in part, delude myself into thinking they are healthy, I came across Cinnamon Sugar Quaker Multigrain Minis. I don’t normally buy this kind of thing (rice cakes, that is) , but Meijer has them on sale for $1 a bag, so I thought I’d give them a try.

First of all, they look like someone took a bunch of miniature styrofoam packing peanuts, sprayed them half-heatedly with brown paint, and then squished them mostly flat. Or for a more evocative image, deep-fried maggots, pressed together into a disc and flattened.

But trust me, they taste better than they look.

They’re slightly sweet, with a definite cinnamon taste. I can also taste a bit of apple. That could just be wishful thinking, but there’s no specific mention of apples in the ingredient list. There is the ubiquitous “natural and artificial flavors”.

60 calories (10 calories from fat) per 9 cake serving. 1 g fat (0 trans fats), 90 mg sodium, 12 g carbs (1g dietary fiber, 3 g sugars), 1 g protein.

I like them, and will probably buy another bag this weekend with the regular grocery shopping trip.