Monday, August 16, 2010 at 07:18 AM
Welcome to Cart Confessions, a frequent feature here at A Better Bag of Groceries, when I ‘fess up that, hey, I’m no Super-Mom and sometimes often some less-than-nutritious products end up in my shopping cart. I have to tell you that I don’t make this stuff up. Many people in my hometown know that I write ABBG and know me as the teacher of Boot Camp and Pilates classes, so there are times when I’m covering certain products up in my shopping cart lest I bump into someone while grocery shopping! When I found out the NuVal score on these Late July cookies, I found that these were one of those products.
I blame my 7-year-old son for this one. He first spied these at Stop & Shop about a year ago – in a snack pack. He is born on the 4th of July and he just loves his July birthday and anything at all to do with the month of July, so he asked if he could get these cookies as a special treat. I looked at the label. Lots of great health claims:
- 2 g whole grain per serving
- anti-oxidants
- processed without dangerous pesticides
- no trans-fat or high fructose corn syrup
- no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives
I figured they must be at least a little bit more nutritious than a regular cookie, right? No. They score an 8 on the NuVal scale. They get the same score as a Double Stuff Oreo. A Keebler Chips Deluxe Soft and Chewy Cookie with a score of 12 would be a better choice.
Can I just add here that I paid over $4 for this box at Shaw’s? Crazy.
Bottom line. A cookie that you buy in the “Healthy” section of your grocery store is still a cookie.
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cart Confessions, Cookies, Uncategorized
Tags: Cookies, Uncategorized
Tuesday, May 11, 2010 at 06:50 AM
Welcome to Trade Up Tuesday, a super day to visit A Better Bag of Groceries, because I talk about Trade-Ups I’ve made since learning about NuVal and I give away something for free. Today, in the spirit of Mother’s Day (which I personally think should last a week!) I put together a lovely little gift that I know I would like to receive: Cookies and Chocolate!
When it comes to dessert, cookies and chocolate are the things that I crave the most. I’m really not a cake person. My lack of desire for cake makes me feel like I’ve been given some sort of gift in the Craving Department. I easily say no to cake. Especially yellow or white cake with sickeningly sweet frosting. Bleeech! I don’t love it and I turn it down just about every time. Good thing because I feel like at least once a week there is an occasion where I’m offered a piece of cake. No thanks! Same thing holds true for sugary candy (Twizzlers, jelly beans, Swedish Fish). It’s just not my Go To treat.
That being said, I do love a treat once in a while, but for me they usually are in the form of a cookie or dark chocolate. The cookies and dark chocolate that I’m giving away today are the highest scoring of the bunch.
Cookies, as you can guess, do not get the same high NuVal scores as do something like Fruit. The scores for cookies range from 1 – 40, and the average score for a cookie is a 7. These Kashi TLC Oatmeal Raisin Flax cookies are the highest cookie we’ve scored so far at NuVal. They get a 40. Kashi does make a version of this cookie where they throw in some dark chocolate, but those cookies only get a 24. Bummer!
Dark chocolate is something that I absolutely cannot resist. Even if it’s just a few dark chocolate chips, I have a little bit every day. I remember the moment when I was reviewing the scores on the shelf at a Price Chopper supermarket (how cool that I get to do that as part of my job!) and I found out that this chocolate bar got a score of 21! Most of the other dark chocolates I’ve seen get scores below 10, so when I saw that, I was in heaven!
Today’s Giveaway
One lucky commenter will receive these High Scoring Treats and a NuVal t-shirt. All you need to do is leave a comment below, telling me about a Trade-Up you’ve made since learning about NuVal. If you haven’t made one yet, check out this blog or Trading Up Downtown for ideas. You can also check out sample scores on the NuVal site. I will choose one winner at random at 7 am EDT time Wednesday. Good luck!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cookies, Kashi, Trade-Up Tuesday
Tags: Cookies, dark chocolate, Kashi
Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 07:00 AM
Welcome to Trade-Up Tuesday, a weekly feature here on A Better Bag of Groceries. Today I am giving away my favorite dessert: Cookies! Not just any ordinary cookies – but cookies that get the best NuVal scores I’ve been able to find so far. For the grown-ups, there’s Kashi TLC and for the kids, Chocolate Teddy Grahams.
I’m a cookie girl. I have a very hard time saying no to a cookie. I can say no to cake, to pie, to candy – but cookies are hard for me to resist. And dark chocolate – but that’s a blog post for another time!
Cookies, as you can imagine, score rather low on the NuVal scale (1-100, 100 is best). The median score for cookies (1/2 score above it, 1/2 score below it) is only a 3. Ouch!
The Uber-Scorer in the Cookie category is Kashi’s TLC (Tasty Little Cookie) Oatmeal Raisin Flax. It gets a 40. Wow! I buy them, but I do like the other Kashi cookie better: Kashi TLC Oatmeal Dark Chocolate, which gets a 24. Still great for a cookie and did I mention that I love dark chocolate?
As for my kids, I try to steer them towards Chocolate Teddy Grahams which get a NuVal score of 25. The Chocolate Chip Teddy Grahams only score a 12. Chips Ahoy only score a 6. And lest you think that you might do better with Reduced Fat Chips Ahoy, think again. They get the same score as regular Chips Ahoy – a 6!
Today’s GiveAway
I am giving away all 3 boxes of cookies so that you can try them out for yourself. All you need to do is head on over to the NuVal website to check out the scores. Find something that makes you go hmmmmmmm. And come back here to comment about it. One lucky commenter will win my Cookie Trade Up prize. The contest closes at 11:59 pm Eastern time tonight! Good luck!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cookies, Trade-Up Tuesday
Tags: Cookies, Kashi TLC, Teddy Grahams
Friday, December 11, 2009 at 07:01 AM
‘Tis the season for holiday get-togethers! Last weekend, we attended our friends’ annual Cookie Exchange. Now, you might be envisioning an afternoon get-together with lots of kids running around and parents sipping hot chocolate out of big mugs. Not! No one under 5 feet tall is allowed at this annual party. The height-challenged hosts joke that they barely make the cut!
Jen & Tim host this annual fun-fest at their home in Southern Rhode Island. It started to snow just as we were leaving and the commute is about an hour, but we did not let that deter us. After a day of chauferring kids from event-to-event, we were looking foward to an evening with people over 5 feet tall who can drink wine. I’m so glad we made it. Tim & Jen’s house looked beautiful in the snow.
I’m always amazed that Jen gets her house decorated so early in December. I give credit to Jen, but you know I mean Tim too!
The tree was beautiful:
And they even had a fire going. I think the cat in the picture is fake. Actually, the fire might be too. Whatever – it was nice and cozy!
And I loved the snowflakes on her chandelier:
At the Cookie Exchange, we eat appetizers and drink wine. Eventually, we get to the cookie part. I wanted to bring something healthy this year, since all my friends attending are also friends of A Better Bag of Groceries. But isn’t “Healthy Appetizer” an oxymoron? Unless it’s a crudite of vegetables? I contacted my Twitter friends at Cooking Light for suggestions. They came to my rescue in mere seconds with this suggestion: Spinach and Artichoke Dip. The recipe is from the year 2000, but my Twitter friends tell me that it is served at many a Cooking Light Staff Party.
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided
1/2 cup fat-free sour cream
1/4 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese, divided
1/4 teaspoon, black pepper
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 (14-ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 (8-ounce) block 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
1 (8-ounce) block fat-free cream cheese, softened
1/2 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained, and squeezed dry
1 (13.5-ounce) package baked tortilla chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine 1 1/2 cups mozzarella, sour cream, 2 tablespoons Parmesan, and next 6 ingredients (through spinach) in a large bowl; stir until well blended. Spoon mixture into a 1 1/2 quart baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup mozzarella and remaining 2 tablespoons Parmesan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown. Serve with tortilla chips.
I followed the recipe and purchased all the ingredients as specified, with one exception. I am not a fan of fat-free sour cream. So, instead I used reduced fat sour cream. Interestingly, reduced fat sour cream scores higher than fat free on the NuVal scale. You read that right – reduced fat sour cream scores a 29 while fat free scores a 26. Regular sour cream scores a 25. To make this recipe as nutritious as possible, I used Garden of Eatin’ No Salt Blue Corn Chips (score of 52) which I purchased at Price Chopper.
Everyone seemed to like the Spinach and Artichoke Dip. It was warm and flavorful.
The dip makes A LOT. And since my friends are a pretty health-consicous bunch, I came home with leftovers. Next time, I will divide it in two and use it for two parties.
The Cookie Swap
What is a Cookie Swap?
A Cookie Swap is a great little invention. You bake a large batch of cookies (all one type) and you go to the swap and trade with everyone. You come home with the same number of cookies you left with, but now you have a lot of different varieties of cookies. Here’s more information on cookie swaps from Baking 911.
Again, I wanted to give my cookies a healthy twist this year. Usually, if I’m going to eat a cookie, I just eat a cookie. I don’t really worry about what’s in it. But just for fun, I thought I’d try to make a healthier cookie. Cooking Light came to the rescue again with a recipe for Espresso Crinkles. I have to say, I have been making cookies for many, many years. And I have made many, many different kinds of cookies. And Espresso Crinkes are one of the best cookies I have ever made. My husband called them “flourless chocolate cake in a cookie.” Oh yeah, baby! If you are a gooey, dark chocolate lover, you have to make these.
Aren’t they beautiful? Here they are just out of the oven.
And cooling on my wire rack…
In case you’re wondering (I always have Weight Watchers points in the back of my head), these cookies come in at only 2 Weight Watchers points a piece. And they are worth every bite.
Eventually, just like any party with people of a certain age (most of the party-goers were on the brink of 40), the ladies end up in the kitchen and the guys end up in the basement. I wish I had taken a picture of the ladies, but I was too busy talking and enjoying the company of these great women who I’ve known since college. I did get a great shot of the guys engrossed in their Foosball tournament.
We’re such party animals! 
Due to the weather and a crazy-busy Sunday schedule chock full of kids’ activities, we made an early exit. But the time spent together with friends was just the respite we needed during this hectic season. And the bonus was the big plate of cookies that we took home. You may remember it from my post earlier this week.
So, if you have a party this weekend, I definitely recommend both of these recipes. Thanks to Cooking Light for coming to the rescue and enjoy the Holiday Weekend!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cookies
Tags: appetizers, Cookies
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 01:11 PM
Happy 40th Birthday Sesame Street! It is scary that I am almost as old as you! It has been wonderful these past 6 1/2 years, getting reacquainted with the Street. And yes, your Platinum Hits collection is on my Ipod. My Dear Son, now 6 1/2 and sadly Way-Too-Old for Sesame Street loved Oscar’s “I Love Trash” and Ernie’s “Put Down the Duckie.” My daughter, now 4 1/2, still wakes up wanting her Elmo’s World fix and sleeps with the one stuffed Elmo I could find that did not have some sort of speaking unit in it. I love watching her wake up, groping for Elmo’s eyeballs so she can give him a hug. Any parent who has had a love/hate relationship with Elmo should read Joanna Weiss’s column from the Saturday’s Boston Globe: Six reasons why Elmo went from being horrible to adorable.
I am looking forward to the big Sesame Street special tonight (Episode #4187!), with Michele Obama, Elmo and the White House vegetable garden. I love that Cookie Monster now gobbles vegetables along with his cookies. But still, C is for Cookie makes me want, well, a cookie! I haven’t talked much about cookies on my blog yet. Nutritionally, there’s not much to know. The median NuVal score for cookies is a 3. Ouch! You can see some of the NuVal scores for cookies on our newly designed website here.
There are a couple of superstars in the Cookie category. Most notable are Kashi’s TLC Oatmeal Cookies. They get a NuVal score of 40 – the best we’ve seen in Cookies to date. Of course, I prefer Kashi’s TLC Oatmeal with Chocolate cookie (it’s all about chocolate) which score a 24. Still, that’s a great score when it comes to cookies. If I wanted to forget about the scores, I might have a Nabisco Chips Ahoy instead. They score a 6. I might try to be a little healthier by choosing the Reduced Fat version of Chips Ahoy. I wouldn’t bother. They get exactly the same score as the regular version – a 6! I’ll just be sure to have my cookie with a big glass of skim milk, which gets an almost perfect NuVal score of 91.
I probably only have a very small window of Sesame Street Love left in my household. You know Hannah Montanna is going to be knocking on my door soon. My son now knows that there’s more to life than PBS. He’s quickly teaching his sister how to find Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel. So tonight, I’m going to have my cookie and eat it too, as we all Sing A Song. Enjoy!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cookies
Tags: Cookies, Sesame Street
