you tell me.

four hours, four stores, $200 and one large americano later.. i am home.

i am FULLY stocked up on groceries, caffeine and flowers for the kitchen table.

here are a few scenes from sunflower market.. sometimes i just can’t help myself.

sunflower market’s new line of cereals are designed IDENTICAL to kashi’s.

for comparison purposes, here is what the kashi golean box looks like (i had one in my kitchen):

pretty similar, right? they have almost identical nutrition stats and ingredients, as well. and a box of this stuff is $2.99 compared to the $4.59 kashi golean counterpart.

you tell me: should generic / grocery store brands be able to totally rip off name brand product designs?

i found myself in the peanut butter aisle even though i definitely do NOT need any peanut butter.  strange how i am just drawn to it.  but it was a good thing i wandered that way, because LOOK what i found!!

mighty maple peanut butter for $2.97?! it was a sign from god. mighty maple is my favorite kind of peanut butter ever. EVER, people. i stocked up!

you tell me: if your favorite (non perishable) food product was on sale for 35% off, and you weren’t currently OUT of said product, how many would you stock up on?

i had chobani on my list.. what else is new? marshall eats 2 or 3 (sometimes 4) chobanis each day. when i got to the chobani section, this is what i saw:

WHAT? where is the chobani?! check out the sign:

blast. people love it way too much! i wasn’t about to buy a different kind of greek yogurt. nothing is quite like chobani when it comes to flavored greek yogurt. (when it comes to plain, i can tolerate oikos and i do like fage—but flavored has to be chobani.)  lucky for me, i already had picked up a 12 pack from costco and was just planning to get other flavors at sunflower. chobani crisis averted, not to worry.

you tell me: if something you are brand-loyal to is out of stock, do you buy a different brand or go to a different store to find YOUR brand?

i finally found this bar:

i stopped eating luna bars awhile back (i used to eat them almost daily) because i prefer the simply bar (based on protein statistics and ingredients). but i have seen this chocolate coconut luna bar around blog land and really wanted to try it, so i snagged it.

oh. my. gosh.

let me tell you guys, this bar tastes exactly like a samoa girl scout cookie. EXACTLY, people.

you know what else? their pepperment flavor tastes exactly like a girl scout thin mint. true story.

let’s take a look at the stats:

not bad in terms of calories, carbs and fiber. i do wish it had a bit more protein.. but 9 grams is still pretty good. in a perfect world, the sugar grams would be lower and the protein grams higher.

the ingredient list, unfortunately, is as long as randy the basset hound. it is all the writing below the white box.

however, the bar IS all natural, mostly organic and there are no funky hydrogenated oils.. something the girl scouts can’t say about their cookies.

the label boasts “nutrition” and there are several vitamins and nutrients in the bar (see the label image above).

and, like i said, the taste is out of this WORLD.

i know that eating one of these is wayyy better for me than eating a stack of girl scout cookies. however, i am still on the fence about whether or not this should be considered a good go-to snack due to some of the label downfalls.

so..

you tell me: luna bars. are they a good, healthy snack or just a glorified candy bar/cookie?

either way, you can bet i will be buying another chocolate dipped coconut luna bar. yes, they are that amazing.

time to make taco salad and then head to the movies! we are seeing “your highness”—can’t wait!

xo. janetha g.