Category Archives: junk food
Pretzel M&M’s
I like candy, but I rarely eat it. I think it is because my dad was such a cheapass when I was growing up and would never give me money for candy and slurpees at the 7-11 around the corner, that I never really developed a lust for candy. Don’t get me wrong, I can put away some candy if I’m drinking, or if it’s just laying around, but I am not one of those people who has a container of candy stashed away for private face stuffing.
I do have a weakness for M&M’s. If they are around, I will pick at them nonstop. And recently, like with Hershey Kisses, they have been introducing new flavors (ie: Peanut Butter and Coconut, which is odd but really good, especially right out of the fridge). So after seeing the ads for the Pretzel M&M’s, I picked up a bag at my local Wawa.
Pretzel M&M Bag
The M&M’s themselves are a little bit bigger then Peanut M&M’s.
Pretzel M&M
The inside has a pretzel ball surrounded by chocolate and then the candy shell. Nothing really very exciting.
Pretzel M&M Inside
Honestly, I didn’t particularly care for the pretzel, which seemed kind of tasteless and sort of stale-like, but I realized what the problem really was: if you have ever eaten a chocolate covered pretzel, the mix of the salt from the pretzel an the chocolate makes a mind melting mix in your mouth, making you immediately stab anyone who comes close to your precious bag of chocolate covered pretzels…wait, is that just me? Ok, well, the sweet and salty on your tongue is awesome.
And that, my friends, is what is missing in this: not enough, if any, salt. I even dissected one of them and could barely detect any salt on the pretzel. On the bag they even say “crunchy. salty. sweet.”.
I have a little nitpick too: “150 calories and 30% less fat then other chocolate candy”. Guess what? Calories and Fat aren’t the problem with candy, it’s sugar! Talk about some bait and switch.
So, do I like these pretzel M&M’s? Sadly, not really. Between the kinda weird and stale pretzel and the utter lacking in salt, I think these M&M’s are kind of a miss. Maybe they should take a page from Breyers and team up with a pretzel company like Hanover or something and leave the pretzel making to the professionals. I am hoping maybe they adjust thier recipe or maybe I got a bum bag (but I doubt it, Mars is big on quality control). I might try them at some other time but as for now, I’m gonna take a pass. And maybe do some situps!
Breyers Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream
On my way home from the Phillies game, my car somehow guided me to Wawa and whispered that I should buy some ice cream. I found the Wawa and, after literally 15 minutes of intense deliberation, I decided on Breyers Peanut Butter Cup ice cream.
Breyers Peanut butter Cup Ice Cream
I am not a ice cream freak, nor am I crazy about peanut butter. I mean, I like it, but I won’t sell my mother for it (I am sure she would appreciate that). The problem with peanut butter flavored things is that they often taste grainy or so artificial that it immediately turns me off.
However, I am a big fan of Breyers Ice Cream. I haven’t had it for awhile, but at my cousin Michele’s house a few weeks ago I had some mint chocolate chip and forgot how good it really is. The smooth texture is a not silky smooth but it’s as close as you can get in a store bought ice cream. That goes far for me. I enjoy a Ben and Jerry’s pint once in awhile, but it annoys me to have to jam my spoon on there to get a spoonful out.
This Peanut Butter Ice Cream is paired with the Reese’s name, as you can see in the above picture. It has light peanut butter ice cream with Reese’s peanut butter cups and a fudge swirl. The fudge swirl was ok but I was super impressed with the big pieces of peanut butter cups in this pint.
Peanut Butter Cup Piece
I’d say they were about the size of a half of a halloween little reese’s cup and the pint was littered with them. The ice cream itself, well, it was pretty great. It wasn’t overly sugary or gritty, but it’s “not a light food”. Under the nutritional info it says “The Light Ice Cream in this product 50% less fat and 20% less calories then regular ice cream”. So, basically they say the ice cream is a little bit better for you but we won’t talk about the sugar.
What really cracks me up is on the nutritional info label, it says a serving is a 1/2 cup and there are 4 servings. Do you know anyone who can get 4 servings from a pint of ice cream? Let’s get realistic, people. I ate this thing while watching a dvr’d episode of “The Closer” and was done before the episode was over. With 18 grams of sugar times 4, you end up with 72 grams of sugar, more then a days worth. But then again, if you are buying something like this, the last thing you are thinking is “what a healthy snack”. So there ya have it.
If you have a hankering for Peanut Butter Cup ice cream, you could do yourself well by picking this ice cream up. It was $2.99 at Wawa, compared to $3.29 for Wawa brand and Edy’s and the $3.99 for Ben and Jerry’s.
Doctor’d Pizza
Things are tough all over, so instead of ordering out, I made a cheap frozen pizza for dinner. You know the type: basically a large round Elios-type crust pizza, packaged in twos. I stood in the kitchen and looked at this thing and tried to figure out what to do to jazz this boring pizza up.
First I put a round of pepperoni on, and then I chopped up a giant heirloom tomato and stuck that on there as well. I had some leftover chopped up bacon so I threw that on and grabbed the bottle of Sriacha to splash that all over. Who doesn’t love heat on thier pizza? Ok, maybe not alot of people, but I do. I had a handful of cheese, threw that on and popped it in the oven at 400 degrees on the pizza stone.
This is how it came out!
Doctored Pizza
The tomatoes were juicy and hot, the Sriacha made it’s way all over the pie, the cheese wasn’t overdone and even the crust, which, if you remember, is just crappy Elios type cardboard crust, wasn’t too bad, it held together and didn’t fall apart with the weight of all the toppings.
Overall, it was delicious and is helping me stay concentrated on making Pierogie filling and my fantasy football draft!
Cheese Fry Pizza
I do enjoy many different kinds of pizza toppings and pizzas in general. When my cousin Lori said there was a Cheese Fry Pizza on the Boardwalk in Wildwood, well, I had to try it. At first we were looking for something they were calling “doritos pizza”. We walked up and down the boardwalk looking for this thing with no luck.
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at Three Brothers II Pizza for pies to feed that late night hunger. The owner was a big dude, not unlike Bull from the show “Night Court”, shaved head and all. We asked him if he knew about the doritos pizza, and it turns out it was a taco pizza with crushed doritos on top, which also sounded awesome but we had already ordered a plain, a pepperoni and now a cheese fry pizza.
The owner explained that he was trying to save people time, as he saw them walking the boards with pizza in one hand and fries in the other, so why not combine them? Why not, indeed! That’s some American ingenuity, my friends!
Cheese Fry Pizza
This pie has no sauce, but it loaded with regular mozzarella and then nicely fried french fries (the thin kind like you would get at McDonald’s. I think bigger fries, like at Wendy’s, would be too potato-y) and Cheesewhiz (a fun fact: my cousin Kelly lives in Austin, Texas and she says they do not have cheese fries with whiz down there. Can you imagine? Savages.).
You would think the pizza would be so incredibly heavy, what with carbs and starch and starch and carbs and heavy cheese, but it really was not.
Cheese Fry Pizza Slice
It was f-ing awesome! I was sober but I think it would have been even better as drunk food too! The starch, carbs, grease and cheese melded together to create unique vacation pizza gold. After a suggestion, I also added some ketchup to it, and it was 5 times better. The ketchup gave it some kick! I wish I had some hot sauce, or even better, Siracha, to give it an even better kick!
I ate this with 5 adults and 3 kids and the general consensus was “wow!”. However, the kids the next day weren’t feeling so well, but they also ate a ton of pizza and then proceeded to beat each other with pizza boxes, so you be the judge of what happened with that.
Would I recommend this? Again, HELL YEAH! I am a HUGE pizza fry fan and I am also a huge Whiz fan and a huge pizza fan. All these things are in one spot and I can’t get enough! Unfortunately, this is yet another food that you just can’t eat all the time or you’ll die of hardening of the arteries or just from getting way too fat. It is vacation food, and fantastic vacation food at that! If you find yourself on the North Wildwood Boardwalk, go for it!
DidjaEat? 