When I bought a sandwich for my lunch today, at the little 711 near my work, I couldn't resist getting a chocolate bar. Ordinarily I'm very disciplined but I seem to be falling off the wagon a little bit this week and today proved to be no exception.
In situations like this I head straight for the milky way bar, it's only 25g and at only 115 calories it barely feels like cheating at all. Unfortunately for me the 711 didn't have any milky ways and my craving for chocolate was too strong to be ignored.
I don't know about everyone else but, I personally don't have a particularly strong sweet tooth, my naughty cravings are usually for things like pasta, noodle box or Indian food, so a little bit of chocolate is enough to satisfy me.
Thankfully, although my 711 was out of milky ways, I was able to find a Mars Red and since I've never had one before I thought it would be a brilliant opportunity to do a bit of a taste test and report back.
The Facts:
Mars Red weighs only 37 g and contains 146 calories
So it is bigger and has more calories than my normal milky way treat but when compared to a regular Mars Bar...
Mars Original weighs a whopping 53g and contains 251 calories!
So Mars Red is by far a better choice than Mars original if we are purely looking at the calorie content... but, of course, we aren't just looking at the calories (where would be the fun in that?) we want our low cal food to taste good too.
Now, I noticed the difference in the weight of the bars immediately and a quick visit to my favourite website (calorieking.com.au) only confirmed what I knew as soon as I picked up the chocolate bar. It has less calories because there is less of it, but the smaller size still wouldn't be enough to drop that many calories, so I also knew that what was inside the bar would be different too.
Sure enough, as soon as I bit into it I could see a difference. The nougat was much lighter, both in colour and consistency, it was almost completely white (instead of the light brown colour of the nougat in regular mars) and the caramel was considerably more transparent... it just didn't have that thick look that the caramel in regular mars bars has.
It also wasn't as sweet to taste as Mars Original is. Now, I personally find original Mars to be too much in the sweet stakes. I absolutely must have a drink with it or I can't get through an entire bar without feeling ill and even then it takes me about half an hour to eat it all.
I ate the Mars Red in about 10 minutes and only for the last few bites found that I needed a drink to wash some of the sweetness away. I liked that, but I'm sure there will be plenty of people who wouldn't.
If anything this chocolate bar reminded me of a less chocolaty, slightly bigger milky way bar that had a bit of caramel in it.
For people who love Mars original and want to find a way to satisfy that nougat, caramel and chocolate craving without using up the calories for a full meal... I think this bar would do the trick.
But I think I'll be sticking with the Milky Way.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
The Pitfalls of Pasta
While in the supermarket the other night I discovered something revolutionary, something which actually prompted me to begin a new blog, weight watchers have entered the fresh pasta market.
We all know and love Latina fresh, and I'm sure most people have seen that several other companies (such as San Remo and the like) have put out a similar product in recent times. Due to a scarcity of Latina at my local supermarket, I actually tried one of these "other" brands of fresh pasta but I was severely disappointed by the experience. My husband, who we'll call Mr. Taurus, is very stubborn about what he likes... but if I don't tell him what's on his plate (until after he's eaten it) he usually can't tell the difference between one brand and another.
On the night of "not Latina" he noticed immediately, which should tell you how great the disparity was in the taste of the two brands. Put simply this other brand (which shall remain nameless because I have a horrible memory) tasted like it had cat food inside the little pasta pillows and the watery flavourless sauce did nothing to disguise the flavour.
Just to give you a bit of background about myself, I am 30 years old size 12 (equivalent to a size 8 American) and I'm constantly on a diet to try not to get any bigger. So if I have a pasta night, it's like a special occasion... which made my disappointment in that other brand even more acute.
So when I saw that there was now a weight watchers version of one of my favourite foods it was with mixed feelings that I tried to decide if I should buy it or stick with Latina.
The first thing I checked was the actual calorie content, because a lot of foods will claim to be "low fat", "skinny" or similar but when actually compared to the full fat variety they are scarcely any better. But Weight Watchers is a brand that I trust, I've had great success in switching from regular bacon to Weight Watchers bacon (even Mr Taurus barely complains), so I was willing to at least do a comparison.
A quick check of the tables on the back of each product confirmed that the Weight Watchers variety had about half the calories, but it still wasn't enough to sell me on it. I really like pasta, Latina is one of my favourites, and my previous disappointing experience was fresh in my mind.
So after a few moments of dithering in front of the refrigerator cabinet I decided to buy both Latina and Weight Watchers. I figured Mr Taurus and I would have the Weight Watchers one for lunch and the Latina for dinner and I could do a comparison of the two.
Mr Taurus did help me unpack the groceries when I got home so he was aware of the plan from the beginning. I suppose I could have refused to tell him which one we'd be having when, but I figured that if he knew he was eating the Weight Watchers pasta he'd be more critical of it. That's not usually what I want, but on this occasion it suited my purpose perfectly.
During the cooking of the Weight Watches pasta I noticed absolutely no difference to the Latina variety in terms of the actual cooking directions, but I did notice that the little pillows of pasta weren't as plump as the Latina ones.
It's been my experience, however, that a low cal version of something will either be a bit leaner in terms of size or it will will have an odd flavour... of the two I definitely prefer it if they get the flavour right. So I felt almost relieved to see that little bit of skimpiness.
After serving, Mr Taurus' first observation was that the sauce seemed watery. I personally didn't notice that but, as already stated, Mr Taurus was predisposed to be a more critical observer than myself. After a few mouthfuls though he came up with a more justified criticism that I had also begun to notice... something was quite peppery.
Now, I am not trying to justify the flaws of the Weight Watchers fresh past BUT... I kinda like things a little peppery. I do know that many people don't, my mother is especially bad with any kind of spicy flavouring, and there was nothing on the packaging that would warn someone of how peppery it was. Don't get me wrong, it was very far from being unbearable, but it was definitely noticeable and if you don't like a bit of pepper I would recommend that you steer clear of this product.
Mr Taurus also noticed that the little pillows had less filling, but aside from that he had no complaints and we both finished our bowls of pasta with happy smiles on our faces.
The Latina we had for dinner was better... but, if you don't mind things a little peppery and your after a low calorie alternative to this favourite meal, then I would definitely recommend it. I'm sure that I will be buying this one again.
We all know and love Latina fresh, and I'm sure most people have seen that several other companies (such as San Remo and the like) have put out a similar product in recent times. Due to a scarcity of Latina at my local supermarket, I actually tried one of these "other" brands of fresh pasta but I was severely disappointed by the experience. My husband, who we'll call Mr. Taurus, is very stubborn about what he likes... but if I don't tell him what's on his plate (until after he's eaten it) he usually can't tell the difference between one brand and another.
On the night of "not Latina" he noticed immediately, which should tell you how great the disparity was in the taste of the two brands. Put simply this other brand (which shall remain nameless because I have a horrible memory) tasted like it had cat food inside the little pasta pillows and the watery flavourless sauce did nothing to disguise the flavour.
Just to give you a bit of background about myself, I am 30 years old size 12 (equivalent to a size 8 American) and I'm constantly on a diet to try not to get any bigger. So if I have a pasta night, it's like a special occasion... which made my disappointment in that other brand even more acute.
So when I saw that there was now a weight watchers version of one of my favourite foods it was with mixed feelings that I tried to decide if I should buy it or stick with Latina.
The first thing I checked was the actual calorie content, because a lot of foods will claim to be "low fat", "skinny" or similar but when actually compared to the full fat variety they are scarcely any better. But Weight Watchers is a brand that I trust, I've had great success in switching from regular bacon to Weight Watchers bacon (even Mr Taurus barely complains), so I was willing to at least do a comparison.
A quick check of the tables on the back of each product confirmed that the Weight Watchers variety had about half the calories, but it still wasn't enough to sell me on it. I really like pasta, Latina is one of my favourites, and my previous disappointing experience was fresh in my mind.
So after a few moments of dithering in front of the refrigerator cabinet I decided to buy both Latina and Weight Watchers. I figured Mr Taurus and I would have the Weight Watchers one for lunch and the Latina for dinner and I could do a comparison of the two.
Mr Taurus did help me unpack the groceries when I got home so he was aware of the plan from the beginning. I suppose I could have refused to tell him which one we'd be having when, but I figured that if he knew he was eating the Weight Watchers pasta he'd be more critical of it. That's not usually what I want, but on this occasion it suited my purpose perfectly.
During the cooking of the Weight Watches pasta I noticed absolutely no difference to the Latina variety in terms of the actual cooking directions, but I did notice that the little pillows of pasta weren't as plump as the Latina ones.
It's been my experience, however, that a low cal version of something will either be a bit leaner in terms of size or it will will have an odd flavour... of the two I definitely prefer it if they get the flavour right. So I felt almost relieved to see that little bit of skimpiness.
After serving, Mr Taurus' first observation was that the sauce seemed watery. I personally didn't notice that but, as already stated, Mr Taurus was predisposed to be a more critical observer than myself. After a few mouthfuls though he came up with a more justified criticism that I had also begun to notice... something was quite peppery.
Now, I am not trying to justify the flaws of the Weight Watchers fresh past BUT... I kinda like things a little peppery. I do know that many people don't, my mother is especially bad with any kind of spicy flavouring, and there was nothing on the packaging that would warn someone of how peppery it was. Don't get me wrong, it was very far from being unbearable, but it was definitely noticeable and if you don't like a bit of pepper I would recommend that you steer clear of this product.
Mr Taurus also noticed that the little pillows had less filling, but aside from that he had no complaints and we both finished our bowls of pasta with happy smiles on our faces.
The Latina we had for dinner was better... but, if you don't mind things a little peppery and your after a low calorie alternative to this favourite meal, then I would definitely recommend it. I'm sure that I will be buying this one again.
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