Detour: Candy bar taste packed with nutrition

I LOVE Detour Bars-- I have been eating the Lower Sugar and Lean Muscle types for years, see my posts here and here. Well, the folks over at Detour are at it again with a new Lower Sugar bar-- Peanut Butter Cream. Peanut butter and chocolate are one of the best flavor combinations ever invented, period. So I knew this was going to be good and I was not disappointed-- rich, creamy peanut butter (almost a whipped consistency to me) topped with a caramel layer coated generously with chocolate. Yummy. So how can this be good for you? The first listed ingredient (meaning the most concentrated) is their own blend of high quality whey protein giving this bar a staggering 15 grams of protein.

Two lucky winners will get their very own box of Detour Bars shipped to them. How you ask? Shoot me an email, tell me a Detour factoid, like them on facebook for an extra entry, follow them on twitter for another entry-- let me know in the email if you have done these things to get your extra entries in. Good luck, you have until midnight Thursday, October 6th.

YOU-- all my favorites

We all have weaknesses and I can not be trusted around chocolate, cereal, trail mix or any combination of these items. So when learning about You Bar I was so excited because the concept is very unique and really cool. You Bar makes protein/ energy bars just how you design them. You start out by choosing a base -- mouthwatering choices of nut butters or their own base of dates and almond butter. Then you choose your protein powder, nuts/seeds, fruits & berries, sweeteners, chocolate/seasonings, grains/cereals plus infusions. Then the fun begins-- you can name your bar anything you would like and it is put together in a custom wrapper just for YOU or whoever you choose to give this ultimate bar to. Think of the possiblities-- anniversaries, birthdays, stocking stuffers or just to show yourself some love.
I tried some bars out of the "popular bars" category and cannot even express how good the Great Date with Chocolate flavor is!

Great Date With Chocolate is a natural low fat and protein rich chocolate delight with a chewy fudge brownie texture.
Ingredients: Organic Dates, Whey Protein Isolate, Organic Honey, Cocoa.

They are not kidding that it is like a fudge brownie-- rich, chocolately and moist. Pure heaven. I could eat this daily. I could not believe those were the only ingredients and the bar only clocked in at 140 (good for you) calories. WOW.

Then it only gets better. You Bar also has You Trail Mix! Same concept, same fantastic results. Here was my favorite:

Mix Up Your Day is Slightly tropical, slightly Asian.  Perk up your afternoon with this uniquely delicious combination.  Mix Up Your Day will awaken your senses and refresh your palette.
Ingredients: Oat Bran Sesame Sticks, Organic Cashews, Almonds, Dried Pineapple, Goji Berries, Shredded Coconut.

I just love when I try something I would never normally have on my own and it blows me away. The mix was an amazing combination, the coconut set it over the top.

 

The fun doesn't stop there! You Bar also has-- You Shake, You Cookies and You Cereal. I REALLY want to try the cookies and cereal! Hint, hint for my stocking.

Its not a disguise!

Some protein bars are simply candy bars dressed up in a fancy package and labeled as a protein bar with bad nutritional stats. So how about a protein bar that has great stats (15 grams of QUALITY protein per bar) and tastes just like, if not better than, a candy bar? I was not expecting for these Supreme Protein bars to be this delicious so here are my takes on the "Carb Conscious" line (my favorite first):

Peanut Butter Pretzel Twist: 10/10
A thick layer of peanut butter (which I love and generally in protein bars is NOT good) that tasted like smooth, creamy, real peanut butter topped off with a layer of gooey caramel and wrapped in a peanut butter shell with pretzel pieces throughout. Perfect mix of sweet/ salty with more sweet-- which I love.

Caramel Nut Chocolate: 9.5/10 (This one was the second best protein bar I have tasted but got a lower score only because the PB Pretzel Twist is the only bar that deserves a 10)
Peanuts and caramel coated in chocolate-- reminds me of a famous candy bar with a similar makeup but better-- and great nutritionals.

Peanut Butter & Jelly: 8/10
First off, I may not be a fair judge of this one because I don't like the PB&J combo but I have to mention this bar was still better than the majority of protein bars I have tasted. If you like PB&J's you will love this (my S.O. thought this one was the best one out of the bunch so to each his own). Just as the name states-- fruit jelly, PB and whey crisps that did add a nice crunch.

Overall if I were to buy a protein bar this would be the one I spend my money on (these were provided to me free of charge at my request from Supreme Protein). We loved these at my house. The nutritionals are great and filled with quality ingredients. You should be able to find these at a retailer near you since they are stocked at CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, GNC and tons of other places. I spotted the "Cookies and Cream" variety while out this weekend and it will be the next bar I buy!

On the go goodies!

Thank you to Atkins for letting me try their great lineup of bars. Each one I have tried so far has been well, just as good as a candy bar but nutritionally far superior. The Chocolate Mousse Caramel Bar (from the Endugle collection) is pure heaven in a wrapper. I stuck mine in the freezer at work and was blown away at how good it was! It was like one of those ice cream candy bars—the mousse turned into an ice cream-like consistency. The other one I have to get on your radar is the Chocolate Caramel Nut Roll! Its new to the Advantage Line and is packed full of nuts, caramel and chocolate for your pure pleasure. They have so many bars—you just have to check out their website. In addition to bars they have a plethora of other great products in their lineup. PS—You don’t have to be doing the Atkins Phase plan to enjoy any of these fantastic foods.

NRG- Pure Energy

I love where their head is at over at Pure NRG. The name is great and I had the chance to try their awesome brownie bars and other treats packed with unique, healthy ingredients like Coconut Flour, Brown Rice Flour, Tapioca Flour, Hemp Protein, Agave Nectar, Xylitol, Olive Oil, Quinoa Flour and Chia Seeds. These gluten free treats also have no animals products, are naturally sweetened and high in fiber. Even better—their taste. The blueberry brownie bar is heaven in the shape of a square. Fresh baked, fudge-y and freckled with blueberries these treats are a good treat fix as a snack or as a small meal replacer. The blueberry bar isn’t the only great item they make—I am very much looking forward to the classic chocolate + peanut butter combo they have but they also make an array of other nutrient packed, good for you items.

Colossal Pleasure

There are a few classic combos that just are totally irresistible. The first one that always comes to mind is Chocolate & Peanut Butter. The other one which tops my list is Chocolate & Coconut. Small World Beauty makes a bar that is called Coconut Coco Cream. I don’t know where to start… It is amazing with a rich, coating of dark chocolate and a creamy coconutty inside with actual little nut chunks and ribbons of coconut. Its is almost impossible to leave that it is a high protein beauty inspiring bar! It is sure to be a fit in your diet because it is sugar free, gluten free, high protein, low carbs, zero artificial sweeteners, hydrogenated oils or trans fats. With these stats it is aimed to help you keep your appetite down to boost weight loss efforts and help you build your sexy muscles!

Its all about… YOU

At You Bars it is all about You. You can customize energy bars, cereal, protein shakes, protein bars, cookies and even trail mix. I think they have it covered. So what YOU do is log onto their website, decide what you are going to design and make it! If you are lazy you can also take a peek at their popular choices. It is WAY too much fun to skip this part in my humble opinion and there is a plethora of great choices. You choose a base—then build on that. They give recommendations that you can use or you can go your own route. Then you choose how much of it you want like more nutty, less nutty—how fruity, sweet—you name it! So cool. There is also a special request section. The site is amazing. THEN you name your bar and it comes to you with your chosen title printed right on the label. What a cute gift this would be! It could be a Happy Birthday Bar or Get Well Soon bar! Plus—these tasted so good they would make your birthday a happy one or help you get better soon! They are “Guaranteed Delicious”—they are so sure that the bars will taste good that they offer a free box should yours not be just what you love. I had a variety pack and fell hopelessly in love with each bar and mix. If I had to pick one it would be “Great Date with Chocolate”, the only ingredients? Dates, Whey Protein, Honey and Cocoa. Somehow they made this combo taste like a thick, dense, fudgy brownie. Need I say more?

Detour Lean Muscle Cookie Dough Caramel Crisp

Take a look at the picture and tell me if I need to say anymore:

Its like a candy bar with chunky cookie dough, layers of caramel and chocolate melded with crispies. Its much better than a candy bar though because it is fortified with 32 grams of quality protein and only 3 grams of sugar. It packs 20 vitamins and minerals, omega 3's and their exclusive OptiFlax blend. Oh nom nom nom!

Chocolate Brownie -- Pure Fit Bar

Award Winning, All Natural, Vegan, High Protein, Low GI, 40/30/30 macroratio-- how could this possibly taste good? Well it was simply incredible.

I  could tell that all the products used were Grade A+. It was like a brownie with chunks of almonds and a rich cocoa flavor with the perfect amount of sweetness. Usually I gobble things right up but I slowed down and savored every morsel of this bar. My favorite part of this bar is their support of the Best Friends Animal Society. Please check out these Pure Fitbars but also the Best Friends Animal Society and show some love to our furry friends. For anyone that doubts the flavor or health of vegan items please purchase one of these bars and pass it on!

Detour Lower Sugar Bars

Detour Lower Sugar Bars have the nutritional stats that I look for when choosing a bar. High protein, low sugar, low calories. Bonus-- they taste great too! I had both the Chocolate Creamy Peanut Butter and the Caramel Peanut. I tagged the PB one to be my favorite before trying but it was the Caramel Peanut that won my heart and my taste buds. It was like a healified snickers bar! Layered with a high protein nougat, then caramel and a good dose of peanuts on the top all wrapped up in a chocolate shell. The creamy PB one was very good too, you really can not go wrong with a combo of chocolate and peanut butter. I have to give these bars an A+ for sure. With the winning nutritionals and winning taste you really can not beat these bars for a great snack on the go or paired with some fruit for a quick breakfast.

Tastes like............. Honey! Check me for recipes!

I usually avoid honey in my recipes for a few reasons but Nature's Hollow honey tastesjust like the real deal, acts like the real deal but is made with a naturalsweetner, honey flavor and spring water. When I got mine in the mail theoptions just started flooding into my head! In my green tea, coffee,yogurt, cereal and RECIPES! Here are a few I made, they all turned outwonderful tasting-- thanks to the honey. You get a big tablespoon servingsize for a measly 21 calories, no fat, sodium and 0 effective carbs.Natures Hollow also makes sugar free jams, syrups and low carb ketchup. Oh the opportunities. Now order some and try my recipes!

High Protein Sugar Free Honey Balls (No Bake)
The first time I made these I made a big batch to supposedly be treats fora couple of days. They were SO good that they all went down the hatch sothis is for a single serving of protein balls or one big one!
1 teaspoon Sugar Free Honey
1 teaspoon Naturally More Almond Butter OR peanut butter (any nut butter will work)
1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
1/8 cup fiber cereal
Mix together and leave in fridge a few hours until completely firm. So simple, so good!
Variations on the recipe: add seeds, nuts, chocolate nibs, sub vanilla ppfor chocolate, sub cereal for granola, add raisins or flax! The key ingredient in this recipe is the honey, it adds a sweetness and acts as a binder. If you add optional ingredients you will need to use more of the honey.

Pro-oat Cookies or Oatloaf
1 cup rolled oats
1 heaping scoop vanilla protein powder
1/4 cup carb countdown milk
1 egg (or equivelent)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 cup sugar free honey
Blend wet ingredents mixing very well. Add to oats and protein powder. Stiruntil all ingredients are binding like a sticky dough, then form into miniballs and place on Pam sprayed baking sheet. Bake at 400 for about 10 minutes. Let cool and store in airtight container. You can also pour batter into sprayed loaf pan and bake a bit longer-- add some baking powder and let stay in oven until knife comes out clean.
Optional add ins: dried fruit, cinnamon, PB powder, chopped nuts MORE coming soon!

Another one bites the dust!

I can tell you brownies can not just sit in my house. I was dying to try Lenny & Larry's original chocolate fudge brownie. With the first ingredient being a high quality protein blend it is easy to justify enjoying a brownie any time of the day! If you are not a huge brownie fan that you can quickly exit my site-- just kidding but still go see Lenny & Larry because they make high protein cookies, muffins and other baked goodies to satisfy your sweet tooth safely. This flavor was my favorite so far (but I still have one to go peanut butter) so I am not giving away the award just yet.

Premier Nutrition Bars

What's your flavor? Salty and Sweet? Candy bar like? All of the above?
Check out the Twisted Protein Bars! Those are little pretzels in the top for that sweet & salty combo. There are three varieties: vanilla, peanut butter and chocolate. So far I have sampled the vanilla and peanut butter.

They are both divine. The vanilla one is like a chocolate covered pretzel but with carmel and nougat mmmmmmmmmmmmm! The peanut butter one was so rich and delcious with the same ingredients but a peanut butter coating on top. Both had 15 grams of (quality isolate blended) protein and all for only 190 calories.

The Titan (6 gooey layered bars) reminded me lovingly of a famous candy bar that rhymes with knickers!

Instead, it is a bar that packs in a ton of protein and barely any sugar. I had the Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch (Granola crisps, chopped peanuts, caramel, peanut butter, nougat, and a drizzled chocolate coating) but there is also: Brownie Nut and Cookies & Cream. Lucky for me, I have the 100 calorie mini bars to keep portions under control.

I am going to try to take better pics of this bar to do it justice but this should hold you over and make you drool!

Budgets

Do you ever find yourself soooooooo close to your calorie budget that day but you just need a little something else? That sweet tooth nagging at you for a little something after your lunch? Do you need something to hold you over until your next meal? Promax makes these 70 calorie bars that can serve so many purposes! They have three great flavors that I sampled. I will go in order of my favorites.


Peanut Butter Crunch

So good! Chocolately, peanut-buttery and a layer of cookie like crunch on the inside. I would definitely include this in my rotation!
Chocolate Fudge

Rich, fudgey and a sure fire sweet tooth fix.

Cookies and Cream

A chocolate inside with a creamy vanilla – like outer shell. What is not to love? Eat this, not oreos!

These can be a little hard to find but jump on the Promax website and locate these now.

Clif Builder's "Entirely Natural Protein Bar" Vanilla Almond

When you are looking for a high quality protein bar it goes without saying that Clif Bars are the industry leaders. As a huge fan of the crunchy peanut butter clif bar (regular variety) I have been a loyal Clif consumer for a long time. I love the taste and texture of the crunchy peanut butter bar with the actual peanut chunks throughout. Then I heard that Clif had a high protein bar out that packed 20 grams of protein, was all-natural, no trans fats and so many vitamins and minerals all for 270 calories! But how about the taste I wondered??? I have got to hand it to them-- the Vanilla Almond variety is without a doubt, divine! It was an enormous bar with a rich, almond inside with actual chunks of almonds, almond butter and a hard shell vanilla coating that made me feel like I was eating a candy bar! The first ingredient of this bar is a protein isolate and it is chock full of other healthy ingredients like oats, almonds, flaxseed, vitamins and minerals.

Eddie's to the rescue!

Last night I had the great pleasure of enjoying another bar by Eddie's. The bar is Fresh, Natural and provides Energy with a kick of protein and fiber. This bar was similar in texture to the other Eddie's bar I reviewed, which just so happened to be my FAVORITE chocolate bar EVER. No joke! This one was "organic peanut butter with chocolate chips", their most popular.

This bar was again thick, cake like, filled with good wholesome ingredients like peanut butter, oats and of course-- chocolate chips! Huge for the nutrtionals too which wins my heart every time.

The whole thing contains only 234 calories and has 8 grams of protein, now thats a great snack or mini-meal paired with a piece of fruit or yogurt. Get on their website and read their ingredient lists if you aren't sold yet. Their bars are so simple, clean and REAL FOOD! Since Eddie's is not filled with artificial ingredients or preservatives (which I love) my other bars are now tucked safely in the freezer just waiting for me.

Element Bar: Dr Clyde Berry Bar

Another shoutout to my friends at Element Bars! The Dr. Clyde Berry Bar Rocks! Check it out for yourself:

Look at the nuttiness of this bar! And the dried berries... MMMMMMMMMMM! I love that the Element products are all-natural and you can feel great about putting them in your body. Visit their website to grab this bar or even customize one of your own!

Eddie's Website and Some More Bar Pics

I could not resist posting the pictures of the other bars that I have of Eddie's plus I wanted to make sure you had a link to the website!

Eddie's Energy Bars

Saturday mid-morning I decided I wanted a treat and boy did I ever get one. I had the Eddie's Double Chocolate Energy Bar. Let me tell you about it. It was THICK, BIG, HEALTHY and amazingly delicious. It was like eating a giant brownie packed with chocolate chips. I can not say enough about this bar, it was hands down the BEST CHOCOLATE protein/ fiber bar I have ever had in my life. I will be enjoying a few more bars by Eddie's in the near future and expect more mouth-gasms. Here is a picture of the chocolate one. I had to shoot it from the side too just so you could see how thick and big this bar actually is. Please head over to this website and show Eddie's some love, they love back!

Element Bar Review: D Bernsen

Wow! This was a great bar-- just take a look at the texture. The picture can not even do this one justice! Filled with nuts, oats, berries!