Sunday, November 18, 2012

Healthy And Delightful, Nature Valley Granola Thins Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Crispy Squares Are A Wonderful Snack!


The Good: Tastes good, Healthy, Affordable
The Bad: Not at all filling
The Basics: The Nature Valley Granola Thins Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter crispy squares are a tasty treat for dieters!


My wife has started a new dieting kick and I’m discovering how very few foods there are that are low in carbs. On the days when she can have a few extra carbs and wants to share a snack with me, we pull out the Nature Valley Granola Thins Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter crispy squares. I like them because they taste good and are low in sodium, she likes them because they are one of the only snacks that she can eat that have chocolate!

Basics

Nature Valley Granola Thins Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter crispy squares, for those who are not familiar with them, are multigrain granola bar blocks. General Mills has marketed their Granola Thins line as an alternative to full granola bars. The Nature Valley Granola Thins Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter crispy squares are individually-wrapped granola and chocolate treats.

Nature Valley Granola Thins Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter crispy squares come individually wrapped in a box of ten. The standard size box that I have found is 6 oz. The Granola Thins are almost a square approximately 2 1/4" by 2" by up to 5/16" thick. While I usually rail against the environmental impact of such things, it is hard to imagine that the Nature Valley Granola Thins Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter crispy squares without their wrappings.

Ease Of Preparation

Nature Valley Granola Thins Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter crispy squares are simple to enjoy; all you need do it open the box and unwrap the crispy squares! There is no trick to eating Nature Valley Granola Thins Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter crispy squares; they are a snack that is ready to go from the box to the mouth.

Taste

Nature Valley Granola Thins Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter crispy squares smell entirely like peanut butter. The scent lacks even the hint of granola or chocolate.

On the tongue, Nature Valley Granola Thins Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter crispy squares are dominated by the flavor of chocolate on the side that is thinly coated in chocolate. The dark chocolate flavor is sufficiently dark and a treat to those who like dark chocolate, though that coating is thin and melts off in the mouth fairly quickly. The granola side is very dry and only lightly flavored of peanut butter. The peanut butter flavor is very subtle.

The Nature Valley Granola Thins Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter crispy squares have a very dry aftertaste that does not fade for quite some time.

Nutrition

Nature Valley Granola Thins Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter crispy squares are actually not as bad on the health scale as most salty snacks are. Given that the ingredients are led by whole grain oats, sugar, and vegetable oils, it might surprise salty snack eaters to learn how generally good these granola snacks are are. These have a shelf life of at least half a year, though the box we bought last month would have expired on November 26, 2012, had I not eaten it before that!

Each .6 ounce (17 gram) serving of Nature Valley Granola Thins Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter crispy squares has 80 calories, thirty-five of which come from fat. There is less than a gram of dietary fiber. While there are 4 grams of fat and a gram of protein, there is a disturbing 65 mg of sodium, which represents 3% of one's RDA of sodium. There are a smattering of vitamins and minerals, but nothing significant and 11 grams of carbohydrates. There is a dietary note that the Nature Valley Granola Thins Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter crispy squares includes peanut, soy, egg, milk, and several types of nut ingredients, which prevents them from being Vegan compliant or Gluten-free.

Storage/Clean-up

Kept in their bag, Nature Valley Granola Thins Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter crispy squares will remain fresh for a while and as long as the wrappers are sealed, one suspects they will last indefinitely before getting stale. I've never had to deal with issues of freshness for my Nature Valley Granola Thins Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter crispy squares.

Cleanup is simple as well. Nature Valley Granola Thins Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter crispy squares are a dry food and thus leave no mess behind. Unless the chocolate melts on one’s fingers, they do not leave any mess. If they do, simply wash your hands, throw out the wrapper and cleanup is done!

Overall

Nature Valley Granola Thins Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter crispy squares are a healthy snack that one wishes were a bit larger and more filling with the same nutrition, but are otherwise decent for those who are minding any number of dietary aspects.

For other snack foods, check out my reviews of:
Orville Redenbacher's Butter Gourmet Popcorn
Cheez-It Cheddar Jack Snack Crackers
Planters Flavor Grove Jalapeno Pistachios

7/10

For other food and drink reviews, please click here to visit my index page!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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