Good & Gather Mixed Fruit Snacks

I've always loved fruit snacks ever since I was a little kid. Fruit roll-ups, bars, leather, strips, gushers...you name it. I'd beg my dad for them every time we went to the grocery store.

Parents look at the label and see something about "real fruit juice" and feel okay about letting their kids have them. In reality, I'm sure they're nothing but sugar with a few drops of actual juice, but hey, they taste great, they're convenient, and they're not crazy expensive.

These Good & Gather dealies are no different. We generally have a box laying around the house and toss a couple bags into the car for road trips or hikes. They're the perfect mid-meal snack for boosting blood sugar and avoiding hangriness.

There's a strictly berry version of these fruit snacks, but this one here has cherry, grape, orange, apple, strawberry, and raspberry flavors. They're all sweet and surprisingly tasty. 

For $5.19, you get 22 bags. There's also a 50 bag option for around $9. Not too shabby. I'd say it's worth it. 

It's been a repeat purchase at our house for the past year or so and we'll undoubtedly keep some on hand for the foreseeable future. One of my favorite items from GAG.

I give Good & Gather Mixed Fruit Snacks 8 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Freeze-Dried Strawberries in Dark Chocolate

A couple months ago, the beautiful wifey came home with a product called TruFru, or trüfrü. We were both pleasantly surprised at how delicious and simple they were. They're just freeze-dried fruits with a chocolate coating.

We tried milk chocolate covered strawberries in that instance, though I know the company makes other combinations of fruit and candy coatings including bananas, blueberries, or pineapple covered in ruby cacao, white, milk, or dark chocolate.

I loved the perfect strawberries and the quality milk chocolate, although I wished they were a little smaller. Most of the strawberries were way too big to be bite sized. Sonia wanted to try a dark chocolate version, but they didn't have any in stock at the time. Well, this Target brand iteration is both bite-sized and covered in dark chocolate. Yay.

I do think I'd like a milk chocolate or white chocolate version better, but these snacks are quite tasty. The beautiful wifey loves this version with dark chocolate. Again, the strawberries are dry and crunchy and covered in a quality confection. The bag is resealable and there's plenty in the bag to curb the munchies for a couple people easily.

About four bucks. Not bad. Would buy again or try other flavors of the same style product, either from TruFru or Favorite Day.

I give Favorite Day Freeze-Dried Strawberries in Dark Chocolate 8 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Caramel Apple Granola

Well we sure can't show any favoritism as far as fall foods are concerned, now can we? If we review pumpkin pie granola, we most definitely have to check out caramel apple granola, too. I can't imagine this stuff is too much more or less exciting than its pumpkinny predecessor, but what the heck, let's pour ourselves a bowl anyway.

Unexpected: there are little flake things throughout the mixture. It's not just tiny globs of granola. 

The flakes almost look like mini corn flakes, but they might actually tiny pieces of dried apple. Actually, I think there are both. There are little flakes and there are even smaller pieces of actual dried apple. It's satisfyingly appley.

I don't detect much in the way of "caramel" per se, but I must admit, the cereal is plenty sweet. There are just a few of those oversized asteroid-looking pieces that you get in pretty much any bag of granola. You just need to break those up with a spoon. No biggie.

I'm actually surprised how much I like this granola. It's adequately applicious. I'm not even in a good mood right now, so if anything, I'd be inclined to snub a product during a review right now. But shoot, this is better than that pumpkin stuff for sure.

I give this cereal 8 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Mini White Fudge Dipped Sandwich Cookies

The wifey ordered this little snack bag from target.com and it arrived with all the cookies fused together from the summer heat. What? Don't FedEx trucks have air conditioning?

They still taste pretty good. They remind us of those old circus animal cookies with frosting and sprinkles. Mother's brand. Remember those? Except these have a creamy filling, too.

They're very vanilla-y. They're crispy, creamy, crunchy, and crumbly. I'd say they're a lot like birthday cake, flavor-wise. Obviously, they aren't soft like cake, but it's still a very birthday-ish vibe IMO.

I'm thinking most folks would find these pretty tasty, especially kids with a sweet tooth. I rarely find myself wanting anything this sweet these days, but if I get the munchies, I'll easily down a couple of these puppies. Hopefully the wife will beat me to it, though. This isn't exactly diet food and I don't need to get any further out of shape than I already am.

I'll score these as if I actually wanted super sugary sandwich cookies and not as a grumpy old man resenting the fact that I only have unhealthy snacks in the house right now.

I give these cookies 8 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Cotton Candy Trail Mix

At the rate we're covering Favorite Day and Good & Gather products on this blog, I don't think we're ever going to make a meaningful dent in Target's product lines just looking at a couple things per month. They're releasing tons of new foods and seasonal items each year, and at this point, it's kind of futile to even try and keep up.

So...maybe we'll just make this a blog about Target brand trail mixes and snack mixes? That's a worthy endeavor, no? I don't even know if I can get around to reviewing all of those. But at least there will be one place out in the interzones dedicated to most of those newfangled and mysterious and sometimes pricey trail mixes there at the local Target.

This one's cotton candy. Interesting. Another summer flavor. Let's see if it's as good as the lemonade one we looked at last week.

In a word, yes, it is. But let's break things down, shall we?

Popping candy clusters. They're light blue and pink like popular cotton candy colors. Don't think they're two different flavors, though. They're just sweet and pop-a-licious, just like Pop Rocks candy.

Vanilla crème flavored almonds. We've seen these a couple times before. They're awesome. This mix could use more of them.

Peanuts. We all know what peanuts are. Why are they with a cotton candy mix? I guess they're both state fair type snacks. Circus snacks? I dunno. They work just fine.

Shortbread chips. Crunchy. Vaguely sweet. Not super memorable. The mix could use fewer of these. Not a deal-breaker, though.

Yogurt-flavored covered raisins. Kind of a weird way to say it. "Yogurt covered raisins" or "yogurt flavored raisins" makes more sense to me. Large, creamy, white chocolate-esque candies with a bit of raisin inside. I'm down.

Strawberry-flavored confection drops, AKA strawberry chips. Creamy and fruity and sweet. They work nicely.

The overall effect is definitely cotton candy-esque, though I don't think this one nailed real cotton candy quite like the last mix did with sparkling strawberry lemonade. Still, it's another really interesting seasonal offering from Target. Nine ounces for $5.49. I'd buy it again. Snackalicious. 

I give this trail mix 8 out of 10 stars. 

Favorite Day Summer Lemonade Trail Mix

Here's the scene: you've just finished mowing the lawn. It's about 90°F in the shade. It's humid. You're drenched in sweat. You plop down in your Adirondack chair on the back porch and begin using your ball cap as a fan to cool off your face. Your loving wife appears in the doorway with a pitcher and a glass full of ice. "I made you some lemonade, sweetie," she says. You gladly accept the beverage. You take a sip. It's refreshing, sweet, and tart. The first words out of your mouth: "Thanks, babe. But this lemonade needs way more cashews."

I mean, right? Who would put peanuts and cashews in summer lemonade? Target would, that's who.

But you know what? It works somehow. Let's examine this unique trail mix ingredient by ingredient.

Roasted salted peanuts. Water, sugar, lemon, and peanuts of course. A must for every glass of summertime lemonade. Just kidding. But if you needed something salty to go with your lemonade, peanuts are a fine choice.

Sour strawberry-flavored golden raisins. Okay. So it's strawberry lemonade now. That works. These are good. Very sour, indeed. There aren't a ton of 'em, though.

Lemon-flavored fizzy clusters. So we've got sparkling strawberry lemonade now? Well, they're not "fizzy" per se. They're crispy, with a touch of that Pop Rocks effect. Lemony enough. Pretty good.

Strawberry flavored confectionary chips. Creamy, sweet, and vaguely fruity. If there were too many of them, they might throw off the delicate balance of tart lemon they're apparently going for. Fortunately, there's just about the right amount in the mix.

Lemonade-flavored seasoned cashews. There's no coating on the cashews. Just lemon seasoning? It's an extremely subtle lemon flavor here. They taste more like cashews than lemons, and that's okay. I don't know why it works, but it just kinda does.

Lemon-flavored dried apples. They're just tiny little cubes of dried apple that taste applicious and lemontastic. The mix could use more of these happy morsels.

I didn't expect this mix to work at all, but it's a pleasant surprise after trying it. There is something weirdly lemonade-esque about it. I'd buy again. $5.49 for 9 oz.

I give this trail mix 8 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Strawberry Shortcake Granola

While male children of the 80's were watching G.I. Joe and Thundercats, our female elementary school classmates were watching Strawberry Shortcake, a popular cartoon about a redhead that wore fruit-themed clothing and tended berry vines. So I always associated the term "strawberry shortcake" with something excessively feminine.

But years later, I realized that the dessert know as strawberry shortcake is completely delicious and certainly not just for girls. So now, from time to time, I'll buy berries, shortcake, and whipped cream, and have that for dessert or a special occasion instead of regular cake or pie or what have you.

Or, as is the case here, I'll try something strawberry shortcake flavored. I mean, it's really just a sweetened strawberry flavor, but if you add milk, I mean...that's creamy, right?

I think the product could have used more strawberry bits. You can always add your own freeze dried strawberries or fresh ones if you have them on hand, but by itself, this cereal is pretty decent, regardless. It's crunchy, berry-esque, and is mostly whole rolled oats sweetened with real cane sugar.

The missus liked it much more than I did and will definitely purchase again. I'll help her finish the bag, for sure, but I don't know if I think it stands head and shoulders above other Target brand granolas. We've looked at quite a few of them throughout the years. Just type "granola" into the Search This Blog bar above, and voila, there are at least seven other Archer Farms and Good and Gather whole oat cereals to read about.

I'd probably give this breakfast food about 7 out of 10 stars, all things being equal, but the beautiful wifey would give it more like a 9, so we'll split the difference.

I give this granola 8 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Strawberries & Crème Indulgent Trail Mix

Isn't it weird how foods qualify as "Valentine's treats" just because they're pink or red? Strawberries are red, therefore they're fair game during Valentine season. Furthermore, anything strawberry-flavored becomes appropriate during this time of year. Throw in some heart-shaped stuff and a spiel about being "made with love" on the packaging and pretty soon you're buying your significant other bags and bags of the trail mix and you don't even know why.

There really aren't even any strawberries in this product at all. The only fruits are cranberries. I guess there's some "strawberry-flavored" elements, but do they even use real strawberry in the flavoring? Try wading through that novel of an ingredients list to find out...

Despite my rant about the lack of strawberry and gimmicky V.D. nonsense, this is a relatively yummy mix. Let's break it down piece by piece:

First up, sweet creme almonds. We've seen these before...or at least something extremely similar. They're downright tasty. Nutty sweet and actually kind of creamy, they're everything I've ever wanted in a candied almond. There's a fair amount of 'em, too, unlike the previous mix we saw them in.

Next, there's heart-shaped coated pretzels. Pretty good. Pretzels covered in a white chocolate glaze with red nonpareils. They're crunchy, salty, and candy-esque. I approve.

Also there are different pastel colors of M&M's candies. Not generic M&M's. Real M&M's. You all know what M&M's are like, so we'll just move on to the next part of the mix.

Confectionary coated sweetened cranberries. These might be my favorite part of the mix. Why oh why is my favorite element always the one they give us the least amount of? These little guys look like wads of white chocolate, but there's sweet, tangy cranberry underneath. I want more of them.

Strawberry-flavored pink shimmer coated pretzel balls. That's a mouthful. Candied pretzel balls are always nice, but there are already white chocolate coated pretzels in this mix, so I found these to be redundant and unnecessary.

Finally, there are cookies with pink and red sprinkles. These are my least favorite element in this bag. Wouldn't you know it, they're also the most overrepresented. They're like bland, stale miniature shortbread cookies. Can I exchange mine for more cranberries?

My wife liked this mix more than I did, mainly because she didn't mind those cookie bits. For her sake, I'll give this product a decent score. $4.49 for the 8 oz resealable bag.

I give this indulgent trail mix 8 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Sugar Cookie Granola

Sugar cookie granola, eh? How they gonna pull that off? Crumble sugar cookies all through a bag of regular granola? Will it just be extra sweet? Hmmm. It's worth buying a bag just to find out...

And it does seem sweeter than regular granola. There's definitely a sugar cookie vibe here. But a quick glance at the ingredients will tell you they didn't throw chunks of traditional wheat flour-based sugar cookies into the mix. They pulled it off with rice.

Kind of an interesting choice, but it works. There's rice flour and brown rice syrup in addition to the rolled oats and cane sugar you might have expected. I like it. 

Simple, sweet, and not too far a cry from any type of classic granola cereal you have on a regular basis. The rice makes the whole thing a little lighter and crispier than typical dense, chewy granola.

There's a recipe for a holiday parfait on the back of the bag. It basically involves putting this granola on yogurt. Gee, I never could have thought of that myself, Target. But in the spirit of the holidays, I'll tone down the sarcasm.

It's a good product. I'd buy it again next year, although it may be repackaged by then under the Favorite Day brand. What ever happened to the Wondershop at Target? $4.49 for the 11 oz bag.

I give this cereal 8 out of 10 Christmas stars.

Favorite Day Apple Cinnamon Pecan Trail Mix

Okay, now this trail mix looks somewhat familiar. Have I tried it before? Yes and no. I had it when it was called Archer Farms Apple Cinnamon Trail Mix. The ingredients were remarkably similar. Both contain(ed) dried apple, dried cranberry, pretzel balls, and pecans. Now the pecans in the old version were "apple pie-flavored pecans" and these are merely "apple-flavored pecans." A quick perusal of the ingredients would suggest they are indeed the same product, or extremely similar at the very least.

It's yet another overly indulgent, sugar-laden trail mix from Target. At least it has some fruit in it, right? Let's dive in.

This one's somewhat similar to the last one we looked at also, but this one's much better. What makes this one a success as opposed to the other apple-based trail mix?

First of all, the apple-flavored pecans are delicious and plentiful here. No searching necessary. There are a couple in every handful. They're crunchy, sweet, and full of autumnal spices. Delicious.

The pretzel balls here are larger, creamier, and more flavorful than their apple bourbon counterparts. They taste like cinnamon and sugar, as well as yummy salty pretzel bread.

The apple chips in this trail mix are thinner than the apple chunks in the last mix, but in this case, there are more of them. Sweet little bites of real apple make any fall trail mix better.

Like the apple bourbon mix, the cranberries here are unnecessary. At least in this case, they don't taste like smoke and there are way fewer of them in the bag.

Once again, we're looking at a price point of $4.49. I'd reach for this trail mix over the apple bourbon or the scarecrow crunch any day of the week.

I give this trail mix 8.5 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Organic Apple Cinnamon Instant Oatmeal

Let's face it: oatmeal has never been the sexiest food in the world, but because of its convenience, affordability, and nutritional value, it's still a part of most people's diets. It doesn't take much to make it palatable: some milk, a sweetener, and maybe some mix-ins of some kind, and you're in business.

Now if you've got instant oatmeal and the manufacturer has already made the mix tasty for you, then that's even better. And that's exactly what we have here. There's your usual whole grain goodness, plenty of apple cinnamon flavor with little bits of real apple, and the sweetness level is just about perfect, too. Just add water or milk.

Of course I add milk. It makes it much thicker and richer. About two minutes in the microwave, and presto: quick, easy breakfast. $2.99 for eight packets. 

How many other products are out there that will provide eight meals for three bucks? Not many. Not these days. Of course the milk is a little extra, but if I had to use water, I could live with it. I've had a lot of flavors of instant oatmeal in my day, and these are probably toward the top for a lot of reasons: taste, value, convenience. Would purchase again.

You ever met one of those people that refers to oatmeal as "hot cereal"? What's up with that?

I give this oatmeal 8 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Blueberry Shortbread Cookies

I've always liked blueberries and blueberry flavored things. It might seem weird, but if I ruled the world, the default fruit flavor would be blueberry. Like when you go to get ice cream or milkshakes, instead of vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate as your only three choices, there would be vanilla, blueberry, and chocolate as the only three flavors. Actually, it might be more like cookies n' cream, blueberry, and peanut butter in my magical utopia. But I digress.

The shortbread here is good. Nothing special. It's relatively fresh, buttery, and crumbly. I like it. But I really love those blueberries. They add a lot. There's a fair amount of them, too. A few little tiny dried blueberries in each bite. I only wish they were bigger.

I'd still prefer blueberry muffins or blueberry breakfast bread, although I'm sure both of those would have a shorter shelf-life than these cookies. On that note, there's a bag inside the outer box, and it's not resealable. You can re-close the outer box by slipping a tab from the one panel into a slot on the other, but it's not airtight of course. Not sure how long these will last after opened.

Robert Frost liked blueberries so much, he wrote a poem about them. Here's one stanza from it:

You ought to have seen what I saw on my way 
To the village, through Mortenson's pasture today: 
Blueberries as big as the end of your thumb, 
Real sky-blue, and heavy, and ready to drum 
In the cavernous pail of the first one to come!         
And all ripe together, not some of them green 

And some of them ripe! You ought to have seen!

I'd probably buy these again. I need to find some blueberry ice cream, and I'd eat these with it. $2.99 for about 20 cookies.

I give these shortbread cookies 8 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Thai-Style Coconut Curry Salsa

Happy 2022. Back to the Good & Gather stuff again. Not sure if Target is switching products like this over to Favorite Day or if they'll keep some GAG stuff around for a while. Time will tell. Items like this one could use a repackaging IMO if only because the white type on light blue background is hard to read and even harder to take a decent picture of.

This is one of the more interesting GAG products we've seen over the years. It's Thai-style curry...but in the format of tomato-based salsa. Made me raise an eyebrow when I saw it on the shelf.

As far as a chip dip, I'm not sure if I like it as much as a more traditional Mexican or Tex-Mex style salsa. It's not terrible that way, but the coconut taste is just...unusual on my palate, along with tomato sauce, tomato chunks, and jalapeño. It's almost like Thai-Tex-Mex fusion.

It works okay as a regular salsa, but it's even better when applied to food in the manner of a Thai chutney or Thai relish topping. Take chicken or fish on a bed of rice, top with this stuff before serving. Scrumptious.

It's quite chunky with veggies and moderately spicy, thanks to those jalapeño peppers. I feel like the coconut cream really helps mitigate the heat, though. Garlic, basil, and lime flavors are all present but play second fiddle to the tomato and coconut elements.

$2.49 for the jar. I'd definitely consider purchasing again in the future, but I doubt I'll eat much of it just as a salsa on plain tortilla chips.

I give this condiment 8 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Caramel Apple Crisp Cookies

If you know me or have read some of my previous reviews, you'll know I'm not a huge fan of dry, crispy cookies. I much prefer soft cookies, or better yet, fresh-baked.

So why review crispy cookies at all, you ask? Because once in a while one comes around that's special. Some crispy crunchy cookies stand head and shoulders above the rest. 

These here are a prime example. They're not just dry and crispy. They have caramel chips and real apple to make the texture a little more interesting.

The cookies are just sugary enough to satisfy a sweet tooth or a post-dinner dessert craving. They don't go overboard with sweetness. 

The caramel chips are nice and soft and they taste surprisingly salty. Any more sea salt and I think it would have been overkill. But as is, it's a pleasant salted caramel vibe that blends nicely with the taste and texture of real apple bits.

Notes of butter, cinnamon, and vanilla round out the overall flavor profile and make these cookies a definite thumbs up in my book. There's actually a surprising amount of apple flavor despite the small size of the apple pieces. They're definitely not "chunks," but rather "bits." Still, they work in this application.

The wifey and I fought over who got to finish the last few cookies. That hasn't happened with a bag of crispy cookies in our household...maybe ever. I'd buy again. I'm assuming these are a limited time fall flavor. I'll definitely be ready for more in a year or so.

I give these appley cookies 8 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Pumpkin & New York-Style Cheesecake Bites

Welp, looks like it's pumpkin season again. Apple is most definitely a harvesty flavor, too, but let's be honest: you can throw down with apple just about any time of year if you really want to. Apple pie in summer time? You betcha. Apple fritters in the spring? Why not? Hot apple cider in the winter? Oh yeah.

But if you break out pumpkin or pumpkin spice any time OTHER than between early September and Christmas time, that right there is a party foul, my friends. Whether you're a basic white girl pining for her first pumpkin spice latte from Starsucks or just a dude with a red beard, a blog, and a dream, if you're gonna eat pumpkin stuff, now's the time to do it.

And do it we shall.

Cheesecake. Oh boy. Time to put on those winter pounds. It's getting chilly out there. Plain NY style cheesecake AND pumpkin cheesecake is a bit of an odd choice to me. Why not another fall flavor? Apple? Maple?

At any rate, both of the included flavors are very good. The pumpkin ones have the perfect amount of pumpkin spice: not too strong, and not too weak. It's rare to find something that has juuust the right amount of PS taste. It's easy to overdo it. As you eat them, though, the pumpkin spices do build up on the tongue ever so slightly.

Maybe that's why they included a more neutral flavor in the pack. In case you're getting pumpkinned out, you can just grab a bite of the New York style cheesecake and reset the palate.

Both flavors are super creamy, sweet, and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. The wife and I will easily polish off this whole container over the course of a single day. The prep involves thawing for 2 hours in the fridge. That's it.

I give these cheesecake bites 8 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Apple Crisp Ice Cream

I usually think of fall foods and beverages as warm things. Stuff like pumpkin spice coffee and apple oatmeal goes great with crisp, cool weather. But there's a full five or six weeks, usually centered around September, when summer things don't feel entirely appropriate and neither do autumnal things. 

I guess some might call that period "Indian Summer," although that phrase might be seen as offensive now, considering what we're doing with all our indigenous people-themed sports teams and products like Land o' Lakes butter. So we'll just call it "late summer/early fall" in case the political correctness police are reading.

Late summer/early fall is the best time to enjoy harvest flavored frozen treats for obvious reasons. It's still warm enough for ice cream, and yet it's late enough for apple harvest time. So let's dive in to this pint of Favorite Day brand apple crisp ice cream.

From the moment you pop the lid off the pint, there's a nice brown sugary, caramel-esque sweetness that you can smell. It almost smells like apples and cinnamon, but unless they're part of the "natural flavors" mentioned on the ingredients, there are actually no real apples nor cinnamon in this product.

But in my opinion, it doesn't suffer from the want of those things. The flavor is sweet, creamy, and full of rich caramel and brown sugariness. It really does approximate the flavor of a hearty bowl of apple crisp. The oatmeal pieces round out the texture with a bit of crunch, and they round out the flavor with a nice nutty, grainy essence. They're really more like oatmeal cookie pieces, but I'm okay with that because hey, this is dessert we're eating here, not breakfast.

I'd love it even more if there were real apple pieces and maybe a more obvious cinnamon swirl throughout the product. But it's gonna get a thumbs up from me either way. I tend to score things on my own here on this blog, but when I'm torn between two numbers, I consult the beautiful wifey to break the tie. 7 or 8 for this product, Sonia? "Definitely an 8," she said. She liked it even more than I did. Between the two of us, we polished off the pint within 24 hours of it first being opened. Would buy again next late summer/early fall.

I give this ice cream 8 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Sweet Heat BBQ Trail Mix

I've lived in the Northeast, the South, the West Coast, and now the Northern Midwest. Of all those regions, there's only one where you can get fried cheese curds instead of French fries with your burger at fast food places, fairs, malls, and amusement parks.

On the back of this bag, there's a serving suggestion: "...make your own snack pack with trail mix, cheese curds, and your favorite dried fruit, like pineapple." Okaaay.

I'm not saying it wouldn't work, because it totally would, but it just seems kinda arbitrary to me. I'm wondering if the marketing folks at Target included cheese curds because they're based in Minnesota, where cheese curds are common fare.

Also...dried pineapple? Really? Okay, Captain Random.

Again, not saying it wouldn't work. But the funny thing to me is that this trail mix is actually pretty splendid on its own. It lives up to its name with a decent amount of sweetness as well as spicy heat.

It's very crunchy. Every element in the bunch is crispy and salty. There are corn nut things, sesame sticks, almonds, and "cracker-coated peanuts." The peanuts are probably my favorite, although every ingredient in here is delicious. It's that spicy barbecue flavor that permeates every element in the bag that really sets this mix apart from other run-of-the-mill trail mixes.

I recently had a wisdom tooth pulled, and I'm still in the process of healing, so I really shouldn't be eating something this crunchy, but lemme tell ya, this resealable bag keeps calling my name. Mmm. So good it hurts. The wifey keeps offering to take one for the team and finish the bag herself—you know, to help with my teeth. One way or the other, this bag will be finished soon.

I give this trail mix 8 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Organic Blueberry Fruit & Grain Bars

I used to be absolutely crazy about Nutri-Grain bars. I'm not sure why. I mean, most people will agree they're convenient and tasty as far as snacks or quick breakfast options go, but I used to excited about Nutri-Grain bars the way most people get excited about cheesecake or apple pie. I loved everything about them.

And I still do. But I'm more or less past my "Nutri-Grain bars are the best thing ever" phase. I'll still grab a box from time to time, or I'll try newfangled versions as they release them—you know, like when they started filling them with yogurt. We even saw a unique, gimmicky cereal bar from Target once before: the Market Pantry Banana Fudge Bars. I liked them okay, but I'd just as soon reach for a blueberry Nutri-Grain bar.

Or these. They're the exact same thing. Yep. Pretty much dead ringers for the original Kellogg's cereal bar product. I think Target used to make them under the Archer Farms or Simply Balanced brand name. There's nothing wrong with them at all. 

There aren't any improvements on the original, and there aren't any shortcomings, either. Well, I guess using certified organic ingredients is a step up from the originals. To the best of my knowledge, Nutri-Grain doesn't offer any organic cereal bar options. Price-wise, they're comparable, as well.

$2.69 for 6 bars. I would buy these again, but maybe I'll try a different flavor next time.

I give these fruit and grain bars 8 out of 10 stars.