Tuesday Tidbits: Kellogg's FiberPlus Antioxidant Bars

As a rule, I’m not a big fan of snack bars. They usually have way too much sugar and nothing else going for them to make them worth wasting the calories on.

But when I heard about Kellogg’s new FiberPlus Antioxidants Bars, something made me want to give them a try. Okay, honestly? It was the fiber. Nine grams per bar!

The bars are available in two flavors, Chocolate Chip (120 calories) and Dark Chocolate Almond (130 calories). Each flavor has 7 grams of sugar and 2 grams of protein. And did I mention the 9 grams of fiber?

I tried the Dark Chocolate Almond and it was delish! I was shocked, actually. Yeah, so they’re not all natural and they’re certainly not organic, but for a once in a while quick fix to a chocolate craving, you could do a lot worse. A LOT worse.

Oh and by the way – there’s a 75 cent coupon on the website. That’ll help since they’re around $3 for a package of 5.

Here's the poop on fiber

Fiber is your friend. And not just because it helps to keep you “regular”, although that’s certainly a nice side effect. The real benefit is that fiber may be one of the keys to preventing diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Oh, and weight gain.

Fiber, found in fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains, is the part of plant foods that humans can’t digest. There are two types of fiber:

Insoluble fiber is the chewy part of a plant that does not dissolve in water. It pretty much passes through your system intact, soaking up water like a big old sponge. This is the type of fiber that prevents constipation and speeds up the rate at which food travels through your system.

Insoluble fiber is found in whole wheat breads, wheat bran, rye, most other whole grains (including brown rice, bulgur wheat, oatmeal, barley and quinoa), cabbage, beets, carrots, Brussels sprouts, turnips, cauliflower and in the skins of fruits and vegetables. Also note that while the whole fruit is full of fiber, there is no fiber in fruit juice.

Soluble fiber is found inside plant walls and dissolves in water to form a sticky, gel-like substance that binds to dietary cholesterol as it passes through your system, helping your body to eliminate it. And eliminating all that cholesterol may help to prevent stroke, heart disease, and some gastrointestinal problems.

Soluble fiber is found in oats (which have the highest proportion of soluble fiber of any grain), oat bran, beans, peas, rice bran, citrus fruits and strawberries.

So how much fiber do you need? Current recommendations are 25 to 35 grams of dietary fiber per day. Most people will probably get about half of that.

Increasing your fiber intake doesn’t have to be hard. Switching to 100 percent whole grains will help, as will adding a few more servings of raw fruits and vegetables. And eat more beans! They are LOADED with soluble fiber and also include lots of plant protein. Throw them into your soups and stews or on top of your salads. Garbanzo beans are especially delicious on a salad.

Simple changes to add 15 grams of fiber to your day: Have a high fiber cereal, like Raisin Brain or Fiber One instead of corn flakes or Cheerios. Make your sandwich with a whole grain bread, pita or tortilla instead of white bread. Eat ½ cup of baked or refried beans instead of a pasta salad.

One final tip: If you’re not used to a high-fiber diet, make sure you drink a lot of water. Failing to do so can make all that lovely fiber sit in your stomach like a brick – quite the opposite effect of what we’re looking for. Trust me on this.

Happiness, thy name is pumpkin

Oh how I love the fall! Not only for the wonderfully cool, sunny weather, but it begins the season in which you can start eating pumpkin with impunity. Oh, sure, you can sneak some pumpkin into your oatmeal in the middle of May, but if you were spotted doing it people would think you were a bit off season – like sporting your flip flops in February – and talk about you behind your back.

But in the fall! Pumpkin products fill the marketplace and the glorious scent of pumpkin candles, pumpkin room sprays and pumpkin potpourri fill the air. And in the privacy of your own home you can luxuriate in pumpkin soap, pumpkin body scrubs and pumpkin face masks.

All of these things combine to get my salivary glands working overtime with thoughts of pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin pudding, pumpkin fudge and, of course, pumpkin cookies!

You can drink pumpkin tea and pumpkin coffee – don’t forget the pumpkin cream – and how we all look forward to the limited-time-only pumpkin spice lattes!

But before I go completely orgasmic right here in the middle of my blog, let’s get down to the point. And, yes, there was one. The point is, in addition to being so sinfully delicious, pumpkin is also good for you. Of course, one can debate how good it can be for you once you load it up with sugar and top it with Cool Whip, but pumpkin itself is a great source of beta-carotene (an anti-oxidant) as well as potassium, calcium and vitamins A and C.

And at only 24 calories per ½ cup serving, pumpkin is a perfect fat-free, cholesterol-free, gluten-free food choice. Oh, and it’s got some fiber and protein in there, too.

So load up on your pumpkin products while you can and then get out there and enjoy the beautiful fall weather before its gone.

(If you are looking for some lower-calorie pumpkin recipes, I have a few over on my Wiki.)

Fiber Gourmet - Again

If I had any idea I was going to be discussing Fiber Gourmet so often, I would have given it its own label and watched as it rose to the top of the label cloud. I should have saved these things up and posted them all at once. But hindsight is always 20-20 and who could foretell the need to relate this odd little high fiber debacle.

I originally talked about Fiber Gourmet, a low calorie, high fiber pasta, here and then did a follow up post here, where I indicated I may have overcooked the pasta. You are now up to speed.

Let me start off by saying that I may be the world’s most inattentive cook. I do not lovingly nurture my meals, stirring, tasting and adjusting the heat and seasonings when necessary. I am far too antsy. Most days I try to cook things that require little if any attention while they are cooking – my three favorite methods, in no particular order, being:

1. Heap totally unrelated food items into the crockpot in the morning and don’t give it another thought all day;

2. Put everything in one 9 x 13 pan, top with cheese where appropriate, cover with foil, put it in the oven and don’t give it another thought for at least 30 minutes; and,

3. Put it in a large pot, cover with water, turn up the heat and don’t give it another thought for at least 20 minutes.

Sunday I was employing methods 2 and 3. I had a lovely beef, onion, mushroom, fat-free gravy concoction roasting slowly in a 9 x 13 pan - covered, natch.

After ignoring that for a good two hours, I decided to get started on some pasta and pulled out the Fiber Gourmet whole wheat fettucine.

Everyone knows you must first bring the water to a gentle, rolling boil, add the pasta and continue boiling for the time indicated on the package. If you bother to read such things. Waiting for water to boil is not something I like to waste my time doing, so I put cold water in the pot, threw in about 6 or 7 good handfuls of the fettucine, added a shot of olive oil, turned up the heat and walked away.

I could say that I walked away to do something productive, like folding laundry, feeding the dogs, unloading the dishwasher and cleaning the sink, but that would be a lie. I went to play on the internet. I know you understand.

I returned to the stove after about 20 minutes and the water was boiling like crazy, as expected. What wasn’t expected was that I didn’t see any pasta gently rolling around in there and the water looked a little murky. I gave it a stir and there seemed to be a whole lot less pasta in the pan than I remembered putting in.

Worrying that I hadn’t made enough, I pulled it off the stove, dumped it in the colander and - Voila! – disintegrated pasta. I kid you not – there was almost nothing left. And the two or three tablespoons of tiny pieces that remained didn’t look like they would hold up to the gravy.

As I stood over the sink, cursing inappropriately, Mr. Jelly Belly walked into the kitchen. I briefly explained what happened (minus the internet part) and told him to hold his horses while I threw a couple of baked potatoes in the microwave. I vowed to myself, yet again, to follow the dang directions in the future.

Later, as Mr. Jelly Belly was piling the lovely beef, onion, mushroom, fat-free gravy concoction onto his plate, he turned to me and said, “You know what would have gone really good with this?”

“No, what?”

“Noodles!” he cried, laughing so hysterically he could barely get it out.

Smart ass.

Fiber Gourmet, revisited

Last week I received my order from Fiber Gourmet, the high fiber, low calorie pasta that I talked about here.

Because the company has a flat-rate shipping cost of $5.99, I decided to get the most bang for my shipping buck and chose the Build-Your-Own-Box option, which gives you your choice of any 8 products for $35.99. In retrospect, this probably wasn’t the brightest idea since I had no idea whether or not I would even like it but, what can I say…this is how I roll.

I ordered six packages of the Nested Fettucine so I could try all the flavors and two boxes of the Macaroni and Cheese because I was most curious about that.

All of the pasta, with the exception of the macaroni and cheese, is packaged in strangely large, resealable 10-ounce bags. I had a brief moment of panic where I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to fit them all in my cupboards, but I am happy to report that I did finally manage to jam them all in. I knew you’d be worried.

First I tried the whole wheat fettucine. I guess I expected the package to contain little serving-sized “nests” of fettucine. Perhaps I expected this because I read it on the Fiber Gourmet website. But, alas, this was not the case. There were indeed some clumps, but they were not neatly nested. I was disappointed, but forged ahead anyway. I cooked up the pasta and then dumped some fresh vegetables I had stir-fried in olive oil and garlic on top.

I didn’t have a problem with the taste at all, but the texture was just a little doughy. I was fine with that because I’m not a fussy eater, but it might bother some people. However, to be fair, I should add that there is a pretty strong possibility I may have overcooked it. I don’t normally find it necessary to read the directions for pasta, so I just let it boil all willy-nilly while I was doing other things. Next time I will follow the directions and get it off the stove within the recommended 8-10 minutes and see how it goes.

Last night I made the macaroni and cheese. Each box contains about 3 servings at 170 calories and 18 grams of fiber each.

I wanted to get this one past Mr. Jelly Belly, so I sent him to the store for milk and, while he was gone, I got it on the stove and buried the empty package deep in the trash. It's not normally my style to employ such trickery, but he has very strange pre-conceived notions and I was sure he wouldn’t try it if he knew what it was. I really wanted to get his uninformed reaction.

It is prepared just like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese – add ¼ cup of milk and an optional 2-3 tablespoons of butter. I didn’t think it looked very cheesy – and it wasn’t orange like the Kraft variety (no artificial colors), so I stirred in a handful of shredded cheddar (to avoid getting questioned right off the bat) and it looked good. I snuck a taste and thought it was a little bland (but I think that about all boxed macaroni and cheese) so I added salt and pepper to mine – and it was good!

We had it as a side dish with some grilled Italian sausage and I tried not to be obvious as I snuck glances at Mr. Jelly Belly while he was eating. And he scarfed down all the macaroni FIRST! I kept waiting for that quizzical look he gets when something tastes “off” to him. And it never came. He liked it! It passed the toughest test of all! If that’s not a screaming endorsement, I don’t know what is.

I ‘fessed up after dinner and let him know that I had just given him his full daily requirement of fiber for the day, along with a brief synopsis of why fiber is good for him. I wanted him to be prepared, you know, just in case. He just gave me “the look”, which I get often, and then he rolled his eyes – but only slightly.

About an hour later he tracked me down to inform me that “MY” fiber was working. I told him that, first of all, it wasn’t “MY” fiber, and secondly, if he was suffering any gastro-intenstinal distress this quickly, it was more likely caused by the Italian sausage. I am sure I will continue to hear about this every time he so much as passes gas for the next week.

So, all in all, I would give this product a “thumbs up”. Hopefully it will start showing up in stores soon so I can buy it one package at a time - like a normal person.

The process of elimination

When I was a much younger person, I used to giggle at how obsessed “old people” seemed to be with their bowels. Their regularity, or the lack thereof, seemed to dictate whether they would have a good day or (are you ready?) a crappy one.

I think I’ve officially become an old person.

When you are dieting, the change in eating habits can really slow down your system. Well, mine anyway. In the early days, I was plagued with constipation. I was bloated and miserable. By day four or five of these “hostage crises”, the scale would jump up, leaving me frustrated and convinced that all my good work during the week was going straight down the toilet.

Then I discovered fiber.

The recommended dietary fiber intake for adults falls in the range of 20-35g per day, though the average American consumes far less, only 12-15g each day. I found 20-35g to be super simple. Fourteen grams from my morning Fiber One and another 14 from a LaTortilla Factory tortilla at lunch. Add in the pile of raw vegetables I ate in the afternoon and I was sitting pretty.

What a joy it was to put all that food in and have it reliably coming back out the next morning. If I didn’t drink enough water, though, the fiber would sit like a brick in my stomach and then I would be headachy and cranky and in a generally poopy mood.

I don’t know why I’m telling you this. I guess I’m just feeling really happy today and that makes me want to share inappropriate things nobody wants to hear about. Better go drink some more water so I can continue this most excellent mood through tomorrow.

See? Old person.

A match made in heaven?

As the self-proclaimed Fiber Queen and a lover of all things pasta, I got very excited when I heard of a line of pasta that combines high fiber, a low calorie count, and a reasonable price. Add to that the fact that these products have been receiving rave reviews all over the internet and you know I’ve got to try it.

Fiber Gourmet offers a variety of pasta products that have a per serving calorie count averaging around 130 and fiber content between 18 and 20 grams.

Not only do they have macaroni and cheese, they also have five varieties of nested fettucine (classic, whole wheat, spinach, tomato and garlic parsley), Nested fettucine is an awesome idea for the lazy among us. Each nest is two to three ounces which will save me the trouble of dragging out the food scale and weighing.

It’s like nirvana, baby.

I’ll be ordering some this week and I’ll let you know if it really is as good as “everyone” claims it to be. But really, how could we go wrong?