Product Review: Jelly Belly® 100-calorie packs

I was delighted to hear that earlier this year Jelly Belly® had entered into the 100-calorie pack war. I learned to love them when my best friend, whose husband was stationed at Great Lakes with the Navy at the time, worked fro the factory in Chicago.

Even the sugar-free kind taste better than the same old jelly beans in a bag that get scattered through Easter baskets. I was less enthused to hear that some of them had caffeine in them. (I do not need caffeine in my jelly beans, personally.)

Limiting the amount of jelly beans is a great idea, but I think that 100-calorie packs, are, in general, incredibly overpriced.

If you can't find the 100-calorie Jelly Belly® packs, which I understand were being sold singly, why not get one of the larger containers of them or bulk Jelly Belly® beans (available in a number of places, including bulk food sections of various markets)? Put enough different kinds in your bulk bag to be interesting. Wash and dry your hands well when you get home, and put enough jelly beans to be equal to the 100-calorie mark (or 2 Weight Watcher Points). If using the bulk jar, put the packs back into it.

For those people who are all about convenience, and won't bother with that idea, these 100-calorie packs or the small boxes you sometimes see are fine; whatever works for you!

Product Review: Keebler Right Bites

Someone at the construction magazine I worked at introduced me to 100-calorie snack packs.

My favorite, by far, is Keebler Right Bites Fudge Stripes flavor in a 100-calorie pack. That's probably because the Keebler Fudge Stripes were the cookie of choice to be found in Gram's cookie jar as kids. I know it seems peculiar that the queen of homemade bread had those cookies in her cookie jar, but, as she explained it, "The way you kids eat cookies, it's the only way I can keep up." My cousins Todd and Sara and I used to stay with my grandmother in the summer and Todd was a human garbage disposal, with the exception of green beans (he loathed them).

Anyway, back to my favorite new cookie. The only problem I have with them is that I want to eat more than one 100-calorie pack, but that's life.