Pillsbury Baguette Chips are CRACK!

 

Have you ever heard of these Baguette Chips by Pillsbury? Either had I until I heard about this Spark from My Blog Spark. They sounded tasty, and healthier than regular chips. After all, at 130 calories per serving, which is approximately 21 baguette chips, they have 50% less fat than regular chips! And in my continued quest for healthier snack options - because, I gotta snack ya know - I was dying to try them. Before I knew it, General Mills had sent me a very generous sample pack through My Blog Spark.

When they arrived, the first thing I did was tear one of the bags open take 2 bags of each flavor, Italian Cheese and Herb and Cheddar and Sundried Tomato to my office. I've mentioned before my office is full of snackers and I'm no exception. I put them out on the table in my office and had a steady stream of visitors for the day-and-a-half it took for my co-workers to devour them. I heard everything from , "Man, these are addicting!" to "I hate you for bringing these in" because no one could resist coming back for more. I'll admit, I nibbled on them continuously myself! They were great plain and so flavorful they really did not require any additional dips in my opinion. However, at home one evening when I wanted a snack I spread a little cream cheese on them. Another time I scooped up Greek yogurt with them. Another day I took a salad to work for lunch and added them for a bit of crunch. There are a lot of possibilities for this versatile and tasty snack!

Today I am offering my readers a $.75 off coupon so you can run out and try them yourself today! http://bit.ly/PBCcoupon 

Also, one lucky reader will win a gift pack. Just leave a comment below, telling me how you will eat your Pillsbury Baguette Chips and one reader will be chosen at random this Monday, August 3, 2012.

Disclosure: The product, gift pack, information and additional sample have been provided by General Mills through My Blog Spark.

Happy snacking my friends!

New Job and Food (What Else?!)

My new job has been going well. I work with some incredibly nice and cool people, and they took me out to sushi for lunch on my first day. SCORE! So we got off to a good start on the food front, as they apparently love sushi as much as I do and that is typically the office lunch of choice. But, I just have to laugh. You have surely read about my previous struggles with food at the office and also here. So it turns out at my new job, my Director is the only Director in the whole company who shares an office with someone. That someone would be me. She is totally cool and I couldn't have asked to work for and with a better person. However, It turns out that she is also the only person who generously supplies snacks and treats for the office, all out of the goodness of her heart.

Sushi on my first day. Gotta love it. 

Spicy goodness of wasabi peas. May be why my tummy hurts!

We have a lunch room with a vending machine, but my boss buys goodies for the purpose of sharing with everyone. We have a small round table in our office and everyone stops by to grab a little something all day long. I love that, because without that interaction I would have a lot less exposure and it would take a lot longer for me to meet everyone. I must say, she makes some pretty good choices so fortunately for me the handfuls of goodies I've been chowing down on this week are more harmless than they could be. And really, I do know I can't blame anyone else for my lack of willpower. We've had wasabi peas, sesame sticks, and plantain chips which have been really yummy. I have had my own snacks to try to keep my distance (peanut butter celery and carrot sticks) but there have been SWEETS 2 days in a row. That is where you get me. It doesn't matter if I stuff myself to the gills with celery and carrots, if there are cookies or cupcakes to be had - we have had both - you know I will find room. I just find humor in the fact that I am faced with unrelenting food temptation. After all these years you'd think I'd find it terribly boring and just deal with it. But no.

Crack cookies. I had 2. 

The job itself is very interesting, challenging and very busy. A lot of people think social media management is just playing on Twitter and Facebook all day. It is so much more than that. I really like this company and want to do well, so I'll be giving it my all!! They are incredibly flexible with my schedule, which is awesome for the boys. I can take Buddha to his speech therapy evaluation and Monkey to baseball practice and not feel guilty or that I am asking to much. As long as my job gets done that's all that matters. I definitely will not be taking that for granted! 

Bad Snacks At the Office

So I continually strive for healthy living, but I use the term strive loosely. You know the saying about how you should reach for the moon, so that if you don't make it you might land on a star...blah blah? That saying really defines my relationship with food. I guess I always like to factor in a little failure for myself when it comes to diet. It's hard enough for me to try to be really good at the important things, like my family and work...I need some slack somewhere right?

So at home, I eat pretty well. I don't buy a lot of crap. Not even for my kids. Especially not for my kids. I do my best to prepare good lunches for me to bring to work, and that includes snacks. Sometimes, this is an EPIC FAIL. If I don't bring snacks to the office, there is nothing to snack on unless I go out and buy it. Every once in a while, someone will be out and about and pick something up, or worse yet, bring something in from home that they have mass quantities of that they don't want hanging around their house. The holidays were insane with all the goodies that people brought in.

Your spouse said, take it to work! They'll eat it! We did.

My job can be tedious sometimes, periods of intense focus lead to moments of cagey hunger, or just the need to divert my attention to something fun or more interesting, anything else...which is typically food. I have no willpower. That is why I don't buy any bad food for my house. So when the "bad stuff" shows up at the office, I eat it.

I TOTALLY wish we had this at work every day. No lie.

Yesterday afternoon, I caved and I dug into the huge snack/chip selection that our office manager brought in. Nobody made me, everyone was crunching on them and I couldn't resist. I had eaten a pretty healthy lunch, and was tempted by the sound of the munching and crunching and the crinkly bags. Thank God they were the little bags, something like 90 calories...of Chili Cheese Fritos. I actually tried NOT to read the ingredients when I ate them. And I only ate one bag. And a few of the Cheetos from another bag. This was a good day. There have been other times when someone has brought in a bag of pretzels, trail mix, flavored popcorn, M&M's and everyone comes sniffing around. Once the bags are opened, we continue to chow down until they are empty. It's really quite comical actually. I forgot to mention that our office manager brought in one of those huge cartons of Goldfish Crackers Wednesday afternoon. I had a few handfuls of those too. I when I left the office Wednesday, I bet they wouldn't last thru Friday. As of 5:30 Thursday when I left, there were only less than a quarter carton left, and I worked from home today so I'm not sure of the outcome. This damage was done  by 5 people. Adults too! No snack is beneath us. We will literally eat anything.

Devoured. By 5 grown people. Seriously.

Well, almost anything. Let me tell you about the snacks from the Asian grocery store. But I'll save that for another time.