Go Picnic, Part 1: Peanut Butter and Crackers

A few months ago, I spotted a line of ready to eat meals called Go Picnic
on Amazon. I immediately added them to my Amazon wish list, because they sounded so tasty. I bought two varieties of Go Picnic after spotting them at a chain drugstore today. Because it's so picture heavy, I'm breaking this review up into two posts:


Part 2: Turkey Pepperoni and Cheese: Classic Deli Meal

Part 1:

Peanut Butter + Crackers: All-Natural Meal
"A balanced meal featuring Peanut Butter & Co. Natural Peanut Butter, Partners Get Movin' Honey Wheat Crackers, Sweet Perry Orchards Unsweetened Applesauce, Annie's Homegrown Cheddar Bunny Crackers and Professor Zim Zam's All-Natural Jelly Jets. All-Natural."

A pull tab that allows the box to fold out into a lunch tray

Here is the box as a lunch tray

Partners Get Movin' Honey Wheat Crackers
"Made exclusively from simple, delicious, wholesome ingredients."

The honey wheat crackers were thick rectangle crackers dotted with salt.The flavor was a cross between graham crackers and sesame crackers. They were wheaty and buttery. I enjoyed the Get Movin' crackers very much. The package was difficult to open, though.

Annie's Homegrown Cheddar Bunnies
"All-natural baked snack crackers made of organic wheat and in clever bunny shapes."

The Cheddar Bunnies were definitely easier to open than the Get Movin' crackers. Although why would you want two different cracker packages for one meal ? Kind of redundant. That aside, the bunnies were just the right size for a snack. The Cheddar Bunnies tasted exactly like Cheese Nips, so I'd probably only choose one over the other based on price and sodium content.

Professor Zim Zam's All-Natural Jelly Jets
"Jelly Jets, the chewy delights will alight your tongue in a variety of fantastic all-natural colors and fruit flavors."

The packet of Professor Zim Zam's All-Natural Jelly Jets contained eight pieces of gummy candy. Each candy was supposed to be shaped like a jet, although I think they resemble sharks or arrows. There were two orange gummies, two lemon (yellow), three strawberry (red) and one apple gummy (green). The orange pieces had a very natural, juicy citrus flavor. The lemon tasted like lemon lollipops mixed with Pledge. The strawberries had a super weak fruit punch flavor. The apple gummy had a faint green apple taste. The Jelly Jets were overly chewy.

Sweet Perry Orchards Unsweetened Applesauce
"Simple and pure ingredients: apples, water and natural flavors. A convenient way to get a full serving of fruit anywhere you go. A GoPicnic exclusive!"

The label on the apple sauce cup says the ingredients are apples, water, natural flavor and asorbic acid (to maintain flavor). If you're eating right now, you'll want to skip this next line of the review: The applesauce was downright horrible. It was like someone added the flavors of juice, watered down cinnamon and vomit into the applesauce. Yuck! (None of those are listed or implied ingredients, before anyone fusses at me.) I have never tasted bad applesauce before. I hope that is the last time it ever happens.

Peanut Butter & Co. Smooth Operator Natural Peanut Butter
"No-stir natural peanut butter in a convenient squeeze pouch for easy distribution!"

Over the last year, I had seen various flavors of Peanut Butter and Co. mini packets at the grocery store (plain peanut butter, white chocolate, dark chocolate, etc). I had seen Peanut Butter and Co.'s restaurant on the Food Network a couple times. I thought I would really enjoy this peanut butter. It didn't quite work out that way. When I opened the peanut butter packet, a murky, semi-clear liquid (oil, I assume ?) squirted out from the top. It's a good thing I was at home wearing black shorts and not on an airplane in khaki pants, or I would have been very upset. So I held the packet over the cardboard box the subsequent times I tried to get peanut butter out. And still the oil or whatever it was kept coming out. Eventually I did get a better amount of peanut butter coming out. The peanut butter had a nice fresh, roasted flavor. If you ignore how much liquid preceded it : P Yeah, I know one of you is thinking "product may separate during shipping, blah blah blah." I think I'll stick with the Jif To Go mini cups of peanut butter, thank you very much.

Each box has a game and some fun facts inside.

"In a world where bunnies are the size of planes...anything is possible"

I have no idea what that means. It probably doesn't refer to the movie The Night Of The Lepus, although that would be pretty cool if it did.

Allergen Details
-Natural Peanut Butter: Contains: peanuts.
-Honey Wheat Crackers: Contains: wheat and milk. Manufactured on shared equipment with nuts, corn and sesame seeds.
-Cheddar Bunny Crackers: Contains: wheat and milk. Made on shared equipment that also processes egg and soy.
-Gummy Airplanes: Contains: wheat starch.
-Note: All items are individually wrapped and are manufactured and packaged in separate facilities.


Overall opinion of Peanut Butter + Crackers: All-Natural Meal: I give it a C-. The peanut butter needs to be less liquidy. The gummies were too chewy (and quite frankly a choking hazard if you share with kids). The apple sauce was dreadful. Both cracker varieties were delicious, but I suggest paring it down to one pack of crackers + one non-cracker item. This meal kit is not entirely hopeless, though, as there is still room to change. Hopefully that happens soon.

Vanilla I-Scream Cone Pop Tarts

Received this in my email:

Limited Edition Vanilla I-Scream Cone

"Vanilla ice cream-flavored filling surrounded by a waffle cone-flavored crust, topped with chocolatey icing and rainbow sprinkles. Freeze 'em and you'll be screamin' for more."

Pop Tarts website

Chestnuts and Butterscotch Krimpets

It has been a disappointing week. First of all, I had been craving Tastykake's Butterscotch Krimpets for several months. I hadn't bought those cakes in several years, but I decided it was worth splurging. I was so annoyed when I bit into a butterscotch krimpet and discovered that (1) the icing had less of a butterscotch flavor and (2) the cake part was a bit dry, with a kind of chemical-ish taste. I don't know if Tastykake switched to a different recipe or my tastebuds just changed.

The second disappointment involves chestnuts. I had read on someone's bucket list that they wanted to try chesnuts roasted on an open fire. I thought "Gee, I've always wondered what those taste like. I should put that on my list, too." So when I saw a package of chesnuts at the grocery store recently, I snatched them up. I totally ignored the voice of reason in my head going "It's almost March. These chesnuts are imported from Italy. How fresh can they be ?" Mainly because the voice of Martha Stewart in my head hissed back, "Kindly shut your mouth. This will lead to producing marvelous handmade ornaments and hand sewn Victorian Christmas caroler costumes. A full on proper Christmas!"

The directions of the clam shell package said (and I'm paraphrasing) "Score an 'x' on the soft side of each chestnut, using a sharp knife. Stick on a cookie sheet and roast in the oven for 15 minutes. Enjoy!" I cracked open one of the chesnuts before it went into the oven. The piece I pulled out looked like a fat walnut. The chesnut did not break apart when I tapped it on the counter and tried to squish it in my hand. So I only took a tentative, gentle bite, not wanting to lose any teeth. Yep, hard as a rock. I stuck the try in the oven anyway, expecting the chesnuts would soften up. Then I went to Google to see if chestnuts are supposed to be that hard. Whoops, they shouldn't be. But apparently you can boil them and they soften up.

So I yanked the tray out of the oven, cracked open all the shells and dropped the chestnuts into boiling water. After twenty minutes, I pulled a chestnut out of the pot for tasting. The flavor was a cross between walnuts, almond extract and cornmeal. Gross! That's off my bucket list now for sure.

Hopefully next week brings tastier food : P

Guests Posts

Hello, everyone. We will be adding guest bloggers here at AMW, in addition to my regular posts. Our newest blogger is Amanda. Look for her new posts here soon.

*10/24/12 update: I never heard back from Amanda again. I guess she isn't interested. Oh well

The Better Chip

"All Natural, Double Thick Tortilla Chips, 40 % Real Veggies Inside"

If you're like me, you love potato chips. You probably also skip over the potato chip aisle quite often "Because there's usually nothing new there. I've had plain, greasy, boring flavored chips a million times before." But you won't have that problem anymore. The folks at The Better Chip sent me a wonderful box of their chips to try. You'll want to taste these chips.

The Better Chip come in four varieties: fresh corn and sea salt, jalapeno and sea salt, sweet onion and white cheddar, and red pepper and salsa fresca. Each variety is made of forty percent fresh ingredients and double corn masa. These chips are free of animal bi-products, GMOs, preservatives and cholesterol (raise your hand if you just thought "what, there's animal biproducts and GMOS in my chips ?!" and pushed away the ones you're eating now) All of my gluten free, dairy free and nut free readers will rejoice at this:

-Gluten Free
-Made in a completely nut-free environment. No Kidding. We touch no nuts in our chip facility.
-Made on a line dedicated to only tortilla products
-Lactose free (Red Pepper & Salsa Fresca, Jalapeno Sea Salt)

Now on to the taste test. So follow me! And bring your favorite dip!

Jalapeno And Sea Salt
"Made with 40% fresh jalapeños so the flavor is inside"



The jalapeno and sea salt chips were my hands down favorite. They were super spicy, just the way I like my food. It was similar to eating fresh, mouth watering salsa at my favorite Mexican restaurant. The taste is that authentic. They were delicious with vanilla ice cream and caramel syrup, with ranch dip and in a salad with black beans & chicken. The jalapeno chips had just the right amount of sea salt; I didn't find myself brushing salt off my clothes or saying "Ugh, give me some water. There's too much salt on these chips." The chips were very hearty and held up when scooping up dip.

Sweet Onion and White Cheddar
"Made with 40% fresh onion so the flavor is inside"


The sweet onion and white cheddar chips were very popular with the "I don't like spicy foods" people in the AMW family. The sweet white onions were a welcome change from other onion flavored chips. The scent is sweet and tangy, not greasy, odorous and offputting. You could pack these in your work lunch and not have co-workers think "oh heck no, you brought onion chips." Your co-workers will probably start saying "let's share lunches like in grade school" after they taste the red onion and white cheddar chips. The only change I would make to this flavor would be to add a pinch more white cheddar.

Red Pepper And Salsa Fresca
"Made with 40% fresh red pepper so the flavor is inside"


The red pepper and salsa fresca chips were a big hit here, too. They had the fresh flavor of the red peppers I've previously grown in my garden. I know some of you are thinking "I've had red pepper chips. They all tasted like that weird Cajun spice and pizza flavor mix most brands offer." These chips tasted nothing like that. You will immediately think "Wow, this tastes like a fresh red bell pepper. Oh duh, it's because there really are fresh peppers in the chips."

I made a wonderful casserole from the red pepper chips, the red onion chips, cheese and chicken. Everyone loved it. And I didn't even need to add sauce to the recipe, although you can of course throw in black beans or tomato sauce if you prefer.


The Better Chip gets a thumbs up for being tasty, gluten free and full of natural ingredients. I felt like I was treating myself to a high quality snack each time I tasted a chip. They're a far cry from the greasy, boring chips we're all used to eating. I have found a new favorite chip for my lunch box.

The Better Chip can be found in the following stores in select states:

Mitchell Grocery
Winco Foods
Meijer
IGA Grocery
Supervalu Stores
Hy-Vee
Shop-Rite
Fresh And Co
Marc's Drugs
My Fit Foods
United Supermarkets
Brookshire Grocery

There is a special prize for one lucky AMW reader. A cute pink t-shirt, size large, that says "Is It Hot In Here Or Is It Me"


Here are the giveaway rules: Leave your name, email and which variety of The Better Chip you want to try. The contest begins at 8:30 PM EST on Wednesday February 15, 2012 and ends at 8:30 PM EST on Saturday February 18, 2012. Winner will be chosen at 9 PM EST on February 18, 2012. One entry per person and per household.

*Update: Congrats to Britney! Please email me your address so I can send your shirt.