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Fiber One Chewy Bars Oats and Caramel: The scent of caramel exploded when I opened the package, but not the good kind of caramel scent. More like the plastic, artificial kind. The granola-style chewy bar  bursts with nutty oatmeal flavors with a nice amount of caramel thrown in. Caramel has all kinds of faces, textures and flavors. The caramel in the chewy bar tastes like the small wrapped caramel you can find in the bulk candy bin. The bar also tastes like eating an oatmeal cookie with caramel as the highlight. The difference is that the bar is chewier and not as soft as an oatmeal cookie and of course all of it is packed into a typical-sized rectangle bar.

It’ll satisfy fans of caramel and chewy bars. If you didn’t like Fiber One’s 80 Calorie Caramel Cereal, don’t let that stop you from trying the bar. I didn’t like the cereal either. Reminded me of the awful Waffle Crisp cereal. It was more like eating a spoonful of maple syrup than crunchy caramel cereal.

Man, the smell was bothersome. I let the empty package sit on my desk while I worked. After 15 minutes of that, I forced myself to go throw it away in the kitchen.

Nutrition facts: 140 calories, 3.5g fat, 1.5g sat fat, 30g total carbs, 9g fiber, 9g sugars, 2g protein

Fiber One Chewy Bars Oats and Peanut Butter: I bet a lot of people compare this to a peanut butter rice crispie bar. It’s close, except the Fiber One bar has more nutty flavor and density than the rice crispie.  Like most Fiber One chewy bars, the bar is packed to the gills with oatmeal. Add nuts and peanut butter swirl for the peanut butter side of things.

Nutrition facts: 150 calories, 4.5g fat, 2g sat fat, 28g total carbs, 9g fiber, 9g sugars, 3g protein

Fiber One Chewy Bars Oats and Chocolate: Chewy, chocolaty, oaty. You get exactly what the name says. It’s sweet and the chocolate swirl and mini-chips are generous for a health bar.

Nutrition facts: 140 calories, 4g fat, 1.5g sat fat, 29g total carbs, 9g fiber, 10g sugars, 2g protein

The pocket has a delicious grain flavor without any of the bitterness you get with whole wheat or whole grain. As much as I love the bread, I wish it were thinner to add more filling. But I don’t know if that would drive up the calories.

Garlic Chicken White Pizza. Not as buttery or creamy as alfredo, but I don’t like that richness. White sauce has a lightness and creaminess that’s well balanced.Garlic isn’t strong that it leaves you with garlic mouth and you just want to eat ice cream or something else to get rid of the garlickiness. Love the selection of mozzarella, parmesan and fontina (!) cheeses. These give the filling a unique flavor you don’t get in frozen food, which is often mozzarella by itself or some other ordinary cheese. The fontina gives it a lift.

Nutrition facts: 260 calories, 8g total fat, 4g sat fat, 25,g cholesterol, 540mg sodium, 38g carbs, 3g fiber, 9g sugars and 12g protein

Garlic Chicken White Pizza Verdict

Chipotle Chicken. Slightly spicy topping. Mild to medium level of spice. Tomato based and cheesy. Tex Mex in a pocket.Cheddar cheese and chipotle sauce blend to create a fiesta. (Real original, I know.)

Nutrition facts: 260 calories, 7g total fat, 4g sat fat, 25mg cholesterol, 530mg sodium, 39g carbs, 4g fiber, 12g sugars and 10g protein

Chipotle Chicken Verdict:

Spinach Artichoke Chicken. Also like the garlic white pizza — light creaminess from the sauce and lowfat mozzarella cheese with tender spinach. The flavors just don’t come together. Artichoke? Where? There’s a salty flavor and that’s probably the artichoke. Go figure. This has the best nutritional numbers (save for sodium) of the three and it’s my least favorite. I thought it’d be my favorite because I love spinach artichoke.

Nutrition facts: 250 calories, 6g total fat, 3g sat fat, 20mg cholesterol, 560mg sodium,39g carbs, 3g fiber, 9g sugars and 10g protein

Spinach Artichoke Chicken Verdict:

First up, I’m no fan of brownies. But I don’t let this stop me from trying these. Turns out they don’t remind me of brownies at all. However, I think they forgot the peanut butter in the Fiber One 90 Calorie Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies. Yes, you can see peanut butter-colored swirl on top, but it acts like decoration instead of flavor. Even without the peanut butter, it doesn’t taste as good as the Chocolate Fudge Brownies.

What makes the Fiber One 90 Calorie Chocolate Fudge Brownies different from the Chocolate Peanut Butter sans peanut butter flavor — fudge. Chocolate chips inside the chocolate brownie give it a big lift turning every bite into a fudgy one.

This reminds me of something I had years ago when I was volunteering. The organization provided food and drinks for the volunteering including some Texas fudge cookie. I never could find the cookie and this one comes awful close. Of course, this happened over 20 years ago, so my taste buds’ memory could be wrong. I thought it was from Ya-hoo Baking Company. I checked its website and the only cookies they have are fruit cake. Maybe they don’t make them anymore or my Swiss-cheesed memory is getting this wrong.

The brownie may remind you of a good soft chocolate chocolate chip cookie. Sometimes I thought I was eating a chocolate Pop-Tart, which I like. Whatever you think, it’s good and chocolatey.

Anyway, I shaved a point on the fudge brownies because they’re small and not filling despite the 5g of fiber. I know … I know … the smaller size helps keeps the calories down.

Fiber One 90-Calorie Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies Nutrition Facts: 90 calories, 3g fat, 1.5g sat fat, 17g carbs, 5g fiber, 7g sugars and 1g protein.

Fiber One 90-Calorie Chocolate Fudge Brownies Nutrition Facts: 90 calories, 3g fat, 1.5g sat fat, 18g carbs, 5g fiber, 8g sugars and 1g protein.

I’m one of those folks who never thought fiber-rich products taste like cardboard. Besides, why would I know what cardboard tastes like? Oh yes, I’d occasionally get a piece of cardboard from a lollipop stick. It tasted like thick wet paper.

I can attest these fiber-rich cereals don’t resemble cardboard in any shape or form — with or without milk or milk substitute. Meet Kellogg’s fiber-rich version of Cheerios with cinnamon flavor and Special K Fruit and Yogurt cereal (also from Kellogg’s). These two flavors are opposites like Oscar and Felix in The Odd Couple.

Before carefully opening the boxes (I hate it when the top of a cereal box rips and won’t close properly and when the plastic tears that cereal falls between the tears and sinking to the bottom of the box to turn into something like cardboard by the time you finish the box), I predicted I would like the cinnamon better. Quite the opposite.

Berry Yogurt Crunch tasted almost like Special K Fruit and Yogurt cereal with its whole grain wheat and rice flakes filled with lightly sweetened berry flavors. Berry-flavored yogurt and granola clusters of all sizes show up about 10 percent of the time to round out the texture so it doesn’t feel like all you’re eating is berry-flavored flakes. This one has no weird taste or feels like you’re sacrificing to get the fiber and antioxidants.

OK, it passed the taste test. But what about the nutrition test? It has a whopping 43g carbs per serving. Just look at the Cinnamon Oat Cereal. Way fewer carbs and calories. What’s more is its list of ingredients. It’s too long to list and is full of dyes (caramel color, citric acid, BHT for freshness, beta carotene for color, red 40, blue 2, cellulose gum, green 3, blue 1, red 40 lake, blue 2 lake — insane) and other disappointing ingredients.

Cinnamon Oat Crunch cereal looks exactly like Cheerios except with a dash of cinnamon color and specks plus it lacks Cheerio’s smoothness. The flavor favored the bitter version of cinnamon rather than the spicy kind. I kept eating it hoping it’d prove me wrong. Just more of the same uncomfortable bites. The taste doesn’t resemble bad fiber food or powder, but rather like generic oat cereal with bitter cinnamon added. (I’ve had generic oats and they were bland, bland, bland.)

Unlike the yogurt berry, the Cinnamon Oat Crunch has fewer and better ingredients. Unfortunately, missing from the ingredients is flavor.

Updated July 30, 2011:  I still had Cinnamon Oat Crunch left, so I decided to give it another shot. Actually, it was better. I could taste a hint of sweetness and the milk brings out the flavors in a good way. This isn’t a great eat as a snack kind of cereal, but it works as traditional with milk cereal.

Verdict: Kellogg’s FiberPlus Antioxidants Berry Yogurt Crunch

Verdict: Kellogg’s FiberPlus Antioxidants Cinnamon Oat Crunch

Nutrition facts Kellogg’s FiberPlus Antioxidants Berry Yogurt Crunch: 170 calories, 0g fat, 0g sat fat, 43g carbs, 10g fiber, 12g sugars and 3g protein.

Nutrition facts Kellogg’s FiberPlus Antioxidants Cinnamon Oat Crunch: 110 calories, 1.5g fat, 0g sat fat, 26g carbs, 9g fiber, 7g sugars and 3g protein.

Disclosure: I have a material connection because I received a gift or sample of a product for consideration in preparing to write this content. I was/am not expected to return this item or gift after my review period.

Fiber One 90 Calorie Chewy Bars, Chocolate and Fiber One 90 Calorie Chewy Bars, Chocolate Peanut Butter feel as light as a marshmallow and cotton candy. They even taste like they fluffy and gelatin-like marshmallows with chocolate and oats (peanut butter for the chocolate peanut butter). The two bars taste similar with the major difference being the peanut butter.

A family member described the chocolate peanut butter as peanut butter rice crispy bar. I didn’t agree because the peanut butter chocolate flavors were not as strong as other bars of the same flavor despite the peanut butter coating and drizzle. Whole grain oats pack the lightweight soft chewy bar. These are simply a tasty lightweight granola oatmeal-rich bar with chocolate peanut butter flavors — gentle on the peanut butter.

The Fiber One 90 Calorie Chewy Bars, Chocolate Peanut Butter has a layer of peanut butter on the bottom and a swirl of peanut butter on top. Luxuriously thick chocolate pieces — bigger than mini chocolate chips — appear throughout the bar for the chocolate chip melt in your mouth effect. The chocolate is the same except for the chocolate layer on the bottom and the chocolate drizzle on top.

Despite the fiber, they aren’t so filling. However, I like having a bar with fewer than 100 calories for days when I need to be strict about my diet.

Nutrition facts: 90 calories, 2.5g fat. 1g sat fat, 80mg sodium, 17g carbs, 5g fiber, 5g sugars and 1g protein.

Verdict