University and Food Part # 2; LUNA Bars and Why I Can't Live Without Them 1/2

Good Morning! And Happy Christmas. I am feeling particularly holiday-esque today and as a result, am writing this to Faith Hill's "Where Are You Christmas?" 

This is part two. Snack and Snacks Alone. It's catchy. It really should be called LUNA Bars and why I Can't live without them. 

My favorite thing to eat that is not a food item, but rather a bunch of food items that have been combined.  Meet The Chocolate Peppermint Stick LUNA Bar. 

This is little guy has gotten me through so many things. I get up and go to the gym at 7am everyday and I usually do not have the motivation to walk all the way to the dining commons and then back to the gym. I can recall about 45 occasions when I've eaten a LUNA bar in bed, half awake, and then gained an extra twenty minutes of lying around and doing nothing. In keeping with the holiday spirit that has inhabited my body I wanted to write about these for the past week. 

For anyone who doesn't eat LUNA bars on a regular basis; do not mistake this for a "light" snack. 

 

At 180 calories per bar, it really isn't something to eat as a pre-dinner snack. I usually bar this with chocolate almond milk or a banana or something. It's not quite enough to be part of a meal. But, in my opinion, it isn't small enough to be a little snack. 

It tastes like a combination of a brownie, peppermint stick ice cream and all my childhood memories, all packed into a tiny bar.  8grams of protein is also an incentive for any vegetarian (because yes they are vegetarian), to eat this little guy. Among LUNA's other "Original," recipes are Blueberry Bliss

Blueberry Bliss
Caramel Nut BrownieCarrot CakeChocolate ChunkChocolate Dipped CoconutChocolate RaspberryIced Oatmeal RaisinLemonZestNutz Over ChocolatePeanut Butter CookiePeanut Honey PretzelS’moresToasted Nuts ‘n CranberryVanilla AlmondWhite Chocolate Macadamia

Note that the one's that I've crossed off and/or pictured, are the ones that I've tried. Lemon Zest was the original favorite that I'd had. At the time, it was the only type I'd ever tried. It is a really good flavor and a close second to Chocolate Peppermint Stick, but I am sticking to my favorite. Lemon Zest is not so much sour as it tastes like lemon cheese cake, or something similar.  The White Chocolate Macadamia requires a really love with white chocolate, but is still good. It is REALLY sweet and somewhat creamy.  I love anything with oatmeal so Iced Oatmeal Raisin was really tasty for me. It was a bit like the Quaker Oatmeal Bars, but less crunchy and most moist 

 The small number of bars that I've tried is due the fact that I simply buy what they sell on my campus. Chocolate Dipped Coconut is super sweet and I love coconut  but I have only ever seen in it stores once. My roommate is partial to the Nutz Over Chocolate recipe and buys it by the box. 

As soon as I try the other recipes (Smores first, and then Carrot Cake}, I will make a LUNA Bar's part two review. 

Bars and snacks are really somethings that I call lifesavers because being a health nut, being in college and trying to maintain an almost vegan life style means that I can't run around eating potato chips and drinking the soda that is provided at social gathering I go to. I always make sure to have some type of bar, LUNA more often than not, in my back pack or bag just to make sure that I'm not stuck facing awful food choices. 

I've managed to turn a few girls in my hall onto LUNA bars and now they can't get enough.

I plan to do a post on LUNA's Protein Bars (which I'm addicted too) and LUNA's fiber bars (which I haven't tried). I'm also going to cover CLIF, which owns LUNA, but has their own bars (protein and original recipe) And for something new, I am going to cover MARK bars. Which I won in a contest and according to the ingredients, are natural and well. KIND Bars and Uber Bars will probably come last because I don't have as much of an obsession with those as I do with CLIF and LUNA.