Ice Cream Extravaganza!

Everyone,

My apologies for being so stupid/delayed this month with updating the blog. It's been a long and rough past three weeks. I'll quickly give you the quick updates before I dive into reviewing three brands of ice cream (yum):

1. I broke up with my boyfriend of 2 1/2 years. Honestly, I'm glad it's over. I did this because I think it will be the right choice in the long run, for both of us. God has a better plan for me. God has someone better for me. And I can't wait to meet him!

2. I started my internship at Cincinnati Magazine this week - and so far, I love it! My first day was another employee's last day, so we all went out for lunch at some fancy taco place in downtown Cincinnati called Bakersfield - this cute, cowboy bar and restaurant where they serve beer in cowboy boots and margaritas in mason jars - and this local ice cream shop called Hello, Honey. So yummy. I had two tacos at lunch, and a scoop of Maple Walnut Brittle ice cream - talk about delicious. My co-workers are nice, the other intern who works with me from the University of Cincinnati is nice, and fact checking isn't so bad, once I get over my nerves of calling people. I think it'll be a good semester, and hopefully it will turn into something more permanent after I graduate. 

3. I started working out again, finally. Since school has been back in swing, I've been really overeating and not exercising, which needs to change. So today I worked out on the elliptical for a half hour and was sweating pretty hard :) It felt nice.

Those are probably the only exciting things that happened this week, besides the usual publishing of the Newswire and weekly roomie bonding crafts (this week we painted cardboard letters of our initials).

How is everyone doing?

Let's review some ice creams, shall we? Thanks to the companies below for sending me either coupons for free product, or sending me large boxes of ice cream. I loved them all, no matter how they made it into my hands.

Ciao Bella

This is quite possibly my new all time favorite ice cream. There are so many flavors to pick from! More specifically, Ciao Bella makes pints of rich, creamy gelato - high in calories, but worth the splurge. I ran into this company at the Fancy Food Show in Washington DC and spoke with them about reviewing their gelato, and who knew? We were able to work together!

I tried the following products:

Belgian Chocolate Smores Gelato

Malted Milk Ball Gelato

Key Lime Gelato Squares

Raspberry Adonia Greek Yogurt

Wile Blueberry Adonia Greek Yogurt

The frozen Greek yogurt line - Adonia - is new, and pretty delicious. I think it comes in at 130 calories per half cup, which is pretty nice in the world of ice cream calories. Both flavors were yummy and creamy. I enjoyed them. Then again, I always love frozen yogurt, but I think I prefer my fro-yo to be something other than fruit flavors. This would be a good idea for an expansion of this line - chocolate, perhaps? Key lime?

As for gelatos - wow, they were wonderful. So rich and creamy, and key lime anything is a win with me, so I loved the gelato squares (although they are pretty caloric at around 320 calories per small bar). The Begian Chocolate Smores was my favorite flavor, and the Malted Milk Ball was unusually yummy - the gelato itself was malt flavor, with pieces of malted milk ball in the gelato. Really good. I love this company because of their huge selection of unusal flavors, and everything I've tried has always been delicious. Highly recommend this company! Ciao!

Oikos Frozen Greek Yogurt

This company caught my eye while shopping in Kroger (a local grocery store) one day. I picked up the chocolate to look at the calorie damage, and - would you believe it - only 100 calories in a half cup! Woah. Needless to say, I emailed this company right away about reviewing their products, and was happy when they sent me coupons to try their yogurt free!

I tried two flavors: honey & chocolate.

Here is what the honey fro-yo looks like:

The honey flavor was absolutely AMAZING. It had really rich swirls of honey throughout the fro-yo. So good. I liked the honey flavor - this was really unusual, and something I don't normally see as a staple ice cream flavor. I'm excited I got to try it. I highly recommend it. 

I was a little disappointed by the chocolate variety. 

It was a little too ice for me, and not creamy enough. I probably wouldn't get the chocolate flavor again, but I would get any of the other flavors in the Oikos line. Stonyfield also make a great regular frozen yogurt, not part of the Oikos line, called After Dark. That is a dark chocolate fro-yo, and I love it - rich and creamy. It's greek counterpart, however, just doesn't win me over. 

Overall, if you are looking for some good, low calorie ice cream, the Oikos line is great to try. Check out their other fruity flavors, including Peach Mango and Blueberry, for more yummy eats.

Arctic Zero

Last but not least is Arctic Zero. I was really excited to try this company's products because you can eat an entire pint from 150 calories - shocking, I know - and their bars are only 85 calories a bar. I was floored and definitely had to try them!

Arctic Zero sent me a huge package of everything in their line. Crazy, right?

They have eight pint flavors: Vanilla Maple, Pumpkin Spice, Chocolate, Mint Chocolate, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Cookies and Cream, Strawberry, and Coffee. There are also four types of bars: chocolate, vanilla, orange, and strawberry.

By far, my favorite items were the chocolate dipped bars. These were so good and were gone almost immediately. I highly recommend the orange variety.

As for the pints - they were decent, but I can't say that I was in love with them. If you want ice cream but not all the calories, this is a great substitute. I really liked the Mint Chocolate, and all the flavors were good, but it's not something I would rave about. Like I said, good as an ice cream substitute for those dieting. However, the bars are totally worth your money. Love them. Next time you see Arctic Zero at your local grocery, give them a try for a new experience! 

Well, friends - I'm off. Still recovering from the breakup, which isn't fun, and I'm raw. Hurting. I need to stop being sad and sitting in my room all day and actually go do something for once. 

See you later!