A few weeks ago I received a shipment of POM Wonderful juice from Lindsay.  I owe Lindsay a very belated THANK YOU!

Did you know that POM Wonderful juice is full of antioxidants, vitamins, potassium, folic acid and iron?  Plus, Wonderful pomegranates contain:

• Polyphenol Antioxidants – help protect the body against “free radicals” – molecules that cause damage to our bodies over time. Free-radical damage is a major factor in aging and chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer. Learn more about polyphenol antioxidants.
• Vitamin C – helps maintain muscles and blood vessels, assists in the formation of collagen and helps the body absorb iron. Vitamin C may also reduce the length and severity of colds.
• Vitamin K – plays a key role in blood coagulation.
• Potassium – helps regulate blood pressure and maintain strong bones.
• Iron – needed by the human body for the production of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying part of blood.
• Fiber – helps maintain digestive regularity and may reduce LDL cholesterol, which may help lower the risk of heart disease.

Source: POM Wonderful 

I have been enjoying my POM juice thoroughly. 

I have tried POM Wonderful in Iced Tea

How about some POM Apple Cider?

Also, my favorite, mixed with some Seltzer

What is your favorite way to drink POM?

Hello blog readers!  This is Matt, the often mentioned husband, doing a special report. I thought that Heather needed a little break from posting, so I’m filling in for this post.  The topic of the day is…. drum-roll please… MILK!  I’m going to share my thoughts on a variety of different milks that I did some very un-scientific testing on.

Our subjects for today are Skim Milk, Oat Milk, Rice Milk and Soy Milk.  Around our house, we usually drink the skim variety, and you’ll often see oat milk get used in different ways.  Rice and soy are not usually our common choices for us.  For the test, I tried out the milks during breakfast using Island Vanilla Kashi Cereal.

Skim Milk
I have been drinking skim milk for a really long time.  When I was around 4 years old, some cholesterol tests showed that the eating habits in our family weren’t so great, so my mother made some major changes, one of them being a switch from whole to skim milk.  Many years later, I still drink it and usually prefer it over 1%, 2% or whole.  But today, I’m being critical.  Because I will be trying four milks, I only did a small portion of cereal and milk.  Here are my thoughts on skim milk:

• Doesn’t bring much to the table (no pun intended)
• Taste is a little watery
• Cereal got a little soggy, but still had a little crunch
• Color is as you would expect… white!

Oat Milk
Next up was oat milk.  This milk is made from oatmeal, as the name would suggest, and it has become a favorite for Heather and I over the last year or two.  Even though we have a long relationship, I’m being critical and unbiased.  I used vanilla flavored oat milk.  Here are my thoughts:

• Very strong vanilla taste (not necessarily a bad thing)
• Creamier then the skim milk
• Has a slight “texture” to is, not sure if this is the right way to say it, but it kinda stays on your tongue a little longer then you would expect.
• Cereal got a little soggy, but not much different then skim milk.
• The color is a brownish/tan, sort of like oat meal… hmmm… interesting

Rice Milk
In an effort of full disclosure, I want to make sure that you know that I don’t believe that I have ever had rice milk before this experience.  I may be wrong though, there were some times back in my mid-20′s where I experimented with different milks and I may have tried Rice milk then, but it did not leave a big impression on me if I did.  This is also a vanilla flavored rice milk.  Here are my thoughts today:

• Creamy
• Very nice flavor
• Not an overpowering vanilla, very pleasant
• Appearance and thickness are similar to skim milk

Soy Milk
I used to drink soy milk a lot.  I went through a time where skim milk just wasn’t cutting it for me, so I tried out soy when it was all the rage in the early 2000′s.  There are so many types of soy milk out there, but today I went with a vanilla soy milk.  Here were my thoughts:

• Distinct flavor, almost nutty tasting
• Somewhat creamy but at the same time watery
• The vanilla flavor is a little weak
• Off-white coloring

Summary
I feel that skim milk is the traditional, sometimes taken for granted, grandfather of the group.  Oat milk is probably best left for adding to things other then cereal, it’s actually really good when you make oatmeal with it!  Rice milk was the newbie to the scene, but I’m not sure if can stand on it’s own.  Soy milk has been around for a while, and in my experience you have to try a bunch of different brands before you find the one that you like, but finding a somewhat healthy one that tastes good can be tough.

The Verdict
I decided that Rice milk was my favorite for the application of cereal.  I think that its flavor worked well, the creaminess of it was really good and it was similar to cow milk in appearance.  So I decided to give it one more test just to make sure this was the way to go… the cookie test!

It passed with flying colors!  What are your thoughts?  Do you have a favorite non-cow milk?

Thanks for reading!  Make sure you let Heather know that I did a good job! I get a cookie for every comment, so comment a lot!     Till next time, bye!

In the name of helping our nut-allergic author, this faithful RLG reader sponsored a battle of two different kinds of almond butter to see if anything could lead me down a different path than my beloved Reduced Fat Skippy.  Heather brought home some samples of Barney Butter (from the Healthy Living Summit swag bag) and I had also recently purchased a sample size of Justin’s natural Almond Butter from our friends at Hannaford.

I used each butter on one side of this whole wheat mini-bagel to compare the two and there was most definitely a clear difference during this intense comparison.

Justin’s Natural Almond Butter ingredients:  Dry Roasted Almonds, Organic Palm Fruit Oil.

Barney Butter:  Almonds, Evaporated Cane Juice, Palm Fruit Oil, Sea Salt.

Guess which one was favored by this self confessed peanut butter addict?  Barney for sure. 

If you are looking for a substitute for peanut butter, then Barney’s your guy.  It was creamy, tasted great on the whole wheat mini-bagel, and I think I’d buy it again for sure.  Justin’s butter tasted just like the all natural product it claims to be and it tasted like ground up almonds.

One last comment from Cindy’s son Ryan who was asked what he thought of the almond butter (he had it on his bagel too).  He said…"it smells like Cheez It’s"

Thanks Cindy for this great taste test comparison!

What is your favorite nut butter?