Duane Reade Fresh Food for The Big Game

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for Collective Bias and its advertiser.

The big game is right around the corner, and that probably means many of you are creating a fantastic menu of gameday snacks. I know I did it one year, complete with themed desserts, complicated appetizers, and all that. But what if you're not in the mood to go all out, and you still want good food? If you live in NYC, the answer is DeLish Fresh Food from Duane Reade.

DeLish Fresh Food is prepared (you guessed it!) fresh and delivered daily to many Duane Reade stores throughout NYC. The line ranges from savory entrees, soups, sandwiches, sushi, dips, and even dessert. I've had the opportunity to taste from the line last year, and the food definitely had that vibrant flavor that freshly made food often does. 'DeLish' was the appropriate name to pick, I think.

I visited the 1350 Broadway Duane Reade to see what was available and was pleased to find many dishes that are similar to what I would have prepared for a big game menu. I picked up the Triple Cheese Mac & Cheese, noodles in a Gruyere, Parmesan, and Swiss cheese sauce, Chicken Fajiita Panini, a very delicious chicken sandwich with a southwestern flair, Homemade Olive Tapenade with Baked Pita Chips, a pureed olive dip, and a mini Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake for dessert. In retrospect, I should have picked up two mac & cheeses and cheesecakes.

I nibbled on the food as I dished it (pro tip: remove the plastic cover before microwaving the mac & cheese) and upon my first taste of my selection, my taste buds rejoiced. I added a few carrots to be healthy. It goes well with the tapenade, too.

My favorite was the chicken fajita panini. The chicken filling was very, very good, wasn't too moist (nobody likes soggy bread) and had an excellent flavor. Unlike many chicken salad-type sandwiches, the chicken here wasn't coated in a mayonnaise-based dressing. I found that very refreshing.

Or, maybe my favorite was the tapenade, since I LOVE olives. It's tough to say. And as a certain famous football player once said, you gotta have tapenade for the big game.

Mac & Cheese is just the perfect comfort food for this time of year, making it a winner. Well, the cheese makes it a winner. This dish features a trio of cheeses and is not your typical cheddar cheese pasta dish. I enjoyed it.

For dessert, I got the aforementioned mini raspberry swirl cheesecake (I promise that's not a fingerprint). There were a few other flavors, too, like a cappuccino, a flavor I would normally choose if the raspberry hadn't spoken to my soul. I should have picked up two of these because they are SO GOOD. I was thinking it would be a nice little treat to split, but that was a very silly idea.

You have to understand that cheesecake isn't my go-to dessert. It's often heavy and dense, as cheesecake is by nature. Maybe I had a change of heart, I don't know, but I thoroughly enjoyed how this tasted and the raspberry was a great flavor. I'm going to have to recreate this.

The #DRFresh line works for every occasion, really, not just the big game. For example, lunch. Or when you don't feel like making dinner, or are hanging out with friends. I don't really need a reason, to be honest, I just need to have a craving for tasty food. Check it out if you're in NYC.

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Crisp Salted Oatmeal Chocolate Cookies

Did you get hit by even more snow? The weather feels very bipolar this season, with the temperatures ranging from the 50s to the single digits. The only way I know to make sense of it all is to schedule hair appointments and bake cookies. Smitten Kitchen has a delicious oatmeal cookie recipe (from Cook's Illustrated) that isn't spiced and doesn't contain raisins. I switched the white chocolate with dark chocolate to balance the sweetness. Dark chocolate contrasts well with the salted aspect, too.

You're supposed to use whole oats -- all I had was quick oats. I don't know if this affected the finished cookie at all, I just know it tastes great. Many people who tried this cookie had an issue with the dough spreading. Mine seemed to spread more than it was supposed to as well, though it wasn't lacy thin.

The dough contains a bit of brown sugar, mostly white. Since I didn't have any fancy salt to sprinkle on top, I added a teaspoon of kosher salt to the dough. It tastes fantastic.

I got a cold last Friday, and these cookies are the only thing keeping me going (slight exaggeration). The dough tastes incredible, and the cookie is even better. I baked them up crispy, like the recipe says, though there's a bit of chew left in the center.

Am I the only one who's somewhat "scared" to try new cookie recipes? When I want a cookie, I tend to make a recipe I know I like that will satisfy the craving. No, this isn't the most dramatic recipe to take a risk on, it's just that I take my cookie cravings seriously. Orange zest would play well with the flavors, even though the fruit-chocolate combo is cliche.

Anyway, there is not much left to say. Try these cookies and you won't be disappointed.

Review: Simple Truth from Kroger

I was given these products from BzzAgent on behalf of Kroger. I was not otherwise compensated, and all opinions are my own.

Kroger has a new line of natural products, some of which are organic, called Simple Truth. With over 100 new items to choose from, ranging from meat to dairy to cereals, almost all your bases are covered with this line (and if you click on the link, up to $10 worth of coupons are available to load onto your shopper's card). The site lists the 101 artificial ingredients that are not present in Simple Truth products, as well as information on the organic line and meats and poultry. BzzAgent sent me some of the products available in the Simple Truth line to taste and review, and I happily munched away.

I tried the Simple Truth Mixed Berry Granola first, because I love granola. This isn't a traditional granola, though, as it is made of whole grain wheat clusters, not oats. The kernels are crunchy and lightly sweetened. The one con is that there aren't many pieces of dried fruit, and the pieces that are in the cereal aren't very large. It's delicious, otherwise. I judge a granola by its clusters and there were enough of those to give this cereal a passing grade. Containing 200 calories, 4 grams of fiber, 2.5 grams of fat, and 16 grams of sugar per serving, this isn't as dense as oat-based granola tends to be.

I tend to keep at least one snack-type food on hand for when I'm peckish, but not hungry enough for a full meal. Or for when I'm ravenous and will grab the first thing I see. I love popcorn and make it on the stove, so I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the Simple Truth Organic Popcorn, but it ended up being pretty tasty, even for a low-sodium product. The kernels were large and crunchy and didn't taste stale like day old popcorn. It wasn't greasy and I didn't feel like I had just licked a salt lick after finishing a couple handfuls. While it was tasty, it was a bit plain for a snack, and if I got this again I'd try the white cheddar flavor.

There is no picture of the Simple Truth Blackberry Blueberry-flavored Electrolyte Water - that would have been a pretty boring picture. This was probably my least favorite product. I liked that it contained electrolytes and would be great for summer training, though to me it tasted like flat sparkling water. I kept expecting something after tasting the initial hint of flavor, but nothing was there to back it up. It's possible that I just don't like flavored, flat water. The flavor wasn't bad, I just wanted more as a drinking water. I wouldn't buy this just to drink, though like I said previously, it would come in handy for exercising in hot weather.

Have you tried anything from this line before? Let me know what you think. I have a couple coupons to give away, just email me with your address if you want one and I'll mail it to you.