Aright bloggies – remember when I said that sometimes life happens? Well, what is about to follow is definitely one of those cases.

A while ago (and I really do mean a while… like pre-Thanksgiving I think) a wonderful little MuffinFairy sent me a very generous assortment of goodies. These were goodies that I had been eyeing for quite some time, but never bit the bullet deliciousness and bought myself. Yes my friends, I confess: I was a Vitalicious Virgin. I can’t tell you how many times I had drooled over these ridiclicious VitaCreations I had seen popping up on other blogs. There were even NON-chocolate flavors, which definitely tugged on my I-love-dessert-but-chocolate-aint-my-thang heart strings. So you can bet your butt that when this bit-o-mail showed up on my doorstep and I opened the box, I nearly fainted:

Yes – please do drool and ooh and ahh, because you know I was. This makes me even more disappointed in my major display of slackeritis for not posting about this the second they arrived in the mail. Maybe I was just too busy eating them still in shock. Hopefully the MuffinFairy will forgive me, because its still better late than never, right? So here we go folks – my official…

LoveMuffin Vitalicious Product Review:

If the title isn’t a sign of my deepest emotions towards these little individually wrapped portioned controlled packages of bliss, then I don’t know what is. I feel like a small tiny hole in my heart has been filled.  I know, I know… for a future doctor, I’m gonna have to work on being less emotional. But these bad boys are GOOD! And you wanna talk about GOOD FOR YOU? Why yes Docta T.R., I do! From Vitalicious’ website:

Vitalicious® Inc. is the market leader of innovative “vital and delicious” baked goods that promote a healthy lifestyle, without sacrificing taste. First to market with 100-calorie servings, Vitalicious® is leading the way to a holistic approach to maximize satisfaction with minimum calories, with products that are low fat and high in fiber and nutrients. Vitalicious® has created a unique triangle of need-satisfaction (All-Natural ingredients + Nutraceuticals + Weight Management), the only baked-goods company in this niche. Founded in 1999, Vitalicious® creates and sells a variety of unique, healthy, value-added baked goods under the VitaMuffin™, VitaTop™, VitaBrownie™, VitaCake™, and VitaMuffin Mix™ trademarks. Vitalicious® products are now sold at stores nationwide and at www.vitalicious.com (www.vitalicious.ca for Canadian Residents). Here at Vitalicious® our mission is simple: to make healthy and delicious baked goods that are fortified with essential vitamins and minerals.

The Vitalicious website also has a cool little page comparing the nutritional information of a Vitamuffin with an apple:

I’m not telling you to abandon your fresh produce, but hey, sometimes when I’m craving BAKERY my mind doesn’t instantly jump to APPLE. We’re all human here.

And since here at Dr.TriRunner we’re all about being real, let’s compare a VitaMuffin to, oh… let’s just say a Panera Cinnamon Roll. And I only single out this delicious cinnamon roll because I happened to eat one of these monsters in it’s entirety by myself at 10:45 pm the other night. And it was DELICIOUS and well worth every single bite. For fairness sake, lets even get crazy and compare a 4 oz. Vita Muffin (and Deep Chocolate too, because we also need equality on the decadence scale) because my cinnamon roll was definitely, um.. large. Like 7 oz. large. (click the picture to view larger)

vs.

I’m not blind. I know my cinnamon roll contained 24g of fat (vs. 3 in the VitaMuffin), 14g of which were saturated (vs. 1.5 in the VM)  and 33g of sugar (vs. 23g)… and I also know I loved it! But did I really need a 7 oz. cinnamon roll at 10:45pm? Probably not. It’s also probably true no one needs a Lumberjack Slam – two huge buttermilk pancakes drowning in butter and syrup, grilled honey ham, two slices of bacon, two sausage patties, two eggs, hashbrowns or grits, and two slices of buttery toast. Mmm I can feel my arteries closing already! Obviously not the healthiest choice, but that doesn’t stop it from being put on the menu, and if it’s on the menu, someone will order it. It’s not “new news” that America is obsessed with the bigger = better mentality, and that definitely applies to food as well. Moderation hombre… treat yourself well, with the same respect you’d give your grandma (or your two year old), and enjoy the good things in life in moderation. My VitaHomies – I give you five gold stars!

Now the Vitamuffins and Vita brownies were amazing on their own… don’t get me wrong. I found out soon though that a little splash o’ this, dollop o’ that (just probably not Daisy… no offense but sour cream+brownie wasn’t my ideal image of YUMM) took these bites of heaven to a whole ‘nother level! Seeing as how I had TWENTY FOUR to sample, I felt like I had some wiggle room for experimenting. And speaking of “wiggle room”, yes, Jello did make it into the mix on several occasions. For lack of any creativity whatsoever at the moment a better name, I deemed that one the VitaCottageJello Mountain. If YOU feel so inclined to make a VitaMixofDeliciousness, but don’t really know where to start, well Vitalicious thought of that! There is a page dedicated to VitaRecipes for you to explore. Oddly enough, I feel like most of you readers are creative enough in the kitchen to come up with your own awesome combinations, but a little inspiration can go a long way! Some of my favorite combinations (that I’m sure have all been tried before) included greek yogurt, applesauce, frozen yogurt, TruWhip, microwaved frozen strawberries, and microwaved apple+cinnamon. Some of my more unique concoctions included blending a vitatop into a particularly delicious protein shake, and also baking a vitatop into a cake of sorts. Haha… why so secrative, and why no photos? I feel like those could have been posts on their own, which you may or may not be seeing in the near future…. I liked these guys so much, I felt it completely reasonable to take over our entire freezer:

My posts tend to get lengthy my friends, and that is what this is starting to do. So I will wrap with my [multiple] one word reviews of the Vitalicious products sent to me:

• Delicious
• Heaven
• WarmFuzzyMuffinMemoryCreating
• Melty
• FlavorExplosionInYourMouth
• MorePlease!?

And I leave you with that. I know most of you don’t need my review because you are all VitaMuffinMasters and way ahead of this chick who has been living under a rock. I am going to head over to my blender to attempt to recreate a shake from heaven….

Love,
-E

p.s. For future reference, you can find this post and all of my other product reviews under the Product Reviews tab at the top of the page!