NEAROF

Regular Cheerios do nothing for me. Honey Nut Cheerios are a childhood favourite. Apple Cinnamon Cheerios are that strange also-ran flavour that I’ve never had a concrete opinion on. But what about Chocolate Cheerios, the latest addition to the Cheerios family? The Pitch: “Naturally Flavoured,” and “Flavoured with Real Cocoa,” which smacks of wary-parent-reassurance. They [...]

If there’s a juice that looks more disgusting than Bolthouse Farms’ Green Goodness, I haven’t met it yet. It’s a vile colour of swamp-water green, like liquid from an algae-filled fish pond blended with lawn clippings. If you were going by looks alone, any sensible person would run screaming from this stuff. The lesson, of [...]

A couple of months ago, our household George Foreman Grill gave up the lean, mean ghost. It couldn’t be saved. We mourned its loss, and we took it as a sign – it was time to trade up to a Cuisinart “Griddler.” To say I have a thing for Cuisinart is like saying the Queen [...]

Somewhere along the way, yogurt went from delicious, nutritious food to processed pseudo-food, a scientific experiment that spiralled out of control. See, bad things happen when you start counting calories obsessively. When faced with two yogurts on a dairy-case shelf, one that’s 250 calories per serving and another that’s 100, health-minded label-readers often pick the [...]

I like cooked broccoli. I like cheese. I like breaded fried foods. And so, it seems only natural that I’d like these Veggie Patch Broccoli Bites with cheese. The Look: Like chicken nuggets, minus the chicken. There’s no attempt at fake meat here. When you bite one open, it looks like pureed broccoli mush inside [...]

Ladies and gentlemen, the gentrification of the pizza pocket continues. From the greasy, doughy freezer-case junk food that populates dorm-room mini-fridges across the continent, to the much-more-adult, respectable calzone, pocket pizza comes in many varieties. Yet another curious high-brow variant? Aunt Trudy’s cheese and tomato pizza fillo pocket sandwich. It’s like spanakopita crossed with pizza, [...]

I quite like the St. Ambroise pale ale made by Montreal’s McAuslan Brewing, a beer that grew on me during repeated visits to Quebec. From watching shows in makeshift venues at Pop Montreal to reading the paper at Ziggy’s on Crescent Street, a cold St. Ambroise pale ale helped complete the Montreal experience on more [...]

When it comes to calories and coffee, it’s the extras that’ll get you. While coffee itself is almost calorie-neutral, the amount of milk and sugar you add can take a mug of brewed coffee from a handful of calories to more than 100. If you have a few mugs throughout the day, that splash of [...]