Pet Please #131: Foods with Few Ingredients

img_5591Yesterday I had a typical trip to Trader Joe’s: I walked in needing 4 things, and I walked out with 30 different things, half of them chocolate.

As I entered the checkout line, something caught my eye: A bag of something called “Dark Chocolate Honey Mints.”

Yes…yessss, I thought. Put them in my belly.

As I reached for the bag, my practical side came to my aid. What are you doing? You already have 10 treatsies in your cart! Enough is enough.

You’re right, you’re right, said my Gollum side (all of this was said out loud while staring in a puddle of Trader Joe’s natural spring water, by the way). But before you go, maybe you should read the other words on the bag.

That’s when I saw it. Right below the name, these magical words: “Just three ingredients.”

You know how this story ends.

I’m a sucker for foods with few ingredients. There’s something pure about them in a world of preservatives and additives. I don’t know if they’re actually any better for you, but I can’t resist them. It’s one of the reasons I love Billy Goat chips.

Gollum Jamey won this one. It was worth it, of course. Chocolate honey mints are delicious.

Do you love foods with few ingredients?

4 thoughts on “Pet Please #131: Foods with Few Ingredients”

  1. I think good old TJ’s has to be stretching the truth a little bit on those chocolates only having 3 ingredients– perhaps it’s similar to the “2 ingredient brownies” I once made that consisted of 1- a can of pumpkin purée and 2-a box of brownie mix (which is cheating as brownie mix is loaded with tons of things, most of them bad for you things)?

    I do like the idea of foods with few ingredients, and realized that my favorite bagged popcorn (Boom Chicka Pop Sweet & Salty) only has a handful of ingredients that are easily identified and pronounced: Popcorn, Sunflower Oil, Dried Cane Sugar, Sea Salt.

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  2. Re: Katy. Looking at the ingredient list, it appears to be just the three ingredients. Chocolate Liquor is just the processed Cocoa solids. Honey is incredibly versatile. It can be mixed with the chocolate to sweeten it, and it can be flavored and whipped to make the creamy center of the peppermint patty. Good stuff.

    This is why I buy Breyer’s ice cream. Their Natural Vanilla has I think 4 ingredients, Cream, milk, Sugar, Vanilla. Compare that to the other mass-market brands that have 15 or 20 ingredients. Same goes for sour cream and cottage cheese. I usually buy Daisy because it has 2 ingredients compared to a dozen in the other mass market brands.

    There’s usually a lot of local brands that are good too (I’m in Wisconsin, we have a lot of local dairy brands), but I always buy the option with the fewest ingredients.

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