Blue Bunny Champs Variety Pack

Wow, I've literally been meaning to write this review for over a month, how sad is that? Especially when we are dealing with a respectable product here. Blue Bunny sent me a few coupons to get more blue bunny stuff on the blog, and then they sent a few more for the blog's two year anniversary, and how do I show my gratitude? by stuffing my face and making a mess, that's how!

I spied the variety pack of Blue Bunny Champs at Market Basket and I knew that was the way to start using these free coupons. You get 2 hot fudge, 2 caramel, and 2 vanilla champs. Sounds like a winner to me!

I know, big surprise, I went for the hot fudge first. Now that I've had all three, I can honestly say the hot fudge is the champ of this champ variety pack.

Haagen-Dazs FIVE Strawberry Ice Cream Review

Discontinued as of 2012 (may have happened sooner)

It's really tough being a blogger, mainly because it doesnt pay anything.... heheheh, but seriously. Always trying to find something new yet satisfying means I need to learn how to really tune in to what I am hungry for at that moment. Yeah, ok, that's just a fancy way of saying I'm spoiled and bore easily.

Anyway, I'm at the store and at a loss as to what I want.... well, I want a chocolate milkshake, but the grocery store doesn't have those. Well, for whatever reason, some on sale Strawberry Five ice cream caught my eye.

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Just five ingredients.

Haagen-Dazs Choc Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

[2021 Update] I've been trying to grab pints and photos because of the 2021 pint redesign and I had hoped this one would be as tasty as I remembered. Unforunately, the vanilla ice cream was quite bland and the cookie dough wasn't flavorful enough to save this pint. It's not bad-bad, but I have no urge to repurchase again anytime soon. Oh well, original review after the break.

Haagen-Dazs Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Vanilla ice cream with cookie dough and fudge Chips

Edy's Slow Churned Yogurt Blend Chocolate Fudge Brownie

I was to be honest and say that the following dessert wasn't my first choice. I actually meant to eat this cup for snack yesterday, but I never got around to it. Well, it's now today, and I really wanted a blizzard or a twisted frosty... but I told my self it was a good day for a healthy snack.

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Edy's Slow Churned Chocolate Fudge Brownie Yogurt Blend

YAY!! for our Sonic Drive In Winners

Ok, I just got the last email confirmation from our winners so now I can officially list them out.


Chris is our grand prize winner and will be enjoying his $50 Sonic Drive In Gift Card!

Sam is our runner up and will be enjoying his goodie filled Sonic Lunchbox!

Mandy is our Twitter winner and will also be enjoying a goodie filled lunchbox!


My congratulations to the winners and I thank everyone for entering. It's been a honor getting to hand out prizes and I can't wait to do it again.

Oh, it will probably be a few weeks before I can head to Sonic myself and have my first taste and reviews. I'll try to snap some good images and encourage everyone to try something different. Our winners are more than welcome to chime in and share their views of Sonic. Many thanks to Sonic for providing all these treats, let's do it again next year!

Dove Irresistibly Raspberry Ice Cream Review

you know, irresistibly is a really really hard word to spell, remind me to never name a flavor with that word (oh wait, it looks like they already registered it, guess it's not an issue then)

To celebrate national ice cream day, we decided to break open something we've never had on the blog before, Dove Ice Cream. It's been over 2 years but for whatever reason, Dove just hasnt shown up yet (well, there is one minor exception).

You know, I can actually (vaguely) remember the first time I had Dove ice cream.  My (step) uncle ran into the store and came out with Dove ice cream bars for himself, me, and my dad. Oh man was it heavenly (and the answer is no, I'm not the only ice cream fan in the family)

Here is our very fancy looking Dove Irresistibly Raspberry Ice Cream. It's Vanilla Ice Cream with Raspberry Sorbet Swirls and Chocolate Chunks. Ever notice how high end ice creams never show what they look like on the container but main stream ice creams do? I just thought of that now... how weird. I wonder why that is.

Blue Bunny Factory Tour by Iowa Girl Eats

When Ben & Jerry's invited me up to Vermont for a factory tour, I thought I was getting "A" factory tour, not "the" factory tour everyone else gets. I'm not saying I didn't appreciate my trip, but being both a lover of ice cream and also being immensely curious (we love watching Unwrapped & How It's Made), I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get up close and personal with the factory floor.

Well, Blue Bunny, being the massive company they are, invited five blogger to their main factory and gave them a true hands on tour. Fortunately for the five bloggers, pretty much everything Blue Bunny makes is at this facility.

(Photo from Iowa Girl Eats)

If only I had been there... they would have had to wrestle me off this Chips Galore platform.

So, head on over to Iowa Girl Eats. She has tons of photos (just scroll down a bit from the top if you want to jump right to the blue bunny stuff).

Nice Job!

Happy National Ice Cream Day!!!!

Don't forget to

!!EAT ICE CREAM!!

Skinny Cow Cookies N' Cream Ice Cream Review

[New for 2010, discontinued before 2013 season] I decided to go low fat today, I mean, come on, at 3% fat, 5% sat fat and just 150 calories, there is near zero guilt on a treat like this.... but I guess I should ask, will there be any pleasure since it didn't go so well last time?

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Skinny Cow Cookies 'N Cream Low Fat Ice Cream

Sonic Drive In Winners...

will be announced soon! sorry for the delay. I was going to pick the winners during lunch on friday, so i could email them and announce it friday night, but something important popped up and kind of messed up lunch time. Will pick the winners today, and once they get back to me I'll let you now who won.

(update: I know, I know, it should take two minutes to pick winners, I'm getting there I swear)

Breyers Smooth & Dreamy Triple Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Bars

2013 Update: These are now dead dead.

I'm not sure why, but my chocolate bender continues. It's seems that almost every day I crave chocolate and I'd say atleast 5 out of 7 days a week I have a giant glass of ice cold chocolate milk.

Well, we got home from a very full day, and I desperately needed my chocolate fix... hmmm, the ice cream selection in the house is kinda weird right now, so I'm not sure what to pick... then it hits me!

Breyer's New Smooth & Dreamy Triple Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Bars. My unofficial description: It's chocolate chocolate chip light ice cream partially coated in a chocolate shell. Their official description: It's chocolate light ice cream with a fudge swirl, dark chocolate chips and a milk chocolatey coating. Boy, that sure sounds good enough, but will it be double churn appeasement, or will it be low fat disappointment.

Ben & Jerry's Berry Voluntary A (discontinued) Target Exclusive

[New for 2010, retired 2013] When I bought Brownie Chew Gooder as a Target exclusive, ofcourse I bought it's new friend too.

Ben & Jerry's Berry Voluntary Ice Cream

Raspberry Cheesecake Ice Cream with White Chocolatey Chips & Raspberry Swirls

(Funny, I think that's the first time that I've heard the term "White Chocolatey")

Ben & Jerry's Brownie Chew Gooder A (discontinued) Target Exclusive

[New for 2010, discontinued for 2013] I stopped at Target at lunch, so that means it's finally time to try the two new exclusive flavors. Berry Voluntary was almost gone, but there was plenty of Brownie Chew Gooder on hand. The exact description is Vanilla Caramel Ice Cream with Fudge Brownies & a Caramel Swirl.

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it's open, mini spoon is in hand

Friendly's Kit Kat Friend-Z

I do believe that I had my very first Friend-Z yesterday. With the wonder that is DQ, and the wide variety of tasty Friendly sundaes already available, I've just never been in a hurry to try one of these things.

Well I was in a literal hurry yesterday after returning some stuff, so I drove past a local scoop shop and pulled into Friendly's on the way back to work. Awhile back I had already decided I would start with a Kit Kat Friend-Z, so I placed my order, received it very quickly, and went on my way.

Ok, the picture came out a bit red, but you get the idea: chocolate soft serve, big Kit Kat bits and a big tough spoon (like at Wendy's).

First impression? The chocolate is... strong? I guess strong is the word. It just tastes, iunno, weird to me, like something isn't quite right. I don't want to call it bold or powerful because that implies I appreciated it's uniqueness. Maybe it's been too long since I had chocolate server... I guess the problem is I'm comparing it to the M&M twisted frosty I had a week or so ago, and frosties definitely have their own unique and more mellow flavor.

Second Impression? These kit kat hunks are way too large. Sure, this depends highly on who made it, but this particular server left the bits quiet big. Zero kit kat flavor has been spread around my treat. If I wanted boring, I could buy a cheap cone of soft serve and just have a kit kat on the side.

Conclusion? Disappointment really. The concept is basic enough but this particular execution left much to be desired. Granted I choose to go with kit kats, but I wanted something different. Oh well, I'll probably just get a sundae next time.

A for Effort

Hope everybody had a great weekend. We got to spend the day with some extended family and our time included a trip to Betucci's (brick oven pizza). After enjoying some excellent pizza which I have not had in way too long, the kids were all running around and in need of some dessert. We ordered up some simple (generic) hoodies cups and what they brought out needed a picture (but I left my cellphone in the car)

They took the vanilla & chocolate ice cream cup, put it on a plate, added whip cream, drizzled the whole thing (including the plate) with a ton of chocolate syrup, and then added a cherry on top. A for effort man, A for effort! Nice way to put a smile on the kids faces before we left.

Welch's "Limited Edition" 100% Juice Ice Bars

A long, long time ago

In an apartment, far far away

There stood a freezer that always had Welch's Fruit Juice Bars in it. Mmmmm, oh how I loved those little pops. Just the right amount of sweetness & no extra chemicals (that I recall). I think the flavors were Grape, Cherry, and Orange... no, orange isnt right... or is it? You see, I can't be sure because a few years ago my beloved juice bars disappeared one day....

never to be seen again....

until

I was at BJs last week

I'm not sure I can explain how excited I was to see a big bag labeled welches and my old friends red, purple, and orange staring back at me... actually, let me put it this way, I was so excited, I grabbed the back without actually reading what the flavors were.

Not that I really needed any additional motivation, but the big price tag over these bags said "limited edition", so I knew it was now or never to try these.

I got home, ripped open the bag, and.....

Wait? What? no... no no no no. White grape with cherry flavor? White grape with tropical flavor? No, no no no. These aren't my pops!! Ohhhhh the disappointment!!!

Concord Grape tastes like Welch's Concord Grape Juice....

White Grape with Natural Cherry flavor tastes like Welch's White Grape Cherry Juice...

White Grape with Natural tropical flavor tastes like...pineapple maybe? this flavor is super mild and the label just says "natural flavors"

I love how they keep mentioning "natural flavor" considering that these bad boys are laden with sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate. Their regular juices don't have these, so I'm not sure why they are showing up here.

Notes: There are 40 concord grape pops (45 calories), 20 tropical (40 calories), and 20 cherry (40 calories) in the bag. It's just juice, so there's no fat or anything like that.

P.S. If anyone knows what happened to my beloved sugary welch's pops, please let me know, thanks!

Our First Real Giveaway Sponsored by Sonic Drive In

Hey everybody, my apologies for not writing much. Sure, it's national ice cream month, but it's also hot, hazy, and humid with no breeze month. The good news is that Sonic, America's Drive In, has come through to help us celebrate.

This my friends is a $50 gift certificate to inspire me to go have an ice cream party at Sonic. No, I'm not trying to gloat, you see, Sonic has said I can give away a second $50 to one lucky reader of the blog! How very cool is that? We even have a runner up prize: A sonic lunchbox that comes with "a "Keep it Real" ice cream t-shirt, a $5 MySonic card and some other fun goodies".

So, we will keep this simple. Just (CONTEST OVER) and enter your name and email address. Next Friday (7/16), I will pick a winner and email them. Once they respond, I will announce the winners and also forward their info over to Sonic's marketing company so they can receive their prizes. How does that sound?

Now, we're going to have a little side contest as well. Come follow me on twitter and tweet @onsecondscoop I want to win that lunchbox! (or something to that effect). One lucky follower will win the other sonic lunchbox (that comes with "a "Keep it Real" ice cream t-shirt, a $5 MySonic card and some other fun goodies"). How does that sound?

So that's three prizes total and I thank everyone for participating in advance and hopefully this will not be our last contest. (side note: I will destroy the list of entries once the contest is officially over. The only info that will be passed on is when I pass just the winners over to Sonic's marketing firm).

Chris's Cookies ...and other discoveries

Greetings!! Hopefully your weekend was better than ours! Nothing takes a holiday from fun to none quicker than not one, but both of our poor kids being sick. It's July 4th weekend, it's suppose to be fun and enjoyable... oh well, beats that time we got into a holiday accident on the parkway.

With the kids sick, I had to make the solo run to Whole Foods. While most of my time was spent in other aisles, I did take a quick break and spend a few minutes in the freezer section. Now usually I just kind of randomly grab what's good and bring it home, but since I'm so far from home, and since it is so hot out, I decided to make a list of what I saw and see if anyone has any recommendations.

Oh, before I forget, I saw this pint container. It's intended for homemade ice cream but it kind of looks like its big enough to hold a pint as well --- hmmm, lots of people complaining it's hard to open.


Ok, on to the all natural list of frozen treats, feel free to make suggestions in the comments (or in the new suggestion box in the right hand column of the page)


Alden's Organic All Natural ice cream looks good, and I can pick it up at Shaws too (which I will do one of these days).

Vanilla Bean, Blackberry, Chocolate Chocolate Chip, Mint Chip, Strawberry, Butter Brittle, Peanut Butter & Chip, Cookies & Cream

Sweet Scoops frozen yogurt was started out by none other than Bob Colombosian, you know, Colombo yogurt! He sold the scoop shop long ago and the company now sells throughout New England.

Flavors: Black Raspberry, Coffee Cookies & Cream, Dutch Chocolate Chip, Madagascar Vanilla, Ginger, Mint Chip, Mudslide with Chocolate Chunks, Wild Maine Blueberry (seasonal), and Pumpkin (seasonal)

Oh boy, the "handmade artisan gelato and sorbet" of Cold Fusion Gelato. Gelato is slowly winning me over, especially with flavors like "Dark Chocolate Brownie".

(Too many flavors to list)

Sorbet tends not to get a whole lot of freezer aisle love, but Blue Moon Sorbet is still trying to get your attention (and I'm afraid to find out if it deserves it)

Blackberry Lime, Pear Giner, Raspberry Cassis, Lemon Zest, Mango Passion, Red Raspberry, Peach Melba, Wild Blueberry, Grapefruit Campari & Strawberry Daiquiri.

More gelato from Gelato Guiliana.
Cool, this one sounds evil: AMERICAN KISS (VARIETY OF CHOCOLATE BARS)

(Too many flavors to list)

Giovanna Gelato e Sorbet... I know, sounds like the last one, but they appear to be a smaller company. They have a "white chocolate cranberry" gelato, now that sounds different.

(Too many flavors to list)

Last one, Bindi Sorbetto. Their website makes me think they are a restaurant supplier and not really aimed at consumers, as in their website is making me not hungry.... OH MY, I think I just hurt my brain. Click here and check out the "Dream Bomba" = "A heart of caramel surrounded by peanut butter gelato, coated in milk chocolate and decorated with peanut butter drizzle". Oh man, I need about 2 dozen of those stat!!


Actually, let me mention one more thing. Rice Dream and Almond Dream are getting quite creative as they try to attract the non-dairy cow. You can now get Rice Dream and Almond Dream Bites, as well as the Rice Dream "sandwiches" you see below (rice dream ice cream in a chocolate shell... looks kinda messy to hold)

...OOPS! forget to mention Chris's Cookies (the whole point of this post). I thought my daughter would enjoy some of these "ultra premium" cookies when she was feeling better so I brought them home. I tried turning them into an ice cream sandwich but it just didn't work out well. Granted, I didnt have the appropriate ice cream handy to fill it with, but still, there's just something not quiet right about these cookies.

DQ Blizzard of the Month : Pecan Pie Blizzard

[September 2021 Update] DQ is touting the "new" Pecan Pie blizzard. The only difference I can see between that and the 2010 version is "brown sugar pie pieces" vs "crispy pie crust pieces". If you give it a try, let me know what you think.

[Original 2010 Review] 

Yay! I actually made it to DQ at the beginning of the month!

Ok, here's the official shot of the Dairy Queen Pecan Pie blizzard. It's "packed with roasted pecans, crispy pie crust pieces and caramel blended with creamy vanilla soft serve".

And here's mine, complete with... WHIP CREAM! Nope, I didn't ask for it that way, that's just the way it was handed to me (the server did apologize that the whip cream "just exploded"). I don't think I've had whip cream on a blizzard before, and it's not mentioned in the description, but hey, THUMBS UP! Take that Pecan Pie vibe all the way!

The good news is that I like it. When I tried Gile's Butter Pecan Frozen Custard, I was dismayed that the salty pecan flavor was overriding everything. Well, the DQ pecans are salty, but since the base is still vanilla, their intense flavor is brought down a notch. The pecan flavor is still strong, as is that underlying salty vibe, but not so much as to ruin the harmony between salty snack and creamy soft serve.

How are the pie pieces? Nice, I just wish there were a few more. They are thin and have a graham cracker crust consistency. They must have been added last because the pieces were still fairly large.

The caramel swirl? Ummm, there's a caramel swirl? Are you sure, because I didn't taste one. Maybe they forgot, or maybe I can't taste it, but I don't care, I'd rather have the whip cream anyway. Actually, let me put it this way. The wonder that is whip cream helps bring the pecans down another notch... shame there wasn't more whip cream!

So, is this for everyone? Probably not. Will pecan lovers love it? Yes! Will nut lovers like it? Yes! Will a squirrel try to steal it from you? Iunno, it depends on how much you taunt him with it I guess. This is another nice, fresh, unique blizzard. Nice job DQ.

New to Me : Nestle Tandem Review

You know the best thing about ice cream blogging? It's the never ending excuse to go "oh, I need to put that on the blog!"

Behold!! The might of the Nestle Tandem! Woohoo! Seriously, if you've never walked by one of these before, how could you possibly not pick one up?? I was at Walmart and it was in the dollar section and I just couldn't resist. Actually, it was pretty hard trying not to eat this thing on the way home from the store. You know what the funny thing is? This "new to me" treat came out 10 years ago!

Haagen-Dazs Limited Edition Dark Chocolate Mint

[2011 Only] Oh geez,my apologies everyone. I've said before that now and then I may drop my pen (keyboard) but my belly keeps going, and so is the case with the last week of reviews. I keep tasting but don't get the chance to write anything down. In other words, this is gonna be short and sweet minty.

Haagen-Dazs Dark Chocolate Mint Ice Cream