Bachelor on the Cheap

By Mike Thayer

You need to have some of these in your pantry

This is a power on the go snack!  Skip the chips, forget the popcorn and if you have a dessert craving late at night, here 'ya go! 

Enter, Nature Valley Protein Chewy Bar with Peanut Butter and Dark Chocolate.

Here's the description from the Nature Valley website:  10 powerful grams of protein to power through your next challenge. Plus rich dark chocolate chips, roasted peanuts and creamy peanut butter to blast through your next craving. Gluten-free!

These things rock, period.

It has protein, it's gluten free, low in sugar, and most importantly it tastes good, what's NOT to like?

Gluten free and packing 10 grams of protein, these bars satisfy the snack craving, providing both savory notes in the peanuts and peanut butter, but also delivers on the sweet notes with the chocolate, it's a Reece's Peanut Butter Cup feel, but healthier!  And with only 7 grams of total sugars and just 15 grams in carbs, this bar has become a repeat buy for me.  Costing me $13.58 for a 30 count box of 1.42 ounce bars at Sam's Club, I'm giving Nature Valley Protein Chewy Bars with Peanut Butter and Dark Chocolate 4 out of 5 Bachelor on the Cheap stars.  I'm docking Nature Valley a star because they use semisweet chocolate in this protein bar, which tastes fine and don't get me wrong, semisweet technically falls into the dark chocolate category containing an entry level 60% cacao, but in my humble opinion it's not a truly rich dark chocolate with the elevated health benefits that has at least 70% cacao.