A Better Oreo

I was recently reunited with Oreos again after a 20-year break. As a kid, I loved these sweet chocolate cookie sandwiches, and like most Oreo enthusiasts, I had my own way of eating them. Some like to dunk in milk, others like to lick the filling. Some even just bite into the cookie without ceremony, thereby creating an Oreo avalanche running down their shirt. In my opinion the best way to eat an Oreo is to gently and slowly take apart the two crumble-prone cookies without breaking them, and scrape the white filling off with my two front teeth. The remnants of the white gooey stuff on the cookie now look like the confusing freeway system in Minneapolis, MN.

Last week, developers and product managers from the software company I work for took two days to focus on the different "troublesome" components of our product that needed much work. Many stayed into the wee hours of the night to get these problems worked out. In order to support our developers and anyone else who wanted to stay and help out with this "spike" in productivity and creativity, our wonderful admin team purchased many yummy and coma-inducing snacks, such as circus animal cookies, peanut butter cookies, goldfish, apples, mini tangerines/oranges, and of course...Oreos.

I am approaching my mid (cough cough) thirties and am trying my darnedest to be healthy. Impossible, as I found myself devouring the packages of Oreos like a HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPO. Literally. With fond childhood memories zapping through me with each bite, I found myself enjoying the cookie instinctively the same way I did when I was a kid. In the aftermath of Oreo nostalgia I have no idea how many I ate.

This weekend I shopped at Sprouts and found a package of Newman's Own Chocolate Creme-filled Chocolate Cookies, a knock-off of the Oreo cookie. I've shopped at Sprouts many many times before and am fully aware of the seduction that takes place in the cookie and cracker aisle. My mother has recently started shopping at stores like Sprouts and Trader Joes and manages to buy everything sweet and unhealthy. It's from Trader Joe's, it MUST be healthy, right? Not always.

I decided to give the Newman's Own cookies a try, and can happily report, these are BETTER than Oreos. I speak blasphemy, yes. The chocolate creme was so....um...CREAMY, and the texture was much softer than the unknown white goo that holds Oreo cookies together. Yes.They.Are.Better.

Here is the "skinny" on nutritional info:

Newman's Own Chocolate Creme-filled Chocolate Cookie (1 serving = 2 cookies)
Calories: 130 grams
Total fat: 4.5 grams
Trans Fat: NONE!
Total Carbs: 20 grams
Sugar: 10 grams

How do they compare to Oreos?

Original Oreos 18oz package (1 serving = 1 cookie)
Calories: 160 grams
Total fat: 7 grams
Trans fat: Nope!
Total Carbs: 25 grams
Sugar: 14 grams

Notice the serving sizes? Eureka! Newman's Own HEAVEN cookies are better tasting and HEALTHIER than Oreos! Yea!!

Now I have a snack to accompany me whilst I watch the Biggest Loser. Don't tell Bob or Jillian...