Hawaii~Kauai Chocolates and married life quirks

I always start craving chocolate when I read Kat's posts about all the chocolate she tastes. It makes me want to go out and buy some expensive dark chocolate, but I try to resist the temptation.
While I was back home in Hawaii, Mike's mom (a.k.a. my "mom") brought me back some Kauai chocolates from her trip to Kauai.

***Okay, here's a short side tangent about married life and my new "parents." My "real?" (that sounds awkward, my "birth") parents thought it would be a fun game to charge Mike and me one dollar every time we refer to each others' parents as "Mr.___" or "Mrs.___" instead of "mom" or "dad."

Since we've been married, Mike has paid my parents about $7. He even gets harassed by my real mother when he refers to my real dad as "Mr.___" while having a conversation with my mom. And Lauren has paid...$0. How? Because while we were dating for those five years, I rarely called Mike's parents by name or a "hey you." I usually used the elusive tap on the shoulder or avoided using their name.
Think about it, you can call your friends' parents "aunty" or "uncle" but really, that won't fly when referring to your your bf or gf's parents. Most of my girlfriends have this issue with the 'rents of their significant others. Oh and here's the funny thing, I have and had no problem calling Mike's aunts, uncles, and grandparents "aunty ___" or "grandpa ___." Go figure. I guess it's some mental block on my part.

The in-laws are cracking down on me though. When Mike and I talk on the phone, they shout, "Hi daughter" and I have to respond with "Hi dad!" or "Hi mom!" over the phone. Talk about a sweat-induced panic attack. But it's getting better, and like my real mom says, she's just helping us out so it will not be awkward in the future.

Back to those wonderfully delicious chocolate morsels of goodness.
These are the "chocolate opihi." How cute is that? They look like chocolate-covered peeps, but oh no, they are so much better than peeps.
It's a shortbread cookie, topped with caramel and a whole macadamia nut, enrobed in dark chocolate. Mmmmm...I wish I had thought of them first and then could sell these things as Hawaii omiyage. Mom, thanks for the chocolates!
Kauai Chocolates
Port Allen Marina Center
4341 Waialo Road
Ele'ele, Kauai
(808)335-0448

Product Reviews~Walky Walky and Margarita Chip Shots

A few weeks ago I posted about my adoration for beer chips. So I tried another flavor of this product called Margarita Chip Shots and was extremely disappointed.
Look at all that salt and lime flavor crystals(?) in the package. I understand that margarita glasses are usually rimmed with salt; but it was just too much going on for me. Moving on to a product that I thoroughly enjoyed. Glico's Walk Walky. This is the company that makes those wonderfully delicious Pocky sticks. Mmmmm.....it's sad to admit it, but I ate the whole thing in one sitting. I rationalized with myself and said that the package was deceiving and was only half-filled. The Nutritional Facts label stated that one package was equivalent to one serving and contained 280 Calories. These little pellets are best described as pellets the size of Choco Babies that taste just like the coated portion of pocky sticks.
Aaron and I were first introduced to this snack while attending a session at the Research Chefs Association's conference. The session was about how to target the millennial generation when developing food products. This product was used as an example of an appealing product to gen Y-ers (which is the market segment Aaron and I both fall into). It's super portable for on-the-go trendy consumers who seek non-messy food products they can consume while surfing the internet, texting their friends, or are walking while using cell phones. As you can see, the packaging is just like a coffee cup with a pop lid.
I'm assuming they sell Walky Walky back home in Hawaii, but if not you can purchase them at Amko for $2.39.

dark chocolate chex mix

My newest favorite snack: dark chocolate chex mix.
I normally try to stay away from purchasing snack foods (chips, cookies, etc), but this is quite delicious. I normally do not care for the savory chex mixes because they are salty and have peanuts and too many pretzels. But this mix does not contain peanuts and there are only a few dark chocolate covered pretzels.
The only downside to the product is that 2/3 cup is a 140-Calorie serving. And chex pieces are kind of bulky so 2/3 cup is not a lot. I do not eat the mini chocolate pieces so hopefully I lower the Calorie content per serving by throwing those pieces out





RSBC status:
Running=26 miles
Swimming=2.4 miles
Biking=112 miles
Cook=3