Rice Cakes Have Come a Long Way!

In my beleaguered search to find a crunch replacement for my beloved sour dough pretzels, I've been experimenting with all sorts of snack foods.

In fact, my pantry is chock full of half-eaten bags of processed foods that I have publicly proclaimed to not eat.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. And that whole "don't eat crap in bags with chemicals as primary ingredients" mandate has gone out the Lenten window, so to speak.

I have recently rediscovered rice cakes and, boy, how they've changed.

My favorites?

• Quaker brand Quakes Rice Snacks, Sweet Chili flavor. They made a recent favorites list. As the name implies, they're sweet and a little hot. And thin and crispy.
  
• Popcorn Indiana's Chipins, Hot Buffalo Wing flavor. These aren't as good as the Sweet Chili deals, but they're shaped like triangular Doritos and have some fake orange color ... so they're a good fake out that makes you think you're eating something "bad" while not being too terrible.
  
• Quaker brand Multigrain Fiber Crisps, Wild Blueberry flavor. These are delicious! They're nutty and super crunchy. They're sweet enough to feel like a dessert treat and would be great crumbled up on yogurt.
  
• I also like the Quaker Caramel Corn flavor. Haven't tried the chocolate ones. Have you?

(But I'm going to be honest. Baked Cheetos are the best crunch replacement. The unfortunate thing is I can't stop after a few. So I find it better to just avoid them.)