FreeRice.com is a great site which allows you to play an online vocabulary game to donate rice to the hungry. For each correct answer, the site will donate rice through United Nations. This is how it works: as you play the game, each page load brings up a banner advertisement which goes to pay for the rice. Read more about it in their FAQ.

Not only do you get to help donate food to the hungry, you can also improve your vocabulary! Each question gets harder or easier, depending on whether or not you are getting the questions right. So it plays to your own skill level and helps you learn new words. Try it out!

A creative chef over at WoW Insider has posted a recipe based on the World of Warcraft game recipe, Murloc Fin Soup! The recipe includes the translation into real food (for example, murloc meat = boneless skinless chicken breasts). Personally, I always thought murlocs would taste more like tuna than chicken given that they are fish people, but the recipe sounds fun.

RlrlrlGLGLGLGLGLglglglgll!

Last week I received a package in the mail with some HINT Water to review on my blog. The water was free to me, so I’m writing this review for a little free publicity for HINT. However, I’m going to be honest about what I think.

First of all, I’m not really a fan of flavored water. Generally it ends up tasting like watered down juice. However, the tag line for HINT flavored water is “Drink Water, Not Sugar” - there is no sugar and no preservatives, just natural flavor. It is a healthy, zero calorie drink, which definitely appeals to me. So, I decided to try it out without thinking about other flavored waters I’ve had before.

Since I received one of each flavor, I got to try them all: Mango Grapefruit, Pomegranate Tangerine, Lime, Raspberry Lime, Peppermint, Pear, Tropical Punch, Strawberry Kiwi, and Cucumber. It’s quite a range of flavors. However, some of the flavors, like Cucumber and Peppermint, just tasted too strange for me to enjoy. It’s not that they tasted bad. In fact, all the flavors taste exactly like their names. The Cucumber tasted like water that had been soaking cucumbers, and the Peppermint tasted like slightly minty water. They were not flavors I expected to drink in water form, so I didn’t like them.

However, the fruity flavors were much better. My favorites were Strawberry Kiwi, Tropical Punch, and Lime. Each of these had just enough sweetness (or tartness) in the flavors to make them taste more like flavored water than watered down juice. They were actually kind of tasty. While I don’t think I will purchase HINT Water by the case ($44 for a case of 24), if I see my favorite flavors in the store, I might be tempted to pick a couple up.

For anyone wanting a free and healthy food sample, Nabisco is offering free samples in the mail of their new Garden Harvest Toasted Chips. They are whole grain baked chips with fruit and/or veggie bits in them. Sounds kinda tasty, and if not, well, the sample is free!

Get your free sample of Garden Harvest Toasted Chips.

I’ve tried a lot of different “energy” bars. Many of them have too much sugar, unnatural ingredients, or just don’t taste good. Now I only eat the ones made from whole, natural foods, like nuts and fruits. Larabars are made primarily of dates and nuts and come in many different flavors. My favorite so far is the Apple Pie:

Larabar Apple Pie ingredients: Dates, Walnuts, Unsweetened Apples, Almonds, Raisins, Cinnamon. That’s it! The best part is that it tastes great - just like apple pie! At around 200 calories each, they serve for a large snack or a small meal, and provide plenty of natural vitamins. They’re gluten, dairy, and soy free, which for someone with food intolerances like me, can be very important. The next one I think I’ll try is the Banana Cookie… or maybe Pecan Pie.