Since March Madness begins this week, it’s another great opportunity to break out some new and different snacks, or to make your own snacks to munch on during the games. And if you are looking for flat-out tasty and satisfying snack foods, log on to Nuts.com and see all of the great items they have on hand; order some up and then impress your friends who will no doubt want to know where these snacks came from. Trust me, I know this because the fine folks at Nuts.com were kind enough to send me some samples. Here are the items we tried:

Supreme Roasted Mixed Nuts–When they say supreme, they mean SUPREME. These were some of the biggest nuts I’ve ever seen (you can insert your own joke there), and they are way tasty too with just the right amount of salt, coming in a stay fresh zip-lock bag. The assortment contains brazils, pecans, almonds, filberts, pistachios, cashews and macadamias. The best part, in addition to how gigantic the cashews, pecans and macadamias are, is that there are no peanuts. It’s also just $10.99 for a one pound bag, which is an excellent value.

Cheese Pretzels–Cheese pretzels are one of those snacks that you don’t see very often. But when I see them, I buy lots of bags of them. This is a habit I have with snack foods that often drives my wife crazy. So when I found out that Nuts.com had cheese pretzels, I pounced and asked if that could be one of the products to sample. Ah, snack food nirvana. The pretzels are crispy with the perfect amount of that bright white pretzel salt–the kind that you only see on quality pretzels. And they have that malty pretzel taste with a nice cheddar finish–positively delicious and some of the best cheese pretzels I have ever tasted. (bonus: they are natural, with no ingredients I’ve never heard of). And the price on a jumbo one pound bag is just $4.49, which means I may have to stock up.

There are many other great products available on Nuts.com, and you can check them out at these various online communities:

o Nuts.com website (http://nuts.com/)

o Nuts.com Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/nuts.com)

o Nuts.com Twitter (twitter.com/nuts)

Now that you have some ideas for snacks, go fill out your brackets and get ready for the Madness to begin!

It’s funny how yesterday I’m in a convenience store and notice the small bags of Combos, and think to myself how they have had the same boring flavors for years, maybe decades. And then, lo and behold, I turn the corner and notice larger bags of Combos–with TWO NEW FLAVORS. At least, they are two flavors I’ve never seen before–Buffalo Blue Cheese Pretzel, and Jalapeno Cheddar Tortilla. The one common denominator–spicier than the average Combos. And my wife will tell you I’m a sucker for new snacks–change the package, change the flavor, but most of all, give me a completely new product and I have to try it. So these Combos fit the bill. Here are my thoughts….

Buffalo Blue Cheese Pretzel Combos–keep in mind that this snack is first and foremost a pretzel, and it’s the filling that makes it unique in relation to other Combos. Of course, they are crispy and tasty in a snack food nirvana sort of way, and there is a nice blue cheese tang and a spicy kick. But the only drawback is that the actual taste of wing sauce is faint, and being that I have this Pavlov’s dog thing to Buffalo wing sauce, I was kind of bummed at the lack of wing zing overall. But a really good snack nonetheless

Jalapeno Cheddar Tortilla Combos–this is the first Combos flavor I’ve seen with a tortilla as the base–usually it’s pretzel or cracker. And while it’s not much different in taste or consistency from the cracker, the snack itself kicks ass. And I mean it really kicks ass–in a “holy crap is that hot” kind of way, or at least hotter than most snack foods. For this one, the jalapeno taste is dominant, and the cheese taste is more in the background–the opposite of the Buffalo Blue Cheese version. But again, mighty tasty.

So while these two spicy Combos flavors are definitely worth trying, and as always Combos does what it claims to (cheese your hunger away, yo!), I still feel like they could use just a bit of tweaking in the test kitchen. And if they are looking for volunteers to help with that, I can be reached right here on this blog!

It’s that time of year again! We’ve been making it an annual tradition to post some snack recipes in advance of the Super Bowl, and this is the fourth year we’ve done that on Bullz-Eye’s Grub for Guys. This year, I made five new recipes that you can find on Grub for Guys on the Food & Drink homepage–queso meatballs; ham, avocado & corn tostadas; pizza potato skins; easier Italian beef sandwiches; and grill & chill Buffalo poppers.

It was way too much fun, as it always is, making these things and transforming our kitchen into a test kitchen. The poppers are the one gratuitous recipe I have to do every year with wing sauce. But the meatballs and skins were my favorites out of the bunch. Of course, everything is good…trust me, I wouldn’t steer you wrong with food like this. Hopefully you can try a few of these as you watch my Giants upset the Patriots again. Enjoy!

There is something innately comforting to me about Chef Boyardee products. I grew up eating them on cold winter days when I was a kid, and in particular was thrilled when my mom taught me how to open a can and heat it on the stove. I mean, it wasn’t like I was learning to cook, but it’s liberating to a kid knowing that he can heat up his own lunch (I’m dating myself here, but we didn’t own a microwave until the mid-’80s.

Anyway, Beef-a-roni is still awesome, and so are the raviolis and standard spaghetti and meatballs. But the one small drawback to some of these items is the lack of meat. Enter the Overstuffed Beef Ravioli. I mean, it’s not exactly premium beef here–I’m guessing it’s akin to ground chuck and/or the kind of ground meat used at Taco Bell. And it has fillers in it, but so do standard meatballs or the filling in your typical ravioli.

But I digress. The Overstuffed Beef Ravioli is delicious, and it really does have 25% more meat as promised, and it seems like even more than that. It’s also nice that it is doused in a rich meat sauce as well. Yum. And Chef Boyardee’s tomato sauce is really tasty, and always has been. For you guys who need some quick meals to have on hand and do not have time to make something from scratch or even from a box, you should keep a few cans of this meaty pasta in your pantry.

One word of advice though–one can equals two servings, and that equals 500 calories. If you are not watching your waistline (and I’m guessing most of you that are reading this are not), and you like meat, this is some good stuff right here. You done well, Chef!

Yeah, I know. This is a kid’s product. And I bought these for our 4-year old. But being a sucker for new products, especially any kind of snack food, I had to try them. I mean, I want to make sure my kid isn’t eating something that doesn’t taste good, right?

Anyway, I had no intention of reviewing this product, but these ice cream sandwiches are so good that I couldn’t help but pimp them. We’re talking birthday cake flavored ice cream (what a great invention that is!) with confetti sprinkles and blue icing swirl, between two vanilla cookies (rather than the standard chocolate). Being that I don’t want to be 400 pounds and also that I need to save some for the kid, I think I will cease eating any more of these. But trust me, I could eat the whole box in one sitting. Okay, maybe half the box, but still….

So if you see these Blue Bunny gems in your freezer, go for it…..just beware of how much you will love them.