Have I mentioned enough times what a complete train wreck I am in the morning? Because I am very much a train wreck, and sometimes, in the summer, my entire routine starts to fall apart. I think it's the absence of cold weather, this ability to walk outside with no coat, sans socks and even potentially shoes and just get away with it, well, it encourages me to do other haphazard things, like not bothering to blow-dry my hair or putting on makeup or my pants. It's a slippery slope, this summer thing, and I think we all need to be very grateful that I do not live in Key West or I would certainly make my home behind a dumpster and have philosophical discussions with a feral chicken that I've named Steinbeck, because in my head, Hemingway and Steinbeck hated each other and that would just make me laugh.

So, this summer thing, instead of waking up and having a very nutritious breakfast involving something fruity and something proteiny and something whole grainy and then a bucket-sized portion of piping hot Starbucks, I run out of the door, trailing a bedsheet, sleep crumbs still in the corner of my eyes, and fall into my commute. And it is for this reason that I am thankful that protein bars exist, for otherwise I would be stuck foraging for food in my office. And while I've been Taste Testing several varieties, my old standby is the Luna Bar.

I sort of hate the name of these things, by the way. Luna Bar. Luna = Moon, and it brings to mind the idea of "moon tides" and menstrual cycles and crazy women who smell like patchouli and jingle whenever they walk and wear T-shirts that say, "The Goddess Is Alive and Magic Is in the Wind" and those T-shirts are inevitably tie-dyed and God, I admit, I have an unreasonable distaste for such weirdness, and for that you can blame my hippie childhood and don't judge me if I accidentally crash my car into the next Hyundai I see that is sporting a "My Karma Ran Over Your Dogma" bumper sticker.

What is more, right there, on the Luna bar, there is a smug little blurb that starts, "We believe that what we put in our bodies matters. Food feeds our souls, lifts our spirits, nourishes and sustains us. That's why we created LUNA, the blissfully good, whole nutrition bar." Yeah, right, Luna people. As if you're not in this for the money. As if you're not owned by Clif Bar, which is all about testosterone-laden men scaling sheer walls. Do those guys get the spiel about natural goodness and being one with the earth, mind, body and spirit? This strangely Jungian psychological Earth Mother archetype? No. I would guess not.

But the thing with a Luna bar is that I shouldn't like them, but you know, I just do. Personally, I don't think that the flavor of Chai Tea should ever be chewed, but damned if it wasn't a tasty Luna Bar (I believe that particular flavor has been discontinued or has gone missing from my local stores, and for that, I mourn daily). Some of their flavors are just crazy shit. Like the chocolate peppermint stick? Or chocolate covered cherry? Sorry, the reason I love chocolate covered cherries is that there is not an oat to be seen in one of those little bundles. For the longest time, my go-to flavor was Nutz Over Chocolate. This alone should attest to how tasty a bar this particular flavor is, because I've been able to overcome my seething blind hatred for the fact that they've replaced an S with a Z right there in the name. So when they introduced Peanut Butter Cookie (and had enough restraint not to call it a Cooky or a Kooky or a QuooKey or some other spelling that makes me want to stab myself in the eye), I was intrigued. Put peanut butter on or in anything and I'm always game.

However, this particular bar?  Not only is it a delightful balance of peanut butter and light crunch, but they've frosted that bad girl with some kind of creamy fake frosting stuff. I have no idea what it is, but it might be magic. Well played, Luna crazy women, well played.

Nutrition-wise, you really can't ask for more out of a protein bar. At 180 calories and 10 grams of protein with only 23 grams of carbs, it's as low glycemic as a nutrition bar can get without managing to taste hairy or like wallpaper paste. It packs all the vitamins C, E, B6 and folate you need in a day, plus a load of other vitals like selenium and chromium (both are great for the metabolism) and randoms like pantothenic acid, which probably does something important, like make me one with the earth or all of womanhood or something. Okay, a quick search tells me that it's very critical to life. Who knew? Good thing Luna bar has my back, or clearly I would have left this earthly plane years ago.

But no matter how good a bar is, it all comes down to how much you actually want to eat it, and for all of their Lilith Fair psychology, they've still come up with a damned tasty treat. Thumbs up! --Weetabix