Frito-Lay Baked Cheetos Review

So, it happens to all of us, especially us women.  Sometimes... I just have to have something crunchy, salty, and bad for me.  And I don't want 10 of them, I want... 30 something of them.  Which is great, because a serving of Baked Crunchy Cheetos is about 35 pieces.

The Pros:

On the positive side, this Baked product can totally match up in the crunch arena to the original product, which is fried.  (Fun Fact: puffed Cheetos, not from the Baked line, are baked.  I learned this on Unwrapped, a great Food Network show.)

They are visually pretty much the same, so this is also great mental trickery as well.  It seems to me that the Baked potato chip varieties don't look the same at all as the regular fried versions.  It's nice to be able to eat something so familiar.

The Cons:

Where this product loses a star is it's "cheesiness."  (This is a situation in which cheesiness is a good thing.)  It's not nearly as orange as it's counterpart, and it is not as strong in flavor.  However...

I'm pretty sure that's how it's 1oz serving can drop to 5g of fat from and 1g of saturated fat, from the original 10g of fat, with 2g saturated fat.  That's a lot!  It also goes from 160 calories, to 130.  That's not a lot, because they typically replace fat in these type of snacks with more carbs.  Go figure.  (Right again - the original crunchy Cheetos have 15g of carbs, and the Baked Crunchy Cheetos have 19g.)

The Verdict:

I would definitely recommend this product for someone looking for a not-so-"naughty" snack, but who still wants to feel like they're indulging a bit.