Mama Mary's Pancakes. Buttermilk and Blueberry. $2.49 to $2.69 per 16.5-ounce package containing six large pancakes. In the refrigerator case.
Bonnie: You might recognize Mama Mary's from her Gourmet Pizza Crusts. Well, Mama Mary's now makes giant, ready-made refrigerated pancakes. Hers are the only never-been-frozen pancakes that are ready to heat and eat.
They're delicious and contain fewer calories and less fat than if you made them from scratch. That's because they lack the oil or butter you'd use for frying. In short, I highly recommend these.
Carolyn: When's the last time you had pancakes for breakfast? If you're like me, it was probably on a day when you simultaneously had the leisure to do it and the gumption to want to cook. In other words, it happens about as frequently as Jupiter aligns with Mars when the moon is in the seventh house.
I know you can buy frozen pancakes, but they're unnaturally uniformly shaped and dry. Mama Mary's refrigerated pancakes taste close to homemade. They're big and fluffy and can be served piping hot from the microwave in minutes. (The blueberry even contains real fruit!)
The package boasts, "Better than homemade!" To the extent that these are almost as good but require no work, I'd have to agree.
Mr. Krispers Natural Gourmet Rice Chips. Sour Cream & Onion, Sea Salt With Cracked Pepper, Classic Barbeque, and Cheddar Salsa. $2.79 per 5-ounce bag. In supermarkets or through www.mrkrispers.com.
Bonnie: Mr. Krispers are baked, all-natural, preservative-free, flavored rice chips that my teenage son Eric is already calling one of the best new products of this year. Having grown up in a house where new products are tested almost daily, he has lots of basis for a taste comparison. As a reader of Nutrition Facts panels, he's also aware that a serving of Mr. Krispers contains only 1.5 to 3 grams of fat and about 115 calories, or much less than a typical serving of flavored potato chips, with 150 calories and 9 grams of fat.
I agree with him to a degree: Mr. Krispers are a tasty low-fat alternative to potato chips. But sorry, Eric, I'm not willing to hand over either my best-of-the-year vote or my column to the next generation just yet.
Carolyn: Is there anything more boring than rice crackers? Perhaps only a John Tesh CD. That's why rice crackers are almost always served with cheese or a dip. Mr. Krispers is Terra Harvest Food's foolhardy attempt to turn rice crackers into a stand-alone snack. They think it's enough to dress up these crackers with a little bit of cheese powder and seasonings.
These rice crackers are like the dullard who dresses up for the cocktail party: You appreciate the effort, but ultimately it's just not enough.
Nestle Carnation Coffee-mate Powdered Coffee Creamer. Creamy Chocolate and Vanilla Nut. $2.79 per 8-ounce container.
Bonnie: How much do I not like powdered coffee whiteners like Coffee-mate? So much that I pass up offers of coffee if they're the only thing available to whiten it. A mere smidgen of half-and-half is all I need to enjoy my brew.
So I'll leave it to Coffee-mate-lover Carolyn to comment on the taste of these new flavors. What I will say about Coffee-mate in general is that it adds not just the fat and calories you'd find in half-and-half, but also regular and artificial sugars and lots of chemicals.
Carolyn: Carnation has just added two new flavors to the five Coffee-mate powders already offered. The Creamy Chocolate is great if you're looking for cocoa with a caffeine kick. The Vanilla Nut tastes a lot more like vanilla than nut.
These powders and their elder brethren are still the best way to bring a wide variety of flavored coffee into your home without boredom or the spoilage worries of liquid.
Bonnie Tandy Leblang is a registered dietitian and professional speaker. Carolyn Wyman is a junk-food fanatic and author of "Jell-O: A Biography" (Harvest/Harcourt). Each week they critique three new food items. © Universal Press Syndicate