IronKids Crustless Bread. $2.59 to $3.19 per 16-ounce bag.
Bonnie: It's been a long time since I've brought white bread into my home. To test IronKids Crustless Bread, I prepared the PB&J sandwich of my white-bread youth. I had forgotten what a perfect combination that is, especially washed down with icy cold milk.
This new IronKids white bread is also quite nutritious, containing four times the calcium of ordinary white bread, and as much fiber as many whole wheat breads despite the lack of a crust (for persnickety kids who won't eat it). That fiber, however, comes not from wheat but from cottonseed, an unusual though edible addition.
But what bothers me most is the bread's name and the bag's images of sports-involved kids. The implication is that this bread contains extra iron and will give kids superior strength and performance. The IronKids reference is actually to a kids' fitness program, but the bag copy explaining this is in tiny, hard-to-read white lettering.
Nevertheless, this bread is worth buying if you live among crust-haters in the central part of the country where it is now being sold.
Carolyn: Forty percent of kids won't eat bread crusts. That's a lot of food and time (cutting off the crusts) being wasted. No wonder Sara Lee's new IronKids Crustless Bread is being heralded as the greatest thing since sliced.
IronKids deserves this slogan and the 20 cent to 50 cent price premium on its crustless merits alone. But it's also been souped-up nutritionally and is being advertised with pictures of kids in athletic poses. Shades of Wonder Bread's old "builds strong bodies 12 ways," a claim that was ruled deceitful by the FTC in 1973 and removed from all advertising. Sara Lee bakers be warned.
Klondike Ice Cream Cones. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and Oreo Cookie Pieces. $3.79 per box of four 4-ounce cones.Bonnie: You might reasonably expect these new ice cream cones to taste like Oreo cookies and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. They don't. Each chocolate-lined cone is filled with ice cream supposedly swirled with either Oreo cookie pieces or Reese's cup pieces. I say, where are they? These cones are certainly not worth their calories and fat. A cone of Haagen-Dazs Chocolate Chocolate Chip is.
Carolyn: I didn't think these were as bad as Bonnie did. I could see and taste peanut butter and Oreo in the ice cream, for instance, albeit in modest quantities. (Could it be time for progressive eyeglasses, Bonnie?) At the same time, I'll admit that these are nowhere near as indulgent as Nestle's newish Drumstick Supreme. I'd buy them over these Klondike cones any day.
Lay's Tastes of America Potato Chips. Memphis Barbecue, and California Cool Dill. $2.99 per 12.5-ounce bag.Bonnie: Catch these new Tastes of America potato chips while you can, since Lay's plans to replace Memphis Barbecue and California Dill with flavors from other parts of the country in a few months. The barbecue chips taste sweet and spicy; the dill chips are for dill lovers only, having a powerful flavor from the added artificial dill and dill weed oil.
With 10 grams of fat in a serving, these are among the fattiest chips you'll see in the supermarket. They're also loaded with sodium — although it's hard to find a flavored chip that isn't.
Carolyn: Lay's Tastes of America are limited-edition potato chips distinguished as much for what's on the bags as for what's inside. Those bags look like hip art cards. The chips are almost as sophisticated. The Memphis Barbecue is spicier and not as sweet as Lay's KC Masterpiece Barbecue and most other national brands of barbecue chips. The California Cool Dill has a lot stronger dill taste than your average California dip.
If this sounds good to you, get down to your supermarket before Lay's moves on to another part of the country. I seriously doubt the Vermont maple or the Atlanta peach chips will be anywhere near as good.
Bonnie Tandy Leblang is a registered dietitian and creator of Express Lane Cooking: A Simple Solution to What's for Dinner (Universal Press Syndicate). 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