Betty Crocker Complete Desserts. Old-Fashioned Apple Crisp, Southern-Style Peach Cobbler and Classic Cherry Cobbler. $3.79 per 28-ounce box.

Bonnie: The hype on the box is true. I was able to go from package to oven with these new Betty Crocker Complete Dessert mixes in about four minutes, after just adding some water. But the real test is whether or not Complete Desserts taste good. In that arena, Betty Crocker fails miserably.

One bite was more than enough for me and for the other folks I tried to serve these to.

Carolyn: You can't patent or trademark an idea. If you could, Banquet would have a wonderful case for suing Betty Crocker for copying Banquet's idea of a complete meal kit in a box and now Banquet's Dessert Bakes dessert kits.

But what Complete Desserts' Old-Fashioned Apple Crisp lacks in originality it makes up for in taste. This kit produces an excellent dessert of a very crispy, spicy variety. The cobbler toppings are much doughier. But the dough contains way too much sugar, considering the plentiful amounts already in the canned cherries and peaches. Betty seems to have forgotten that another one of the keys to great bakery creations (besides originality!) is balance and contrast.


Campbell's Organic Tomato Juice. $2.69 per 46-ounce bottle.

Bonnie: Campbell's has just introduced tomato juice made from 100 percent certified organic tomatoes. That allows it to bear the USDA's organic seal (reserved for products that are at least 95 percent organic). Like all tomato juice, this new organic one is rich in antioxidants, including lycopene, which has been shown to help prevent prostate and other cancers as part of a balanced diet.

When Campbell's goes organic, you know that organic has turned mainstream. Could organic V8 be far behind?

Carolyn: I don't know, Bonnie, but I will say that Campbell's was smart to make tomato juice its first organic product. (It certainly makes a lot more sense than, say, organic Pepperidge Farm cookies.) Nobody drinks tomato juice for its great taste and refreshing texture: They drink it because it's good for you. And those are exactly the kind of people who would also worry about ingesting the residue from chemical fertilizers and pesticides. That and saving the environment would be the only reasons to buy it because it tastes exactly the same as regular tomato juice.


Tyson Fully Cooked Ready to Serve Hickory Bacon. $3.49 per 2.2-ounce shelf-stable, resealable package containing 12 slices.

Bonnie: Just a few years ago, when you wanted a slice or two of bacon for a sandwich, your only option was to fry it in a skillet. Then Ready Crisp introduced precooked shelf-stable bacon, with the big guys soon following suit. Tyson is the latest big food company to try it. This Hickory Bacon is shelf-stable until you open it, then it must be refrigerated. You can warm the bacon in the microwave or just add it to sandwiches as is.

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Nutritionally, it's equivalent to bacon you'd cook yourself and just slightly higher in calories and fat than competing products from Ready Crisp, Hormel, Jimmy Dean and Oscar Mayer. With any fully cooked brand, there's no pan to scrub or bacon grease to get rid of.

Carolyn: Tyson Fully Cooked Hickory Bacon is the first shelf-stable bacon to heat up really crispy. When I tried warming up Oscar Mayer and Ready Crisp brands, it took forever and they never got truly overdone. That's the good thing about this new Tyson product, at least for crispy bacon fans like me.

My issue with this product has to do with the dearth of package instructions.


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

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