Philly-Gourmet Steaks for Sandwiches. $3.99 per 12.25-ounce box of seven steaks.
Bonnie: One Philadelphia food tradition is the cheesesteak sandwich. It's cooked beef, peppers, onions and cheese on a hoagie (also called a submarine, hero or grinder roll, depending on where you live). I began eating them when my eldest son was in school in Philadelphia. But now anyone can conveniently make them at home with these new steaks.
The Philly-Gourmet Steak box contains seven wafer-thin, all-beef sandwich steaks, ready to cook. Just heat a pan, add a frozen steak, and cook for 1 minute (45 seconds on one side, 15 on the other). Serve on the roll, with eggs, or in a pita. Now that's what I call a convenience food.
The nutritionals also aren't that bad. The meat for one sandwich contains 120 calories, with 10 of grams of fat, or about half as much as a small regular hamburger.
Carolyn: I got to fry these Philly-Gourmet Steaks while I was only about 10 minutes away from the two most famous cheesesteak restaurants in America: Geno's and Pat's, both of Philadelphia. The cheesesteaks served at either contain a lot more meat than the one thin slice that Philly-Gourmet tells you to use. You really need at least two per roll (most people would want three to four).
On the other hand, before Philly-Gourmet, I had no idea that making a cheesesteak sandwich could be this easy, fast and (comparatively) cheap. That's even accounting for the time and trouble of cutting up and frying peppers and onions that are as essential to this sandwich as the meat and cheese.
In short, when word gets out about how great Philly-Gourmet is, even Philadelphians might not want to bother making the trip to Geno's or Pat's.
Nabisco Cookie Barz. Oreo, and Chips Ahoy! $2.99 per 7.8-ounce box or 69 cents per 1.23-ounce single-serve bar.
Bonnie: Why, oh why would anyone want to eat these dry cookie bars? One provides 180 calories, 10 grams of fat, lots of sugar and little of the appeal of their namesakes. The Oreo Cookie Barz tastes more like an Oreo than the Chips Ahoy! tastes like a Chips Ahoy!, but both are still pretty tasteless.
If you have to indulge, I recommend two Oreos or Chips Ahoy! cookies with a tall glass of milk. You'll save fat and calories and will enjoy it much more.
Carolyn: If Chips Ahoy! and Oreo had begun their commercial lives as candy bars, what would they be? More indulgent and portable and less messy than cookies.
That would appear to be Nabisco's aspirations for these new Cookie Barz. Each has a cookie base covered in chocolate that's decorated with chocolate chips or Oreo bits, which makes them look like porcupines. Both bars are decadent and transportable, but only the Chips Ahoy! is easier for on-the-go snacking than cookies.
Much of the Oreo Barz crumb decor falls on the floor upon opening and makes a big mess. This should make them barz non grata with school janitors. The misspelling of "bars" will make these equally unpopular with teachers. Everyone else will find these similar to a fudge-covered Oreo.
Barbara Bakery Honey Rice Puffins Cereal. $4.09 per 12-ounce box.
Bonnie: Puffins are both a cereal and a bird. The cereal is all natural, made without hydrogenated oils, artificial flavors, colors or preservatives; the sea bird's about a foot tall and lives off the coast of Maine.
Both are expanding in numbers. The latest addition to the Puffins cereal colony is Honey Rice, a lightly sweetened low-fat cereal that's also appropriate for those who can't tolerate wheat or gluten. My only minor grumble is its modest 2 grams of fiber compared to the Original (5 grams of fiber) and Cinnamon (6 grams) Puffins.
Purchasing any one of the Puffins cereals can also help the puffin bird population proliferate. That's because Barbara's has agreed to adopt one puffin through the Audubon Society's adopt-a-puffin program for every 250 Puffin cereal boxtops sent in by consumers. For details, check out www.barbarasbakery.com.
Carolyn: Honey Rice Puffins are feather-light crunchy pillows of sweetened rice. Although they're supposedly made with 100 percent natural ingredients, their form is like nothing I've ever seen in a cereal. Think shredded wheat without the layers. That's the closest of several not-very-close analogies.
For a natural cereal, Honey Rice Puffins is also surprisingly sweet. Barbara's has followed in the great tradition of cereal marketing campaigns by having an animal mascot. Befitting a natural foods company, it is no cartoon but a realistic drawing of a puffin (presumably because of the cereal's "puffed up" form). Honey Rice Puffins taste OK, but give me the loudmouthed Tony the Tiger over these dignified but dull spokesbirds any day.
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