Pillsbury Nut Toppers Ready-To-Spread Frostings. Vanilla Almond, and Chocolate Walnut. $1.69 per 15.6-ounce canister.
Bonnie: These two new frostings are the first to feature nutritious nuts, in lieu of candy, in their dome lids. The candied sprinkles added more sugar and were sort of the "icing" on the frosting. Nuts, on the other hand, are not only flavorful but packed full of nutrition, carrying a lot of nutrients in relation to calories. (Dietitians call that nutrient-dense.)
Pillsbury's chocolate frosting includes minced Blue Diamond walnuts; the vanilla has Blue Diamond chopped almonds. It's nice to see a food company offer a more nutritious way to add a personal touch to your frosted desserts.
Carolyn: These nuts packaged with these frostings could work as a cake decoration for a not-too-festive occasion. But don't count on them to stand in for nuts you might, say, add to a brownie mix. These won't be enough.
Skippy Squeeze. Squeez' It, and Creamy Peanut Butter, and Creamy Peanut & Chocolate Squeeze Stix Snacks. $2.39 per 9-ounce Squeez' It tube, or 5.3-ounce box of six Squeeze Stix tubes.
Bonnie: Skippy Squeez' It is one of those products you look at and wonder why someone hadn't thought of before. Squeez' It is a big tube that lets you squeeze peanut butter onto bread, crackers, your finger or just into your mouth. It's a winner, one that all ages of kids would love (including adults, of course).
At the same time, Skippy is introducing peanut butter packaged in snack-size, single-serve tubes. It's the first tube snack that won't drip all over your kids' clothing on the first squeeze. Whether chocolate or plain, each is a nutritious, satisfying snack you can feel good about giving your kids. (The chocolate contains less fat and protein, and a teaspoon more sugar for the same 140 calories per tube.) Just be sure to pack along an aseptic container of equally nutritious milk to help wash it down.
Carolyn: Who hasn't ever quelled a growling stomach by sticking a finger or spoon into a jar of peanut butter? Skippy Squeeze Stix makes peanut butter just as convenient to snack on at school or work. Squeeze Stix are tubes of plain or chocolate-flavored peanut butter meant to be squeezed directly into the mouth (no cracker or bread platforms in sight).
Peanut butter's thick consistency is much better suited to these snack-tube dispensers than the yogurt, pudding and apple sauce that are also packaged in tubes. It's hard NOT to make a mess with those, while it's possible to dispense peanut butter from these tubes with one hand.
Squeez' It, on the other hand, is (nearly) a jar amount of goober spread in a squeeze tube of the type formerly used mainly for skin creams and hair gel. It makes it even easier than it was before to put a little bit of peanut butter on ice cream, cookies, crackers — in short, anything and everything.
But if you let a little thing like picking up a knife stop you from eating peanut butter, how much of a fan could you be?
Morningstar Farms Parmesan Ranch Chix Patties. $3.99 per 10-ounce box containing four frozen patties.
Bonnie: In recent years, vegetarian burgers have improved so much that I actually enjoy eating them. In fact when I'm on the road and have to eat in a restaurant I'm not sure about, I'll always order a veggie burger instead of a real meat one. But I would never order one of these Parmesan Ranch veggie Chix Patties.
These taste much too much like soy rather than chicken and have a peculiar aftertaste, probably from the incredibly long ingredient list (28 lines!) that includes lots of additives.
Parmesan Ranch Chix Patties do contain 41 percent less fat than breaded chicken patties, but 50 percent more fat than a grilled or roasted chicken breast. That's what I'd select and suggest to anyone else who's not a strict vegetarian. Vegetarians should look elsewhere.
Carolyn: Even the best-tasting soy chicken patties don't taste like much. That's why Morningstar Farms was smart to add cheese and spices to theirs. The cheese gives these new Parmesan Ranch patties richness, and the ranch spices provide a zing more characteristic of Latin foods than Italian.
This is also one of the few products perfectly suited to Heinz Zesty Garlic Ketchup Kick'r. Too bad Heinz stopped making it.
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