Shedd's Country Crock Deluxe Side Dishes. Loaded Mashed Potatoes, Scalloped Potatoes, Cheddar Broccoli Rice and Elbow Macaroni & Cheese. $4.69 per 21-ounce to 23-ounce tub.
Bonnie: Skip this review if you, like me, like to cook and enjoy your side dishes sans unpronounceable additives. That said, I'll spare you processed food fans my usual tirade about the ingredients in Country Crock's new sides, and will focus instead on the Nutrition Facts.
Each tub serves up four two-thirds cup to 1 cup portions, with 200 to 370 calories and 11 or 17 grams of fat (5 to 8 of which are saturated), and 410 to 940 milligrams of sodium. The highest numbers all belong to the not-so-tasty Elbow Macaroni & Cheese, the lows to the more palatable Loaded Mashed Potatoes, which is the one of these I'd recommend to those who are still reading.
Carolyn: Country Crock Deluxe Side Dishes are an extension of a refrigerated side dish line Shedd's started back in 2004 that included plain, garlic and cheddar mashed potatoes. These "deluxe" dishes involve slightly more complicated recipes with more ingredients. (The mac and cheese was moved to this line simply because it has 10 percent more cheese than before, but all four contain cheese.)
The Scalloped Potatoes and Cheddar Broccoli Rice are both too soupy; the rice in the latter is firm to the point of being undercooked. This new improved mac and cheese is easier than Kraft's blue box but not noticeably better-tasting, and it's bested by any frozen version that bakes up with a crispy crust. (Ditto for the Scalloped Potatoes, although frozen versions of it are harder to find.)
That leaves the Loaded Mashed Potatoes, with its proper wallpaper-paste texture and interesting ingredients, as the only one I would also recommend, although not to anyone who likes her bacon crispy.
LifeStream Pie-Oh-My! Frozen Single-Serve Pie. Apple, Dark Cherry, Pineapple, and Wildberry. $2.29 per 3.5-ounce box.
Bonnie: LifeStream may be a health-food brand, but its new single-serve hand-held pies are not reduced in fat nor calories. Each provides about 285 calories and 11 grams of fat, of which 5 grams are saturated.
What is good are the ingredients. Seventy percent are organic, meaning no high-fructose corn syrup, no partially hydrogenated oils or anything artificial. And each pie contains two-thirds a serving of fruit and two of the three daily recommended servings of whole grains.
Carolyn: Bonnie implies that these individual fruit pies from LifeStream have some redeeming nutritional value, but you wouldn't know it from how they taste. They are at least as delicious as McDonald's and Hostess' single-serve pies — and better if you like your pie hot, as these are frozen ones designed to be heated in the oven or microwave. The fillings also sound more unusual and natural-foodie than they are. For instance, the Wildberry, which I expected to be filled with berry skins, instead seemed like standard snack pie jam (not that I'm complaining).
If Bonnie thinks Pie-Oh-My!'s nearly 300 calories and 11 grams of fat is a lot, she should take a look at Hostess' 480 calories and 22 grams of fat for something that is admittedly a quarter-size bigger but also costs less than half what LifeStream costs. (Could that price difference be the source of the shocked Oh-My! in the name?)
Kraft Grate-It-Fresh Parmesan Cheese. $4.99 per 7-ounce canister.
Bonnie: Kraft is now offering a fresh chunk of Parmesan in a canister that produces freshly grated cheese with just a twist of the cap. Of course that chunk is American Parmesan, which is no comparison in taste to Italy's pre-eminent Parmigiano Reggiano. But compared to that sawdust-tasting stuff that Kraft has long sold in its green cardboard cylinder, this is fabulous. In fact, for Kraft, this is a giant leap in quality.
I'd say if you're not buying the imported kind, give this a try on your steamed veggies, salads, soups, fish or chicken and, of course, pastas.
Carolyn: Kraft has taken the technology behind disposable spice graters and applied it to Parmesan cheese. Judging from this Parmesan grater, I'd say fresh grating does a lot more to freshen the taste of pepper and cloves than it does for Parmesan. The main difference between Grate-It-Fresh and Kraft's own lasts-forever grated is texture. Classic Kraft Parmesan is a powder; Grate-It-Fresh produces thin strips or strands — quite easily and effectively (though not as easily as Kraft's similar shakeable Shredded Parmesan).
But considering Grate-It-Fresh's likely upscale market of gourmands (or aspiring ones), I am surprised at the design of the Grate-It-Fresh container: a see-through style that should appeal mainly to engineers. Everyone else will want to hide it in the refrigerator immediately after grating.
Bonnie Tandy Leblang is a registered dietitian and professional speaker. Carolyn Wyman is a junk-food fanatic and author of "Better Than Homemade: Amazing Foods That Changed the Way We Eat" (Quirk). Each week they critique three new food items. For previous columns, visit www.supermarketsampler.com. © Universal Press Syndicate