Sipahh Milk Flavoring Straw. Strawberry, Banana, Cookies and Cream, and Chocolate. $2.99 per box of 10 .1-ounce straws. Also available in four-pack.
Bonnie: Instead of adding bottled syrup to milk to get your kids to drink it, you could give them one of these new Sipahh straws instead. Stick one of these straws in an 8-ounce glass or a container of milk and sip, and the milk takes on the flavor indicated on the straw.
But is Sipahh better than syrup? Not in my opinion. Each straw adds only 15 calories but contains lots of ingredients I wouldn't recommend for kids or, for that matter, anyone, including artificial sweeteners, coloring and flavors.
Carolyn: Sipahh is nothing less than food technology's most important contribution to kids' drinking since juice packs.
What are Sipahhs? They're flavor beads trapped between two filters inside a plastic straw that flavors the milk when sucked on. In other words, it's a less messy and more fun way to flavor milk than bottles of syrup that take up space in your refrigerator.
It's also likely less sinful since the amount of flavoring and sugar in each straw is probably less than most kids would squirt or pour in — but still enough to be satisfying. (Hint to those who want an occasional stronger flavor hit: Pull the straw just above the surface of the milk after filling the straw with milk and then suck strongly.)
Like bottled syrups but unlike flavored milk in cartons, Sipahhs allow the members of your family who like or need flavored milk and those who prefer it straight to pour from the same carton (thus saving on money and expiration-date concerns).
My only complaint is that Sipahhs don't yet come in variety packs to combat flavor boredom and/or satisfy siblings' different flavor preferences. In general, though, these are great.
South Beach Diet Chicken Salad Kits. Santa Fe Style, and Cranberry Walnut. $3.29 per 6-ounce to 6.8-ounce box.
Bonnie: Odd is the word for these high-protein salad kits. The Santa Fe Style features seasoned chicken, low-fat cheese, dressing, pita chips and a plastic container to mix these ingredients in — as well as sugar-free Jell-O and a spoon. I shook the box futilely looking for a fork to eat the chicken mixture with, and then went to the fridge for arugula (so needed as a base). I skipped the Jell-O, with its artificial sweeteners (which I hate), and the dry and tasteless pita chips.
The Cranberry Walnut was even worse! Who would enjoy eating a bowl of processed chicken, walnuts and cranberries with mayonnaise but no greens?
A serving of either is low in calories (240 to 290), high in protein (24 to 29 grams), decent in fiber (6 to 7 grams), but high in sodium (800 to 850) and low in satisfaction. That's why I'd leave these at the store.
Carolyn: South Beach is getting on the refrigerated salad kit train. Being South Beach, it's heavy on the protein (chicken, cheese and nuts) and light on carbs (like rice and pasta). Like most good salads, these are an interesting mix of tastes and textures, particularly the Cranberry Walnut. The Santa Fe Style also contains meat, crispy chips and sauce — all so spicy as to taste the same. Both kits would be even more interesting with some kind of greens — I agree, Bonnie. And both would be great to take aboard a plane, sans Jell-O, which I fear airport screeners would view to be as great a threat to national security as my recently confiscated yogurt.
Guiltless Gourmet Dessert Bowls. Black Velvet Cake With Caramel Sauce, Hot Chocolate Brownie With Fudge Sauce, and Bananas Foster Cake With Caramel Sauce. $2.49 per 2-ounce bowl.
Bonnie: To me, Guiltless Gourmet means low-fat chips and dips — not bad ones, in fact. But I'm afraid that this move into the microwave dessert bowl category will do nothing to enhance Guiltless Gourmet's reputation. These are horrid.
I enlisted four friends to make and taste these with me. These are certainly simple to make (add water, mix and microwave), but they result in nothing any of us wanted to eat. In fact we left 90 percent of the desserts in the bowls. These are worth neither the 200 calories nor the $2.50! The folks at Guiltless should stick to the chips and dips they do much better.
Carolyn: Guiltless Gourmet Dessert Bowls are supposed to be less sinful but still delicious clones of Betty Crocker Warm Delights. You make and cook them in exactly the same way: Stir the mix and water in the supplied bowl, and microwave for 30 seconds.
The taste is quite similar to Betty Crocker Warm Delights cake — even the Guiltless Gourmet brownie dessert bowl, which appears to be Guiltless Gourmet's Black Velvet Cake with a different name and type of sauce. Moreover I would argue that the Guiltless Gourmet's 200 calories aren't all that guiltless. You can eat one regular and undeniably delicious Twinkie or two packaged cookies for fewer calories and with much greater satisfaction.
Betty Crocker's Hot Fudge Brownie and Fudgy Chocolate Chip Cookie Warm Delights are also richer and therefore more gourmet. Betty has cut down on her Warm Delights' admittedly high calories by offering some of the same desserts in smaller serving sizes. That is the better way.
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, and for more food info and chances to win free products, visit www.biteofthebest.com. © Universal Press Syndicate