Nonni's Tusconi. Classico, Cioccolato, Raspberry Cioccolato, and Double Cioccolato. $2.99 per 7.4-ounce box.
Bonnie: Nonni's is best-known for its packaged biscotti. Its new Tusconi are soft-baked, not hard and crisp, like traditional biscotti. Think of them more as a pre-packaged flattened cake and not something you'd dip into your coffee.
I much prefer the texture, distinct flavor, ingredients and nutritional profile of Nonni's traditional biscotti over these. For instance, Nonni's Biscotti are sweetened with sugar; these Tusconi have sugar plus high-fructose corn syrup.
Nonni's Biscotti also contain only 100 calories and 4 grams of fat, compared to Tusconi's 150 calories and 9 grams of fat. This is a perfect example of when you shouldn't mess with perfection.
Carolyn: Biscotti that isn't hard makes about as much sense as a dessert that isn't sweet: It's this Italian cookie's main characteristic, and the main reason people who don't like the sensation of biting into a rock, me included, never buy biscotti.
That's who these new Tusconis are for. Though featuring similar flavors and ingredients as traditional biscotti (almond, raspberry, really excellent dark chocolate candy), these are square instead of elongated, and offer zero teeth resistance.
I wouldn't have minded some biscotti with the moderate hardness of a Chips Ahoy! But instead, Nonni's has gone all the way to cake. Like regular Nonni's and other biscotti, these Tusconis are individually wrapped in plastic. But given their softness, the wrapping makes the Tusconis seem more processed and less fresh (although this could partly be my association with coffee-shop bakery treats that are Saran-Wrapped for longer shelf life).
This is particularly true of the Double Cioccolato variety, which I don't recommend. The others are all worth a try, although certainly not better or more gourmet than a couple of equally tooth-filling-friendly Pepperidge Farm Double Chocolate Milano cookies.
Campbell's Select Harvest Mediterranean Style Soups. Chicken Tuscany, Zesty Tomato Bisque, Savory Sausage and Vegetables, Light Roasted Chicken With Italian Herbs, and Light Minestrone With Whole Grain Pasta. $2.39 per 18.6-ounce can.
Bonnie: Campbell's has reformulated its entire Select Harvest line of soups, while introducing these five new Mediterranean-style varieties. These soups are now 100 percent all-natural, defined by the USDA as foods without artificial flavors, color preservatives or synthetic ingredients.
The five new ones serve up between 80 and 120 calories, 0.5 to 3 grams of fat (with no trans fats), 480 milligrams of sodium and 2 to 4 grams of fiber per cupful, with 2 cups in a can. Each is a good nutritional selection.
Tomato Bisque is my favorite of the new ones; I like its zesty flavor and chunkiness. I liked the Chicken Tuscany and the Light Roasted Chicken With Italian Herbs the least; the chicken in both and the beans in the Tuscany were tough.
Some people will think these soups aren't salty enough, but you can get used to that just as many Americans have gotten used to drinking lower-fat milk. These soups — perhaps with two dashes of added table salt the first time you try them, one dash the second — would be a good place to start.
Carolyn: Campbell's goals for these new soups included being all-natural, incorporating healthful Mediterranean ingredients and, in the case of the two light ones, keeping the calories and sodium down. No wonder they aren't all that enjoyable.
The two Light ones are, not surprisingly, the most watery and least filling. The biggest flavor in the Chicken With Italian Herbs is not herbs but cheese; in the Minestrone, it's spinach.
The Savory Sausage and Vegetables and the Chicken Tuscany are the least like prescriptions — although the former seems more New Orleanian than Mediterranean. The beany-thymey Chicken Tuscany is the one most worth trying.
Fisher Fusions Snack Mix. Cinnamon Roll, Energy Blend, and Ice Cream Sundae. $3.50 per 4.75-ounce to 5.25-ounce resealable pouch.
Bonnie: Fisher Fusions' new Cinnamon Roll and Ice Cream Sundae snack mixes are both cloyingly sweet. No wonder, considering that the Ice Cream Sundae (chocolate-coated peanuts, dried sweetened pineapple and strawberries, dried banana chips, and coated marshmallow) delivers 20 grams of sugar per one-third cup serving and the Cinnamon Roll (cinnamon pecans, cinnamon cookies and yogurt-covered raisins), 22 grams. Both ingredient lists are long enough to require a magnifying glass.
By contrast, the Energy Blend is near perfection. It's a yummy blend of dried cranberries, almonds and cashews sprinkled ever so lightly with salt and containing a modest 8 grams of sugar. Not only is this much better for you than these other two new Fusions, it also bests most other foods or drinks with energy in their names.
Carolyn: I've long been fascinated by food products that reimagines favorite tastes in different forms. To my way of thinking, apple pie ice cream, cheesesteak potato chips and French toast cereal represent food technology at its height. That's why I was jazzed about trying at least two of these new Fisher Nut Fusions.
Getting cinnamon roll fans to eat a more portable and nutritious nut-based snack mix for breakfast is a promising idea felled by too many intensely sweet ingredients, poor-quality cinnamon cookies and this mix's unappetizing visual similarity to dog food.
The Ice Cream Sundae variety is an attempt to satisfy a sundae craving when no freezer is readily available. It might more accurately be called Banana Split, since its ingredients include dried bananas, pineapple and strawberries, and marshmallows (which actually taste more like the freeze-dried ice cream served to the astronauts and sold at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History's gift shop). It's better than the Cinnamon Roll, though also too sweet.
The Energy Blend is just Fisher's take on your standard trail mix. Though tasty, it is hardly worth talking about.
Bonnie Tandy Leblang is a registered dietitian and professional speaker. She has an interactive site (www.biteofthebest.com) about products she recommends. Follow her on Twitter: BonnieBOTB. Carolyn Wyman is a junk-food fanatic and author of "The Great Philly Cheesesteak Book" (Running Press). Each week they critique three new food items. © UNIVERSAL UCLICK