Marie Callender's Pasta al Dente, Cavatappi Genovese, Rigatoni con Pesce, Tortellini Romano, Fettucini Chicken Balsamico, Rigatoni Marinara Classico, and Penne Chicken Modesto. $3.49 per 10-ounce to 11-ounce frozen bowl.
Bonnie: These new Marie Callender's frozen pasta meals are cooked in a two-compartment plastic basket just like ConAgra sister brand Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers. One steaming basket holds the pasta, the other the sauce. Once you cook them, you combine the two for fresher-tasting reheated food.
But Pasta al Dente is far from a Healthy Choice when it comes to fat and sodium. Quite the contrary. One pasta meal contains a reasonable 340 to 460 calories. But they also contain between 12 and 24 grams of total fat, of which 4 to 9 are saturated, and up to a whopping 1,230 milligrams of sodium, or half a day's limit.
Skip these if you're on any kind of diet. And anyone who tries them should be sure to limit her fat and sodium the rest of the day.
Carolyn: The most famous name in frozen American-style comfort food has just branched out into America's most popular ethnic comfort food: Italian. The look and taste of the new Pasta al Dente line is actually more upscale than regular Marie Callender's, and the calories are better. These have 350 to 500 calories per meal versus Marie's usual, over-the-top 600 to 900. Think of these as like Olive Garden takeout or Bertolli frozen bagged skillet meals for two — minus one serving and the skillet cooking hassle and mess. The Tortellini Romano reminded me of refrigerated Contadina or Buitoni.
Upscale ingredients never seen in regular Marie's include Penne Chicken Modesto's artichokes and Rigatoni con Pesce's lobster cream sauce. Pasta al Dente's flavors also shout, like the garlic and the hot sausage in the Rigatoni Marinara Classico, which contrasts nicely with that dish's sweet marinara sauce. The Rigatoni also contains meatballs, which, amazingly in this day of scrimp-and-save, add up to almost too much meat.
Most of these dishes also contain too much sauce. And given the way they're microwaved (in plastic steamer baskets a la Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers), the only way to use less sauce is to spoon some out before mixing it with the meat and pasta. In other words, it requires both forethought and restraint.
I still heartily recommend all but the Fettuccini Chicken Balsamico, which is dry, way too salty and nowhere near as tasty as the similar Cafe Steamers Chicken Margherita.
Uncle Ben's Whole Grain Boil-in-Bag Brown Rice. $2.59 per 14-ounce box containing four 2-cup bags.
Bonnie: I prefer brown to white rice, as this whole grain is more naturally nutritious and, with its nutty flavor, delicious. Brown rice's main drawback is the 45 to 50 minutes it takes to prepare.
So I was thrilled when Uncle Ben's introduced Whole Grain Ready Rice a couple of years ago. That's brown rice ready in just 90 seconds. I wondered if I'd like this boil-in-bag as much. Not really. It's just OK. It doesn't have as chewy a texture and as nutty a flavor as Ready Rice. But one serving does contain all three of the recommended whole-grain servings in just a one-cup portion and costs only 32 cents compared to Ready Rice's 80 cents.
If you have the time and need to save money, try this. Otherwise, reach for Ready Rice.
Carolyn: Like Bonnie, I too like Uncle Ben's precooked Ready Rice in a pouch. That's how it came to win our joint Golden Shopping Cart award for best new product of 2004.
So why would Uncle Ben's now be debuting a new brown rice that requires a pan of boiling water and seven times as long to cook?
"It's the economy, stupid," as Bill Clinton famously said (and that was when the economy was in a lot better shape than now). Ready Rice costs about 20 cents per single cooked ounce, or a lot. This Uncle Ben's brown rice is considerably cheaper. And because it's made with instant rice and pre-measured in pouches, it's faster and easier than cooking regular brown rice — if not quite as authentic-tasting and convenient as our beloved Ready Rice.
Rachel's Cottage Cheese. Cucumber Dill, Roasted Red Pepper, Sun Dried Tomato Pesto, Pomegranate Orange Cranberry, Lemon Verbena Berry and Pear Mangosteen. $1.49 per 5-ounce cup.
Bonnie: I'm a cottage cheese lover. I like mine mixed with either fresh or frozen fruit. That makes a delicious, nutritious breakfast or light lunch, with some whole grain toast. So I was quite interested in trying these new single-serving cups of flavored cottage cheese from Rachel's. Half the flavors in this line are sweet, which I prefer, while the others are savory.
Nutritionally, these are winners, with about 130 calories, 2 grams of fat and 280 to 540 milligrams of sodium. As with yogurt, these are an excellent source of calcium, but with 50 percent to 75 percent less sugar per serving than sweetened yogurt. Rachel's contains only 4 to 11 grams of sugar, with the savory varieties having the least sugar and the most sodium.
These cottage cheese cups also have no artificial sweeteners, no high-fructose corn syrup, no preservatives, and no artificial colors or flavors. Although I like the texture and flavor of my own blend of fruit and cottage cheese better, I do recommend these for a quick snack.
Carolyn: I am first and foremost a junk foodie. But as with most people who love food, my taste has expanded over time to where I now can eat yogurt and oatmeal with regularity. But I draw the line at cottage cheese. No amount of gourmetization and naturalization such as Rachel's is doing here is going to change that.
In fact, using no artificial colors is a big problem when the fruit you add naturally looks like dirt (as in Rachel's Lemon Verbena Berry flavor). Yes, this is the worst-looking version of one of the world's worst-looking foods. And the taste wasn't much better. Even the best of Rachel's sweet varieties (such as the Pear Mangosteen) were only slightly fruity; all need lots more sugar.
Surprisingly, I liked Rachel's savory flavors better. They came through much stronger and seemed more suited to the already salty cottage cheese.
Eaten with a bag of Frito-Lay's 100 calorie Mini Bite chips, Rachel's could make a change-of-pace appetizer or snack for people who like cottage cheese (i.e., perhaps you, but definitely not me).
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 "Better Than Homemade: Amazing Foods That Changed the Way We Eat" (Quirk). Each week they critique three new food items.
© Universal Press Syndicate