Breyers YoCrunch 100 Calorie Pack. Strawberry Yogurt With Granola, Cheesecake Yogurt With Graham Cracker Crust, Vanilla Yogurt With Chocolate Chip Cookie Pieces, and Vanilla Yogurt With Nestle Crunch. $3.19 per package of four 3.75-ounce cups.
Bonnie: For more than five years now, 100-calorie packs have flooded the cookies, chips and candy aisles, but YoCrunch is the first 100-calorie yogurt.
Each YoCrunch contains a small cup (about 3.5 ounces) of yogurt with some sugary and, of course, crunchy topping. How does Breyers keep all this to 100 calories? By sweetening the yogurt with a blend of sugar and erythritol, a sugar alcohol.
Erythritol is a natural sugar substitute that's less sweet than sugar, does not affect blood sugar levels or cause tooth decay, and is easily absorbed in the small intestine. That makes it a better choice than other sugar alcohols such as xylitol or sorbitol, used in hard candy and chewing gums. Those are not as readily absorbed, and overconsumption thus can cause gastric distress.
I prefer to eat yogurt for breakfast or a snack, and I don't like mine too sweet. But if you like your yogurt sweet and crunchy, you might give these a try.
Carolyn: Breyers and Bonnie(!) are touting these as America's first 100-calorie yogurt, but that's only technically true. Diet yogurts with 60, 90 and 110 calories have been around for years. YoCrunch 100 Calorie Packs are just the first to hit the market and boast of those magic three digits and include a candy or cookie topping.
I've always liked the taste and textural contrast that toppings like granola lend to yogurt. Topped yogurts are also more filling and take longer to eat, both important to weight watchers who buy 100-calorie products.
I like the strawberry yogurt with granola the best. It's essentially a downsizing of a YoCrunch yogurt that's been on the market for years, so it's not all that innovative. I could barely taste the cheesecake flavor in that variety, and I see the chocolate-chip-cookie yogurt's cookie "pieces" as a way for some cookie maker to literally and figuratively clean up on its factory cookie crumbs.
Aunt Jemima Frozen Breakfast. Ham & Egg Scramble, Sausage & Egg Scramble, and Blueberry Pancakes. $2 to $2.59 per 6.8-ounce Scramble or 14.8-ounce box of 12 pancakes.
Bonnie: This new group of frozen breakfast items from Aunt Jemima almost drove me back under the covers. I first tried the ham P& egg scramble with its unappetizing-looking DayGlo orange oily cheese blend. The flavor matched the look. The roasted potatoes (scramble's primary ingredient) contain about a dozen ingredients, mostly ones you wouldn't normally find in a kitchen cabinet. Same with the "scrambled-egg product" and the "cheddar-cheese blend," although at least eggs are the first ingredient in the former: Water is No. 1 in the latter!
The Blueberry Pancakes are no better. Their blueberries are actually "blueberry bits" made from sugar, dextrose, soy protein, soybean oils with TBHQ, dried blueberries, natural flavor, cellulose gum, citric acid, salt and artificial colors. Sound yummy?
Skip these truly chemical concoctions and reach for a simple poached or hard-cooked egg or plain pancakes.
Carolyn: These new Aunt Jemima Breakfast Scramble entrees seem to have offended Bonnie's sensibilities. I am not so easily frightened: In fact, I was raised on orange cheese! I also don't have time or interest in making myself an egg, sausage and hash brown breakfast most mornings. I'm very happy to let Aunt Jemima do it for me, especially when her sausage is so delightfully spicy and when the overall dish is so nutritionally reasonable and non-greasy (although I agree with Bonnie that these scrambles could use more eggs and fewer potatoes).
On the other hand, Aunt Jemima's new blueberry pancakes are kind of fake-tasting and not at all unique. You'd be better off microwaving Aunt J's plain or buttermilk frozen pancakes and topping them with your favorite fruit.
Northland 100 Percent Dark Fruit Juice Blends Plus. Pomegranate Blueberry and Pomegranate Cherry. $3.14 to $4.11 per 64-ounce bottle.
Bonnie: These new juices from Northland are 100 percent juice. But don't let their names fool you into thinking either of these is 100 percent pomegranate and cherry or blueberry juice. Both contain more apple and pear juice concentrates than either of their namesakes. They've also both been fortified with lots of vitamins and minerals. Both are OK thirst quenchers. But I'd recommend diluting the 26 grams of sugar per 8-ounce glass with some sparkling water.
Carolyn: The POM juice company recently filed lawsuits against juice-maker competitors Welch's, Ocean Spray and Tropicana. It's easy to understand why. Through its national advertising campaigns, POM pretty much created the pomegranate-juice market, only to see its sales now being threatened by better-tasting pomegranate-juice blends by bigger companies. These two new vitamin-fortified offerings from Northland are the latest case in point.
Where 100 percent pomegranate juice POM Wonderful is thick and acidic, these are delicious and drinkably light. That's probably because apple is the primary ingredient, rather than the named pomegranate, cherry or blueberry. The pomegranate cherry tastes mostly of cherry, while the darker looking and slightly thicker pomegranate blueberry tastes more of generic berry. Either could make a nice change of pace to your morning OJ, for no more calories.
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).
© Universal Press Syndicate