SmartFood Popcorn Clusters. Honey Multigrain, Chocolate Cookie Caramel Pecan, and Cranberry Almond. $3.49 per 5-ounce box containing five individual-serving bags.
Bonnie: To me, SmartFood connotes a black bag of popcorn dusted with real cheddar cheese. Frito-Lay bought SmartFood from a Massachusetts company in the late '80s and until now hadn't strayed far from the original concept.
SmartFood Popcorn Clusters contain no cheese. Instead, they're single-serve clusters of sweetened popcorn, including cranberry almond, chocolate cookie caramel pecan, and multigrain sweetened with honey. My favorite is the cranberry almond, as I hardly tasted the chocolate in that eponymous one, and I found the multigrain bland and too sweet.
A 1-ounce serving provides 110 or 120 calories, 1 to 2 grams of total fat, a hefty 5 grams of fiber from added inulin, and 20 percent of the daily value of calcium from added calcium carbonate — or decent nutrition for a snack.
Carolyn: SmartFood owner Frito-Lay puts two of its great brands together in these new SmartFood Popcorn Clusters: SmartFood and Cracker Jack.
SmartFood is gourmet cheese popcorn; Cracker Jack is blue-collar caramel-coated popcorn and peanuts. SmartFood Popcorn Clusters is caramel-coated popcorn with added gourmet and healthy ingredients such as chocolate cookies, pecans, cranberries, almonds, brown-rice syrup, chicory root and calcium. They also come in calorie-controlling individual 110- to 120-calorie bags.
The problem is how few gourmet almonds, pecans, cookies and fruit are in these and therefore how little you can taste them. Frankly, I remember being much more excited about finding the caramel-coated peanuts in Cracker Jack boxes (an experience that also seemed to come up much more often).
In short, SmartFood Popcorn Clusters are the caramel popcorn equivalent of ice cream with not enough mix-ins.
Ragu Old World Style Pasta Sauces. Sweet Tomato Basil, and Margherita. $2.34 per 26-ounce jar.
Bonnie: Ragu recently added sweet tomato basil and Margherita varieties to its Ragu Old World Style sauce line. These contain no artificial additives or preservatives.
Both are decent choices nutritionally, with 60 to 70 calories, 1.5 to 2 grams of total fat, 3 grams of fiber and an acceptable 410 milligrams of sodium per half-cup serving. Each serving also contains more than a full cup of veggies and is a good source of vitamin A.
These are not the only pasta sauces with good nutritionals. Many store and brand-name sauces are just as good, including Classico Tomato Basil, Muir Glen Fire-Roasted Tomato and Prego Tomato Basil & Garlic. In this economy, I'd suggest buying the least expensive, best-tasting sauce that fits this nutritional profile.
Carolyn: Ragu is going back to the future with these two new flavors of its original Old Style sauce in old-fashioned jars.
Why should be obvious: In a recession, parents are looking for foods that are simple, cheap, nutritious and will please the whole family. This new Margherita sauce certainly fits that prescription, with its smooth taste and texture, thanks in part to its blend of three cheeses. Although fine for adults, the also-new Sweet Tomato Basil has a basil bite that I doubt kids will like.
What's the difference between Ragu's already existing Old World original Traditional and Marinara varieties and these?
The traditional is sweeter; the marinara has tomato chunks.
V8 V-Fusion Juice Blends. Goji Raspberry, and Passionfruit Tangerine. $1.69 per 12-ounce or $3.99 per 46-ounce bottle.
Bonnie: Like the other V8 V-Fusions, these new flavors are nutritional powerhouses. Both the goji raspberry and passionfruit tangerine varieties are 100 percent juice, a combination of both fruit and vegetable juices, with an 8-ounce glass providing a full serving of vegetables and a full serving of fruit. That serving contains 110 calories and is naturally loaded with antioxidant vitamins A, C and E (15 percent, 100 percent and 10 percent, respectively).
But, I'm sure you're asking yourself, what about taste?
They're not particularly to my liking — although I preferred the goji raspberry to the passionfruit tangerine. Both taste better over ice and are best diluted half and half with carbonated water (aka seltzer or club soda).
Carolyn: Vegetable juice isn't for everyone. But what if you could camouflage the vegetable juice with some great-tasting fruit juice? That's the challenge V8 food scientists set out for themselves when they created 100 percent juice blend line V8 Fusion.
In the case of this new goji raspberry flavor, they succeeded. Although sweet potatoes and carrots are No. 1 and 2 on the ingredient list, berry is the dominant taste.
But the passionfruit tangerine tastes mainly of its vegetable ingredients. I could've had regular old V8, thought my advertising-fried brain, but what I really wanted was something that tasted like passionfruit and tangerines.
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 Press Syndicate