Pillsbury Simply Cookies. Chocolate Chip, and Peanut Butter. $3.49 per 14-ounce package yielding 12 cookies.
Bonnie: "Simple ingredients make simply delicious cookies," spouts the press materials that came with the Simply Cookies samples.
Pillsbury started selling refrigerated cookie dough in 1957. Did it really take this long to realize that cookies made with wholesome ingredients such as flour, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla are delicious? I don't think so.
I think Pillsbury realizes there's a large untapped market of people like me who prefer clean labels, meaning food without the hydrogenated fats, artificial flavors, artificial colors and preservatives in other Pillsbury cookie dough products. Pillsbury Simply Cookies is proof that a commercial cookie product can be made without them.
Simply Cookies are, in fact, delicious. I look forward to the day when simple-ingredient cookies are the only kind Pillsbury sells.
Carolyn: Pillsbury says it created Simply Cookies for moms who are looking for foods that contain simple "ingredients they recognize," meaning no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. Pillsbury did not create them for people who have an issue with refrigerator dough's telltale aftertaste, like me. Nevertheless, cleaning up these cookies' ingredient lists has also happily eliminated the aftertaste.
This is not to say that both cookies taste great. Pillsbury apparently did not change its usual chocolate chip cookie recipe to make these. That means these new Simply Chocolate Chip Cookies, like Pillsbury's old refrigerated Chocolate Chip Cookie dough, taste more of white than of brown sugar and do not contain enough chocolate chips (as good as the semisweet ones here may be). The result is something that looks and tastes a lot like the big, flat chocolate chip cookies baked and sold in supermarket bakeries. In other words, they're good but not great.
The Peanut Butter is a different story. Their flat appearance is the only tip-off to their industrial origins. The taste and texture are that close to homemade.
TrueNorth Natural Nut Snacks. Almond Cranberry Crisps, Citrus Burst Nut Clusters, and Apple Cinnamon Nut Clusters. $3.29 per 4-ounce or 5-ounce bag.
Bonnie: I was pretty impressed with TrueNorth's original all-natural nut snacks. But as with many line extensions, these new TrueNorth varieties aren't as good. Nutritionally, they're all fine, but the Almond Cranberry Crisps are bland, and the Citrus Burst and the Apple Cinnamon Nut Clusters too sticky.
That's why I'm "sticking" to TrueNorth's original nut clusters.
Carolyn: TrueNorth has just added fruit flavors to the natural nut snacks it introduced in 2008. Orange peel is a real presence in the Citrus Burst; the apple cinnamon flavors of the Apple Cinnamon, less so. The apple variety is also not as sweet and is harder on the teeth.
I continue to be puzzled by the appeal and continued existence of nut crisps (i.e., crackers), which don't taste like the nuts they're supposedly made of and don't have enough of the salt that makes other crackers addictive. I'm with Bonnie on TrueNorth's new Almond Cranberry Crisps: The dried cranberries don't add enough flavor to be worth the hassle of having to pick them out of your teeth.
Caesar's Gluten-Free Pasta. Stuffed Shells, Manicotti, Cheese Lasagna, and Vegetable Lasagna. $4.99 to $5.49 per 11-ounce or 11.5-ounce frozen entree.
Bonnie: Until a publicist reached out to me sharing news of these four gluten-free Italian-style frozen entrees made with rice noodles, I had never heard of Caesar's line of foods. But with so many people being diagnosed with celiac disease each year, I thought it would be a good idea to try them. I'm so glad I did.
These new frozen entrees are good-tasting, with tender rice-pasta and flavorful cheese fillings. The tomato sauce wasn't seasoned to my liking but is perfectly fine. The line claims to be all-natural and to contain no trans fats and no WBRO, a new an acronym to me. It means no wheat, barley, rye or oats.
Like their regular Italian pasta counterparts, these entrees are all quite hefty in calories, fat and sodium, ranging from 370 to 520 calories, 13 to 18 grams of total fat (of which 6 to 9 are saturated), and 520 to 640 milligrams of sodium. That said, I still recommend these highly as an occasional indulgence for anyone, especially for those celiac sufferers who can't walk into most Italian restaurants and order pasta. For them, these will be a huge treat.
Carolyn: The only rice pasta I've eaten before these new Caesar's Gluten-Free frozen entrees were in Asian dishes. And they didn't taste like Ronzoni or as good to my Western palate. So I was impressed with Caesar's ability to make these taste like conventional pasta. The quality (and also the bad nutritionals!) of the accompanying sauce, cheese and veggies could be part of the trick. Although all four are good, the carrot- and spinach-filled Vegetable Lasagna is the most interesting.
Like Bonnie, this was my first taste of Caesar's products. Based on these, I'll definitely be checking out its conventional offerings.
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