Scrambled what?

Mr. Tidbit's regular readers probably are aware that, because food preferences truly are a matter of taste, he seldom says how much he likes or dislikes any of the new food products he mentions. (Mr. Tidbit's irregular readers are directed to Activia yogurt, now available in five versions — including, of course, both a Greek version and a Greek light version.)

But Mr. Tidbit must abandon his neutrality in discussing the new line of four Good Mornings 60-second microwave breakfasts, part of Hormel's Compleats collection of shelf-stable meals. Mr. Tidbit can see the virtues of shelf-stable products over frozen — you can keep them in the pantry or a desk drawer, and they're quick to heat — and he congratulates Hormel for attempting to produce a shelf-stable product that includes scrambled eggs.

But he cannot suggest that you buy the Good Mornings Bacon Breakfast Scramble, which he tried recently. It's described as "scrambled eggs, roasted potatoes and bacon." Had it been served to him without description, he would have been hard-pressed to identify the material that agglutinated around the potatoes and bits of bacon. It wasn't very pleasant. He did not try the Sausage Breakfast Scramble (the other one with eggs); he suspects it has the same problem.

It's not all bad news: The Good Mornings Sausage Gravy & Roasted Potatoes consists of quite acceptable sausage gravy and potatoes. Mr. Tidbit didn't try the Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal. Another time.

Trying to be fair about the eggs, Mr. Tidbit compared a similar item from the freezer case, Aunt Jemima's Sausage and Egg Scramble ("seasoned roasted potatoes, sausage, eggs, imitation Cheddar blend, peppers and onions"). It's similarly priced and about the same serving size as the Hormel item. There wasn't as much scrambled egg, but it was obviously scrambled egg, and pretty good. It takes three minutes in the microwave.

Mr. Tidbit considers those extra two minutes to be among the best investments of time he has ever made.

Heat-N-Pay

Pillsbury introduces single-serve bags of Heat-N-Go frozen microwave mini pancakes and mini waffles. At 94 cents per bag at one discount store, both are almost twice the per-ounce price of the larger boxes of Eggo minis.

Al Sicherman