Not as Healthy Choice

Just about a year ago, Mr. Tidbit mentioned the then-new Healthy Choice Fresh Mixers, a ConAgra venture into shelf-stable entrees (stored at room temperature, not in the refrigerator or freezer). To prepare one of them you unpack the components, add water to the part with the rice or pasta, cover and microwave for several minutes, then microwave the sauce for 30 seconds, then mix the two. That's a fair amount of fuss, he noted, but a substantial amount of food for the money.

Mr. Tidbit was surprised recently to see a very similar set of shelf-stable entrees from Marie Callender -- another ConAgra grocery brand -- next to the Healthy Choice Fresh Mixers in the boxed-dinner aisle. Everything he said about those Healthy Choice items could be said about the Marie Callender Home-Style Creations. They even carry the same price at the supermarket where he found them (they were all $3.79).

The only difference seemed to be that, as in the frozen-foods case, the Marie Callender offerings tend toward the "What, me worry?" end of the fat and sodium scales, while the Healthy Choice were at the "but is it any good?" end.

(The average of the five Healthy Choice items is about 4 grams of fat and 550 milligrams of sodium, compared with about 11 grams of fat and 850 milligrams of sodium in the Marie Callender items -- admittedly skewed by the 23 grams of fat and 1,000 milligrams of sodium in Marie's Creamy Parmesan Chicken).

Every once in a while Kozy Shack adds something interesting to its assortment of refrigerated prepared pudding. The newest is a whole line of Simply Well naturally flavored pudding in four-packs of 4-ounce cups. So far, Mr. Tidbit has seen only the green tea chai flavor, which he found tea-like, but the Kozy Shack website lists four more: French vanilla, dark chocolate, lemon ginger and --trendiness alert -- pear mangosteen. (Yow.)

AL SICHERMAN