More Jimmy
Over the past several years, Mr. Tidbit has documented the ever-growing number of breakfast sandwiches, breakfast bowls and the like to be found in supermarket freezer cases.
Where once the idea of breakfasting at home on a microwaved biscuit (or croissant, or muffin or …) sandwich of sausage (or bacon or ham or …) and egg (or cheese, or egg and cheese) — or, for that matter, something similar in a bowl, with potatoes instead of the bread product — very likely would have meant you'd bought something from Jimmy Dean. These days, the many Jimmy Dean breakfast products have to fight for freezer space with similar items from half a dozen or more major food labels.
Thus it will be no surprise to fans of symmetry that Jimmy Dean has expanded into the world of frozen entrees. There are eight sandwiches, including pulled pork on a biscuit and smoked turkey, bacon and cheese on a soft bun, and eight bowls, such as grilled steak or roasted chicken with potatoes, peppers and onions.
The careful reader might have noticed the similarity between some of the breakfast offerings and some of the new items, but Mr. Tidbit must note that in those cases the new products are somewhat larger. The entree bowls, for example, weigh 9 ounces, while almost all the breakfast bowls are 7 ounces.
Chef in a box
New from ConAgra's Chef Boyardee are three Good to Go snack kits: beef ravioli, Beefaroni and mac & cheese. Each boxed kit consists of a regular 7.5-ounce microwaveable tub of the named Chef Boyardee item, a regular-size (slightly less than 4 ounces) Snack Pack pudding cup, a no-name 100-calorie granola bar and a plastic spoon.
Mr. Tidbit notes that the usual deal with products like this is that the kit costs notably more than the individual components bought separately, presumably both because the kit is somewhat more convenient than buying the items separately, and because most people won't bother to price the separate items.
Mr. Tidbit is pleased — no, astonished — to report that, where he bought it, the kit cost $2.29 and (if the spoon cost 1½ cents) so did its combined components.
Al Sicherman
