Hormel's shelf-stable meals nutritionally sound
Bonnie: I've yet to meet a shelf-stable meal that I'd eat anytime other than for this column. And that includes these new Hormel Compleats.
I don't like Compleats' soft texture, I don't like their taste, and I don't like many of the additives used to improve the flavor (unsuccessfully, to my mind).
The only way these are not bad is nutritionally, as they provide 210 to 320 calories, 4 to 8 grams of total fat (of which 1 to 2.5 grams are saturated), 2 to 4 grams of fiber, and only a slightly high 550 to 600 milligrams of sodium.
Carolyn: While I don't harbor the blanket prejudice that Bonnie has against shelf-stable meals, I also don't expect them to be as good as frozen.
That's why Hormel Compleats Santa Fe Style Chicken was such a pleasant surprise. Not only does it have great flavor and good-quality chicken, it also has fresh-seeming corn kernels and tomato chunks. In fact, it's better-tasting than the wonderful and similar Lean Cuisine Southern Beef Tips and Santa Fe Style Rice & Beans, and much more convenient.
If only the other flavors were as good. The Sesame Chicken is tasty but way too soupy. The Beef Steak & Peppers defies tradition for this dish because it features no rice and hardly any peppers. As you might expect from a meat company, the meat is very good in the Beef Steak & Peppers, as it is in all the Compleats dishes with meat.
The Pavlovian response to opening up the Homestyle Beef for anyone who ever saw one of those old Wendy's ads will be, "Where's the beef?" It's the only one of these that lived up to Bonnie's low expectations.
Keebler Fudge Shoppe Peanut Butter Sticks. $3.09 per 8.5-ounce package.
Bonnie: These new cookies contain peanut butter, which is both a good and bad thing. Good, because peanut butter is nutritious; bad, because it adds extra fat to an already fatty cookie.
Three thin wafer cookies contain 160 calories and a hefty 9 grams of total fat (of which 5 are saturated). My suggestion to Keebler: Pack these in 100-calorie packs, so consumers don't consume too much fat.
Carolyn: A light peanut butter and chocolate treat? If you're used to the candy and cookies made in the mold of the best-selling Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, that will hardly seem possible. But a light treat is exactly what Keebler's new Fudge Shoppe Peanut Butter Sticks are.
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