New Product Reviews

I saw this on a television informercial as I’m sure many of you did. I have been using the Clapper for close to 20 years now, and I love it — but — there are several things I didn’t like about it. On occasion, in the middle of the night, my bedroom lamp would go on, making me wonder what type of noise set it off! Vaccuuming would make the living room look like a light show. And, at times, clapping twice would not shut it off or turn it on, and the continual clapping can be annoying.

In comes this nifty gadget, the Handy Switch. You don’t need to clap to activate it, you simply flip the switch. I immediately went to the living room to test it out. You plug the base unit into your wall socket. It’s a small unit with a light that comes on when in use. You plug your appliance into the base unit. The light switch portion has 2 small batteries inside and is actually a two-piece unit. The wall part can be attached to the wall with screws (provided) or you can use double-stick tape (provided) to attach it. The actual light switch unit can be removed from the wall part and snaps in and out easily.

There are 2 different styles — a rocker switch and a flip switch — and to use it, you simply flip the switch or rock it!

For my living room I actually placed it on the outside wall leading into the living room and I also placed one on the inside wall leading into the living room. The unit on the inside wall activates a lamp at the very far side of the room, and the outside wall will activate the lamp unit at the front of the living room.

I love it!

I no longer have to clap when walking into the room and it’s so easy to turn it on, by simply flipping the switch. I no longer walk into a dark room and, also, no longer walk in and see the light on due to noises I can’t explain.

I then put one in my bedroom, attached to my night table. It did take me a week or so to get used to it, as for 20 years I’d go to sleep and clap twice. But now I am very used to it and love it. Getting up in the middle of the night is easier with a quick push of the rocker switch. No more lights coming on unannounced, too.

I did find one thing, though. When you turn on the light and the bulb goes dead (don’t you hate that pop?) the unit is then rendered useless. I guess the bulb going dead does something, almost like it zaps something inside and kills it. I changed batteries and it didn’t work. I used a brand-new unit and it worked fine. This has happened with 2 units so far. I’m not sure if that’s normal or not, but it’s happened to me twice.

The price was around $15 and I feel it’s well worth the price. Apparently there are a lot of other uses including leaving a lamp on in your house and then keeping the activation unit in your car, so when you drive up you can turn on a light in the house.

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I saw these in the store and while I’m not a snacker, for the purpose of this website, I bought a box of this new product. Kraft, whose name is synonymous with cheese, makes the best known mac and cheese package, in the blue box. I grew up eating it as many of you did, I’m sure. These new crackers are in the familiar blue box as well.

They come in 3 different flavors — mild cheddar, cheddar and white cheddar — which is the flavor I bought.

The look like small pieces of macaroni and taste just like a cheese cracker. I don’t know what I expected, perhaps a stronger cheese flavor? Don’t get me wrong, they were good, and if I were going to snack on cheese crackers, I’d definitely buy these again.

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I admit I haven’t eaten Pringles in about 20 years. I used to love the odd-shaped potato crisp in a can but back then I found out I don’t get along well with potato products, so gave them up, but man, I loved the sour cream and onion crisps!

I still associate the word Pringles with potato crisps, so almost ignored a box of these when I saw the display at my local supermarket. But, being so curious, I went over to investigate. The “Crunchy Wheat” caught my eye and I immediately read the nutritional information and ingredients.

90 calories per serving package. OOH. First ingredient — wheat flour. Double OOH since I can’t eat any products with white flour.

Stix Crunchy Wheat Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 1 Pack
Servings Per Container 10
Amount Per Serving
Calories 90 Calories from Fat 30
Total Fat 3.5 g
Saturated Fat 1.5 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 0 mg
Sodium 150 mg
Total Carbohydrate 12 g
Dietary Fiber 0 g
Sugars 1 g
Protein 2 g

This sounded like a good snack to me. Not full of sugar, not overloaded with sodium and low in calories. They were on sale at $6 for 2 boxes with a regular price of $3.49. I bought one box in the Crunchy Wheat flavor but they also had Vanilla and Honey Butter. According to their website, there is also a Pizza flavor.

Inside the box were 10 individually-wrapped packages. I opened one and grabbed one of the stix. It sort of resembled a pretzel stick but much lighter in color without the salt all over it.

First bite and I was in love. WOW. These are VERY, very tasty. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but they tasted just like a cracker yet in a weird form. They weren’t messy to eat, like crackers can be, so I knew they’d be perfect for grabbing a quick snack when driving without getting crumbs all over my car floor. There are about a dozen stix in each packet which is a lot for the 90 calories. I can imagine people dipping these into peanut butter, into cheese spreads, into sour cream dips and other types of dips.

The next day I went back to the store to try the Vanilla flavored stix. While these were good, I didn’t get as many in the package and they have more sugar, though less sodium. I guess the sweet taste in a cracker was just odd to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll eat up every package and if I’d bought these first, I’d probably be in love with them, but the Crunchy Wheat stole my heart, so to speak.

I haven’t tried the Honey Butter flavor and won’t, since I’m not a fan of honey. My local store didn’t have the Pizza flavor but I’ll check another supermarket when I visit later in the week.

I appreciated that they had no hydrogenated fats or corn syrup (though the Vanilla contains less than 1% corn syrup)

At 30 cents a snack pack, 90 calories, 150 mg. sodium and a great taste, I can highly recommend these.

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While I admit to loving gadgets, beauty gadgets aren’t something I generally pay a lot of attention to … a good facial cleanser, a wash cloth, and I’m good to go.

I was shopping at my local Target this week and a pink product jumped out at me — the Neutrogena Deep Clean Wave

I looked at it, read the box, and decided to buy one. The price was $11.99 and I also saw it at Wal-Mart for $11.97.

The Wave is a battery-operated gadget that holds Neutrogena foaming pads to clean your face. The little foaming pad vibrates on your skin as it cleans off impurities, and feels kinda cool.

The box really didn’t have instructions but it wasn’t that hard to figure out that I had to put in the battery to use it. I did and it was simple. You then take one of the foaming pads — the unit comes with 2 bags of 7 pads each — and it self-sticks to the applicator on the Wave. You run the pad under running water to activate the foaming cleanser, then you then hit the on button and run it over your face.

It promises softer skin and clean skin. I’d say yep, it did what it promised. It removed all the makeup I had worn the day I bought it and left my skin makeup-free and soft. When done you simply peel off the disposable foaming pad.

In the past I’ve seen battery-operated gizmos like this but they always had brushes that didn’t seem to do what they were supposed to do.

In the box was a little flyer saying I could have a 3-dollar coupon by going online to the Neutrogena website and printing out the coupon. I did and went in search of a box of refills.

I did, however, have an issue buying refill pads. I checked at my local CVS Pharmacy, Rite-Aid Pharmacy, Walgreen’s and Target, where I purchased the original product. Nothing. Fortunately I was able to find 2 boxes of refills at Wal-Mart and bought them, approximately $6.50 per box of 30 refill pads and a new attachment head. They say they are “original” so I wonder what other type there are .. medicated?

The Wave is very small and easy to operate, and lightweight, and stores easily in a bathroom cabinet or vanity drawer. It’s a new product but I’m reasonably sure it will be available every where soon.

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I admit that I love kitchen gadgets. I’ve probably tried them all, and they all end up in the bottom of the kitchen drawer, buried until I go through and dump all those I don’t use.

I’ve had several garlic presses, including the expensive ones. But, I don’t like to use them for several reasons, mostly that the garlic is pressed and not chopped, and it’s a real pain to clean.

I was out at Bed Bath and Beyond and saw the Garlic Zoom and figured it was just another toy to end up in the bottom drawer. But … something called to me, and I went back a few days later to look at it more carefully, and ended up buying one.

The Garlic Zoom is a nifty little garlic chopper that won’t smoosh the garlic. It looks like a little toy car with wheels! You open up the plastic top compartment and drop in your garlic gloves, then simply roll it back and forth. Inside there is are blades that rotate when you roll the Garlic Zoom around.

Open it up, turn it upside down and dump out the perfectly chopped garlic, and that’s it. Cleanup is pretty easy as the blades are on a round piece of plastic that comes out for easy cleanup. The blades are very sharp so be careful.

The Garlic Zoom is small enough to fit into a kitchen drawer which I like and is a cinch to clean. You don’t get garlic all over your hands, either. You can toss it in the dishwasher if you wish as well.

I plan to buy these for people when I need holiday gifts, as I think the Garlic Zoom is a perfect little gizmo for someone who cooks.

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I’m not much of a pudding person. Maybe it’s because I grew up eating a lot of it or it could be that I just haven’t found a pudding I really, really liked. But, now I can say that I’ve finally found that elusive pudding that I truly enjoy.

I discovered Handi-Snacks Sugar Free Pudding at my local grocery store. A 4-pack was $1.39 which I felt was a good deal until I bought them last week on sale for $1.00!

I didn’t try the chocolate flavor as I’m not a chocolate person. Yeah, I know, kinda odd but I’m just one of those people who just isn’t that crazy about chocolate. I’ll eat chocolate pudding once in a great while but only if it’s lightened up with some whipped cream from a can to lessen the chocolate taste. But I was thinking I could buy a couple of 4-packs of this and make an awesome chocolate pudding pie. I like to take a low-sugar graham-cracker crust (pre-made, of course), put in sugar free pudding, and top it with sugar-free whipped cream. You then freeze it and before you eat it, defrost it a little bit. On a hot humid summer day it’s delicious!

I do love vanilla pudding, so figured I’d try it and see if it was any good. And, yes, it was. The vanilla flavor was almost a little too strong for me. It had the consistency of a thick pudding without being too thick, and wasn’t too sweet. Sometimes products with Splenda can have an aftertaste of a sort, and this didn’t have it at all. But again, I found the vanilla taste too strong for me. I read the ingredients label and saw it had hydrogenated oils near the beginning of the list, so decided to not get this again, as I try to avoid hydrogenated oils as often as I can.

I then saw the Creamy Caramel flavor at the store and read the ingredients list first, and saw it had no hydrogenated oil, so I grabbed a 4-pack.

When I opened it up, it smelled just like butterscotch to me which was a good thing, as I love butterscotch pudding. The consistency was just like that of the chocolate pudding, not too thick and not too thin. The flavor to me is more like butterscotch than caramel, but is still delicious. No hydrogenated oils, either.

There are about 60 calories in a serving making it a great quick snack without a lot of calories.

It does, however, have 7 grams of sugar alcohol. Anyone familiar with the “itols” as I call them know it can uh wreak havoc on your digestive system. Sorbitol, Mannitol, Mallitol, Xyitol — they are all sugar substitutes and when eaten in quantity have a laxative effect, or can produce a few pretty bad bouts of flatulence. Ok, gas. I generally try not to eat anything with more than 4 or 5 grams of sugar alcohol, just in case, but this does not affect me at all.

I suggested a relative try it as I know she loves pudding and she felt it was as good as I said, and she was surprised at having no gas from it. As she told me, if she buys tapioca pudding that’s pre-made, it guarantees a musical night!

All in all the Handi-Snacks Sugar Free Pudding are a great bargain at less than 35 cents a service. They won’t kill your diet when you crave something creamy and sweet at just 60 calories a serving. You’ll be able to eat it with company around, too.

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I’m not a snacker but this caught my eye when shopping recently. I prefer plain old Wheat Thins and checking my kitchen cabinet I see I bought a box of Cinammon-flavored Wheat Thins a few months ago and have yet to open the box and try them. Soon ..

I opened up this box and have to say they did nothing for me. I didn’t really detect a taste of cream cheese or chives and only tasted salt. They have 260 mg of sodium in a serving of 15 crackers, and I ate just 5 or 6 to test them and write this review. I can tell you that they’ll be in the trash tonight.

Now, that doesn’t mean they aren’t good, it’s just I didn’t like them. I like the flavor of cream cheese and chives, particularly a shmear on a bagel, but baked into a cracker?

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Yep, I’m serious. Cool Whip in a can! I saw this at my grocery store the other day and while I generally don’t buy Cool Whip, I bought it solely to review it for this site.

I noticed it because the cap is a different shape. Otherwise, I’d have walked right by it.

[insert photo here]

When you remove the top, there is a little button you press so the Cool Whip comes out. I’m used to the other brands where you push the long stem to get out the creamy stuff.

It comes out just like the regular aerosol can of whipped cream, but one taste tells you it’s Cool Whip. Not just the thicker texture, where whipped cream is very light and airy, but the flavor is pure Cool Whip.

They had both regular and extra creamy at my store, on sale for $2.79.

What can I say other than it tasted just like Cool Whip since it was Cool Whip?! I think it’s a — pardon the pun — cool idea to put it into a can, as it’s easier to serve over a pudding or individual serving, rather than a dollop, plus you can use the can tip to make fancy swirls of whipped cream.

Nifty idea but will it sell? A tub of Cool Whip is about a buck when on sale or $1.69 when not on sale … and at 3 bucks I don’t know how well it will go over.

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I admit I’m not much of a snacker. Oh, I see all the products in the stores and will buy them, eat one portion, and usually stick them in a cabinet until I clean it out months later, then toss them. It’s my wish that companies would bring back trial sizes of new products so we don’t keep wasting our money, but then again, that’s business, right?

I didn’t grow up eating potato chips, cheese curls, corn chips or anything like that. We had them once in a while but I grew up snacking on unbuttered popcorn. Mom was a health nut even back then!

I was cutting through an aisle in my supermarket this morning and glanced at the various chip products. I saw Dill Pickle flavored potato chips, Sunflower chips, whole grain chip products, organic chip products and more flavors of potato chips than one could even imagine. I saw this bag of Fritos “Pinch Of Salt” on the shelf today and it jumped out at me as the bag is blue among a sea of orange bags. I haven’t had Fritos Corn Chips in years and don’t remember them being very salty, but less sodium is always good to me.

I read the ingredients on the original bag of Fritos

Yep, believe it or not, there are just 3 ingredients. If you read the back of the bag of most snack chips, you’ll find a long list of ingredients with names you can’t even pronounce. The ingredients on the lower sodium version are identical, too.

There is, however, 50% less sodium in the new bag. 75 mg. of sodium per portion vs. 150 mg of sodium per portion. So far this was looking pretty good.

I bought a small single-serving size bag of regular Fritos so I could try both and compare the saltiness levels.

I have to say that neither tasted very salty to me, and side by side you literally can’t tell the difference in taste. The lower sodium version tasted identical to the regular Fritos Corn Chips. They had the same crunch, same taste and you don’t miss the difference in salt at all.

If you love Fritos Corn Chips, you’ll never miss the missing sodium. I paid $2.29 for an 8 oz. bag at a local supermarket chain.

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I saw the Frisper at Linens n’ Things but they only had one there, on display, but I was intrigued by it and the more I looked at it, the more I liked it. So I ordered my Frisper from Amazon and it came overnight.

As you can see by the photo, it’s a small little countertop kitchen appliance and it is basically a vacuum bag sealer for food. It’s a hefty little doodad with a massively-heavy transformer (the big plug for the wall). I mention this because fortunately it’s not polarized; if so, it would not work for me as the weight of it pulled it right out of my top socket. I had to redo my outlet and plug it the other way around into the bottom outlet. In fact, it’s so heavy I actually just weighed it to show y’all how heavy it is. Here is it in grams and ounces — 15.6 ounces and 44.2 grams!!!

Using it was pretty simple. Plug it in. Put in the food and zip up their bags (you can only use their bags; more on that later on). There are about 6 little green circles on the bag.

You open up your Frisper and place the circle in the right place, an orange circle. It’s not hard to do but placement must be perfect. Once in place you push down and let her rip! It does the work for you, and it’s pretty loud! It sucks out all the air and when the light turns green, it’s done. You just push the button on the side to open it up and remove the bag. If the heat seal isn’t perfect, there are direction on how to reseal the bag, and yes, you can do that. You can unzip, remove food and then reseal, too. Good thing as the bags are not cheap!

The box of 20 quart size replacement bags bags was $9.99. I didn’t even price the gallon size bags as I don’t use them. But they have them at Amazon for $9.99 for 14 gallon-sized bags. Now, the bags ARE large and made of a thick plastic … and can be reused. 50 cents each may not seem like a lot but I’m sure that can add up if you do a lot of freezing foods like I do.

Of course, I do have the Handi-Vac and the bags are MUCH cheaper, but it does take a lot longer to extract the air, it’s not easy to do all the time (tough lining up exactly) plus the batteries are a pain to change, well, you can read that in my other review.

On a scale of 1-10 I’d give the Frisper Freshkeeper system. a 9 and that’s only due to the cost of the bags. Well, the unit was $80 but it’s not one of those big, bulky units that takes up a ton of counter space. In fact, I’m going to say 9.5 because you can stick this in a kitchen drawer (I do have some deep drawers) and the storage bags are easily stored.

The price of food is crazy right now and if you’re like me, when there is a sale, you stock up. But it’s crazy to spend good money only to open packages of food with freezer burn due to store packaging. In the long run this will pay for itself.

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