Crock-Pot Classics easy but not tasty

Banquet Crock-Pot Classics. Beef Stew, Chicken and Dumplings, Chicken With Redskin Potatoes and Vegetables, Creamy Chicken With Pasta, Herb Chicken and Rice, and Stroganoff With Beef and Noodles. $5.99 per 40- to 46-ounce bag of frozen meat, starch, sauce and vegetables.

Bonnie: It was afternoon by the time I remembered that I needed to test these new Crock-Pot meals, too late to begin since they take hours. Not hours to prepare, but hours to cook unattended in a Crock-Pot. That night I made a point of putting a sign by my alarm clock to remind me to start them the next morning.

I began working on the Crock-Pot after grinding beans for my coffee. (First things first!) I was pleasantly surprised to find that it did take under five minutes, as the package promised, to get the ingredients into the pot. In fact, I was done dealing with the first Banquet Crock-Pot Classics before my coffee was ready.

Quick and easy these may be, yet I also found them inedible. The Chicken With Redskin Potatoes and Vegetables, for example, was way too salty to eat more than one bite. And its potatoes were mealy — as might be expected of cut potatoes after freezing.

A cup serving of each variety contains a decent 4 to 6 grams of fiber. But they're all too salty. The beef stroganoff is the saltiest, with two-thirds of the recommended daily limit of sodium in just a single cup. The Beef Stew is relatively modest in calories, fat and sodium compared to many of the others. But I still won't be setting my alarm clock to make it or any of these.

Carolyn: The biggest new thing in processed foods this fall? The old Crock-Pot. No fewer than three food companies have come out with lines of Crock-Pot kits to make this low-trouble way of cooking even less trouble. Banquet's entry appears to be going after a premium audience. Yes, this is the new Banquet of the successful Homestyle Bakes boxed dinners (rather than the old one of the budget potpies and boil-in-bag meals).

Like Homestyle Bakes, Crock-Pot Classics come complete with meat. But they're frozen rather than shelf-stable, and contain big pieces of meat and vegetables that look and taste fresh. Despite this improved quality, the price per ounce is a quarter to a third less than Green Giant Complete Skillet Meals and Stouffer's Skillet Sensations. So Crock-Pot Classics are a real food value.