Unusual texture ruins Pillsbury sugar-free cookies

Pillsbury Ready to Bake! Sugar Free Chocolate Chip Cookies. $3.49 per 10.8-ounce tray yielding 12 cookies.

Bonnie: As someone who dislikes the aftertaste of Splenda, I was not looking forward to tasting Pillsbury's new Splenda-sweetened Ready to Bake! Sugar Free Chocolate Chip Cookies. Surprisingly, hot from the oven, these did not taste as bad as I expected. When cooled, though, the cookies have a horrid uncookie-like texture that even friends who like Splenda-sweetened foods didn't like.

Considering that and the fact that one cookie saves you a mere 30 calories and 2 grams of fat, while cheating you of lots of satisfaction, I really couldn't recommend them.

Carolyn: The good news about these new cookies is that the taste is no giveaway that these are sugar-free. They taste much better, for instance, than the brownies I made from scratch with Splenda (half-sugar, half-Splenda) Sugar Blend for Baking.

On the other hand, these bake up fairly bizarrely. The dough neither puffs nor spreads, only sits there in the oven, gradually darkening like a seashore sunbather. They also have a stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth dryness similar to peanut butter.

In sum, while these aren't bad, they're also not the treat that cookies should be.

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Lean Cuisine Spa Cuisine. Salmon With Basil, Pork With Cherry Sauce, Rosemary Chicken, Chicken Pecan, Lemongrass Chicken, Grilled Chicken in Peanut Sauce, Lemon Chicken and Chicken Mediterranean. $2.79 per 8.25- to 10.5-ounce frozen entree.

Bonnie: Spa Cuisine is a paradigm of what's to come to market this year with the government's new recommendation to eat three servings of whole grains a day. Each of these entrees offers whole grains in the form of whole wheat pastas and brown rice. Consequently, all contain a respectable 2 to 5 grams of fiber, although not more than other calorie-comparable frozen entrees.

I found the taste acceptable for most of these, but the Salmon With Basil and the uniquely flavored Lemongrass Chicken were delicious, unlike other frozen dinners I've had to test over the years. Yes, Carolyn, believe it or not, I actually did enjoy eating a couple of these.

Carolyn: I'm sure Stouffer's meant to entice eaters with its new Spa Cuisine name and antiseptic blue and white packaging. But it alarmed me. To me, spa means small portions of food that look better than they taste. And what exactly is the back-of-the-box picture of the woman with the cucumber slices on her eyes trying to say? That the food would be better worn than eaten?