Pillsbury's prepared brownie batter is back

Pillsbury Refrigerated Brownie Batter. Triple Chocolate Chunk, and Traditional Chocolate Fudge. $2.89 per 16.5-ounce tube.

Bonnie: Pillsbury is introducing easy-to-bake brownies yet again. This time you need to spread the brownie batter in a greased pan, unlike the refrigerated renditions that Pillsbury offered in the late '80s and again in the late '90s, with the prepared batter already in a pan. Both of those items were discontinued. I'm guessing consumers felt that merely removing a wrapper wasn't really baking.

This batter's in a roll that looks just like Pillsbury's slice-and-bake cookies. Instead of slicing, you spread the batter and bake. Each variety is convenient and good-tasting, at least compared to other commercial brownies. One tip: Cook these the minimum amount of time to get the moistest brownies.

Carolyn: You might think that brownies made from refrigerated dough would be lots simpler and less messy than those made from a boxed mix. Surprisingly, that's not the case with Pillsbury's Refrigerated Brownie Batter. That's because the dough comes in a tube, like many Pillsbury cookies, even though brownie batter is much less firm than the cookie kind. I dare you to get the dough off of the plastic wrap and into a greased pan without getting it all over your hands and kitchen counter.

These brownies just trade one kind of trouble (having to add water, an egg and then stirring) for another (dough-wrestling) without a significant improvement in taste over the boxed version. And these are worse if you like nuts in your brownies because neither variety contains any.

I think it's about time for my bi-decade plea for the return of the Pillsbury Ready-to-Eat Microwave Fudge Brownies Bonnie just mentioned, the one from the '80s that came already laid out in its own plastic pan (maybe because they otherwise would have been equally messy?). Hot out of the oven, they were much more chocolaty and delicious — not to mention faster and less messy — than these.

Morningstar Farms Breakfast Veggie Bites and Breakfast Starters. Eggs Florentine Veggie Bites, Country Scramble Veggie Bites, and Classic Scramble Breakfast Starters. $3.99 per 9-ounce box or 11-ounce bag.

Bonnie: I like most of Morningstar Farms' veggie burgers, so I thought I'd like these new breakfast items, too. To give the two new Veggie Bites the best possible chance, I baked them in a conventional oven instead of the microwave. I liked the flavor of the Eggs Florentine Veggie Bites, but not the Classic Scramble Breakfast Starters, with its strong chemical aftertaste (something that the mozzarella and spinach in the Eggs Florentine must have masked).