Holiday treats offer less bad stuff

Dreyer's Slow Churned Hot Cocoa Light Ice Cream. $5.99 per 1.5-quart carton.

Bonnie: Edy's has introduced a new twist on a cold-weather favorite with this time-limited Slow Churned Hot Cocoa Light Ice Cream. It contains mini marshmallows mixed into its Slow Churned light chocolate ice cream, something that the kids will surely enjoy.

Those kids probably won't notice that this Hot Cocoa Light contains half the fat and a third fewer calories than regular ice cream. That makes this a good choice in a season filled with sugary and fatty foods.

Carolyn: Hot cocoa ice cream might sound like a contradiction in terms or even a joke, but it's an actual cold-weather offering from Edy's.

I envisioned rocky road ice cream with a slapped-on-for-the-season name. But the chocolate in Edy's new Slow Churned Hot Cocoa Light Ice Cream is much milkier, like cocoa, and the marshmallows (mini as they may be), a much bigger presence than rocky road's traditional marshmallow creme. This ice cream also lacks rocky road's chocolate chips.

This is, instead, truly frozen cocoa and so should be a huge hit with people craving an ice-cold treat on a freezing day (few as they may be).

Nabisco Ritz Brown Sugar Cinnamon Crackers. $3.79 per 1-pound box.

Bonnie: With sugar and spice, these new Ritz crackers are ready for your holiday gatherings. Think cinnamon-sugar crackers with slightly less total fat (0.5 gram) and sodium (70 milligrams) and more sugar (1 gram).

But do note that all Ritz crackers contain partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil, which has trans fats. The government allows companies to list zero trans fats on products if they contain less than 0.5 gram per serving. But I (and other health professionals) think it's better to completely avoid them.

Carolyn: Fat, salt and sugar are the three building blocks of great taste. Regular Ritz Crackers have the first two in spades. This new Ritz Brown Sugar Cinnamon variety has all three and tastes much better than I expected. Eaten plain, they have the simplicity and lightness of simple sugar cookies or gingerbread thins. Of course, Nabisco has all kinds of other ideas for using up the crackers in this monster box — as a crunchy ice cream topping, to make apple crisp or to dip into sweetened cream cheese, among them.