Category: Spotted on Shelves

New products are released all the time and here are some we found on our most recent shopping trips. We may or may not review them, but we’d like to let you know what new items are popping up on store shelves.

These have been out for a couple of months, but I only learned about them recently when I accidentally ended up on the Wish-Bone website after Googling…well, it’s not important what I was Googling. Like gourmet bologna, combining Frank’s Red Hot Sauce with Ranch dressing sounds like a culinary oxymoron. Well, if it makes vegetables taste better, then that’s all that really matters.

I picked up a can of Rockstar Relax, but I have yet to open it because when I need to relax I just put on my headphones and listen to the most relaxing song ever. Rockstar Relax is tropical guava flavored and contains a “calming herbal blend” of passionflower extract, rose hips extract, and chamomile extract. You can read the Thirsty Dudes review here.

I haven’t admitted this to anyone, but the anthropomorphic Skinny Cow mascot freaks me out. People say Skinny Cow frozen treats are good, but I won’t buy a box because I’m afraid of what feelings might stir up if I stare too long at those lady cow curves. Like their new Shake-Stirs, Skinny Cow’s Oh Fudge Nuts! are a “Slimited Edition” product. Slimited? Oh, you wordsmiths at Nestle! You’re clever. If I was in your shoes, I probably would’ve called them something lame, like Limithin Edition. That’s why you’re making the big bucks and I run a semi-popular product review blog.

So lemme get this straight. Instead of buying a regular Sara Lee pound cake and cutting it myself in the aluminum pan, I can get Sara Lee pound cake that’s in individually wrapped slices, giving me a metal-free Sara Lee experience. These Pound Cake Slices sound like the greatest invention since sliced bread.

Magnum Ice Cream bars have received rave reviews…and lots of comparisons with Magnum condoms. Now they come in mini bars that are about half the size of the regular versions. Magnum Mini comes in two flavors: Classic and Almond. Of course, if you live in the U.K., Magnum Mini bars aren’t new to you. They’ve been available in the U.K. since 2009. Well, at least the U.S. was the first to have other Magnums, like the .357 Magnum and Magnum, P.I.

If you’re out shopping and see a new product on the shelf, snap a picture of it, email it to us at [email protected], and you might see it in our next Spotted on Shelves post.

I’ve been to P.F. Chang’s a couple of times. But ever since I learned about this army of stone Chinese soldiers, the stone horse outside of many P.F. Chang’s restaurants has been freaking me out and I’m afraid to go back.

However, thanks to P.F. Chang’s desire to let people experience their food at home, I’ve been able to avoid stone horses with their Home Menu frozen meal line. But the P.F. Chang’s home experience has been lacking without the option of appetizers. But that changed recently with the introduction of P.F. Chang’s Home Menu Spring Rolls and Dumplings.

The frozen appetizers come in five varieties.

General Chang’s Chicken Spring Rolls – Grilled chicken, broccoli, and cabbage.

Teriyaki Chicken Spring Rolls – Grilled chicken, cabbage, red pepper, and grilled onion..

Shrimp and Seafood Dumplings – Seafood with cabbage, scallions, and ginger.

Chicken and Vegetable Dumplings – Chicken, bok choy, and shiitake mushrooms.

Pork and Leek Dumplings – Pork, leek, cabbage, and scallions.

The spring rolls come with a packet of sweet and sour sauce, while the dumplings come with sweet soy sauce. They can be prepared on a stove or in an oven. They recommend you not microwave them, but they include microwave instructions anyway. There are five pieces in each bag.

Two Teriyaki Chicken Spring Rolls have 180 calories, 3 grams of fat, 0.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 660 milligrams of sodium, 30 grams of carbohydrates, 10 grams of sugar, and 9 grams of protein.

When I was in sixth grade, I opened a lemonade stand in my neighborhood to make money so that I could buy Choose Your Own Adventure books. Unfortunately, not a lot of foot and car traffic went through my neighborhood, it’s a pain in the ass to squeeze lemons, and I didn’t understand the concept of ratios. My lemonade ended up being either too sour, too watery, or too cavity causing.

If only I had the new MiO Lemonade and Blueberry Lemonade Liquid Water Enhancers back then…or Countrytime lemonade powder mix…or the courage to shoplift, then I would’ve had all of the Choose Your Adventure books.

Like the other MiO flavors, these two new varieties have 0 calories and can make 24 eight-ounce servings per bottle. But more importantly, there’s no seeds to worry about or lemon juice flying into my eyes. Just squeeze the instructed amount into eight ounces of water and voila!

New products are released all the time and here are some we found on our most recent shopping trips. We may or may not review them, but we’d like to let you know what new items are popping up on store shelves.

With the right PVC tubing, these jumbo marshmallows would make wonderful ammunition for a double barreled marshmallow shotgun. Also, I want to buy a bag just so I can see how silly it would look to place one of them in a mug of hot cocoa.

I thought Tupac has released a lot of things posthumously, but Paul Newman has him beat. These Newman’s Own Complete Skillet Meals are meant for two and come in five flavors: Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo; Chicken Florentine & Farfalle; Chicken Parmigiana & Penne Garlic Chicken, Vegetables & Farfalle; and Italian Sausage & Rigatoni. Just pour the contents of the bag into a skillet, heat it up for 10 minutes, and enjoy.

Newman’s Own isn’t the only company that recently put out bagged frozen meals. Stouffer’s Farmers Harvest line now comes in microwaveable steam bags. There are five varieties: Cheesy Southwest-Style Chicken, Chicken Florentine, Creamy Shrimp Scampi, Five Cheese Tortelloni, and Garlic Chicken. You provide the plate and utensils, and Stouffer’s will supply the food that will force you to wash the plate and utensils.

I learned about these in February, thanks to a Fatguy Food Blog review, and I’ve been looking for them since. Recently, they popped up at my local Safeway. While I did buy a bag, a part of me doesn’t think it’s very creative to make a potato chip flavor that tastes like something else that’s made with potatoes.

Photo via Impulsive Buy reader Travis.

These have just started to roll out nationwide at Walmart stores, but were released in February in certain markets in the Midwest, Texas, and Western U.S. If only the Hispanic population here on these rocks in the middle of the Pacific Ocean made up more than nine percent of our total population, then we could’ve gotten Doritos Dinamita earlier. Here’s a review of the Nacho Picoso flavor from our friends over at Review Spew.

If you’re out shopping and see a new product on the shelf, snap a picture of it, email it to us at [email protected], and you might see it in our next Spotted on Shelves post.

Update: Click here to read our Mountain Dew Dark Berry review

Mountain Dew is planning to release a new flavor this summer, Dark Berry. The new flavor is a movie tie-in for the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises, which is scheduled to be released July 20, 2012. ComicBookMovie.com has images of the packaging.

According to BevReview, the caffeinated beverage will be mixed berry flavored and isn’t a renamed version of any previous Mountain Dew flavors. It will be available sometime in June and hang around for eight weeks.

I’m excited about this Dark Berry flavor, but Mountain Dew would excite me even more if they held another DEWmocracy election this year. They did one in 2008 and 2010, so if my math is correct, it’s about time for another.