SUPERMARKET SAMPLER : NO NEW FANS HERE FOR WHITE CHOCOLATE.

Byline: Carolyn Wyman & Bonnie Tandy Leblang

Nestle White Crunch, 65 cents per 1.4-ounce bar; also available in 4.5-ounce size.

Bonnie: Lately, white chocolate has been appearing on the scene way too often for a real chocolate lover like me. That includes Hershey's Hugs (white and milk chocolate kisses) and this new creation from Nestle.

White chocolate is not chocolate in the truest sense because it contains no chocolate liquor, a characteristic dark-brown paste made from cocoa beans. It also has little, if any, chocolate flavor and is very sweet.

If that weren't enough to dissuade chocolate lovers, this new Nestle White Crunch is also slightly higher in calories, fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium than regular Nestle Crunch. For these reasons, it's obvious that I'd prefer the original.

Carolyn: The name of this new candy bar pretty much tells the story: It's crunchy rice embedded in white chocolate.

Americans have never taken to white chocolate with the enthusiasm of Europeans, but there are signs we're being won over with the addition of little bits of darker chocolate, as in Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme and Nestle's own limited edition 101 Dalmatians candy bars.

Both of these, however, offer bits of regular chocolate along with the white chocolate and a crunch, whereas Nestle White Crunch simply offers crunch. Liking real chocolate flavor better than any texture, I'd choose Cookies 'n' Creme over this new Crunch, though I'd certainly eat it in a crunch.

Green Giant Frozen Vegetable Side Dishes - Vegetables Alfredo and Green Bean Casserole, $1.39 per 9-ounce pouch in a box.

Bonnie: I prefer my vegetables prepared simply, not covered with creamy sauces. But if you don't, you may be interested in these new Green Giant vegetables.

The Green Bean Casserole is a more convenient version of the classic '50s casserole combining green beans, cream of mushroom soup concentrate and canned french-fried onions. Both versions contain a hefty amount of fat for a vegetable and are loaded with sodium, although the new frozen one is actually a tad better nutritionally (containing about 2 grams less fat and 40 milligrams less sodium than the classic recipe's 11 grams and 550 milligrams).

A better choice still is the new Vegetables Alfredo with its more moderate 3 grams of fat.

Carolyn: Green bean casserole was always delicious. Now that Green Giant has followed Swanson Lunch and More and Betty Crocker Supreme Dessert Bars' lead in making prepackaged versions of America's all-time favorite recipes, it's also convenient.

I was less-enamored of the thin-sauced Vegetables Alfredo. But taken with the Green Bean Casserole as a sign than Green Giant is still willing to introduce fat-filled products, I find it encouraging, to say the least.

Five Brothers Pasta Sauces - Tomato Alfredo and Creamy Pesto; $2.59 to $2.99 per 17-ounce mason jar.

Bonnie: The newest pasta sauces from Five Brothers are basically combinations of old classics. Tomato Alfredo combines tomato and Alfredo sauces to create something that is somewhere between the two in terms of fat, and somewhat less than either in terms of taste.

The other new sauce blends pesto and Alfredo sauces with considerably more success. It has a nice flavor and less fat than either. Of the two, it's the one I'd recommend.

Carolyn: I can easily understand the steady stream of new entrees in the freezer case to keep people who eat TV dinners almost every night from becoming too bored (my hand is raised). But I find the gallons of new pasta sauces introduced every year puzzling.

Surely no one would eat pasta sauce every night, and he or she would probably make it from scratch at least some of the time.

But ours is not to question why, ours is but to taste. And the taste of this new Five Brothers Creamy Pesto is strongly and pleasingly of basil. I might not eat it every day, but I would any day.

The brothers' new Tomato Alfredo cream-and-tomato combination reminds me of that cross between New England milk-based and Manhattan tomato-based clam chowder. Both are compromises guaranteed to please nobody.